Configure ExpressRoute Global Reach for On-Premises Connectivity

Introduction

In today's interconnected world, seamless connectivity between on-premises networks and cloud environments is crucial for businesses. VMware Cloud on Microsoft Azure (VMware Cloud AVS) provides a powerful platform for running your VMware workloads in the cloud. To ensure a secure and reliable connection between your on-premises network and your VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud, you can use Microsoft Azure's ExpressRoute Global Reach. This article will guide you through the process of configuring ExpressRoute Global Reach for on-premises connectivity to VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud.

What is ExpressRoute Global Reach?

ExpressRoute Global Reach is a feature of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute that allows you to connect your on-premises networks across different regions or continents through the Microsoft Global Network. It enables you to establish private, high-speed connections that bypass the public internet, providing a more secure and reliable connection to your cloud resources.

Prerequisites

Before you begin configuring ExpressRoute Global Reach for your VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. An active Azure subscription with ExpressRoute enabled.
2. An ExpressRoute circuit is configured and connected to your on-premises network.
3. A VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud deployed on Microsoft Azure.
4. Access to the Microsoft Azure portal with the necessary permissions to configure ExpressRoute Global Reach.

Configuring ExpressRoute Global Reach for VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud

Follow these steps to configure ExpressRoute Global Reach for on-premises connectivity to your VMware Cloud AVS Private Cloud:

In the previous article, we successfully connected to the AVS private cloud from the Jump Box hosted on a connected Azure VNet. Now, let's proceed to connect to the vSphere Web Client from our desktop.

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/how-to-connect-azure-vmware-solution-to-an-azure-vnet/

1. Copy the URL from the "Web client URL" field by clicking the "Copy to clipboard" icon at the far right.
2. Open a new tab in the Edge browser by clicking the + icon in the menu bar.
3. Right-click in the address bar of the new tab.
4. Select "Paste and go to https://192.168.92.2" to navigate to the vSphere Web Client.

The vSphere Web Client fails to load. The on-premises data center hosting our desktop has an ExpressRoute connection to Azure. The AVS private cloud is connected to an Azure VNet via an ExpressRoute Gateway. However, the ExpressRoute gateway does not allow routes between these connections to be exchanged. To establish connectivity between the customer-managed ExpressRoute circuit supporting the on-premises connection and the Microsoft-managed ExpressRoute circuit supporting the AVS private cloud, we need to configure an ExpressRoute Global Reach connection.

To set up this connection, we need the circuit ID of the customer-managed ExpressRoute circuit and an authorization key for that circuit. This lab assumes that these details have been provided by a networking team.

• Close the new tab by clicking the x.
• Navigate to "Connectivity" under the "Manage" heading.
• Open the "ExpressRoute Global Reach" tab.
• Click on "+ Add" under the "On-prem cloud connections" heading.
• Paste the circuit ID provided by the networking team into the "If you have a circuit ID, copy/paste below" field.
• Paste the Authorization key provided by the networking team into the "Authorization key" field.
• Click on "Create" to complete the process.
  

Once the ExpressRoute Global Reach connection is provisioned, wait for the "State" to update to "Connected" before proceeding.

• Go to "VMware credentials" under the "Manage" heading.
  
• Copy the URL from the "Web client URL" field by clicking the "Copy to clipboard" icon.
   
• Open a new tab in the Edge browser by clicking the + icon in the menu bar.
• Right-click in the address bar of the new tab.
• Select "Paste and go to https://192.168.92.2" to navigate to the vSphere Web Client.
• Click on "Advanced."
• Click on "Continue to 192.168.92.2 (unsafe)."
  
• Click on "Launch vSphere Client (HTML5)."
  
• Enter the user name "[email protected]" by pasting it from the "VMware credentials" tab.
• Enter the password by pasting it from the "VMware credentials" tab.
• Click on "Login."
  
• Expand the vCenter object.
• Click on "SDDC Datacenter" to view more information.
• Expand the "SDDC Datacenter" object.
• Expand the "Cluster-1" object.
  

ExpressRoute Global Reach has been configured, and we have confirmed connectivity between the on-premises desktop and the AVS vCenter.