vCloud Availability Requirements and Deployment Steps for Migrations and Replications

Requirements

Customers require the following in order to set up vCloud Availability for performing migrations (and later, replications).

VMware Environment

 vSphere 7.0.x or later licensed as VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit or above. The integrated vSphere plugin is only available for vCenter Server 7.0.x and later

Networking

 No incoming network ports need to be exposed to the Internet as the connection is established through the Tunnel to the Service Provider on TCP Port 443.

 The Virtual Appliance requires the following firewall access on the the onprem network - (This is much more straightforward if placed within a management network along with your vCenter):

  • Outbound connectivity to the Internet on TCP 443.

  • TCP port 443 connectivity to vCenter

  • TCP 8043, 8048 from the vCenter Server to the Virtual Appliance

  • TCP 443 if a Platform Services Controller is deployed separately to vCenter

  • TCP 80, UDP 902 and TCP 902 to the ESXi hosts

  • TCP 44045, 44046, 31031 from the ESXi hosts back to the Virtual Appliance

Layer-2 Network Extension

vCloud Availability 3.0+ does not include any integrations or support for extending Layer-2 networks. If customers require this functionality, an NSX Edge may be used to establish a L2VPN.

If NSX is deployed on the on-premise VLAN and VxLAN networks can be connected to a vCloud VxLAN network. If NSX is not deployed in the tenant environment, customers may deploy an NSX Standalone Edge virtual appliance to perform Layer-2 or Layer-3 (IPSEC) VPNs.

Deployment Steps

  1.  Create a VDC in Zettagrid and email the VDC number "DC_XXXXX" to support@zettagrid.com and we will enable your VDC for replication. You will need to purchase enough storage to accommodate the replication for your VMs(Storage requirement is usually Total x2.5 and can be scalled down after migration). CPU and RAM can be set to a minimum but will need to be increased PRIOR to failing over to ensure your VMs can power on.

  2. Download the vCloud Availability virtual appliance from https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/search?query=vmware cloud director availability

  3. Deploy the VCAV on-prem appliance OVA from vSphere portal. 

    • Important: Use the same NTP server across vCenter Server, ESXi, vCloud Director, the Platform Services Controller, and the vCloud Availability appliance.

    • Enter and confirm the password for the root user of the appliance - you can update the root password when you perform the initial configuration of the vCloud Availability appliance.

  4. Power on the appliance and navigate to the appliance management portal https://On-Prem-Appliance-IP-address/ui/admin.

    • Log in by using the root user password that you set during the OVA deployment. You may change the password after login. 

    • Click Run initial setup wizard.

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

      2. Enter vCenter lookup-service-IP-address, SSO admin user name and password (administrator@vsphere.local). Accept the SSL certificate of the vCenter Server Lookup service and click Next.

      3. On the Cloud Details page, enter the vCloud Availability Public API endpoint address, org username (cloudxxxx@org_cloudxxxx) and password, enable 'Allow Access from Cloud', accept the SSL certificate of the vCloud Availability Public API endpoint and click Next.

      4. Click Finish to complete the setup.

      5. Navigate to System Monitoring tab to confirm everything is green. 

  5. Login to the Zettagrid vCloud Director HTML5 portal (via MyAccount) and you will see a message on the top saying vCloud Availability plugin has been installed. Logout and log back in to enable the plugin. 

  6. Once log back into the HTML5 portal, click the menu button on the top and you will see an option "Availability". See https://zettagrid.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/article/124945767

  7. You can then proceed with replication. See https://zettagrid.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/article/125109328

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