Creating an SDDC

Create a multi host SDDC with 3 to 64 ESXi hosts or a single-host SDDC on supported Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) bare metal Compute instances by using the VMware Solution service.

There are two types of SDDC configuration available: a multi host SDDC, and a single-host SDDC used for testing and short-term development. For more information about SDDC types, see SDDCs.

Before You Begin:

You need an existing VCN with an IP address CIDR of /24 or larger available for running the cluster. The following list shows the allowed CIDR sizes and the number of nodes you can create in each:
- CIDR block size /24, segment size /28, number of nodes in cluster 3-12.
- CIDR block size /23, segment size /27, number of nodes in cluster 3-28.
- CIDR block size /22, segment size /26, number of nodes in cluster 3-60.
- CIDR block size /21, segment size /25, number of nodes in cluster 3-64.
Note

If you're adding several clusters, be sure to plan the required CIDR blocks for each that fit your needs.
We recommend that you set up connectivity between the VCN and the on-premises network before provisioning an SDDC. See Access to Your On-Premises Network.
You can quickly create a VCN for an SDDC and set up an IPSec connection between an on-premises network and the VCN by using the Site-to-Site VPN workflow. To learn how, see Site-to-Site VPN Quickstart.
The Create SDDC workflow can automatically create and configure the SDDC's networking resources for you. Or, you can use existing networking resources that you created manually before you create the SDDC. SDDC provisioning requires the following resources:
- A provisioning subnet with a route table. For instructions about how to create these manually,see Overview of VCNs and Subnets.
- Security rules for the provisioning subnet as detailed in SDDC Security Rules.
- For a list of required VLANs and instructions about how to create them, see Creating VLANs for an SDDC.
Note

If you're adding many clusters, be sure to plan for several subnets and VLANs dedicated to each cluster.

1. Open the navigation menu , select Hybrid, and then select VMware Solution.
2. Click Create SDDC.
3. Provide basic information for the SDDC:
  
  SDDC name: Enter a descriptive name for the SDDC. This name must be unique among all SDDCs in the creating, active, or updating state across all compartments in the region. The name must be from 1 to 22 characters long and must start with a letter. It can contain only alphanumeric characters and hyphens (-), and hyphens can't be next to each other. The name is not case-sensitive. For example, "test" and "Test" are treated as the same name. Avoid entering confidential information.
  
  SDDC compartment: Select the compartment in which to create the SDDC. All ESXi hosts for this SDDC are placed in this compartment.
  
  VMware software version: Select the version of VMware software to install on the ESXi hosts. Although the VMware software bundle includes vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and vCenter components, the version you specify here is the version of vSphere. Compatible versions of the other components are installed with the version of vSphere that you select. For details about the vSAN, NSX, or vCenter component versions installed, see About the VMware Software. You can change this software version after provisioning.
  
  HCX: To use HCX, you must enable it during SDDC creation. You can't install this plugin later. HCX Advanced and HCX Enterprise is free for standard shapes. You're charged if you use HCX Enterprise licenses with dense shapes.
  
  Select the Enable HCX checkbox to have the workflow install the HCX Manager plugin and integrate it with vCenter in the SDDC.
  
  Select the HCX License Type to install. For more detail, see HCX License Types. You can change the license type after provisioning if you're using dense shapes.
  
  SSH key: Provide the public key part of the SSH key. This key is required for remote connections to the ESXi hosts.
  
  Show advanced options: (Optional) Click this link to apply tags to the SDDC. If you have permissions to create a resource, then you also have permissions to apply free-form tags to that resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permissions to use the tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource Tags. If you're not sure whether to apply tags, skip this option or ask an administrator. You can apply tags later. Any tags that you specify are applied to all the resources in the SDDC.
4. Click Next to advance to the Define Clusters page.
5. Click Define management cluster, and provide information for the cluster:
  
  Cluster name: Enter a descriptive name for the cluster. A maximum of 22 characters are allowed. Avoid entering confidential information.
  
  Availability domain: Select the Availability domain in which to create the SDDC. You can deploy dense shape ESXi hosts across many availability domains. Standard shape ESXi hosts can be deployed only in a single Availability domain. To ensure high availability, ESXi hosts in the SDDC are distributed across the fault domains in the Availability domain. The management subnet and VLANs for this SDDC must be in this same Availability domain.
  
  ESXi hosts: Provide configuration information:
  
  Host type: A multi host SDDC can have from 3 to 64 hosts. A single-host SDDC can have only one host, and has more limited functionality. See SDDCs for a detailed feature description.
  
  Number of ESXi hosts: Enter the initial number of ESXi hosts to create in a multi host SDDC. Specify at least 3 hosts and at most 64 hosts.
  
  Prefix for ESXi hosts: (Optional) Enter a prefix to use for the names of the ESXi hosts to help identify them. It must be from 1 to 16 characters long, must start with a letter, and can contain only alphanumeric characters and hyphens (-). Avoid entering confidential information.
  Important
  
  ESXi host names can have a maximum of 22 characters including the prefix. Host FQDNs can have a maximum of 64 characters total.
  
  Capacity type: On-demand capacity provisions the compute capacity when the host is created. Capacity reservation uses capacity that's counted against a reservation. Choose a compartment and the name of a reservation. For more information, see Capacity Reservations.
  Note
  
  Capacity reservation isn't supported for an SDDC that uses many availability domains.
  
  SDDC hardware type: Select a shape to use for ESXi hosts in the SDDC. A shape is a template that decides the number of CPUs, amount of memory, and other resources allocated to a newly created instance. Some shapes let you select the number of cores. Standard shapes require block volume storage. A management datastore is automatically created for you. If you want more storage, you can create it later in this workflow. For more information, see Supported Shapes.
  
  Enable shielded instance: Select this checkbox to enable shielded instances for all ESXi hosts created in the SDDC. You can enable this option only when you create the SDDC. You can't enable this option later, or only for specific ESXi hosts.
  
  Pricing interval commitment: Select the pricing interval to apply to the ESXi hosts. For more information about available pricing intervals, see Billing Options. Select an option, and then select Pricing interval must be confirmed to continue.
6. Click Next to advance to the cluster's Networking page.
7. Select a VCN for the cluster. The VCN can be in a different compartment than the cluster and its ESXi hosts.
  If you enabled HCX, the selected VCN must have a NAT gateway attached to it.
  
  If a NAT gateway already exists for the VCN, the name, compartment, and public IP address information is displayed.
  
  If no NAT gateway is attached to the selected VCN, the workflow creates one for you. Enter a name and select a compartment for the NAT gateway.
8. To have the workflow create the network resources for this cluster (recommended), click Create new subnet and VLANs, and then provide the following values. To use existing resources, skip to step .
  
  Click Create new subnet and VLANs.
  
  Enter an available CIDR block in the selected VCN for the cluster management CIDR. The workflow divides this CIDR into equal segments to use for the provisioning subnet and the required VLANs. The workflow creates 1 subnet and 7 VLANs for version 6.x and 1 subnet and 9 VLANs for version 7.x of the VMware software. If you enable HCX, one extra VLAN is created.
  
  (Optional) Click Show network details to view or edit the information for the subnet and VLANs that the workflow creates. Details include the route table and security list for the subnet, and the route table and NSG for each VLAN. To update the information for the subnet or a VLAN, click the Actions menu () on a row, and select Edit subnet or Edit VLAN.
  
  If you have enabled HCX, another route rule is created to allow traffic from the vSphere VLAN to the NAT gateway.
9. To use existing network resources for this cluster, click Select existing subnet and VLANs, and then provide the following values:
  
  Select the compartment and provisioning subnet for the cluster management network. You can't change the subnet after provisioning.
  
  The CIDR value shown is the private address space for the chosen subnet.
  
  Select the compartment and VLAN for each function of the management network.
  
  The VLAN gateway CIDRs shown are the CIDR blocks from which to derive IP addresses for each VLAN's layer 3 traffic. These CIDR blocks also provide the private IP addresses that Oracle uses as attachment objects for public IP addresses when ESXi hosts require internet access.
  
  NSX Edge Uplink 1: Uplink used for communication between the VMware SDDC and OCI.
  
  NSX Edge Uplink 2: Reserved for future use to deploy public-facing applications on the VMware SDDC.
  
  NSX Edge VTEP: Used for data plane traffic between the ESXi host and NSX Edge.
  
  NSX VTEP: Used for data plane traffic between ESXi hosts.
  
  vMotion: Used for vMotion (VMware migration tool) management and workload.
  
  vSAN: Used for vSAN (VMware storage) data traffic.
  
  vSphere: Used for management of the SDDC components (ESXi, vCenter, NSX-T, and NSX Edge). If you selected the Enable HCX checkbox in step 3, verify that the VLAN selected for vSphere contains a route table rule that allows traffic to the NAT gateway. For more information, see VLANs
  
  HCX: Used for HCX traffic. This VLAN appears only if you selected the Enable HCX checkbox.
  
  Replication Net: Used for the vSphere Replication engine. (VMware version 7.x only)
  
  Provisioning Net: Used for virtual machine cold migration, cloning, and snapshot migration.
10. (Optional) Provide a cluster workload CIDR block for the workflow to create an initial logical segment for the VMs. The value must be /30 or larger and must not overlap with the VCN or the cluster network CIDRs. Note that you can add network segments for the cluster in NSX Manager after the SDDC is provisioned.
11. Click Next to advance to the Datastores page.
  The workflow automatically creates a management datastore with 8 TB capacity and VPUs/GB 10 (Balanced). If you want more storage for the cluster, you can create more block volumes here.
  
  Click Create block volume.
  
  Enter the required information for the block volume. For information about block volume configuration, see Creating a Block Volume.
  
  Click Submit.
12. Click Next.
13. (Optional) Enable monitoring and provide information about alarms and notifications. For more information, see Configuring Notifications.
  
  (Optional) Enable instance alarms and provide information about the alarm. To see the Interval and Trigger delay fields, click Show default alarm values.
  
  Alarm name prefix: Each bare metal ESXi host has a separate alarm created for it. Enter a prefix to appear at the beginning of the alarm names for this SDDC.
  
  Alarm severity: Select a severity for the alarm: Info, Warning, Error, or Critical. All nonzero health issues for a bare metal instance triggers an alarm with the selected severity.
  
  Interval: Select the interval at which the metric is emitted. The default is 1 minute.
  
  Trigger delay: Select the number of minutes that the condition must be maintained before the alarm is in firing state. The default is 1 minute.
  
  Select an existing notification topic, or create a new one. If you select Create new, enter the following information:
  
  Topic name: Enter a friendly name for the notification topic.
  
  Subscription protocol: Select the protocol that you want to use to receive notifications. The default is email.
  
  Email address: Enter the email address or address list that you want to send notifications to.
  
  URL: If you select the Pager Duty protocol, enter a URL to send notifications to.
  
  Notification compartment: Select a compartment for the notification.
  
  Select events that you want to receive notifications for. By default, all available notifications are selected.
  
  To deselect a notification event, click the X on the notification.
  
  To reselect a notification event, click the selection field and select the notification from the list.
14. Click Next to review the cluster configuration summary.
  
  If you need to make changes, click Edit to return to a page, and update the settings.
15. When you're satisfied with the summary information, click Complete cluster definition.
16. Click Add a workload cluster to create more clusters in the SDDC.
  
  Tip
  
  As you create workload cluster configurations, they appear in a list. You can view each cluster's configuration by clicking the expand icon on the left side. To delete the configuration, click the X on it's right side.
17. Click Review SDDC.
18. In the Review and create page, review the configuration for the SDDC. Click Edit to change configuration details.
19. Click Create SDDC.
  
  The page shows the provisioning status of each resource.
  
  When provisioning is complete, the SDDC's details page includes a username and an initial password that lets you access the vCenter management utility for the SDDC.
  
  Note
  
  The password value displayed in the Console isn't updated after you change it.
20. (Optional) You can check the status of provisioning by viewing its work request item from the SDDC's details page, under Resources
Provisioning takes about two and a half hours to complete.

If errors occur, you can click Retry Provisioning. Clicking Cancel Provisioning cancels the provisioning process and deletes all resources created for the SDDC.
Important

An SDDC or ESXi host which has failed provisioning doesn't get billed until provisioning succeeds.
Use the sddc-create command and required parameters to create an SDDC.
```
oci ocvs sddc create --compartment-id compartment_id --hcx-mode DISABLED, ADVANCED, or ENTERPRISE
 --initial-configuration  configuration_OCID --ssh-authorized-keys ssh_file --vmware-software-version version_number ...[OPTIONS]
```
For a complete list of flags and variable options for CLI commands, see the CLI Command Reference.

Important

An SDDC or ESXi host which has failed provisioning doesn't get billed until provisioning succeeds.
Run the CreateSddc operation to create a new SDDC and ESXi hosts.

Important

An SDDC or ESXi host which has failed provisioning doesn't get billed until provisioning succeeds.

Next Steps

After provisioning your SDDC, you might want to perform some of the following tasks:

Configure network connectivity between the SDDC and resources in your on-premises network, the Oracle Services Network, the internet through a NAT gateway, or other resources in the VCN. For information and instructions, see Configuring SDDC Network Connectivity.
Modify resources or properties of your SDDC. For example, add ESXi hosts. See SDDCs.
Create VMs in your SDDC or perform other VMware tasks. To do so, you can log into vCenter by using the vSphere Client link from the details page of the SDDC.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Creating an SDDC

Next Steps 🔗

Next Steps