Up until recently measuring cluster performance inside the VMware Cloud on AWS Service has been a complicated affair. This is primarily due to the distributed nature of vSAN and its ability to scale-out operations. Measuring cluster performance requires several simultaneous workloads to saturate the cluster and measure top end capabilities. HCIBench has been VMware’s go-to tool to streamlining this process. As of the 1.6.8 release HCIBench now supports VMware Cloud on AWS which simplifies the testing process, and empowers self-service verification of performance in the VMware Cloud on AWS Service!
Before we can deploy the OVA and start testing, we will first need to prepare the SDDC Network to allow a VM running inside the Compute Network to communicate with Management Network.
HCIBench Network Configuration
The HCIBench appliance comes preconfigured with two network interfaces.
The VM Network interface is used to communicate with the HCIBench appliance webpage, while the Management Network interface is used to communicate with ESXi and VC. If using a single subnet both adapters can be attached to the same network without issue. Regardless of the number of networks and underlying connectivity, HCIBench must be allowed to traverse the NSX Firewall.
Firewall configuration for HCIBench
Table 1 lists the minimum firewall rules required to run HCIBench inside VMware Cloud on AWS.
Table 1) HCIBench Network ports and traffic flow
| Source | Destination | Protocol | Port | Description |
| HCIBench – Mgmt | ALL | ICMP | Verify connectivity | |
| HCIBench – Mgmt | VC | TCP | 443 | vSphere API |
| HCIBench – Mgmt | ESXi | TCP | 443 | vSphere API |
| Any | HCIBench – VM Network | TCP | 8443 | HCIBench UI |
| Any | HCIBench – VM Network | TCP | 80 | Download Results |
Putting it all together
Begin by ensuring connectivity between the Management and Compute Networks. Once that has been enabled deploy the HCIBench OVA inside your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC.
Once the OVA is finished deploying, Create the relevant firewall rules to allow HCIBench to communicate through the Firewall.
Example using an NSX-V SDDC.
Example Using an NSX-T SDDC.
Finally, Access the HCIBench webpage and complete the configuration. Be sure to specify the VM folder and ResourcePool as well as Datastore. If the validation passes, the configuration is good to go and you’re clear to run your test!
HCIBench has been of enormous use validating on-premises vSAN deployments around the world. With this latest enhancement, we’re delighted to extend this capability into the cloud! I hope this post helps accelerate your own testing and validation of the VMware Cloud on AWS Service.
@glnsize
