Before deploying HCX, consider the required resources for both the source and the destination environment site managers.
Virtual Hardware Requirements for HCX Manager Appliances
Appliance |
vCPU |
Memory |
Disk Space/IOPS |
|---|---|---|---|
HCX Manager |
4 |
12 GB |
60 GB |
HCX Interconnect (HCX-IX) |
8 |
6 GB |
2 GB |
HCX Network Extension (HCX-NE) |
8 |
3 GB |
2 GB |
HCX WAN Optimization (HCX-WAN-OPT) |
8 |
14 GB |
100 GB / 5000 IOPS |
HCX Sentinel Gateway (HCX-SGW [source only]) |
8 |
8 GB |
|
HCX Sentinel Data Receiver (HCX-SDR [destination only]) |
8 |
8 GB |
|
The storage requirement per appliance is doubled during the upgrade and redeploy operations, as a second appliance is created for operation.
Migration Host and Datastore Requirements
During a virtual machine migration operation, the destination compute and storage resources are selected. These resources must meet the following general requirements:
Requirement ID |
Requirement |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Host-Req-1 |
Host CPU and Memory Capacity |
The destination host must support the original vCPU and Memory configurations of the virtual machine. |
Host-Req-2 |
Host CPU and Memory Usage |
The destination host capacity must satisfy admission control requirements. |
Host-Req-3 |
Host Compatibility with VMTools |
The destination hosts must support the VMTools version of the original virtual machine. For more information see the VMware Certified Compatibility Guides. |
Host-Req-4 |
Host Compatibility with VM Hardware |
The destination hosts must support the VM Hardware version of the original virtual machine. For more information see VMware KB 2007240. |
Datastore-Req-1 |
Datastore Type |
The destination datastore type must be VMFS5, VMFS6, NFS3, NFS4.1, or vSAN. |
Datastore-Req-2 |
Datastore Capacity |
The destination datastore capacity must be able to store the following:
|
System Requirements for Scaling Out Deployments
When scaling HCX deployments, the hardware requirements apply for each additional appliance. For appliance limit information, refer to the VMware Configurations Maximums.
In environments with multiple vCenter Servers, a maximum of one site manager can be deployed per vCenter Server.
- By default, the migration service encompasses all source and destination clusters in a service mesh with a single IX appliances. The migration service can be scaled out when there are additional clusters in either the source or destination environments (you can create a service mesh for each unique source/destination cluster pair).
For example, if there is source site with clusters A and B paired to a destination cloud with clusters X, Y and Z, you can scale out by creating service meshes AX, AY, AZ, BX, BY, BZ.
Note: In this scale out example, cluster A is hosting three IX appliances, and you can configure host anti-affinity to enable parallel switchovers with HCX vMotion and RAV migrations. Multiple Network Extension appliances can be deployed per distributed virtual switch (DVS) or NSX Transport Zone.
When using Network Extension High Availability (HA), a maximum of two Network Extension appliance can be deployed for each VLAN or NSX segment. In the HA group, one appliance is Active and one is Standby.
Note:HA Standby appliances must be considered when calculating the overall hardware resource requirements.
When not using Network Extension HA, a maximum of one Network Extension appliance can be deployed for each VLAN or NSX segment.
The Network Extension appliance count in the Service Mesh configuration must equal the sum of all planned standalone, HA Active, and HA Standby appliances.
