I don’t post very often but when I do, it’s something I’m enthusiastic about. HCX is definitely one of those things I’ve been super excited about. I’m not going into the technical details today as you need to understand why you would even buy such a software before we talk about how to use it.
So let’s run down the list of reasons why it’s got me so excited!
HCX, the artist formerly known as Hybrid Cloud Extension, is billed as “an application mobility platform.” What the heck is that?
IMO, HCX is a software package that includes a number of odds and ends. It is the collective functionality of those odds and ends that allow your vm’s to physically relocate to any new vSphere platform. ANY new vSphere platform WHEREVER that is! It could be your datacenter on the west coast. It could be your datacenter on the east coast. It could be the VMware Cloud on AWS service. It could be any new VMware service that might ride on top of any of the cloud or hyperscale providers. HCX says to you ” I can move your vm’s anywhere where you have another vSphere cluster.” That is a very underrated statement.
Why?
#1
Lazy vSphere Upgrade
Because it means you can forklift your vm’s off your old 5.5 environment and into your new 6.7 environment. And you could likely do it with zero downtime.
I hear you. You’re lying to us. This is marketing.
Nope. Otherwise, why would I be so enthusiastic?
Ok, I hear you. What’s the gotcha’s?
I will own this one. It makes me reluctant to admit a few things:
- You cannot buy HCX without first buying the highest level of NSX Datacenter licensing. That is the reality today.
- In some scenarios, NSX is required at the destination site.
Ok, so there’s a significant investment required. Work through your psychological SARA(you know, Shock – Anger – Rejection – Acceptance). Let’s move past that.
#2
NSX-V to NSX-T migration.
Yeah, you read that right. If you currently have NSX-V and need to move to NSX-T, this is probably the most painless way to move your workloads.
Again, gotchas:
It can MOVE the workloads, not the NSX policies. You will need to reproduce the policies on the NSX-T destination.
#3
Intel to AMD & back?!
HCX is the only fully automated way to replatform a vm from an Intel instruction set to an AMD instruction and back. I never even knew you could do this! It’s not something I would have even done research on. It’s supported. Not a fling. Not some some engineer’s skunkworks project. How cool is that?
Gotchas:
Reboot required, duh.
#4
Move vm’s from cloud to cloud.
The demo where Pat Gelsinger and Greg Lavender demonstrated on the stage at VMWorld 2019 where they showed moving a vm from VMware Cloud on AWS to Azure VMware Solutions (aka, AWS to Azure). HCX really can do that. It’s a fundamental feature of the software because it uses appliances installed at both locations and then deploys all the services it needs to reach into both environments and abstract the path the vm will take. It’s amazing. Provided you use vSphere as the platform, you don’t have to worry about being locked into one cloud provider. That’s the killer app when negotiating contracts.
#5
Defy the laws of vMotion
You need a minimum of 250Mbps and 150RTT for vMotion to succeed. Standard operating procedure. But when you have two locations far apart, you often cannot afford such network performance. HCX lowers the bandwidth requirements to 100Mbps and no true RTT is required. I’ve actually seen this work with less than 100Mbps.
#6
Stretch your Layer 2 network to a second location.
Yeah, I hear you. NSX can do that. Cisco can do that.
But can you do it with a few clicks and 5 minutes? HCX can. It’s remarkable. I’ve done this again and again and it blows my mind every time. Do you know the power you hold at your fingertips?! It’s nuts.
HCX is so powerful and has many more functions than I’ve listed here but these capabilities alone invite you to explore the possibilities of how you could manage your infrastructure, your cloud resources, your vendors in ways we dream about. 10 years ago, I dare not dream that something so magical could come along and make things this easy.
Now, what are you going to make possible with this functionality?
Get your geek on with the technical details below.
The Product Page:
https://cloud.vmware.com/vmware-hcx
The official VMware documentation on HCX: