Overview

The VMware vCloud Availability solution provides replication and failover capabilities for vCloud Director and vCenter Server workloads at both VM and vApp levels.

VMware vCloud Availability provides:

• Replication management and monitoring of replications from an on-premises site to a cloud site and back.

• Failback recovered in the cloud workloads to the on-premises site.

• Migration of protected VMs in the cloud site back to the on-premises appliance.

• Self-service protection and failover workflows per virtual machine (VM).

• Single installation package as a Photon-based virtual appliance.

• The capability of each deployment to serve as both source and recovery vCloud Director instance (site). There are no dedicated source and destination sites.

• Symmetrical replication flow that can be started from either the source or the recovery vCloud Director site.

• Replication and recovery of vApps and VMs between vCloud Director sites.

• Using a single-site vCloud Availability installation, you can migrate vApps and VMs between Virtual Data Centers that belong to a single vCloud Director Organization.

• Built-in Secure Tunneling requires no incoming open ports on the on-premises site.

• Integration with existing vSphere environments.

• Multi-tenant support.

• Built-in encryption or encryption and compression of replication traffic.

• Support for multiple vCenter Server and ESXi versions.

Firewall Requirements

vCAV On-Prem Management Components URLs

vCAV Zettagrid Public API endpoints

Deployment Guide

In the vSphere client, you can deploy all VMware vCloud Availability services by using a single OVA file.

Prerequisites

• Install and power on the on-premises vCloud Availability appliance.

• Verify that the cloud provider enabled the replication policy for your organization.

• Obtain the vCloud Availability Public API endpoint address from the cloud provider.

Download the vCloud Availability 3.0.x Appliance for Cloud Providers (Cloud Sites) vCloud Availability-release_number-xxx-build_number_OVF10.ova file, containing the binaries for the VMware vCloud Availability appliance.

If your vSphere version is earlier than 6.5, install the Client Integration Plug-in to be able to use the Deploy OVF Template option in the vSphere Web Client.

Deploy vCAV Appliance

1. Log in to your vCenter Server by using the vSphere Client.

2. Navigate to a target object where you want to deploy the on-premises vCloud Availability appliance.

   As a target object you can use a data center, a folder, a cluster, a resource pool, or a host.

3. Right-click the target object and from the drop-down menu select Deploy OVF Template.

   The Deploy OVF Template wizard opens.

4. On the Select an OVF template page, browse to the VMware-vCloud-Availability-OnPrem-release_number-xxx-build_number_OVF10.ova file location and click Next.

5. On the Select a name and folder page, enter a name for the on-premises appliance, select a deployment location, and click Next.

6. On the Select a compute resource page, select a host, or cluster as a compute resource to run the appliance on, and click Next.

7. On the Review details page, verify the OVF template details and click Next.

8. On the License agreements page, select the I accept all license agreements check box and click Next.

9. On the Select storage page, select the virtual disk format and the storage policy for the appliance and click Next.

10. On the Select networks page, optionally configure the network settings, then click Next.

11. On the Customize template page, customize the deployment properties of the on-premises appliance and click Next.

    1. Enter and confirm the initial password for the appliance root user.

       You must change the initial root user password when you log in for the first time.

    2. (Required) Select the Enable SSH check box.

    3. In the NTP Server section, enter the NTP server address for the appliance to use.

       Important:Ensure that vCenter Server, ESXi, vCloud Director, Platform Services Controller, and the vCloud Availability appliance all use the same NTP server.

12. On the Ready to complete page, review the settings, Power on after deployment and to begin the OVA installation process, click Finish.

Configure & Pair Appliance to Zettagrid

1. In a Web browser, navigate to https://On-Prem-Appliance-IP-address/ui/admin.

2. Log in by using the root user password that you set during the OVA deployment.

   The Appliance Password window opens.

3. Change the initial root user password.

   1. Enter the initial root user password set during the OVA deployment.

   2. Enter and confirm a new password.

      Create a secured password with a minimum of eight characters and containing at least one of each of the following characters:

      • Lowercase: a b c

      • Uppercase: A B C

      • Numeric: 1 2 3

      • Special: & # %

   3. Click Apply.

      The Getting Started tab opens.

4. Click Run initial setup wizard.

   The Initial Setup wizard opens.

5. On the Site Details page, enter a Site Name, optionally enter a Site Description, and click Next.

6. On the Lookup service details page, enter lookup-service-IP-address, single sign-on user credentials, and click Next.

7. Accept the SSL certificate of the vCenter Server Lookup service and click Next.

8. On the Cloud Details page, pair the on-premises vCloud Availability appliance and the cloud organization.

   1. Enter the vCloud Availability Public API endpoint address.

   2. Enter the vCloud Director user@org user credentials.

   3. (Optional) Select Allow Access from Cloud.

      By selecting this option you allow the cloud provider and the organization administrators to perform the following operations from the vCloud Availability Portal without authenticating to the on-premises site.

      • Discover on-premises workloads and replicate them to the cloud.

      • Reverse existing replications to the on-premises site.

      • Replicate cloud workloads to the on-premises site.

      By leaving this option deselected, only users authenticated to the on-premises vCloud Availability Portal can configure new replications and existing replications cannot be reversed from the vCloud Availability Portal.

   4. Accept the SSL certificate of the vCloud Availability Public API endpoint and click Next.

9. You can optionally join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program, confirm your choice, and click Next.

10. On the Ready to complete page, optionally select to configure local placement and complete the initial setup wizard by clicking Finish.

    • You can configure data center to cloud replications, by leaving Configure local placement now deselected.

    • To enable cloud to data center replications, select Configure local placement now.

What to do next

If you skipped configuring local placement in the initial wizard, you can do that next. Or you can unpair the on-premises from the cloud vCloud Availability appliance, see https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vCloud-Availability/3.0/com.vmware.vcav.onprem.install.config.doc/GUID-34520915-0967-4FBB-B65A-82F64C4C9994.html#GUID-34520915-0967-4FBB-B65A-82F64C4C9994

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