You can deploy a new recovery SDDC to use for disaster recovery and ransomware recovery.

When you deploy a new recovery SDDC, it connects to an AWS account belonging to you (also called the 'customer AWS account') that is linked to your VMware Cloud organization. If you have not linked your AWS account with your organization, see Your AWS Account and the Recovery SDDC.

VMware Live Cyber Recovery supports recovery SDDCs using I3en, I3n, and I4i hosts.

Each recovery SDDC you deploy must have a cloud file system associated with it. For more information, see Deploy a Cloud File System.
Note: VMware Live Cyber Recovery does not currently support stretched clusters for recovery SDDC.

In order to deploy a new SDDC for recovery, you need to authorize VMware Live Cyber Recovery to access VMware Cloud on AWS. For more information, see Authorize VMware Live Cyber Recovery.

Deploying a recovery SDDC will incurr costs if you do not already have a VMware Cloud on AWS subscription. For more information, see Purchasing VMware Live Cyber Recovery Recovery SDDCs.
Note: Both vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) Preview and Stretched clusters are not supported on recovery SDDCs.

Before you deploy a recovery SDDC, make sure you are aware of all caveats and restrictions.

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Procedure

  1. From the left navigation, select Recovery SDDCs.
  2. From the upper-right of the page, click the Add recovery SDDC button.
  3. In the Add recovery SDDC dialog box, select Deploy new SDDC.
  4. Next, under Cloud file system, select a cloud file system to pair with the recovery SDDC. The recovery SDDC will be deployed in the same AWS availability zone as the selected cloud file system.
    Note: If no cloud file systems are available, then you must deploy a cloud file system first.
  5. Click Next, and in the next page of the dialog box, enter the following settings:
    Setting Description
    SDDC Name Enter a name for the recovery SDDC.
    Host-type
    You can select I3, I3en, or I4i hosts.
    • The I3 host type is the default host type. I3 hosts have 36 cores, 512 GiB RAM, and 10.37 TiB raw storage capacity per host. You can deploy two, three, or four hosts of the I3 host type.
    • The I3en host type is optimized for data-intensive workloads. I3en hosts have 96 logical cores, 768 GiB RAM, and 45.84 TiB raw storage capacity per host.
    • The I4i host type provides up to 128 logical cores, 1024 GiB of RAM, and 30 TiB raw storage capacity per host.
    Note: If you want to add a recovery SDDC with I4i hosts, contact VMware support for assistance.

    You can remove hosts from the recovery SDDC if the number of hosts in your SDDC cluster remains above the 2-host minimum. You cannot scale down a 2-host Recovery SDDC. Ensure that you have sufficient capacity in your cluster to hold the workload VMs that are evacuated from the hosts that you remove.

    You must use the VMware Cloud on AWS UI to scale down an SDDC.
    Number of hosts

    You can select two, three, or four hosts.

    Adding a host increases the available storage capacity and costs.

    Management subnet

    Enter a subnet for the management network of the recovery SDDC. This private subnet range (RFC 1918) is used for vCenter Server, NSX Manager, and ESXi hosts.

    • Select a range that does not conflict with other networks that you want to connect to this recovery SDDC.
    • Minimum CIDR sizes: /23 for up to 27 hosts, /20 for up to 251 hosts, /16 for up to 4091 hosts. Reserved CIDRs: 10.0.0.0/15, 172.30.0.0/16. Enter a CIDR block size of either /16 or /20.
    Compute subnet

    Enter a gateway logical network for the recovery SDDC.

    This private subnet range is for the logical network that the workload VMs use. This network supports a maximum of 1000 MAC addresses, so using a /22 range or smaller is recommended.

    The SDDC management subnet you use here cannot overlap with the subnet used by VMware Live Cyber Recovery, which is /26 . If you have configured a policy based VPN on the SDDC, that remote network cannot overlap with the subnet.

    (For more information, see Selecting IP subnets and Connectivity for your SDDC.)

    Only one logical network is created by default. More networks can be created in the VMware Live Cyber Recovery UI after the recovery SDDC is deployed. For more information, see Add a Network to a recovery SDDC
    Compute network name Give the compute subnet a name.
    Proxy subnet

    When you create or add a recovery SDDC, a new /26 subnet is created for VMware Live Cyber Recovery. This subnet is connected to the Compute Gateway and is separate from the management subnet used by the recovery SDDC. You can either connect to the /26 range or you can enter a new subnet.
    If you have a policy based VPN configured on the SDDC, the remote network cannot overlap with the /26 subnet.
  6. Click Next. Under AWS Settings, you see your linked AWS account information.
    If you have more than one AWS account linked to your organization, you can select the account you want to use for this SDDC.
  7. Next, select a subnet for the SDDC. If the availability zone where the recovery SDDC is being deployed has more than one subnet configured, you can select the subnet from the drop-down menu, next to the name of the VPC where the SDDC will be deployed.
  8. When you are ready to deploy the recovery SDDC, enter the phrase DEPLOY SDDC in all uppercase letters in the confirmation field and then click Deploy.

What to do next

Once you deploy a recovery SDDC, follow these guidelines to ensure a consistent SDDC configuration: Maintaining SDDC Settings.