What’s New in VMware HCX 4.10 (VCF 5.2)

Introduction

VMware HCX 4.10 introduces significant enhancements designed to improve migration performance, security, and operational efficiency. This article explores the latest features and their benefits for your IT infrastructure.

• HCX Migration Performance Enhancements

Now the product supports up to 1,000 concurrent migrations (previously 600). This update enhances the overall performance and scalability of migrations, ensuring quicker and more efficient transfers.

For example, previously if we're migrating 1,000 VMs using Replication Assistant vMotion (RAV) it will take around ~2h. Now with the ability to handle up to 1,000 transfer-in-progress within 40 minutes, the process is significantly faster, taking approximately 2.4 seconds per VM if done serially.

A lot of enhancements were done, especially within API.

• HCX-Assisted vMotion

Orchestrated VMware vMotion provides seamless cross-vCenter migrations with line rate migration capabilities. HCX 4.10 includes HCX-Assisted vMotion, which orchestrates VMware’s powerful vMotion for cross-vCenter migrations. This feature supports host or host + datastore migrations, vGPU workloads, and encrypted virtual machines. It leverages high-speed network connections (25/40/100GbE) with vSphere 7.0U2+ for optimal performance.

• HCX Traffic Engineering - Configurable Transport Encryption

Configurable Transport Encryption prioritizes security over public networks while optimizing performance over private networks. This feature allows for encrypted transports to ensure security in HCX over public networks by default. For private datacenter networks, unencrypted transports can be optimized for higher performance, achieving per-flow improvements up to 3 Gbps and appliance speeds up to 7-8 Gbps.

• OS Assisted Migration - Simplified Architecture

Consolidated simplified OSAM Architecture reduces footprint and simplifies the migration data path.

Previously, for migration from KVM you need to deploy vSphere, deploy HCX, virtual appliances (up to 4) that create the bridge between source and destination sites. Now the requirement to deploy vSphere is removed and the new OSAM architecture consolidates multiple appliances into a single virtual appliance, significantly reducing the overall footprint and simplifying the migration process. This architecture eliminates the need for a source vSphere in OSAM for cloud migrations and reduces the complexity of datacenter OSAM with fewer manager components.

Conclusion

VMware HCX 4.10 brings substantial improvements in migration capabilities, security, and operational efficiency. These enhancements help organizations optimize their IT infrastructure, ensuring smooth and efficient migrations while maintaining high security and performance standards.