Ensure that you have met the following prerequisites before configuring Hybrid Linked Mode.

Common Prerequisites

The following prerequisites are common to both linking from the VMware Cloud Gateway and from the cloud SDDC.

  • Configure a connection between your on-premises data center and the SDDC. See Configure AWS Direct Connect Between Your SDDC and On-Premises Data Center and Configure a VPN Connection Between Your SDDC and On-Premises Data Center.
  • Regardless of the type of connection you choose, the vCenter FQDN must resolve to a private IP address. This is not the default configuration. See Set vCenter Server FQDN Resolution Address for more information.
  • Ensure that your on-premises data center and your cloud SDDC are synchronized to an NTP service or other authoritative time source. Hybrid Linked Mode can tolerate a time skew of up to ten minutes between the on-premises data center and the cloud SDDC.
  • The maximum latency between your cloud SDDC and on-premises data center cannot exceed 100 msec roundtrip.
  • Decide which of your on-premises users will have Cloud Administrator permissions. Add these users to a group within your identity source. Ensure that this group has access to your on-premises environment.

Prerequisites for Linking with VMware Cloud Gateway

The following prerequisites apply when linking with the VMware Cloud Gateway.

  • Install the VMware Cloud Gateway. See Installing and Configuring the VMware Cloud Gateway.
  • Your on-premises environment must be vSphere 6.5 patch d or later.
  • To ensure that the VMware Cloud Gateway and your vCenter instances can reach each other over your network, verify that the following firewall ports are open.
    Source Destination Port Purpose
    User's web browser VMware Cloud Gateway 5480 Gathering support bundle
    VMware Cloud Gateway On-premises vCenter 7444 Access to VMware Single Sign-On
    VMware Cloud Gateway On-premises vCenter 443 Hybrid Linked Mode
    VMware Cloud Gateway On-premises Platform Services Controller 443, 389 Hybrid Linked Mode
    VMware Cloud Gateway Cloud SDDC vCenter 443 Hybrid Linked Mode
    VMware Cloud Gateway Cloud ESXi host 902 Virtual Machine Console
    VMware Cloud Gateway On-premises Active Directory server (ports dependent on your usage) 389, 636, 3268, 3269 Identity source
    VMware Cloud Gateway https://vcgw-updates.vmware.com/ 443 Hybrid Linked Mode Linking, Cloud Gateway Auto-update

    The following figure shows the ports required to be open for linking with the VMware Cloud Gateway.

    Diagram showing the ports required for communication when using Hybrid Linked Mode with the vCenter Cloud Gateway Appliance

Prerequisites for Linking from the Cloud SDDC

The following prerequisites apply when linking from the cloud SDDC.

  • Your on-premises vCenter system is running one of the following:
    • vSphere 6.0 Update 3 patch c and later.
    • vSphere 6.5 patch d and later.
  • Ensure that you have the login credentials for your on-premises vSphere SSO domain.
  • Ensure that you have login credentials for a user who has a minimum of read-only access to the Base DN for users and groups in your on-premises environment. This is used when adding an identity source.
  • Ensure that an on-premises DNS server is configured for your management gateway so that it can resolve the FQDN for the identity source and on-premises systems.
  • Ensure that your on-premises gateway or firewall allows access to the necessary ports from your SDDC for the following services.
    Source Destination Ports Purpose
    Cloud SDDC On-premises vCenter 443 Hybrid Linked Mode
    Cloud SDDC On-premises Platform Services Controller 389, 443 Hybrid Linked Mode
    Cloud SDDC On-premises Active Directory server (ports dependent on your usage) 389, 636, 3268, 3269 Identity Source
    Cloud SDDC On-premises DNS 53 Resolving FQDN of on-premises vCenter and Active Directory Server
    Cloud SDDC On-premises ESXi host 902 Virtual Machine Console

    The following figure shows the ports that are required to be open for linking from the cloud SDDC.

    Diagram showing the required ports for using Hybrid Linked Mode from the cloud SDDC
  • If you are linking to an on-premises vCenter instance that is connected to other on-premises vCenter instances with Enhanced Linked Mode, your cloud SDDC must have network connectivity to all of the on-premises vCenter instances, not just the one that you are directly linking to.
  • Run the Connectivity Validator tests to check that network connectivity is correctly established for Hybrid Linked Mode. See Validate Network Connectivity for Hybrid Linked Mode.