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Migrating workloads from on-premises and vCenter Server environments to VCF as a Service

Migrating workloads from on-premises and vCenter Server environments to VCF as a Service

You can use VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) to migrate your vCenter virtual machine (VM) workloads from on-premises and VMware vCenter Server® environments to IBM Cloud® for VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service. Find out how to migrate vApp and virtual machine (VM) workloads from any self-managed vCenter environment to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a Service in the following video.

Some documentation, including, but not limited to, tutorials, solutions architectures, solution guides, videos, and diagrams might still be using the old offering names. This information will be gradually updated to the new offering names in future releases.

Objectives

In this tutorial, you learn how to install the VCDA on-premises appliance on a VMware vCenter Server, configure a public or a private endpoint with a VCF as a Service VCDA installation, and migrate your vCenter server workloads to VCF as a Service.

Before you begin

The VCDA service is optionally included in your VCF as a Service Cloud Director site order at no charge.

This tutorial requires:

Install VCDA on-premises in VMware vCenter Server

Before you configure public or private endpoints, you must install VCDA on-premises in VMware vCenter Server.

The following steps outline a validated process. Many different configurations work.

  1. Download the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-premises Appliance .ova file to a server that has a network connection to the vCenter Server.

    1. Log in to VMware by Broadcom or create a free account.
    2. Click the Drivers and Tools tab.
    3. Download VMware Cloud Director Availability On-premises Appliance.

    Entitlements are not required for the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-premises Appliance.

  2. Log in to VMware vCenter Server and navigate to the cluster name.

  3. Right-click the cluster name and click Deploy OVF Template....

  4. From the Deploy OVF Template window, complete the following configurations. After you complete the configuration for each tab, click NEXT to move to the next tab.

    1. Complete the following configuration for the Select an OVF template tab.
      • Select Local file.
      • Select the .ovf file and click UPLOAD FILES.
    2. Complete the following configuration for the Select a name and folder tab.
      • Enter a unique name for the installation. It is recommended to use a VM name that helps to identify VCDA.
      • Select the default folder for the VM.
    3. Complete the following configuration for the Select a compute resource tab.
      • Select the destination compute resource. It is recommended to install the VCDA On-premises Appliance in the same cluster or compute resource where vCenter Server is installed.
    4. For the Review details tab, verify all of the configuration details.
    5. For the License agreements tab, review and accept the license agreements.
    6. For the Configuration tab, select On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance.
    7. Complete the following configuration for the Select storage tab.
      • Select Encrypt the virtual machine and Datastore Default for the thin provision drop-down menu.
      • Select the management share or workload share datastore option from the table. It is recommended that you use the same storage where vCenter Server is installed.
    8. For the Select networks tab, select the management network. The management network is the same network as the vCenter Server VM.
    9. Complete the following configuration for the Customize template tab.
      • For Root password, set the root password that is used for the first log in to the on-premises VCDA appliance.
      • Select Enable SSH.
      • For NTP Server, enter the AD/DNS IP addresses from vCenter Server.
      • For Hostname, enter any valid hostname.
      • For Address, enter the service TO uplink3 that is under Portable subnet for the instance management from vCenter Server.
      • For Gateway, enter the Service TO uplink1 virtual IP address.
      • For MTU (bytes), enter the maximum transmission unit in bytes.
      • For DNS servers, enter the AD/DNS IP addresses from vCenter Server.
      • For Search Domains, enter the root domain of vCenter Server.
    10. For the Ready to complete tab, review your selections and click FINISH.

    The VCDA on-premises deployment to VMware vCenter Server begins. When the deployment is complete, the new folder that you created is available under the vCenter Server cluster.

  5. From the installation folder, navigate to the VM and click the Power On icon.

  6. When the VM is powered on, navigate to the newly installed VCDA IP address.

Configure the endpoint with VCDA

For this step, use either the Configure the public endpoint with VCDA steps or the Configure the private endpoint with VCDA steps.

The private networking endpoint is more secure and provides more consistent performance over the public endpoint. The private endpoint has a monthly cost and the public endpoint is included in your order.

Configure the public endpoint with VCDA

  1. From the VCDA IP address, use the root password that you provided during the VCDA on-premises appliance installation to log in. You are asked to change your password.
  2. From the Getting Started tab, click Run the initial setup wizard.
  3. From the Initial Setup window, complete the following configurations.

    1. Complete the following configuration for the Lookup Service tab. After you complete the configuration, click NEXT, then ACCEPT to accept the configuration.

      • For Lookup Service Address, enter the Fully Qualified Domain Names(FQDN) of the vCenter/PSC of vCenter Server.
      • For SSO Admin Username, enter the username of the vCenter of vCenter Server.
      • For Password, enter the password of the vCenter of vCenter Server.

    2. Complete the following configuration for the Site Details tab.

      • For Site name, enter the unique name for your installation.

    3. Complete the following configuration for the Cloud Service Details tab. After you complete the configuration, click NEXT, then ACCEPT to accept the configuration.

      • For Public Service Endpoint address, enter the public replication endpoint URL from the Instance endpoints tab for your VCF as a Service site. For more information, see Viewing VCDA details.
      • For Organization Admin, enter a local Organization Administrator user credential. You must create the credentials in VMware Cloud Director for VCF as a Service. You must use a local VMware Cloud Director administrator account. IAM SSO credentials are not supported.

      If you use the admin user ID, you must include the Organization ID. For example, admin@8db98de2-7735-41f1-a487-64fcaefde250.

      • For Organization Password, enter the Organization Administrator password.

    4. Review the configuration on the Ready To Complete tab and click Finish.

Configure the private endpoint with VCDA

  1. Log in to the On-premises VCDA console.
  2. Click Settings. Then, expand the Network section and click Static routes.
  3. Click ADD and add a new static route to route the subnet of the private endpoint CSE IP address to the VCDA IP address.
  4. From the Getting Started tab, click Run the initial setup wizard.
  5. From the Initial Setup window, complete the following configurations.
    1. Complete the following configuration for the Lookup Service tab. After you complete the configuration, click NEXT, then ACCEPT to accept the configuration.
      • For Lookup Service Address, enter the Fully Qualified Domain Names(FQDN) of the vCenter/PSC of vCenter Server.
      • For SSO Admin Username, enter the username of the vCenter of vCenter Server.
      • For Password, enter the password of the vCenter of vCenter Server.
    2. Complete the following configuration for the Site Details tab.
      • For Site name, enter the unique name for your installation.
    3. Complete the following configuration for the Cloud Service Details tab. After you complete the configuration, click NEXT, then ACCEPT to accept the configuration.
      • For Public Service Endpoint address, enter the public replication endpoint URL from the Instance endpoints tab for your VCF as a Service site. For more information, see Viewing VCDA details.
      • For Organization Admin, enter a local Organization Administrator user credential. You must create the credentials in VMware Cloud Director for VCF as a Service. You must use a local VMware Cloud Director administrator account. IAM SSO credentials are not supported.
      • For Organization Password, enter the Organization Administrator password.
    4. Review the configuration on the Ready To Complete tab and click Finish.

Migrate VMware vCenter workloads to VCF as a Service

After you enable your public or private connection, migrate your VM to VCF as a Service.

Ensure that the VM is powered on from vCenter Server.

  1. From the VMware console, click the More drop-down menu to select the VCDA instance to migrate.

  2. From the VCDA console, click Incoming Replications.

  3. Click ALL ACTIONS > New migration.

  4. Select the following options in the New Incoming Migration window.

    • For Source VMs, select the VM to migrate from the Source site drop-down and click NEXT.
    • For Destination VDC and Storage policy, select the target VDC to migrate the VM to and click NEXT.
    • For Settings, keep the default options and click NEXT.
    • For Ready to complete, review the settings and click FINISH.

    The source VM is configured and then synchronized to the Cloud Director site. The replication is complete when the Last changed column moves from Synchronizing to the date and time of the replication.

  5. When the replication is complete, ensure that the newly replicated VM is selected and click ALL ACTIONS > Migrate to begin the migration.

  6. Select the following options from the Migrate window.

    • For Migrate Settings, keep the default options and click NEXT.
    • For Ready to complete, review the settings and click FINISH.

    The VCDA service copies the runtime data from the source VM to the destination VM. When the replication is complete, the migrated VM powers on in the Cloud Director site and powers off in the vCenter Server instance. The migration is complete when the Recovery state column moves from Not started to Failed-Over.

  7. Click the destination virtual data center name to verify the migration. Click Compute > Virtual Machines to view the VM.

  8. After the migration is complete, delete the failed-over migration. Click ALL ACTIONS > Delete replication.

The migration metadata is deleted. Deleting the replication does not delete the source or the destination VMs.

Known issues and workarounds

From the Incoming replications table, the migrated VM doesn’t start synchronizing and synchronization stays at 0%.

The VCDA appliance cannot reach the ESXi hosts. If no VMkernel adapter has the “vSphere Replication” and “vSphere Replication NFC” assigned services, VCDA uses the Management VMkernel adapter. For the VMkernal adapter that is used, VCDA must reach this IP address on the ESXi host for replication.

To resolve, add static routes on the VCDA appliance.

  1. Log in to the on-premises VCDA console.
  2. Click Settings and expand Network. Click Static routes.
  3. Click ADD to add a new static route. For the destination and gateway, use the primary subnet for the hosts and virtual server instances for your vCenter Server instance.
  4. Click APPLY and the VM synchronizes.