VMware HCX for VM Migration

VMware Deploy HCX for VM Migration

Introduction to VMware HCX

VMware HCX™ is an application mobility platform designed for simplifying application migration, workload rebalancing and business continuity across data centers and clouds. HCX supports the following types of migrations:

  • Cold Migration - Offline migration of VMs.
  • Bulk Migration - scheduled bulk VM (vSphere, KVM, Hyper-V) migrations with reboot – low downtime.
  • HCX vMotion - Zero-downtime live migration of VMs – limited scale.
  • Cloud to Cloud Migrations – direct migrations between VMware Cloud SDDCs moving workloads from region to region or between cloud providers.
  • OS Assisted Migration – bulk migration of KVM and Hyper-V workloads to vSphere (HCX Enterprise feature).
  • Replication Assisted vMotion - Bulk live migrations with zero downtime combining HCX vMotion and Bulk migration capabilities (HCX Enterprise feature).

In this module, we will go through the steps to Install HCX, configure and migrate a test VM to Azure VMware Solution (AVS).

For more information on HCX, please visit VMware’s HCX Documentation.

HCX Setup for Azure VMware Solution (AVS)

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you have a running VPN connection to labs.
  • Ability to reach out to vCenter portal:
    • AVS vCenter: Get IP from Azure Portal - AVS blade
    • On-premises vCenter: 10.X.Y.2

Remember that X is your group number and Y your participant number.


Task 1

Install VMware HCX on AVS Private Cloud

Task 2

Download the HCX OVA to On-Premises vCenter

Task 3

Import the OVA file to the On-Premises vCenter

Task 4

Deploy the HCX OVA to On-Premises vCenter

Task 5

Obtain HCX License Key

Task 6

Activate VMware HCX

Task 7

Configure HCX and connect to vCenter

Task 8

Create Site Pairing from On-premises HCX to AVS HCX

Task 9

Create network profiles

Task 10

Create compute profiles

Task 11

Create a service mesh

Task 12

Network Extension

Task 13

Migrate a VM using HCX vMotion

Last modified February 21, 2024: Cleanup for local HoL session (a86abb8)