An organization that includes an SDDC deployment group can link the vCenter systems in those SDDCs to enable an administrator to manage their combined inventories in the same vSphere Client view.

When you enable vCenter linking in an SDDC group, a cloud administrator can log in as [email protected] and use the vSphere Client to manage all the vCenter systems in the group. If the [email protected] account configures these systems to use single sign-on, then users with accounts in that single sign-on domain can access all the linked systems in the group.

After vCenter linking has been enabled in an SDDC group, the vCenter systems in SDDCs added to the group are linked automatically, and vCenter systems in SDDCs that are removed from the group are unlinked automatically.

Prerequisites

Networking
The required L3 networking for this feature is offered by VMware Transit Connect which is already configured as part of the creation of the SDDC Group. Each linked vCenter in the group must be able to reach the other linked vCenter instances at a private IP address using a route that goes through the group's VMware Transit Connect gateway. Other routing configurations are not supported.
Migration with vMotion of a VM across the vCenter instances in a linked SDDC group does not work because VMware Transit Connect creates only L3 connectivity between the group members. Migration with vMotion requires L2 connectivity.
Service Role

This operation is restricted to users with a VMC service role of Administrator or Administrator (Delete Restricted).

vCenter Name Resolution
Each linked vCenter in the group must be able to resolve the hostname and FQDN of the other linked vCenters to a private IP address. See Set vCenter Server FQDN Resolution Address.
Hybrid Linked Mode

As noted in Creating and Managing SDDC Deployment Groups with VMware Transit Connect™, use of Hybrid Linked Mode over a VPN connection is not supported when the SDDC is a member of an SDDC group.

Important:

You cannot configure Hybrid Linked Mode with the VMware Cloud Gateway over a Direct Connect Gateway (DXG) connection to a linked SDDC group member.

VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery
vCenter Linking is not supported for SDDCs that are protected by VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery versions earlier than version 26.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the VMware Cloud Console at https://vmc.vmware.com.
  2. On the Inventory page, click SDDC Groups.
    This page lists all the SDDC groups in your organization. To create an SDDC group, see Create or Modify an SDDC Group.
  3. On the SDDC Groups page, choose an SDDC group card, click VIEW DETAILS, and open the vCenter Linking tab.
    This page presents a list of all the SDDCs in the group, their versions, and vCenter linking status.
  4. To link all the vCenter systems in the list, click LINK ALL VCENTERS.
    This action links all the vCenter systems that have a status of Unlinked. Linking vCenter systems in an SDDC group is something you do only once. It establishes a group property ensuring that vCenter systems in the group are always linked, regardless of the set of member SDDCs, until you deliberately unlink them. After you LINK ALL VCENTERS in a group vCenter linking is automatic whenever an SDDC is added to the group. Linked vCenter systems are unlinked automatically when their SDDC is removed from the group.
  5. (Optional) Configure a shared identity source for the linked vCenter systems.
    If you configure the linked vCenter systems to use the same identity source, user accounts defined in that identity source can access all linked vCenter systems with the privileges defined for their account in the identity source. See vSphere Authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On in the VMware vSphere Documentation for configuration details. If you don't take this step, [email protected] can authenticate to all linked vCenter systems using the credentials listed on the Settings tab of the VMware Cloud Console.
  6. To unlink all the vCenter systems in the list, click UNLINK ALL VCENTERS.
    This action unlinks all the vCenter systems that have a status of Linked. Like linking vCenter systems in an SDDC group, unlinking is something you do only once. It establishes a group property ensuring that vCenter systems in the group are not linked until you deliberately link them. After you UNLINK ALL VCENTERS in a group, vCenter systems remain unlinked when an SDDC is added to the group.