Continuing with our Azure VMware Solution (AVS) zero to hero video series, this week the next video releases! In this video, Shabaz Darr (@ShabazDarr) and I cover the deployment steps for Azure VMware Solution, taking you from zero closer to hero in the fourth video.
We begin by talking through the steps involved with deploying a software defined datacenter (SDDC). Customers must first register the resource provider before building anything. From there, a customer can build out the private cloud. After the SDDC deploys, the environment needs to be linked to an Azure virtual network. The new method is easier to follow as you link the virtual network up after deployment, which kicks off a series of build automations to privately peer the AVS ExpressRoute to the Azure virtual network.
This deployment simplifies the traditional time taken to deploy, configure, and manage an on-premises vSphere environment. Gone are the days where these deployments would take days, weeks, and even months to procure equipment, build out the hypervisor, build out and configure vCenter, build out and configure vSAN, and build out and configure NSX-T.
At the tail end of the video, I walk through a demo of deploying an AVS SDDC. The deployment itself takes a few hours to complete, so I sped up the process and showcased how simple it is to kick off a build. There’s a lot of Azure automation happening behind the scenes with onboarding each node, installing ESXi, installing vCenter, configuring vCenter, installing vSAN, configuring vSAN, installing NSX-T, and configuring NSX-T.
The demo also showcases how to set up basic connectivity as well, where you link the AVS SDDC management network to an Azure virtual network using the ExpressRoute that deploys with the service. This creates a virtual network peering into Azure, which is how Azure resources can communicate with VMs and workloads in the AVS SDDC. Without completing this step, network communication would not work properly and the environment cannot be accessed.
Tune in next week when we unveil the next video in the series! Feel free to like, share, subscribe to Shabaz’s I Am IT Geek YouTube channel for more content as time unfolds and look for another blog post next week that sets the stage for our next video.
