A sample public installation workflow using HCX on the VMware Cloud on AWS.

Important:

Follow the HCX installation procedures provided by your public cloud service.

This section provides an example procedure demonstrating how to use HCX with the VMware Cloud on AWS. Not all these steps must be repeated for each source and destination site pair:

  • Steps 1-3, 8, 9 must be performed for each SDDC.

  • Steps 4-7 are only required once for each source site.

An HCX Connector installation can pair with many VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs when the Network Profiles are configured to support them.

  1. Prepare the deployment configurations using Checklist B in Getting Started with VMware HCX.

  2. Activate HCX in the Add Ons tab of your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. See Deploying VMware HCX Cloud from the VMC Console.

  3. In the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC Console go to the Network and Security tab to perform the following actions:

    1. Configure the Management Gateway to allow the HCX Cloud Manager (use the pre-defined HCX group as the destination) to receive inbound TCP-443 connections.

    2. If configuring HCX to use AWS Direct Connect with a Private Virtual Interface, see Configuring VMware HCX for Direct Connect Private Virtual Interfaces.

    For more details on the network port configuration, see Network Port and Protocol Requirements.

  4. Download the HCX Connector for the Source on-premises installation and site pairing.

    1. On the Add Ons tab of your SDDC, click Open HCX on the HCX card.

    2. Navigate to the SDDC tab and click Open HCX.
      • For VMware Cloud on AWS, the browser redirects to hcx.sddc-*.vmwarevmc.com.
      • For VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud, the browser redirects to https://hcx.sddc-*.vmwarevmcgov.com.

    3. Enter the [email protected] user and password and click Log In.

    4. Under the Administration tab, select System Updates and click Request Download Link.

      An option is provided to download the HCX Connector OVA locally or copy the download link.

  5. Deploy HCX Manager in the source environment using the HCX Connector OVA. See Deploy the HCX Manager OVA in the vSphere Client.
    Note: For VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud environments, be sure sure to select Enable GovCloud Mode when deploying the HCX Connector OVA in the vSphere Client.

  6. Configure the source site (on-premises) firewall to allow inbound and outbound connectivity based on the HCX services or features used. See https://ports.vmware.com/home/VMware-HCX.

  7. Create and activate keys for the source site HCX Connector that will be paired with the HCX Cloud Manager in VMware Cloud on AWS.

    1. Log in to console.cloud.vmware.com.

    2. On the Add Ons tab of your SDDC, click Open HCX on the HCX card.

    3. Navigate to the Activation Keys tab.

    4. Create an Activation Key for the source HCX Connector.

    5. Enter the created activation key in the source HCX Connector and click Activate.

  8. Pair HCX Connector with HCX Cloud. See Adding a Site Pair.

  9. Activate the HCX services to deploy the HCX Interconnect.

    See Configuring and Managing the HCX Service Mesh.