Hands-On Lab: Deploying Azure VMware Solution in 3 Easy Steps – VMware Cloud Community

Want to make the most of your existing investment in VMware skills and tools on your journey to cloud? See how easy it is to deploy an Azure VMware Solution private cloud, connect to an Azure virtual network and access vCenter.

Every business wants to move to cloud with minimal risk, cost and complexity, right? A simple, secure way to achieve this goal is by extending your on-premises environment – and, with it, all of your existing investments, skills and tools – to a public cloud platform. Azure VMware Solution enables this.

If your organization uses any combination of VMware vSphere, NSX, vSAN or vCenter the good news is that they are all easily and seamlessly  extended to the cloud. Through a joint partnership between Microsoft and VMware,  Azure VMware Solution was introduced. This VMware Cloud Verified solution is a Microsoft managed service built on Azure bare metal infrastructure with access to the same VMware Cloud infrastructure capabilities you are using on-premises today.

With Azure VMware Solution, you can continue to manage your existing environments with the same VMware tools you already know – while you modernize your applications with Azure native services. 

How to deploy an Azure VMware Solution private cloud

The Azure VMware Solution Hands-On Lab shows you how easy it is to get started with an Azure VMware Solution private cloud. The interactive lab walks you through all the steps in the process – 179, to be exact (although it only takes about 15 minutes). These steps can be grouped into three key stages: 

1. Deploy a private cloud

Once you log in to the Azure portal, you can easily locate Azure VMware Solution using the search bar. Then, you follow the steps to create a private cloud – selecting your subscription, location, resource name, passwords and more.

2. Connect the private cloud to an Azure Virtual Network

With your private cloud successfully deployed, it’s time to set up connectivity to an Azure Virtual Network so you can access vCenter, NSX Manager and any other resource that you will create or migrate to private cloud. Once done, you’re ready to deploy a virtual network gateway. This gateway connects to the internal ExpressRoute from the private cloud. 

3. Access vCenter for your Azure VMware Solution private cloud

Now that the virtual machine is built, you will need to identify the vCenter Web Client URL, NSX-T Manager URL, vCenter admin user, and NSX-T Manager admin users and passwords for both. Again, this can be done by following some simple steps outlined in the lab. 

Taking it to the real world

Once you’ve mastered the art of setting up your own Azure VMware Solution private cloud in the lab environment, you’re ready to get started. First, though, you’ll need to open an Azure account and allocate node quota to the subscription. You’ll also need a subscription associated with a Microsoft enterprise agreement. 

More resources

To learn more about Azure VMware Solution, visit the website. Or, to hone your skills, complete the hands-on lab today.