VMware Engine private clouds

A Google Cloud VMware Engine private cloud is an isolated VMware stack that consists of the following VMware components:

  • ESXi hosts
  • vCenter Server
  • vSAN
  • NSX
  • HCX

Private clouds help you address a variety of common needs for network infrastructure:

  • Growth. Add nodes with no new hardware investment when you reach a hardware refresh point for your existing infrastructure.
  • Fast expansion. Create additional capacity immediately when temporary or unplanned capacity needs arise.
  • Increased protection. Get automatic redundancy and availability protection when using a private cloud of three or more nodes.
  • Long-term infrastructure needs. Retire data centers and migrate to a cloud-based solution while remaining compatible with your enterprise operations. This is especially useful if your data centers are at capacity or you want to restructure to lower costs.

Private cloud environment

Private clouds are managed through the VMware Engine portal. They have their own vCenter Server in its own management domain. The stack runs on dedicated, isolated bare metal hardware nodes in Google Cloud locations. You use the stack through native VMware tools, including vCenter Server and NSX Manager.

Private clouds are also designed to eliminate single points of failure:

  • Clusters of ESXi hosts are configured with vSphere High Availability (HA) and sized to have at least one spare node for resilience. vSphere HA protects against node and network failures.
  • vSAN provides redundant primary storage. vSAN requires at least three nodes in a private cloud to provide protection against a single failure. You can configure vSAN to provide higher resilience for larger clusters.

You can connect the private cloud to your on-premises environment using the following connections:

Limits

Each private cloud has resource limits for its nodes and clusters. Refer to VMware in a private cloud for a list of these limits.

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