Azure VMware Solution and Cloud Block Store Implementation Guide: Plan and Deploy

Azure VMware Solution Prerequisites

Prior to initializing an AVS deployment, a couple prerequisite steps must be completed. 

• A support request must be logged in order to have AVS hosts allocated to the region or regions you will be using.  This request process can take up to 5 business days and the process for requesting a host quota depends on the kind of agreement in place.
  • If you are an Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) use this process.
  • If you are a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) use this process.
• You must register your Azure subscription with the AVS resource provider.  This can either be accomplished via the Azure GUI or via the Azure CLI. 
• To register the AVS Resource Provider via the GUI, follow the below screenshots:

Start by navigating to the Subscription you wish to use with AVS.  From the Subscription window in Azure, select Resource Providers, search for microsoft.avs select it and then click on the Register button.

After a few minutes, you should see that the AVS Resource Provider has been registered.

• Alternatively, to register the resource provider via the Azure CLI enter the following command:

az provider register -n Microsoft.AVS --subscription <your subscription ID>  

Azure VMware Solution Deployment

Azure provides instructions on how to deploy your AVS environment.  Those instructions can be found at this link and it should be reviewed for in-depth explanation of the various different components and requirements needed for a successful AVS deployment.  

The steps to deploy AVS via the Azure GUI can be summarized in a few screenshots below.

To start search for Azure VMware Solution within the Azure Marketplace.

When the AVS icon appears, click on the drop-down menu and select create.

The prerequisites for AVS deployment are shown in the first screen of the wizard and are covered in the previous section of this page.  Click on the Next: Prerequisites button to proceed.

 

The next screenshot shows the fields that need to be filled out to deploy AVS.  Fields are broken out individually below the screenshot. 

1. Subscription:  The Azure Subscription that you have identified to use with CBS and AVS.  See the AVS Prerequisites section to confirm the AVS host allocation and AVS resource provider steps have been completed, otherwise the AVS deployment will not be able to proceed.
2. Resource Group:  The Azure Resource Group you want to deploy AVS into.
3. AVS Cluster Name:  The name of the AVS Cluster you want to use.
4. Region:  The Region you want to deploy the AVS cluster into.  Make certain that the region you select has both an AVS host allocation assigned as described in the AVS prerequisites section and also has CBS support as shown in the Regional Support matrix at the start of this article.
5. Size of Hosts:  There are multiple AVS host configurations available with varying amounts of CPU, RAM and local storage at differing price points and regional availability.  Please visit this link for more specifics.
6. Numbers of Hosts:  An initial AVS cluster requires a minimum of 3 AVS hosts.
7. AVS Private CIDR Block:  You must provide a non-overlapping CIDR block with a minimum /22 size that AVS will segregate into normal VMware services (e.g. VMware ESXi Management, vMotion, vSAN, etc..).  This range must not overlap with other networks in Azure and must fall within one of the allowed network blocks:  10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16.

When filled out, click on the Next: Tags button on the bottom of the screen.

In the following window, you may optionally assign Azure tags to your deployment.  When complete, click on the Review and Create button at the bottom of the screen.

Upon your validation and review, click on the Create button to begin the deployment.  Note that a new AVS deployment will take anywhere from 3-5 hours to complete.

When the AVS deployment successfully builds, it is critical to determine what Azure Availability Zone (AZ) AVS was deployed into, so that Cloud Block Store can also be deployed within the same AZ.  Deployment of both products within the same AZ is an important best practice since Azure AZs within a region each have their  separate power, cooling and networking.  As such, deployment of CBS and AVS into the same AZ will minimize network hops between the two solutions.

To determine what AZ AVS was deployed into, first click on the AVS managed object in Azure:

From the AVS Overview screen, the AZ can be found in the highlighted area:

In this example AZ2 = Availability Zone 2.

Make sure to note down what Availability Zone AVS has been deployed into and move on to CBS deployment next.

The steps shown above about AVS deployment can be also be seen via this technical demo video:

Pure Cloud Block Store on Azure Implementation Guide

The Pure Cloud Block Store Implementation Guide for Azure includes all of the required steps and components needed for a successful deployment.  Please review and follow this guide in order to get CBS online and available.

In the below CBS deployment screenshot, we select the same Availability Zone (2) as AVS in the example shown in the previous section.

With both AVS and CBS successfully deployed, we can now move on to the phase next of the deployment which is configuring and connecting the two solutions.

To view an example end-to-end deployment of Cloud Block Store on Azure for use with AVS, please check out the following technical demo video: