[VMware Cloud on AWS] Increasing the SDDC size to Large - Improvements to support larger customer deployment

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

VMware supports large Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) appliances on VMware Cloud on AWS. When deploying SDDC, there is an option to choose the size of the management appliances – Medium (default) or Large. 

Large SDDCs are ideal for addressing a larger density of workloads on the SDDC:

• A key benefit of deploying a large SDDC is that it supports enhanced network throughput on the NSX Edge appliance.

• Large-sized deployments with more than 30 hosts or 3000 VMs, or if the resources (CPU or memory) are oversubscribed in the management cluster.

Resolution

Large Scale SDDC's can be scaled in two ways:

• Runtime - existing SDDC

• New SDDC deployment

vCenter downtime and prechecks :

• There should not be any Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX) or Disaster Recovery (DR) process running while Upscaling the SDDC.

• The Upscaling workflow will make sure that there is no EDRS, Upgrade, or remediation running in the SDDC.

• There should be enough space in the primary cluster to accommodate large appliances.

• Time taken for the Upscaling Workflow is as follows:
  a)vCenter ~15 min
  b)NSX scaling ~25 min
  c)Backup ~30 min depending on the SDDC Size

Steps for Up-Scaling :

1. Deploying a new SDDC of Large Size :

• To deploy a large SDDC, simply select ‘Large’ in the SDDC appliance size drop-down while creating a new SDDC on VMware Cloud, or leverage the same APIs for automated functionality. The remainder of the SDDC creation process is the same.

 

• To check if the deployment engine on the SDDC has successfully provisioned large SDDC management appliances, look into the settings as per the screenshot below.

• For resource planning, medium management appliances require 34 vCPU and 116GB memory to run vCenter, NSX Manager, and other management appliances. Large management appliances require 68 vCPU and 240GB memory.

The VMC Sizer tool can be used to plan the deployment with a large SDDC option.


2.Runtime scaling of the SDDC:

• Go to the Settings Tab of the SDDC and click on the Up size option.

• After clicking on the Upsize you will be directed to the screen below:

NOTE: Once the SDDC is scaled up, it cannot be scaled down. Check the disclaimer box to agree.

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Additional Information

Deploy an SDDC from the VMC console :https://via.vmw.com/EUNs