What makes OCVS different
OCVS runs the full VMware stack on bare metal hosts in your tenancy, and you hold full administrative access to vCenter, NSX and the hosts. That gives you more control than most managed VMware offerings — and more responsibility for patching and upgrades of the VMware layer.
1. Size the SDDC
- Export the inventory (RVTools or vCenter reports): vCPU, RAM, used storage, VM count.
- Pick host shapes (standard or dense; Intel or AMD) and the host count, keeping capacity for N+1 failure.
- vSAN capacity comes with the hosts. For storage-heavy estates, OCI Block Volume datastores can add capacity without extra hosts — check supported configurations.
2. Network design
OCVS deploys into a VCN with a set of dedicated VLANs (vSphere, vMotion, vSAN, NSX edge uplinks, HCX and so on) plus a provisioning subnet. Plan:
| Item | Advice |
|---|---|
| SDDC CIDR | A dedicated block (for example /21) that doesn't overlap on-prem or other VCNs |
| Workload segments (NSX) | Separate CIDRs routed through the NSX edge uplink VLAN |
| On-prem connectivity | FastConnect (VPN only for small pilots) via a DRG |
| OCI services access | Route NSX segments to VCN subnets, a Service Gateway and a NAT gateway as needed |
3. Provision
Create the SDDC from the console or with Terraform (oci_ocvp_sddc resources), choosing the VMware version and enabling HCX (HCX Advanced is typically included; Enterprise features may be licensed separately — check your order).
oci ocvp sddc list --compartment-id $C --query 'data.items[].{name:"display-name", state:"lifecycle-state", version:"vmware-software-version"}' --output table
4. HCX migration
- Deploy the HCX Connector on-premises and pair it with HCX Cloud Manager in OCVS.
- Create network and compute profiles and a service mesh over FastConnect.
- Extend layer-2 networks where VMs must keep their IP addresses.
- Migrate in application waves:
| HCX type | Downtime | Use |
|---|---|---|
| vMotion | None | Few critical VMs, one at a time |
| Bulk migration | One reboot | Most VMs, in parallel |
| Replication Assisted vMotion | None | Large waves with live switchover |
Warning
Extended networks hairpin traffic back on-prem. Once a segment's VMs have moved, unextend it and move the gateway to NSX in OCVS.
5. After the move
- Backups: point your VMware backup product at the new vCenter, or use a supported backup solution for OCVS; test restores.
- Monitoring and patching of ESXi/vCenter/NSX is your job in OCVS — schedule it.
- Modernise from the SDDC: Oracle databases to Base DB or Autonomous, file shares to File Storage, web tiers to OKE.
Checklist
- Host shape and count sized with N+1
- SDDC and workload CIDRs agreed, no overlap
- FastConnect redundant; HCX service mesh healthy
- Waves by application with tested rollback
- Backup, monitoring and VMware lifecycle ownership assigned