Hi vAdmins and vCloud Architects,
After blogging about Azure VMware Solution, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution and VMware Sovereign Cloud, I would like to zoom in on Google’s VMware solution called Google Cloud VMware Engine.
Besides a VMware platform, Google offers many Cloud Native services primarily focused on analytics.
Depending on the type of workload, it may be interesting to investigate whether the Google Cloud VMware Engine fits your business case. In this post we will zoom in on the technology and capabilities of the Google VMware Engine.
The image below is one example of a typical Multi Cloud setup where Google Cloud (native) services are purchased for Analytics. This is just an example and the solution should always align with the requirements and characteristics of the workloads.
Being ‘Cloud Smart’ Interoperability across clouds, apps, services
This setup aligns with the with the VMware Cloud-Smart approach. For more information, see also my post from Cloud Chaos to Cloud Smart.
Cloud -Smart means doing the due diligence of evaluating your governance and security requirements first, and then identify which workloads should be moved to public, private or hybrid cloud.
What is Google Cloud VMware Engine?
Google Cloud VMware Engine brings VMware’s, Enterprise class, Software-Defined Data Center stack (vSphere, vSAN, NSX and HCX) to the Google Cloud Platform.
Google Cloud VMware Engine enables customers to accelerate their cloud migration simply, quickly, with low risk and compelling TCO.
It enables customers to run production applications across VMware-based private, public and hybrid cloud environments, with optimized access to other Google native services.
Google Cloud VMware Engine is sold by Google and also by VMware and VMware partners as part of the VMware Cloud Universal program. It is operated and supported by Google.
In other words, this is a Google native service, like any any other Google native service. You’ll find Google Cloud VMware Engine right alongside other Google native services within the Google Cloud Platform console.
This service is available on-demand (which is hourly or monthly) or most economically via a 1yr or 3yr reserved Instance, providing customers with flexible consumption.
Just like any other Google native service, consumption of Google Cloud VMware Engine burns down against a customer’s “overall” Google commitment.
Google Cloud VMware Global Availablility?
Currently, this service are already available in 17 regions.
This number will grow fast as new zones are already on the roadmap.
Cities for the above regions are: Ashburn, N. Virginia Council Bluffs, Iowa Eemshaven and The Netherlands.
Google Cloud VMware Engine top Use Cases:
VDI: CX (100Gbs), Scalable User Storage.
DR: 3rd party storage as datastores and compatible with Zero, Actifio, VMware Site Recovery Manage.
Application Modernization: Leader AI/ML insights, Leader in Cloud Native, Leader in Open Source.
Data Center Extension: Largest Private Netwerk and Global Availability.
Google Cloud VMware Engine features
This service is based on VMware vSphere technology and therefore all the features that vadmins use On-Premises are also available in the Cloud service including:
vMotion
vSphere HA
DRS
Content library
vSphere Fault Tolerance
vSphere Replication
Private Cloud VMware components
At the time of writing, the following products and flavors are offered:
VMware stack components including versions:
| Component | Version | Licensed version |
|---|---|---|
| ESXi | 7.0 Update 2c | vSphere Enterprise Plus |
| vCenter | 7.0 Update 2d | vCenter Standard |
| vSAN | 7.0 Update 2c | Advanced + select vSAN Enterprise features |
| NSX Data Center | 3.1.2 | Select features available. See the NSX Data Center section for details. |
| HCX | 4.5 | Enterprise |
vCenter SSO:
The embedded platform services controller on VCSA is associated with a vCenter Single Sign-On. The domain name is gve.local. To access vCenter, use the default user, CloudOwner@gve.local, which is created for you to access vCenter. You can add your on-premises/Active Directory.
VMware HCX
VMware Engine handles initial installation, configuration, and monitoring of HCX in private clouds. You are responsible for lifecycle management of HCX Cloud and service appliances like HCX-IX Interconnect.
VMware provides updates for HCX Cloud through its HCX service. You can upgrade HCX Manager and deployed HCX service appliances from the HCX Cloud interface.
External Storage
You can expand the storage capacity of a Google Cloud VMware Engine cluster by adding more nodes. Alternatively, you can use external storage if you only want to scale storage. Scaling storage increases the storage capacity without increasing the compute capacity of the cluster, allowing you to scale your resource independently.
See all the External Storage options below on this post.
Google Cloud VMware Engine
VMware Engine currently has one node type (ve1-standard-72):
- CPU: 2x – 2.6 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo), 36 cores, 72 hyperthreaded cores
- Memory: 768 GB
- Data: 19.2 TB NVMe
- Cache: 3.2 TB NVMe
- Includes VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware NSX-T, and VMware HCX
Keep in mind, prices vary by region and contract length. For more and current information, see this site.
Cluster Build, Expansion and Contraction
From the Google Cloud portal you can create a Private Cloud and specify the cluster size.
So let’s create a private Cloud!
Cluster size can be dynamically modified via the Google Cloud VMware Engine console on demand as needed.
•Hosts can be added/removed one at a time or in multiple..
•With a multi-node configuration, cores can be customized per node if licensing requires reduced cores. Options:
•8 Cores (16 vCPUs)
•12 Cores (24 vCPUs)
•16 Cores (32 vCPUs)
•20 Cores (40 vCPUs)
•24 Cores (48 vCPUs)
•28 Cores (56 vCPUs)
•32 Cores (64 vCPUs)36 Cores (72 vCPUs) – Default
Cluster Size
Cluster size can be dynamically modified via the Google Cloud VMware Engine console on demand as needed.
It is possible to assign autoscale polices based on:
CPU performance
Memory Performance
CPU & Memory Performance
Storage Capacity
Support for Single Node:
For pilot testing and proofs of concept with VMware Engine, you can create a private cloud that contains only a single node and cluster in any region where VMware Engine is available. All VMware Engine features are available in a single-node private cloud, but there are specific limitations on VMware stack features due to cluster size.
Single node deployments are perfect for pilots and POCs, however, they can only be kept for 60 days before being automatically deleted.
You cannot adjust the number of cores per node with a single-node private cloud.
*The Configurable Cool off periode, from 30-300 minutes
Google Cloud VMware Engine Host
Each Google Cloud VMware Engine leverages internal NVME disk to provide storage for VM workloads with vSAN.
Overview:
2 x 1.6TB NVME disk are used for caching tier
6 x 3.2TB Hosts are used for the capacity tier
Capacity tier provides 19.2 TB of raw capacity per host
Storage policy overhead will determine the actual capacity
Dedupe and Compression are enabled by default
External Storage Options
The Google Cloud console offers multiple external storage options to meet any application’s needs. IP-based storage options such as NFS mount points, NFS datastores, or Object-storage buckets can be provisioned and presented through the VPC network peering connection to a private cloud.
| Storage | Type | Protocol | Usable by Workload VMs | Usable as vSphere Datastore |
| Google Filestore | File | NFS | Yes | Yes |
| Google Cloud Storage | Object | REST (JSON/XML) | Yes | No |
| NetApp Cloud Volumes | File | NFS/SMB | Yes | Yes |
| Dell PowerScale | File | NFS/SMB/HDFS | Yes | No |
Network
Google Cloud VMware Engine includes NSX-T 3 for the management of SDN in the cloud.
According to a Forrester Wave report, Google scored the highest for its strategy among cloud providers for native security. Google brings you end-to-end security with custom-built layers – from infrastructure to endpoints – derived from our own experience of protecting the billions of customers that use our services.
Our privately-managed network infrastructure – one of the largest in the industry – ensures your information and applications are the least exposed to the public internet and its inherent risks. And on top of that we offer VPC Service Controls that allow you to further define your own security perimeters around your GCP resources.
Only Google Cloud offers Cloud Data Loss Prevention as an API that can be used in applications, which scans and redacts sensitive data before it is sent to the cloud. Through the Cloud DLP UI , users can easily automate data protection schedules with features such as inspection templates, inspection jobs, and job triggers. For example, users can easily select the types of data to be redacted – from Social Security Numbers to phone numbers – from a drop-down menu, rather than having to type a line of code.
Lastly, only Google offers encryption at rest by default.
Google Cloud VMware Engine Connectivity options
Google Cloud VMware Engine supports a few key options for connecting from on premises to the cloud to support different customer use cases.
Overview:
Cloud Interconnect
•Dedicated connection for fast and reliable hybrid connectivity in to Google Cloud VMware Engine
•Required for HCX
Partner Interconnect
Cloud VPN
•Google’s L3 VPN service
•Establish a connection of the Internet with your existing GCP Org’s Cloud VPN service
•Lower cost option for use cases that do not require high bandwidth
Layer 2 VPN
•Good option for temporary L2 connectivity in migration uses cases
•Enables workloads to maintain IP addresses post migration
•Leverage Cloud/Partner Interconnect for reliable connectivity
•Can leverage NSX-T Standalone Edge or HCX L2 Extension
•HCX L2 Extension also allows the live migration of workloads to the cloud with HCX vMotion
Point to Site VPN
•Useful for initial setup of Google Cloud VMware Engine environment by cloud administrators
Google Cloud VMware Engine to Google Cloud VMware Engine Connectivity
Google Cloud VMware Engine to Google Cloud VMware Engine
Connectivity (Between Regions)
On-Premises to Google Cloud VMware Engine Connectivity
This is the end of this post. In a new post I will cover network configuration and start introducing workload migration
In a new post, I will cover some Google native Cloud features but also the migration pat (VMware HCS).
See also my previous post VMware HCX: Migrate your Workload to the Cloud (and back) part 1.
End of this post.
Disclaimer: This blog is based on my personal title and assumptions. No rights can be derived from this blog.