Take advantage of these 4 VMware Cloud on AWS features
VMware features, such as Site Recovery, vSphere vMotion, vSAN stretched clusters and Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler, are available on VMware Cloud on AWS.
VMware Cloud on AWS makes a number of common VMware features, such as Site Recovery and vMotion, available on its hybrid cloud platform. This can make the transition to the hybrid cloud service easier, as IT administrators are already comfortable and familiar with these features.
Proper integration of public cloud services -- understanding how to use the services available in the public cloud to get the results that are actually desired -- is a central challenge in the creation of any hybrid cloud. VMware Cloud on AWS makes available familiar VMware features within the AWS cloud environment. By implementing familiar VMware features in the cloud, the service makes it easier to use the AWS public cloud, because admins don't have to master the unique service menu native to AWS.
Four key VMware features stand out in VMware Cloud on AWS: Site Recovery, vSphere vMotion, vSAN stretched clusters and Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler.
Site Recovery
By implementing familiar VMware features in the cloud, the service makes it easier to use the AWS public cloud, because admins don't have to master the unique service menu native to AWS.
VMware Site Recovery uses Site Recovery Manager and vSphere replication to provide a complete disaster recovery service for VMware users in the AWS cloud and reduce the need for a secondary data center to serve as a recovery site.
VMware Site Recovery protects workloads in three ways:
It saves local workloads to VMware Cloud on AWS.
It saves workloads in VMware Cloud on AWS to the local data center.
And it saves workloads in VMware Cloud on AWS to other resources in VMware Cloud on AWS.
VSphere vMotion
Users routinely use vSphere vMotion to migrate workloads across a data center. VMware Cloud on AWS features enable vSphere vMotion to live migrate VMs from a host in a local data center to a host in VMware Cloud on AWS. Users can also enable vMotion between vSphere Distributed Switch deployments, though it might require additional services, software versions and network configurations. Admins can migrate VMs individually or in bulk using a web-based client or command-line interface.
Stretched clusters
Stretched clusters enable VMware users to extend high-availability deployments across geographically separate locations, further enhancing availability for mission-critical workloads. This capability is also available in VMware Cloud on AWS using vSAN's stretched cluster feature, which enables workloads to span two AWS Availability Zones (AZ) and ensures synchronous writes without imposing a significant recovery point objective. If an AZ fails or becomes unavailable, vSphere uses vMotion to restart VMs on the surviving AZ.
Elastic DRS
Finally, VMware Cloud on AWS supports Elastic Distributed Resource Scheduler, which evaluates workload traffic and resource utilization and can scale clusters up or down to maintain workload availability and performance. Users can set minimum and maximum scaling limits to contain AWS costs. The actual scaling tasks can take 10 to 15 minutes, but don't require any manual intervention or adjustment.
