IBM Cloud Global

Effectively managing and maintaining the ability to migrate workloads seamlessly is a large part of sustaining a hybrid cloud infrastructure. In this demonstration, we are going to deploy VMware HCX in our on-premises vSphere environment and set up a site-pairing between our on-premises environment and our IBM Cloud SDDC.

Once we have HCX configured, we will test our connectivity by migrating workloads between our sites. We will also configure an extended network between both sites using HCX. This allows virtual machines to move between sites without the need to change IP addresses.

1. Click Network Extension in the left column.
2. Click Create a Network Extension.
3. Select the Source Network you want to extend, in this case, stretch-01.
4. Click Next.
5. Click into the Gateway IP Address field.
6. Type "192.168.8.1/24"
7. Click on Mobility Optimized Networking.
8. Click Submit.

Notice the status has changed to Extension Complete, migration and creation of workloads on IBM Cloud within the stretch-01 VLAN is now possible.

The Gateway IP Address is the network gateway of the network you chose to extend.

Now that the L2 extension has been completed workloads can be migrated to IBM Cloud on that L2 Extended network and other non-extended networks from your on-premises environment.

1.    Click Migration in the left column.

2. Click Migrate button at the top of the screen.

3. Select from the list App-Production virtual machine.
4. Select from the list SQL-Production virtual machine.
5. Select from the list Web-Production virtual machine.
6. Click the Add button on the top right of the screen.

This adds all the virtual machines you have selected to a migration group. Now, we will be configuring the specific migration details for the group of machines.

1. Click the Compute Container drop-down.
2. Select Workload-Cluster.

This is the IBM Cloud cluster where these virtual machines will be migrated to.

1. Click Select.
2. Click the Destination Folder dropdown.
3. Select VMs Migrated to cloud.

This is the IBM Cloud folder location where the virtual machines will be put into.

1. Click Select.
2. Click the Storage dropdown.
3. Select vSan Datastore.

This is the IBM Cloud datastore where these virtual machines will be migrated to.

1. Click Select.
2. Click the Same format as source dropdown.
3. Select Thin Provision.

This selection tells VMware HCX what disk format to use with the migration of the virtual machines when they land in IBM Cloud.

1. Click the Migration Profile dropdown.
2. Select vMotion.
3. Select Switchover Schedule.

This selection tells VMware HCX to vMotion all the virtual machines in this migration group to IBM Cloud.

1. Click the right arrow (>) next to SQL-Production virtual machine in the list at the bottom of the screen.

Notice that global migration profile details can be changed per virtual machine.

1. Scroll down to view further options.
2. Click on vMotion dropdown.
3. Select Bulk Migration.

The virtual machine migration method for this virtual machine has been changed from vMotion to Bulk Migration.

Bulk migration uses host-based replication to move a virtual machine between HCX data centers.

To reduce the downtime, the source VM remains online during the replication and is bootstrapped on the destination ESX host after replication completes.

1. Click on L2E_stretch-01-73730-877dba0e
2. Select IBM-Cloud-Dallas.
3. Click Select.

Here you have chosen to migrate the virtual machine SQL-Production to the network IBM-Cloud-Dallas network in IBM Cloud. In this example, a new network IP address will be assigned to App-Production on bootup by DHCP in the Dallas IBM Cloud datacenter.

Alternatively, you can customize the network address information for servers with static IP addresses by using the drop-down next to Network Adapter 1

1. Click the right arrow (>) next to Network Adapter 1
2. Scroll down to view options.
3. Click the down arrow next to Network Adapter 1 to condense the information.
4. Click the down arrow next to SQL-Production to condense the information.

The migration details of the virtual machine SQL-Production have been changed to Bulk Migration, allowing the IP address to change as part of migration.

After migration to IBM Cloud:

• The SQL-Production virtual machine will be on a new network and have a new IP address.
• The App-Production and Web-Production virtual machine will be running on the stretched L2 network in the Dallas Cloud data center using the same IP address. In this case, a re-IP address of the VM is not required.

The virtual machine migration method for App-Production and Web-Production virtual machine will be vMotion.

Alternatively, the virtual machine migration method for these virtual machines has been changed from vMotion to Replication-assisted vMotion.

1. Click Validate.

Prior to migration, a validation step occurs, which checks each virtual machine for its readiness for migration. Notifications can be viewed for each virtual machine, and if needed this is when remediation steps can be taken.

1. Click Go.
2. Click on migration group in progress. You can expand the VM details using the right arrow next to App-Production, SQL-Production, and Web-Production

Notice the migration progress is now complete.

1. Click the browser tab HCX-Dal-Datacenter.vmware.local tab.
2. Click App-Production VM. Notice the IP address is still the same on Dallas network on L2E-stretch network.
3. Click Web-Production VM. Notice the IP address is still the same on Dallas network on L2E-stretch network.
4. Click on Network Icon.

You are now IBM-Cloud-Dallas Network. Notice SQL-Production is now on the IBM-Cloud-Dallas network location with a new IP address.

As we have seen from this demonstration, migrating to IBM Cloud using HCX is seamless and incurs no downtime. These attributes make it ideal as part of the broader toolkit for building hybrid cloud infrastructure.