A large logistics company is migrating its on-premises VMware vSphere workloads to VMware … — AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

A large logistics company is migrating its on-premises VMware vSphere workloads to VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS. The migration scope includes $10$ transactional database virtual machines (VMs) totaling $4\text{ TB}$ of storage and $50$ application VMs totaling $12\text{ TB}$ of storage. The database VMs have a maximum allowable downtime of $1$ minute during migration cutover, while the application VMs can tolerate a reboot of up to $15$ minutes. The enterprise has an existing $2\text{ Gbps}$ AWS Direct Connect connection (with $1\text{ Gbps}$ available capacity) linked to a multi-account AWS environment. The workloads must retain their original on-premises IP addresses to prevent application reconfiguration. In addition, the migrated VMs must resolve private DNS records hosted in a Route 53 Private Hosted Zone (PHZ) in the Shared Services VPC. Which combination of VMware HCX migration types and DNS configurations will satisfy these requirements?

A
Deploy VMware HCX and configure an HCX L2 Network Extension. Migrate all database and application VMs using HCX Bulk Migration to minimize the overall replication window. Associate the Route 53 Private Hosted Zone directly with the VMC SDDC network.
Deploy VMware HCX and configure an HCX L2 Network Extension. Migrate the database VMs using HCX Replication-Assisted vMotion (RAV) and the application VMs using HCX Bulk Migration. Configure the SDDC DNS service to forward DNS requests to a Route 53 Inbound Resolver endpoint in the Shared Services VPC.Answer
C
Deploy VMware HCX and configure an HCX L2 Network Extension. Migrate the database VMs using HCX Replication-Assisted vMotion (RAV) and the application VMs using HCX Bulk Migration. Associate the Route 53 Private Hosted Zone with the AWS Direct Connect Gateway (DXGW) to allow DNS resolution across the hybrid connection.
D
Deploy VMware HCX without L2 Network Extension. Migrate the database VMs using HCX Cold Migration and the application VMs using HCX RAV. Configure the Transit Gateway (TGW) to route DNS traffic transitively through a Direct Connect Gateway to the on-premises DNS servers.

Answer

Deploy VMware HCX and configure an HCX L2 Network Extension. Migrate the database VMs using HCX Replication-Assisted vMotion (RAV) and the application VMs using HCX Bulk Migration. Configure the SDDC DNS service to forward DNS requests to a Route 53 Inbound Resolver endpoint in the Shared Services VPC.

The correct configuration utilizes VMware HCX Replication-Assisted vMotion (RAV) for the database VMs to achieve live migration with sub-minute downtime, and HCX Bulk Migration for the application VMs to migrate them in parallel while scheduling their switchover (reboot). To preserve IP addresses, an HCX L2 Network Extension must be configured. Since Route 53 Private Hosted Zones cannot be directly associated with the VMC SDDC network, DNS resolution for internal domains must be handled by configuring the VMC SDDC DNS forwarder to point to Route 53 Inbound Resolver endpoints in the associated Shared Services VPC, which is reachable over the Transit Connect attachment through the Transit Gateway.

Step-by-Step Solution

Evaluate the downtime and IP preservation requirements to select the correct migration methods.

The database VMs require less than 1 minute of downtime, meaning a live migration is necessary. HCX Replication-Assisted vMotion (RAV) fulfills this by using replication and a final live vMotion switchover. The application VMs can tolerate a reboot (up to 15 minutes), making HCX Bulk Migration appropriate. An HCX L2 Network Extension is required to preserve on-premises IP addresses.

This guarantees that the databases remain online during data transfer and switch over with minimal downtime, while application VMs are migrated in bulk without IP changes.

Design DNS resolution for the migrated workloads to access private DNS zones.

Create a Route 53 Inbound Resolver endpoint in the Shared Services VPC. Configure the VMC SDDC DNS forwarder to point to this Inbound Resolver endpoint.

Since Route 53 Private Hosted Zones cannot be directly associated with the VMC SDDC network, VMC workloads must use DNS forwarding to query Route 53 over the Transit Connect attachment.

Key Concept

Selecting appropriate VMware HCX migration types (RAV vs. Bulk) to satisfy strict RTO/RPO limits and configuring DNS forwarding via Route 53 Inbound Resolvers for VMC on AWS workloads.

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