Configuring on-premises DNS for management appliance access

You can access management appliances like vCenter Server, NSX Manager, and HCX on a private cloud from on-premises workstations. To do so, you must configure DNS address resolution so that management appliances can be addressed by their hostnames and IP addresses.

Global address resolution using Cloud DNS

VMware Engine lets you use a Cloud DNS zone in your project as a single DNS resolution endpoint for all connected management appliances in a peered Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network. You can do this even if your private clouds are deployed across different regions.

• For standard networks: when configuring address resolution for multiple and single private clouds, you can set up global address resolution using Cloud DNS.

• For legacy networks: when configuring address resolution for multiple private clouds, you can set up global address resolution using Cloud DNS. If you only plan to have a single private cloud, or don't intend to use Cloud DNS, see Address resolution without using Cloud DNS.

By default, you can resolve the management zone from any of your Virtual Private Cloud networks that has Cloud DNS enabled.

• For standard networks: when you create a private cloud that is linked to a standard VMware Engine network, an associated management DNS zone is created and auto-populated with the management appliances entries.

  If this standard VMware Engine network is Virtual Private Cloud peered with a VPC or another VMware Engine network, a management DNS zone binding is automatically created. This ensures resolution of management appliances from your Google Cloud VMs on that network.

  You can also manually create a management DNS zone binding if you don't want to create the Virtual Private Cloud Peering.

• For legacy networks: when a private connection is created between your Virtual Private Cloud network and a legacy VMware Enginenetwork, Google automatically creates DNS peering, ensuring resolution from any of your Google Cloud VMs.

To resolve addresses from an on-premises network using Cloud DNS, do the following:

1. Enable inbound DNS forwarding on the Virtual Private Cloudnetwork
2. Identify the DNS server addresses to use on-premises
3. Create a conditional forwarder on your on-premises DNS server to resolve gve.goog

Address resolution without using Cloud DNS

To resolve addresses without using Cloud DNS, get the IP address of your private cloud's DNS server and configure the DNS:

1. Access the Google Cloud console.
2. From the main navigation, click Private clouds
3. Click the name of the private cloud you want to connect to.
4. On the Summary page for the private cloud, under Private cloud DNS servers, click Copy to copy the private Cloud DNS server IP address.
5. Use one of the following options for the DNS configuration:
   • Create a zone on the DNS server for gve.goog
   • Create a conditional forwarder on your on-premises DNS server to resolve gve.goog

Create a zone on the DNS server for gve.goog

You can set up a zone as a stub zone and point to the DNS servers on the private cloud for name resolution. This section provides information on using a BIND DNS server or a Microsoft Windows DNS server.

Note: In this documentation we use gve.goog as a generic reference for a zone. If you have more than one private cloud, you need to specify the distinct zone that you want. For example, guid.region.gve.goog example: ab123456.australia-southeast1.gve.goog.

Create a zone on a BIND DNS server

The specific file and parameters to configure can vary based on your individual DNS setup.

For example, for the default BIND server configuration, edit the /etc/named.conf file on your DNS server and add the following zone information:

zone "gve.goog"
{
    type stub;
    masters { IP address of DNS servers; };
    file "slaves/FILE_NAME.db";
};

Create a zone on a Microsoft Windows DNS server

1. Right-click the DNS server and select New zone.
2. Select Stub zone and click Next.
3. Select the appropriate option depending on your environment and click Next.
4. Select Forward lookup zone and click Next.
5. Enter the zone name and click Next.
6. Enter the IP addresses of the DNS servers for your private cloud that you obtained from the Google Cloud console.
7. Click Next as needed to complete the setup.

Create a conditional forwarder

A conditional forwarder sends all DNS name resolution requests to the designated server. With this setup, any request to *.gve.goog is forwarded to the DNS servers located on the private cloud. The following sections show how to set up forwarders on different types of DNS servers.

Create a conditional forwarder on a BIND DNS server

The specific file and parameters to configure can vary based on your individual DNS setup.

For example, for the default BIND server configuration, edit the /etc/named.conf file on your DNS server and add the following conditional forwarding information:

zone "gve.goog" {
    type forward;
    forwarders { IP address of DNS servers; };
};

Create a conditional forwarder on a Microsoft Windows DNS server

1. Open the DNS Manager on the DNS server.
2. Right-click Conditional forwarders and select the option to add a conditional forwarder.
3. Enter the DNS domain and the IP address of the DNS servers in the private cloud, then click OK.