Creating a VMware Engine stretched private cloud

A Google Cloud VMware Engine stretched private cloud is a private cloud that is stretched across two data zones and a witness zone, all within the same Google Cloud region. Stretched private clouds provide compute, storage and network infrastructure that is fault tolerant to zone level failures in a given region.

Stretched private clouds use vSphere and vSAN stretched clusters to provide compute and storage high availability against zone-level failures. All clusters of a stretched private cloud are considered VMware Engine stretched clusters, including the primary cluster.

Note: Once a stretched private cloud is created, it cannot be converted back to a standard private cloud. Additionally, you cannot convert an existing private cloud to a stretched private cloud.

Before you begin

The steps in this document assume that you first do the following:

• Allocate a unique IP address range for vSphere or vSAN subnets of the private cloud you want to create.
  • Minimum CIDR range prefix: /24
  • Maximum CIDR range prefix: /20
• If you want global address resolution using Cloud DNS, then enable the Cloud DNS API and complete Cloud DNS setup before you create your private cloud.

The vSphere or vSAN subnet address space must not overlap with any network that will communicate with the private cloud, such as on-premises networks and Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks. For more information about vSphere or vSAN subnets, see VLANs and subnets on VMware Engine.

Create a stretched private cloud

1. Access the Google Cloud VMware Engine portal.
2. On the Resources page, click Create Private Cloud.
3. Select Stretched private cloud.
4. Select a primary location and secondary zone for your stretched private cloud.
5. Select the number of nodes for the stretched private cloud. Create your stretched private cloud with a minimum of 3 nodes per zone.
6. Optional: Click the Customize Cores toggle if you want to reduce the number of available cores for each node in the management cluster. For details, see Custom core counts.
7. Enter a CIDR range for the VMware management network. For information about restrictions on this range, see the Before you begin section.
8. Select Review and Create.
9. Review the settings. To change any settings, click Back.
10. Click Create to begin provisioning the stretched private cloud.

As VMware Engine creates your new stretched private cloud, it deploys a number of VMware components and divides the provided IP address range into subnets. Stretched private cloud creation can take 30 minutes to 2 hours. After the provisioning is complete, you receive an email.

What's next

• Get sign-in credentials for management appliances
• Manage your stretched private cloud resources and activity