Public VCF as-a-Service Migration with VCDA - Getting Started
Find out how to prepare the migration of your VMware workloads to your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation using VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA)
Objective
OVHcloud offers a migration feature for the Public VCF as-a-Service product based on VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA). This solution lets VMware customers running an on-premises vSphere or VMware Cloud Director environment migrate their virtual machines to their Public VCF as-a-Service organisation at OVHcloud.
This guide introduces the feature, its architecture and the preparation steps: downloading the VCDA appliance, deploying it locally and running the initial setup.
Once you have completed this guide, refer to Trigger your first VCDA migration to Public VCF as-a-Service to start your first migration.
Requirements
- An active Public VCF as-a-Service organisation.
- The VCDA migration option enabled on the organisation from your . If needed, refer to Enable the VCDA migration option on your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation.
- A source environment running VMware vSphere or VMware Cloud Director on-premises.
- An account on the Broadcom Support portal to download the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.
- Administrator credentials on your source vCenter (SSO user).
Instructions
Understanding the Public VCF as-a-Service migration feature
The Public VCF as-a-Service migration feature is based on VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA), a VMware solution dedicated to replicating and migrating virtual machines between vSphere and Cloud Director environments.
In practice, you deploy a VCDA on-premises appliance in your source infrastructure. This appliance is responsible for:
- establishing a secure channel (tunnel) to the VCDA service hosted by OVHcloud on the Public VCF as-a-Service side;
- replicating the disks of the selected VMs to your organisation;
- performing the cutover (migration) once replication is complete.
Solution architecture
The diagram below shows the data flows between your source site and your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation:
The VCDA on-premises appliance is free and provided by Broadcom. No additional licence is required on the OVHcloud side to use the Public VCF as-a-Service migration feature.
Step 1: Download the VCDA on-premises appliance
Log in to the Broadcom Support portal with your account.
On the Free Downloads page, locate the VMware Cloud Director Availability entry.
Select the latest available version (4.7.x at the time of writing).
Then download the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-premises Appliance (OVA file). Keep this file — you will use it in the next step.
Step 2: Deploy the appliance in your source infrastructure
Once the OVA file is downloaded, deploy it in your source environment.
For detailed instructions on deploying an OVF template on vSphere, refer to the guide Deploying an OVF template.
For the official Broadcom documentation describing the VCDA on-premises appliance installation (prerequisites, deployment options, initial configuration), refer to Deploying the On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance.
During the deployment, pay attention to the following parameters:
- Network: select a network that allows the appliance to reach:
- your source vCenter / VCD (Lookup Service);
- the OVHcloud VCDA service on the Internet (HTTPS / port 443).
- IP configuration: assign a static IP address to the appliance for easier access.
- Root password: set a strong password following security best practices.
Step 3: Connect to the appliance administration portal
Once the appliance is deployed and powered on, access its web interface from a browser:
Log in with the root account and the password defined during deployment.
Step 4: Initialise the appliance
Once logged in, the VMware Cloud Director Availability interface is displayed. In the Getting Started section, click Run the initial setup wizard to start the initialisation wizard.
In the Initial Setup window, fill in the following fields:
Click Apply, then accept the server certificate when prompted.
The initial setup completes automatically. The main dashboard of the appliance is then displayed:
In the System health section, check that the following services have the OK status:
- Lookup Service
- vSphere plugin
- Cloud Service
- Manager Service
If one of the services is in error, check:
- the network connectivity between the appliance and your vCenter;
- the validity of the SSO credentials;
- that the appliance has Internet access on port
443.
Step 5: Pair the appliance with your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation
Pairing means declaring the OVHcloud VCDA cloud service as a remote site of your on-premises appliance. Perform it from the VCDA on-premises UI through a guided wizard.
From the left menu, click Settings. In the remote sites list, click New Cloud Pairing to open the wizard.
Step 5.1: Site Details
Enter the information identifying your site to the cloud provider:
Click Next.
Step 5.2: Lookup Service
Enter the connection details for your source vCenter Lookup Service:
Applying the configuration installs the VMware Cloud Director Availability plugin in your vSphere Client. To be able to use the plugin, the address you enter (FQDN or IP) must match the one you will use to access the vSphere Web Client.
Click Next.
Step 5.3: Cloud Service Details
Enter the connection details for the OVHcloud VCDA service associated with your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation:
You can also enable the following options:
- Allow access from Cloud: allows OVHcloud to modify existing replications and perform migrate/failover operations from the Cloud Director portal;
- Allow log collection from Cloud: allows OVHcloud to collect on-premises appliance logs for support purposes.
Click Next.
Step 5.4: Ready To Complete
Review the pairing summary and click Finish to complete the configuration.
Once paired, the OVHcloud cloud site appears in the remote sites list of your appliance. You can now start your first migration by following the Trigger your first VCDA migration to Public VCF as-a-Service guide.
Go further
- Enable the VCDA migration option on your Public VCF as-a-Service organisation
- Trigger your first VCDA migration to Public VCF as-a-Service
- How to use the Public VCF as-a-Service user interface
- Official VMware Cloud Director Availability documentation
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