Creating a VMware Engine private cloud

A private cloud is an isolated VMware stack that consists of ESXi hosts, vCenter, vSAN, NSX-T, and HCX. You manage private clouds through the Google Cloud VMware Engine portal. When you create a private cloud, you get a single vSphere cluster and all the management VMs that are created in that cluster.

VMware Engine deploys management components in the network that you select for vSphere/vSAN subnets. The network IP address range is divided into different subnets during the deployment.

Before you begin

The steps in this document assume that you first do the following:

The vSphere/vSAN subnet address space must not overlap with any network that will communicate with the private cloud, such as on-premises networks and Google Cloud VPCs. For more information about vSphere/vSAN subnets, see VLANs and subnets on VMware Engine.

Create a private cloud

  1. Access the Google Cloud VMware Engine portal
  2. On the Resources page, click Create private cloud.
  3. Select the number of nodes for the private cloud. At least three are required.
  4. Enter a CIDR range for the VMware management network. For information about restrictions on this range, see the Before you begin section.
  5. Enter a CIDR range for the HCX deployment network, which is used for deploying HCX components. Make sure that the CIDR range doesn't overlap with any of your on-premises or cloud subnets. The CIDR range must be /27 or higher.
  6. Select Review and Create.
  7. Review the settings. To change any settings, click Back.
  8. Click Create to begin provisioning the private cloud.

Provisioning can take 30 minutes to 2 hours. After the provisioning is complete, you receive an email.

What's next