The cross-virtual data center networking feature enables organizations that have virtual data centers backed by multiple vCenter Server instances to stretch layer 2 networks across up to four virtual data centers. Cross-virtual data center networking relies on cross-vCenter NSX and can span multiple VMware Cloud Director sites.

Cross-virtual data center networking requires NSX Data Center for vSphere.

With cross-virtual data center networking, organizations can group up to four virtual data centers and configure egresses and stretched layer 2 networks in each group.

The participating organization virtual data centers can belong to different VMware Cloud Director sites. See Configuring and Managing Multisite Deployments.

Organizations can use cross-virtual data center networking to implement high availability solutions or distributed systems architectures, where an application can be distributed across multiple virtual data centers or sites.

The system administrator must configure the underlying cross-vCenter NSX environment, the VMware Cloud Director servers, and enable cross-virtual data center networking for each virtual data center.

  1. Configure one of the NSX Manager instances as a Primary NSX Manager instance. See the Cross-vCenter NSX Installation Guide.
    1. Deploy the NSX cluster on the primary NSX Manager instance.
    2. Prepare the ESXi hosts on the primary NSX Manager instance.
    3. Configure VXLAN from the primary NSX Manager instance.
    4. Assign the primary role to the NSX Manager instance.
    5. Create a pool for segment IP for the universal transport zone.
    6. Add a universal transport zone.
  2. Configure the rest of the NSX Manager instances as Secondary NSX Managers. See the Cross-vCenter NSX Installation Guide.
    1. Prepare the ESXi hosts on each secondary NSX Manager instance.
    2. Configure VXLAN from each secondary NSX Manager instance.
    3. Assign the secondary role to each NSX Manager instance.
    4. Connect the ESXi clusters to the universal transport zone.
  3. Configure the control VM properties for each NSX Manager instance. See Modify NSX Manager Settings.
  4. Create a VXLAN backed network pool using a universal type transport zone from any vCenter Server instance. See Create a Network Pool Backed by an NSX Data Center for vSphere Transport Zone.
    Note: For multisite deployments, you must create a VXLAN backed network pool in each VMware Cloud Director site.
  5. Enable cross-virtual data center networking on each organization virtual data center. See Edit the Network Settings of an Organization Virtual Data Center.
  6. If the organization has multisite virtual data centers, verify that the installation IDs in the different VMware Cloud Director sites are different. If there are VMware Cloud Director sites that are configured with the same installation ID, see Regenerating MAC Addresses for Multisite Stretched Networks in the VMware Cloud Director Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide.

The organization administrator can now create and configure data center groups, egresses, and stretched networks. For information about managing cross-virtual data center networking, see the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal Guide.