Migrate VMs using #HCX #OSAM and #PowerCLI

April 4, 2022 Bilal Ahmed 0

Let’s talk about OSAM So “Operating System Assisted Migration”, can be used when you have Enterprise level HCX licensing. In the HCX Connector you have to download the OS agent which then you install onto the guest operating system: Once you have downloaded it locally, you can then copy it into the guest OS and install it, it then communicates back to the Sentinel Gateway Appliance and is picked up by the HCX Manager as you can see in the above screenshot. Now this is a good time to plug my co-workers’ blog https://www.chrisdooks.com/2022/02/24/automating-the-hcx-osam-sentinel-agent-install-via-sccm/ He discusses how to push the sentinel agent out via SCCM for Windows machines, which is much better than manually copying it across to various Windows […]

HCX and SDWAN with VMC on AWS #HCX #VMConAWS #SDWAN

August 30, 2021 Bilal Ahmed 0

So as of HCX 4.2, it is now supported to have HCX use SD-WANs. The exact requirements are listed here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-HCX/4.2/hcx-user-guide/GUID-8128EB85-4E3F-4E0C-A32C-4F9B15DACC6D.html I managed to catch up with my buddy @gabe_rosas who I the TPM for HCX, as I had a couple of customers that were curious about this new addition. Based on my discussion with him I thought id make a blog post about it! There was a blanket lack of support for HCX VPN in underlay, as it is essentially a VPN and then HCX creates its own VPN tunnels. Now there is support but you must be careful you are on the correct version and meet all the underlay requirements. So, the fact that it is supported brings […]

HCX Mobility Group Migrations using PowerCLI Scripts #HCX @VMwareHCX #PowerCLI #vExpert @saintdle

July 8, 2021 Bilal Ahmed 3

Nothing posted here is supported by VMware 🙂 So when the original scripts were created, HCX Mobility Groups weren’t even a thing! HCX evolves at a rapid rate and I was working with a customer who was using the original scripts but since they were migrating into VMware Cloud on AWS they had access to the Mobility Groups features! The original scripts can be found here. When working on these scripts with my buddy @saintdle we found that the way people had started using them didn’t work as expected for us, we tried William Lam’s script and we received errors: We tried this as well and came across similar issues: Zsoldier’s Tech Blog Also, the customer when trying the scripts […]

HCX Service Mesh Considerations #HCX @VMwareHCX #vExpert

January 20, 2020 Bilal Ahmed 0

So let us have a quick overview of HCX Service Meshes before we continue: Service Meshes can contain all 3 appliances or just an Interconnect appliance or just a Layer 2 Ext appliance, depending on your needs. The WAN Optimiser is optional. Features are always being added to HCX, but these are the key services/appliances. The Interconnect (IX) appliance holds most of the services, I tell people to think of it as a vSphere Replication Manager, as that is one of the main services it holds. HCX uses vSphere Replication for all its replication bits, so the same pros and cons that apply to vSphere Replication apply here as well! How the Mesh is configured and deployed is dependant on […]

HCX Migration PowerCLI Scripts #HCX @VMwareHCX #PowerCLI #vExpert

January 6, 2020 Bilal Ahmed 9

So I have been spending more and more time working with HCX and the web interface for migrations is all well and good….but really when you are wanting to do bulk migrations you are really going to want to script it Now these scripts aren’t totally my own, I have butchered other peoples and amended them for my own use cases. The guys working at Global Migration Center (GMC) helped and they actually used William Lam scripts as a base point and a couple of other PSO engineers I work with added their bits too….so credit where credit is due 🙂 Script 1 Now with the above script, you have to put in: The HCX Enterprise Manager as the source The […]

Emad Younis & Adam Eckerle – The vCenter server and Platform Services Controller Guide to the Galaxy

October 18, 2016 Kim Bottu 0

If you have questions about the deployment of or migration to the VCSA no matter what version, Emad and Adam are probably the guys you want to have a conversation with and the session called ‘The vCenter server and Platform Services Controller Guide to the Galaxy’ should be the first session you should check out at VMworld Barcelona. The right question to ask yourself here is: why would you want to stay with the Windows Server  hosted vCenter server? Because you are used to it and everyone in your department can support it? Because the database administrators know perfectly well how to support Oracle or MSSQL databases but no Postgres? Because the Windows vCenter server historically has supported more features and has […]