Direct Connect is a mechanism to provide data transfer connection between an on-premise location and public cloud services. Starting from the 5.2 release, vRealize Network Insight supports the Direct Connect feature for VMware Cloud (VMC).

Direct Connect support enables you to:

  • identify flows that pass over Direct Connect between on-premise data center and VMware Cloud (VMC) SDDC.
  • run the flow analytics to understand the flow bandwidth and the packet rate.
  • view the detailed path topology between virtual machines that communicate over Direct Connect.
  • view details about Direct Connect and associated events.

Direct Connect data fetch mechanism

vRealize Network Insight fetches Direct Connect information by using the VMware Cloud (VMC) NSX APIs. So you must add the VMware Cloud (VMC) related data sources (vCenter and NSX Manager) to get the Direct Connect information.
Note: You do not have to add an AWS account or any other additional data sources for Direct Connect support.
However, to get the path topology information, you must add colocation routers such as Cisco N9k and Cisco ASR 9k (Generic router).

What data is collected with Direct Connect support

  • Direct Connect related configuration details in the VMware Cloud (VMC) SDDC.
  • Advertised and learnt subnets for Direct Connect at the SDDC level.
  • Configuration information of Direct Connect Interfaces (VIFs) associated with the SDDC.
  • Flows reported by Distributed Firewall (DFW) in VMware Cloud (VMC).
    Note:
    • The NetFlow enablement is not required on the colocation routers.
    • Route based VPN is not supported for Direct Connect. So, even if you have enabled the Use VPN as backup to Direct Connect option, VPN backup fails.
    • The metrics, and the advertised or learnt subnets information is not available at the individual VIF level.

Direct Connect Entities

  • VMware Cloud (VMC) Direct Connect: This is the parent entity for all Direct Connect entities in vRealize Network Insight, which models the configuration information of Direct Connect within the VMware Cloud (VMC) SDDC.
  • Direct Connect Interface: This models the AWS Direct Connect VIF information provided by VMware Cloud (VMC). This entity enables the exchange of advertised and learnt routes between VMware Cloud (VMC) and on-premise data center.