Learning vRNI 3.9: Part 1:Adding Data Sources in vRNI

Manish Jha

By default when vRNI 3.9 is installed, it starts in the NSX assessment mode and in this mode you will only see option to add vCenter server as data source.

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If you click on Add Data Source, the only option available to you is to add vCenter, Infoblox and Netflow Collector.

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In order to add different data sources like NSX Manager or Cisco devices, you need to change the evaluation license and then click on “Switch to Full Product Evaluation” button available in the bottom right corner of vRNI homepage.

Once you have switched to full evaluation mode, you can add various data sources to analyze traffic flow, and generate reports. 

To add a new data source, go to settings page from gear icon menu and navigate to Accounts and Data Sources option.

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Click on Add Source button.

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Now you will see plenty of options available to be added as data source.… Read More

vCloud Extender-Part 4: Cloud Provider Registration and VM Migration

Manish Jha

In last post of this series, I covered the steps needed to configure on-prem environment to connect it to a cloud provider site. In this post I will demonstrate how to register cloud provider and initiate vm migration using vCloud Extender.

1: Introduction to vCloud Extender

2: vCloud Extender-Cloud Provider Setup

3: vCloud Extender-Tenant (On-Premise) Setup

Lets start with Cloud Provider registration.

Login to On-prem vCenter server webclient and click on vCloud Extender plugin and navigate to Provider Clouds tab. Click on Add a Provider Cloud button.

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Specify Cloud Provider name and Provider Cloud URL. This should be in format https://provider-url/cloud/org/tenant-org-name.

Also specify the vCD Extender cloud service URL. This URL we configured in post 2 of this series.

Clicking on Test button verifies that if the supplied info is correct and the on-prem vCenter can connect to cloud environment successfully. Once test is passed, click on Add button to save the configuration.… Read More

vCloud Extender-Part 3: Tenant (On-Premise) Setup

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we covered the deployment/configuration steps in the cloud provider side. In this post we will learn about how to configure the on-premise (tenant) environment.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to vCloud Extender

2: vCloud Extender-Cloud Provider Setup

To connect the Tenant environment with the cloud provider, we need to deploy an instance of vCloud Extender in the on-premise. Deployment is more or less same like service provider side, but with difference that we select deployment type as “cx-connector” a shown in below screenshot.

CX-Tenant-Setup (1)

Once appliance is deployed and boots up, it will give you URL for the further configuration of appliance.

CX-Tenant-Setup (2)

Connect to https://CX-Appliance-FQDN/ui/mgmt and login with user administrator and password set during deployment of appliance.

CX-Tenant-Setup (3)

On the home page click on Setup Wizard button to start configuring the appliance.… Read More

vCloud Extender-Part 2: Service Provider Setup

Manish Jha

In last post of this series, I discussed about vCloud Extender architecture and its capabilities. In this post I will walk through steps of configuring vCloud Extender in cloud provider side.

vCloud Extender is deployed as ova and deployment steps are straight forward as shown in below slide show. Just make sure to select deployment type as “cx-cloud-service” on customization template page.

Once appliance is deployed and boots up, it will show the browser link to access the appliance for further configuration.

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Connect to appliance by typing https://appliance-fqdn/ui/mgmt and login with administrator user and password set during deployment.

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Click on Setup Wizard to start configuring the cx-cloud-service appliance.

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Register appliance with your management vCenter. If your environment have PSC external to VC, then use PSC IP/FQDN for lookupservice url.

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Next is to register cx-cloud appliance with the vCloud director. Enter your vCD details and administrator credentials.

Note: No need to append @system with the username.… Read More

vCloud Extender-Part 1:Introduction

Manish Jha

What is VMware vCloud Extender?

VMware vCloud Director Extender creates a hybrid cloud environment between an end-user on-premise data center, and a multi-tenant vCloud Director environment. vCloud Extender is replacement for vCloud Connector and this product was released soon after vCloud Director 9.0 was announced. 

What does vCloud Extender offers?

vCloud Extender allows customers to migrate workloads from On-prem vSphere environment to a vCloud Director based Public Cloud. The two migration methods that are available with vCloud Extender are the cold and warm migration and I will talk about these methods in detail in upcoming post of this series.

One more exciting feature that vCloud Extender offers is to stretch an on-prem Layer 2 network to cloud. This feature helps customer to achieve their “Cloud Migration” objective without much hassle as you no longer need to Re-IP workloads that are migrating to cloud. 

You do not need to have on-prem deployment of NSX to stretch a layer 2 network to cloud but without on-prem NSX, you are limited to extending only vLANs to VXLAN on the cloud side.… Read More

vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR-Part 4: Testing DR Operations

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we paired the two vCloud based cloud instances. Now its turn to test the DR capabilities offered by vCAV-C2C.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR

2: vCAV-C2C-POC Deployment

3: Site Pairing

To start testing DR operations, connect to https://VCAV-FQDN:8443 and login with tenant credentials (uname@orgname) and navigate to Paired Clouds.

By default your Site-B will show as unauthenticated. Click on the gear button to enter credentials.

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Enter Org name of Site-B and the Org User credentials. Click on Authenticate.

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Now both sites will show as authenticated.

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Perform the same operation by connecting to VCAV appliance of Site-B and adding Org/User details of Site B and make sure both sites are showing as authenticated.

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Once both sites are authenticated, navigate to DR-Workloads tab and click on Discovery

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Select source site from where replication will be initiated.… Read More

vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR-Part 3: Site Pairing

Manish Jha

In last post of this series we configured the vCAV-C2C appliance for both Site A & B. In this post we will learn how to perform site pairing so that tenants can start replicating workloads between 2 cloud instances.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Introduction to vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR

2: vCAV-C2C-POC Deployment

To perform site pairing, login to vCAV-C2C appliance of site A by connecting to https://VCAV-FQDN:8046 and navigating to Sites > New Site and enter IP/FQDN of VCAV appliance of Site B.

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Accept the SSL certificate.

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If your configuration is correct, you will see a succesful site pairing message.

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Under Sites > Show all sites, you can see the pairing information.

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On diagnostics page you can verify health of Site A & B

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And that’s it for this post. In next post of this series we will perform replication of workloads across 2 cloud.… Read More

vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR-Part 2: POC Deployment

Manish Jha

As discussed in last post, we can configure all roles present in vCAV-C2C in a single appliance for Lab/POC deployment. In my lab I am going ahead with small deployment to have a general understanding of this product before doing distributed deployment.

In my lab I have 2 sites and each site is configured with following components:

1: vSphere/vCenter Server 6.5 U2

2: vCloud Director 9.0

3: VMware NSX 6.3.6

vSphere and vCD is fully configured and Org/Org vDC’s are in place n both sites with external network etc configured. 

Let’s start the deployment with Site-A.

Deployment of VCAV-C2C appliance is straight forward and steps are shown in below slideshow.

Once appliance deployment completes and it boots up, it will give you information on how to connect to appliance for further configuration.

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Configure vCloud Availability Replicator

To configure vCloud Availability Replicator role, connect to https://VCAV-FQDN:8043 and click on link under Additional Resources

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Login with root credentials set during deployment.… Read More

vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR-Part 1:Introduction

Manish Jha

VMware vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR is the most recent addition to the VMware Cloud Provider Platform portfolio. It was originally introduced in May 2018, and it delighted service providers that have long desired a VMware native Cloud to Cloud DR solution for vCloud Director-based clouds.

What is vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR (vCAV-C2C)?

VMware vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud is a solution for disaster recovery between two instances of vCloud Director. The concept of cloud-to-cloud DR is not new, however, VMware did not have any solutions for vCloud-based clouds. vCAV-C2C bridges this gap and enables VMware Cloud Providers to use their current vCloud Director installations to deliver disaster recovery services, such as replication and failover capabilities for workloads at both the VM and vApp levels.

The following are the main capabilities of the vCAV-C2C solution:

1: Replicate and recover vApps/VMs between two vCD instances for migration, DR, and planned migration use cases.… Read More

vCloud Availability for vCloud Director: Part 10: Integrating VCAV With Deployed Components

Manish Jha

Now we have deployed all components needed to form VCAV stack. Its time to integrate all of them with VCAV. Let’s start.

At this point of time I am assuming that you have already declared following variables as per your environment

… Read More