Deploy an SDDC to host your workloads in the cloud.

To create an SDDC, pick an AWS region to host it, give the SDDC a name, and specify how many ESXi hosts you want the SDDC to contain. If you don't already have an AWS account, you can still create a starter configuration SDDC that contains a single ESXi host. These single-host SDDCs expire in 60 days and are not supported for production use.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the VMC GovCloud Console at https://www.vmc-us-gov.vmware.com/.
  2. Configure SDDC properties.
    1. Select an AWS Region in which to deploy the SDDC.
      See Available VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud Regions for a list of available regions and the features they support.
    2. Select Stretched Cluster or Multi-Host option.
    3. Select the host type.
      Option Description
      i3 (Local SSD) Provision hosts with a fixed amount of local SSD storage per host.
      I3en (Local SSD) Provision hosts with a larger amount of local SSD storage per host.
    4. Make up an SDDC Name.

      The name must be between 1 and 128 characters and cannot include the no-break space (0xC2) or soft hyphen (0xAD) characters. All other ISO-8859-15 printable characters are allowed.

      You can change this name later if you want to. See Rename an SDDC in the VMware Cloud on AWS Operations Guide.
    5. If you are creating a multiple host SDDC, specify the initial Number of Hosts you want in the first cluster.
      You can add or remove hosts or clusters later if you need to. An SDDC requires at least three hosts to be eligible for upsizing. See Upsize SDDC Management Appliances
      Note:

      Storage capacity, performance, and redundancy are all affected by the number of hosts in the SDDC. See Storage Capacity and Data Redundancy for more information.

      Host Capacity and Total Capacity update to reflect the number of hosts you've specified.
  3. (Optional) Select the size of the SDDC appliances.
    Medium is the default size for the NSX Edge and vCenter appliances. A Large appliance size is recommended for deployments with more than 50 hosts or 4000 VMs or in any other situation where management cluster resources might be oversubscribed.
    1. Click Show Advanced Configuration.
    2. Select the appliance size.
  4. Click Next to connect to an AWS account.
    See AWS VPC Configuration and Availability Requirements and Account Linking and the VMware Cloud on AWS CloudFormation Template for important information about requirements for the AWS account and subnets.
  5. Select an AWS Account and click Next.
  6. Select a VPC and Subnet from the drop-down menu and click Next.
    If you plan to enable IPv6 connectivity to the SDDC, you'll need to link it to a dual-stack subnet in an AWS dual-stack VPC. To support stretched clusters in an IPv6-enabled SDDC, you'll need to select two subnets in the VPC, each in a different AZ. See Enabling and Using IPv6 in SDDC Networks for more about IPv6 support in VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud, and see the AWS blog Dual-stack IPv6 architectures for AWS and hybrid networks for more information about dual-stack VPCs.
  7. (Optional) Click NEXT to configure the Management Subnet in the SDDC.
    Enter an IPv4 address range for the management subnet as a CIDR block or leave the text box blank to use the default, which is 10.2.0.0/16. You can't change these values after the SDDC has been created, so consider the following when you specify the Management Subnet address range:
    • Choose a range of IP addresses that does not overlap with the AWS subnet you are connecting to. If you plan to connect your SDDC to an on-premises data center, the IP address range of the subnet must be unique within your enterprise network infrastructure. It cannot overlap the IP address range of any of your on-premises networks. For a complete list of IPv4 addresses reserved by VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud, see Reserved Network Addresses in the VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud Networking and Security guide.
    • If you are deploying a single-host SDDC, the IP address range 192.168.1.0/24 is reserved for the default compute network of the SDDC. If you specify a management network address range that overlaps that address, single-host SDDC creation fails. If you are deploying a multi-host SDDC, no compute gateway logical network is created during deployment, so you'll need to create one after the SDDC is deployed.
    • CIDR blocks of size 16, 20, or 23 are supported, and must be in one of the "private address space" blocks defined by RFC 1918 (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16). The primary factor in choosing a Management CIDR block size is the anticipated scalability requirements of the SDDC. The management CIDR block cannot be changed after the SDDC has been deployed, so a /23 block is appropriate only for SDDCs that will not require much growth in capacity.
      CIDR block size Maximum Number of hosts (Single AZ) Maximum Number of hosts (Multi AZ)
      /23 23 18
      /20 228 224
      /16 See VMware Configuration Maximums.
      Note:
      Because VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud reserves the capacity to add hosts (and their IP addresses) to every SDDC to meet SLA requirements during maintenance operations or in case of host failure, the number of usable hosts is reduced from what's shown here by two per SDDC, plus one more per cluster. This means that, for example, an SDDC with two clusters and a /23 management CIDR has enough IP addresses to deploy up to 23 hosts. The remaining addresses are reserved to be used when needed by hosts deployed to meet SLA requirements. Several VMware Cloud on AWS features consume additional IP addresses in the management CIDR:
      • Multi-Edge SDDC with Traffic Groups
      • SDDC Groups
      • Multi-Cluster SDDC
      • VCDR recovery SDDC
      Because use of these features reduces SDDC host capacity, a management CIDR block size of /23 might be insufficient for some SDDC requirements.
  8. Acknowledge that you understand and take responsibility for the costs you incur when you deploy an SDDC, then click DEPLOY SDDC to create the SDDC.
    Charges begin when you click DEPLOY SDDC. You cannot pause or cancel the deployment process after it starts. You won't be able to use the SDDC until deployment is complete. Deployment typically takes about two hours.

What to do next

After your SDDC is created, do the following:

  • Connect to the SDDC and configure SDDC Networks

    Before you can migrate your workload VMs and manage them in VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud, you must connect your on-premises data center to your SDDC. You can use the public Internet, AWS Direct Connect, or both for this connection. You must also set up one or more Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to secure network traffic to and from your SDDC, and configure SDDC networking and security features like firewall rules, DNS, and DHCP. The VMware Cloud on AWS on GovCloud Networking and Security guide has more information about how to do that.

  • For multi-host SDDCs, you must configure a logical segment for workload VM networking. Single host SDDCs have a default logical segment. A banner is displayed on the SDDC card after creation is complete to indicate whether you need to create a logical segment. See Create a Network Segment.
  • For single host SDDCs, a banner is displayed on the SDDC card to indicate that a default logical segment has been created for this SDDC. If this default segment causes a conflict, delete it and create a new segment. See Create a Network Segment.
  • (Optional) Activate add-on services such as VMware Aria Operations or VMware Aria Automation . See Working with Integrated Services in the VMware Cloud on AWS Operations Guide.