vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) and VMware HCX are a match made in migration-heaven. Use vRNI to discover and lay boundaries around the applications, plan out the migration, and determine the impact of network performance. Then HCX comes in and takes the application boundaries, groups them into migration waves to migrate multiple applications simultaneously, without impact. Customers are using HCX to seamlessly migrate to VMware Cloud on AWS, for example.
While the discovery phase in vRNI and the migration phase in HCX are well defined and documented, the transition of the discovered applications between vRNI and HCX is manual work. Until now.
Introducing the vRealize Network Insight and VMware HCX Integration Fling
With the introduction of this fling, we’re automating the transition between vRNI and HCX. It’s as simple as running a quick PowerShell command to transfer the application constructs in vRNI towards Mobility Groups in HCX.
If you can’t see the video above, click here
This script supports both the Cloud and on-premises version of vRNI and needs HCX R143 or above. It utilizes both products’ public and supported APIs, so there’s no secret handshake required to get this to work. 🙂
Requirements
Before running this integration script, ensure both vRealize Network Insight and HCX have Enterprise licenses. The advanced vRNI application discovery features require the Enterprise license, and this script makes use of HCX Mobility Groups, which is also an Enterprise feature.
You will also need:
- PowerShell version 6.2 or above. PowerShell 7+ is preferred.
- PowervRNI 1.8+ and the PowerCLI HCX module.
- VMware HCX R143 or above.
All the instructions and requirements are located on the Flings page, and the script will call out any missing components (with a solution on how to install the required module). Make sure to check out the Flings page for more information!
Summary
Integrating vRealize Network Insight and VMware HCX makes an application migration a lot more efficient by saving you from manual work (and room for errors) and coupling the planning and migration phase.
Make sure to attend the VMworld session “Build Application Migration Waves for HCX with vRealize Network Insight [HCP1685]” where Mostafa Magdy (HCX Product Management) and myself will be walking through an end-to-end demo with vRNI, HCX, and this integration.
