VDI Connectivity to the Cloud
Fri, 09 Dec 2022 13:51:47 -0000
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Introduction
As the cloud operating model becomes more pervasive, solutions such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) are frequently deployed in a hybrid model, allowing them to take advantage of the benefits of both on-prem and public cloud environments for different use cases and user types.
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is a great hybrid cloud platform for managing VMs. It enables a secure and consistent infrastructure for your VMware Horizon deployment. Once set up, the administrative interfaces make management quite simple; however, understanding all the underlying components are key to a successful deployment. To help understand these components, I will guide you through a few key areas that need extra attention when setting up VCF to allow it to be connected to VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services (VMC on AWS). Understanding these points when working with your Dell /VMware professional services teams will ensure a successful deployment.
Figure 1: VCF Overview
VCF Checklist
The checklist shown in Figure 2 goes through everything you need to have in place before you can deploy VCF. This checklist doesn’t do any system validation, so you should ensure these items are in place manually. If there are any misconfigurations, it will lead to the VMware Cloud Builder failing, so it is important to make sure this list is complete before you continue.
Figure 2: VCF Checklist
Once VCF has deployed, you can move on to choosing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) configuration and mapping out the network topology.
VPN
The set-up of VMware NSX will change depending on which VPN you plan on implementing, so it is best to know what direction you plan on going before you start this step. There are three options of VPN to use with VMC on AWS. See the VMware articles on the steps involved with setting up each type of VPN. The detailed configuration steps for each option are shown below, as well as links to VMware resources in relation to the configuration steps for each. I have laid out some basic pros and cons and use cases for each of the options below. However, more research and understanding may be needed to choose the best option for your type of infrastructure.
Route Based: This will use a routing protocol to tell the peer what networks it can reach, and then both the On-Prem and Cloud use that information to configure which traffic should be sent through the VPN.
Use Case: If you need to access multiple subnets or networks at the remote site and a dynamic routing protocol (BGP, OSPF, etc.) running across the VPN.
PROS | CONS |
Can configure VPN tunnel redundancy.
| Requires a routing protocol.
|
More scalable.
| Requires a routed subnet.
|
Policy-Based: Uses policies to dictate how different traffic uses the VPN. If the network changes, the policies will have to be changed as well, or the changes will be ignored.
Use case: Need to access only one subnet or one network at a remote site using VPN.
PROS | CONS |
Remote access VPN can be used. | When local network changes, this must be manually updated.
|
Easier to set-up
| No Tunnel redundancy.
|
Direct-Connect: If a workload requires higher speed and lower latency between cloud and on-prem.
Use Case: If you are prohibited from transferring sensitive data across the public internet or need to run a workload that requires a low latency connection to the cloud.
PROS | CONS |
Low latency
| Higher costs
|
Private connection between on-prem and AWS
|
|
VMware NSX
Depending on what VPN is being set up, the NSX set-up will change. While most of the core components stay the same, there will be minor configuration differences. Have a look at the following VMware documentation to show how things will be configured depending on the VPN set up.
NSX Configuration Policy Based
NSX Configuration Direct Connect
Once the VPN and NSX are set up and working on-prem, you can use these as guidelines to show how the set-up is done on the VMC on AWS side.
- VPN & Hybrid Linked Mode
- Hybrid Cloud Extension
- HCX Interconnect and Network Extension
- Live Migration
- Disaster Recovery
Hopefully, this post has helped you understand the different components needed to get connected to the cloud and how these components fit together.
References:
To get more information on Dell EMC Ready Solutions for VDI, visit our info hub page:
https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/t/solutions/vdi/
VCF with VxRail ordering Guide:
Provides guidance for setting up VDI on Dell Technologies Cloud Platform (DTCP) using VMware Horizon:
https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/section-assets/h18160-vdi-dtcp-horizon-reference-architecture