Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS) Now Generally Available
Amazon has officially announced the general availability of their latest service, Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS). This new offering from Amazon Web Services (AWS) is designed to facilitate the seamless operation of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environments within the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). By leveraging Amazon EVS, users can deploy fully operational VCF environments swiftly and efficiently, all while running VMware workloads on qualified Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) bare metal instances. Additionally, this service ensures seamless integration with other prominent AWS services such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.
Bridging the Gap Between On-Premises and Cloud
For many enterprises running VMware workloads on-premises, the shift to cloud computing presents opportunities for enhanced scalability, reliability, and access to a plethora of cloud services. However, transitioning these workloads to the cloud often entails substantial modifications to applications and infrastructure configurations. Amazon EVS addresses this challenge by allowing customers to maintain their existing VMware expertise and tools, avoiding the necessity to redesign applications or alter established practices. This means users can streamline the migration process while simultaneously benefiting from AWS’s extensive resources, reliability, and wide array of services.
Running VMware Workloads with Full Control
Amazon EVS grants users the ability to run VMware workloads directly within their Amazon VPC, offering complete control over their environments while residing on AWS infrastructure. This capability allows for the extension of on-premises networks and the migration of workloads without the need to change IP addresses or operational runbooks, thereby reducing both complexity and risk.
Key Capabilities and Features
Amazon EVS boasts a comprehensive suite of features designed to enhance the VMware workload migration and management experience. The service allows for seamless workload migration without necessitating replatforming or changes to hypervisors, meaning customers can preserve their existing infrastructure investments while transitioning to AWS. Through an intuitive, guided workflow accessible via the AWS Management Console, users can efficiently provision and configure their EVS environments, significantly simplifying the migration process to AWS.
One of the standout features of Amazon EVS is the ability to deploy a fully functional VCF environment on AWS within a matter of hours. This streamlined process eliminates many of the manual steps and potential configuration errors that are often encountered during traditional deployments. Furthermore, Amazon EVS optimizes the virtualization stack on AWS. Given that the VCF environment operates within a user’s VPC, users have complete administrative access to the environment and its management appliances. Additionally, there’s the option to integrate third-party solutions, including external storage options like Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP or Pure Cloud Block Store, and backup solutions such as Veeam Backup and Replication.
The service also affords users the flexibility to self-manage or collaborate with AWS Partners to build, manage, and operate their environments, allowing for a tailored approach to meet individual organizational goals.
Setting Up a New VCF Environment
Organizations can expedite their setup process by ensuring all necessary prerequisites are in place before creating a new VCF environment. These prerequisites include maintaining an active AWS account, configuring appropriate AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions, and establishing an Amazon VPC with adequate CIDR space and two Route Server endpoints, each equipped with its own peer. Additionally, customers should have their VMware Cloud Foundation license keys prepared, secure Amazon EC2 capacity reservations specifically for i4i.metal instances, and plan their VLAN subnet information.
To facilitate a smooth deployment process, Amazon has provided a "Getting Started Hub," accessible from the EVS homepage, along with a comprehensive guide in their documentation. By adhering to these preparatory steps, users can sidestep potential setup delays and ensure successful environment creation.
Step-by-Step Setup Process
To initiate the setup of a new VCF environment using Amazon EVS, users need to provide their Site ID, allocated by Broadcom when purchasing VCF licenses, alongside their license keys. It’s crucial to verify sufficient licensing coverage for a minimum of 256 cores, equating to at least four i4i.metal instances, each providing 64 physical cores. This licensing requirement helps maintain optimal performance and ensures the environment meets the necessary infrastructure specifications. By confirming these requirements upfront, users can prevent potential deployment delays and guarantee a smooth setup process.
Once all required details are provided, users will be prompted to specify their host details, which are the underlying Amazon EC2 instances in which the VCF environment will be deployed. Following this, users will need to configure networking and management appliance DNS details. For further information on creating a new VCF environment on Amazon EVS, users are encouraged to consult the detailed documentation provided by AWS.
After the successful creation of the VCF environment, users can review all host and configuration details through the AWS Console.
Additional Insights
Currently, Amazon EVS supports VCF version 5.2.1 and operates on i4i.metal instances. Future releases are expected to expand VCF versions, licensing options, and instance type support, offering even more flexibility for deployments.
Amazon EVS provides flexible storage options. The local instance storage is powered by VMware’s vSAN solution, which pools local disks across multiple ESXi hosts into a single distributed datastore. To scale storage, users can leverage external Network File System (NFS) or iSCSI-based storage solutions, with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP being particularly well-suited for use as an NFS datastore or shared block storage over iSCSI.
Additionally, Amazon EVS simplifies the connection of on-premises environments to AWS. Users can connect from on-premises vSphere environments into Amazon EVS using a Direct Connect connection or a VPN that terminates into a transit gateway. Amazon EVS also manages the underlying connectivity from VLAN subnets into virtual machines.
AWS offers comprehensive support for all AWS services deployed through Amazon EVS, providing direct customer support while collaborating with Broadcom for advanced support needs. Customers are required to maintain AWS Business Support on accounts running the service.
Availability and Pricing
Amazon EVS is now generally available in several AWS Regions, including US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo), with additional regions to be announced soon. Pricing is based on the Amazon EC2 instances and AWS resources utilized, with no minimum fees or upfront commitments.
For further details, interested users can visit the Amazon EVS product page on the AWS website.
By introducing Amazon EVS, AWS continues to demonstrate its commitment to providing innovative solutions that simplify the transition to cloud infrastructure while preserving existing investments and expertise. As organizations increasingly look to the cloud for improved agility and efficiency, services like Amazon EVS will play a pivotal role in enabling seamless and effective migrations.
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