| title | description | ms.topic | ms.date | ms.author |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Frequently asked questions |
Provides answers to some of the common questions about Azure VMware Solution. |
conceptual |
09/25/2020 |
dikamath |
Answers for frequently asked questions about Azure VMware Solution.
As enterprises pursue IT modernization strategies to improve business agility, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation, hybrid cloud platforms have emerged as key enablers of customers’ digital transformation. Azure VMware Solution combines VMware’s Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) software with Microsoft Azure global cloud service ecosystem. The Azure VMware Solution is managed to meet performance, availability, security, and compliance requirements.
The service is continuously being added to new regions, so view the latest service availability information for more details.
Can workloads running in an Azure VMware Solution instance consume or integrate with Azure services?
All Azure services will be available to Azure VMware Solution customers. Performance and availability limitations for specific services will need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Yes. The Azure portal is used for deployment and a number of management operations. vCenter and NSX Manager are used to manage vSphere and NSX-T resources.
At launch, Azure VMware Solution won't support a single management experience across on-premises and private cloud environments. Private cloud clusters will be managed with vCenter and NSX Manager local to a private cloud.
Specific integrations and use cases may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Yes. VM migration and vMotion can be used to move VMs to a private cloud if standard cross vCenter vMotion requirements are met.
Since all cloud environments come with VMware HCX, vSphere 5.5 or later in on-premises environments for vMotion.
Updates made to the service itself will follow Microsoft Azure’s standard change management process. Customers are responsible for any workload administration tasks and the associated change management processes.
With the new Azure VMware Solution, Microsoft and VMware have a direct cloud provider partnership. The new solution is entirely designed, built, and supported by Microsoft, and endorsed by VMware. Architecturally, the solutions are consistent, with the VMware technology stack running on an Azure dedicated infrastructure.
Microsoft and Red Hat share an integrated, co-located support team that provides a unified contact point for Red Hat ecosystems running on the Azure platform. Like other Azure platform services that work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Azure VMware Solution falls under the Cloud Access and integrated support umbrella, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is supported for running on top of Azure VMware Solution within Azure.
VMware HCX Enterprise Edition (EE) is available with Azure VMware Solution as a Preview function/service. While VMware HCX EE for Azure VMware Solution is in Preview, it is a free function/service and subject to Preview service terms and conditions. Once the VMware HCX EE service goes GA, you'll get a 30-day notice that billing will switch over. You'll also have the option to switch off/opt-out of the service.
There is only one type of host available.
The servers have dual 18 core 2.3 GHz Intel CPUs.
The servers have 576 GB of RAM.
Each ESXi host has two vSAN diskgroups with a capacity tier of 15.2 TB and a 3.2-TB NVMe cache tier (1.6 TB in each diskgroup).
Each ESXi host is Azure VMware Solution is configured with four 25-Gbps NICs, with two NICs provisioned for ESXi system traffic and two NICs provisioned for workload traffic.
Yes, all vSAN data is encrypted by default using keys stored in Azure Key Vault.
You document that Commvault, Veritas, and Veeam have extended their backup solutions to work with Azure VMware Solution. What about other independent software vendor (ISV) backup solutions?
As far as we know, any backup solution that uses VMware VADP with the HotAdd transport mode should work right out of the box on Azure VMware Solution.
As these backup solutions are installed and managed by customers, they can reach out to the respective ISV for support.
Use the thin_provision storage policy for your VM template. The default is thick_provision.
No, private cloud hosts and clusters are dedicated and securely erased before and after use.
Clusters can scale between 3 and 16 ESXi hosts. Trial clusters are limited to three hosts.
Yes, clusters scale between the minimum and maximum number of ESXi hosts. Trial clusters are limited to three hosts.
Trial clusters are three host clusters used for one month evaluations of Azure VMware Solution private clouds.
No. High-end ESXi hosts are reserved for use in production clusters.
Private clouds use vSphere 6.7, vSAN 6.7, VMware HCX, and version 2.5 of NSX-T.
Yes, NSX-T 2.5 is used for the software defined networking in Azure VMware Solution private clouds.
No. NSX-T is the only supported version of NSX.
No, you aren't required to use NSX on-premises.
The private cloud software bundle upgrades are done to keep the software within one version of the most recent release of the software bundle from VMware. The private cloud software versions may be different than the most recent versions of the individual software components (ESXi, NSX-T, vCenter, vSAN).
The private cloud software is upgraded on a schedule that tracks with the release of the software bundle from VMware. Your private cloud doesn't require downtime for upgrades.
What network IP address planning is required to incorporate private clouds with on-premises environments?
A private network /22 address space is required to deploy an Azure VMware Solution private cloud. This private address space shouldn't overlap with other virtual networks in a subscription, or with on-premises networks.
You can connect to the service in one of two methods:
- With a VM or application gateway deployed on an Azure virtual network that is peered through ExpressRoute to the private cloud.
- Through ExpressRoute Global Reach from your on-premises datacenter to an Azure ExpressRoute circuit.
In the Azure portal, enable internet connectivity for a private cloud. With NSX-T manager, create an NSX-T T1 router and a logical switch. You then use vCenter to deploy a VM on the network segment defined by the logical switch. That VM will have network access to the internet and to Azure services.
No. Network traffic inbound from the internet directly to private clouds isn't allowed.
Yes. You'll need to use NSX-T manager to create a firewall that restricts VM access to the internet.
You're provided credentials for a cloudadmin user in vCenter and admin access on NSX-T Manager. There's also a CloudAdmin group that can be used to incorporate Azure Active Directory. For more information, see Access and Identity Concepts.
No, administrator access to ESXi is restricted to meet the security requirements of the solution.
You'll have CloudAdmin group privileges. For more information, see Access and Identity Concepts.
You'll have full administrator privileges on NSX-T and can manage role-based access control as you would with NSX-T Data Center on-premises. For more information, see Access and Identity Concepts.
Note
A T0 router is created and configured as part of a private cloud deployment. Any modification to that logical router or the NSX-T edge node VMs could affect connectivity to your private cloud.
For general questions on pricing, see the Azure VMware Solution pricing page.
Support for Azure VMware Solution is delivered by Microsoft. You can submit a support request.
You'll need an Azure account in an Azure subscription.
- You'll need an Azure Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft.
- You'll need an Azure account in an Azure subscription.
Before you create your Azure VMware Solution resource, you'll need to submit a support ticket to have your nodes allocated. Once the support team receives your request, it takes up to five business days to confirm your request and allocate your nodes. If you have an existing Azure VMware Solution private cloud and want more nodes allocated, you'll go through the same process.
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In your Azure portal, under Help + Support, create a New support request and provide the following information for the ticket:
- Issue type: Technical
- Subscription: Select your subscription
- Service: All services > Azure VMware Solution
- Resource: General question
- Summary: Need capacity
- Problem type: Capacity Management Issues
- Problem subtype: Customer Request for Additional Host Quota/Capacity
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In the Description of the support ticket, on the Details tab, provide:
- POC or Production
- Region Name
- Number of nodes
- Any other details
[!NOTE] Azure VMware Solution recommends a minimum of three nodes to spin up your private cloud and for redundancy N+1 nodes.
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Select Review + Create to submit the request.
It will take up to five business days for a support representative to confirm your request.
[!IMPORTANT] If you already have an existing Azure VMware Solution, and you are requesting additional nodes, please note that we need five business days to allocate the nodes.
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Before you can provision your nodes, make sure that you register the Microsoft.AVS resource provider in the Azure portal.
az provider register -n Microsoft.AVS --subscription <your subscription ID>For additional ways to register the resource provider, see Azure resource providers and types.