The suite of HCX technologies are delivered through three distinct service components, which can be enabled from the HCX Manager’s interface. The HCX interface is added as a vCenter Server plugin during the HCX Manager OVA deployment. The HCX enabled sites are paired and then service components are deployed simultaneously at the source and destination sites whenever services are enabled for the selected site pair.
HCX Enterprise or Cloud Manager
The HCX manager component is deployed as an OVA, integrates HCX with the vSphere environment, and enables it to deliver HCX services. HCX Manager is deployed one to one with each vCenter Server.
HCX Enterprise Manager is deployed at the source site. HCX Cloud Manager is deployed at the target site by the HCX Cloud Services provider. The HCX cloud manager automates the deployment of peer appliances when a service is enabled at the source site within the HCX plugin. Services cannot be enabled using the HCX Cloud interface.
An HCX Site Pair always consists of one HCX Enterprise source site (tenant site) and one HCX Cloud destination site (Cloud Provider site). The components listed in the following sections are always deployed in the context of a site pair.
HCX WAN Interconnect (HCX-IX)
This service appliance is deployed when migration and/or Data Recovery (DR) services are enabled. This component automatically tunnels to its peer at the remote site and provides an encrypted service path for migration services.
HCX WAN Optimization (HCX-WAN-OPT)
This service appliance is deployed when WAN Optimization services are enabled for a site pair. The WAN Optimization component only communicates with the HCX-IX, it does not make direct connections to its peer.
HCX Extension Appliance (HCX-NET-EXT / L2C)
This is deployed when Network Extension services are enabled. This component automatically tunnels to its peer at the remote site and provides an encrypted service path for migration services.
