VMware HCI is Leaseweb’s hyper-converged Private Cloud, hosted in our top-tier Data Centers, and based on VMware vSphere software, NSX-T virtualized network and vSAN virtualized storage.
This single-tenant cloud product is deployed in private racks, so the rack space, hypervisors, and network switching are only used by your organization.
The entire design of the Private Cloud is built for High Availability and fault tolerance: there is no single point of failure on hypervisors (N+1, dual power, dual network links) or network (switch couples).
Leaseweb provides the physical infrastructure and the VMware licenses on top of which the private cloud is built.
Upon delivery, Leaseweb takes care of the hardware, by monitoring and replacing any damaged components, and the VMware software, by keeping the platform up to date and secure.
The Private Cloud is provided in the shape of a cluster of servers (hypervisors) on which a virtual infrastructure can be deployed by configuring virtual machines and networks:
- The physical capacity of the platform corresponds with the resources of a single server (hypervisor) times N-1, being N the total number of hypervisors in the platform.
- The remaining capacity is available across the whole cluster to absorb the workloads in the event of a hardware failure in one of the servers or system restarts during maintenance tasks.
Additional services, such as Private Network, Backup as a service, disaster recovery and Microsoft licensing, can be offered under request to complete your Data Center virtualization solution.
We can also offer hybrid scenarios between its multi-tenant VMware vCloud platform and this Private Cloud solution or towards one of the big Hyperscalers AWS, GCP and Azure using our Leaseweb Cloud Connect product. Each solution has its own competitive advantages – ask us to get the right solution for your needs.
Compute resources
We provide the hypervisors in N+1 configuration according to your computing needs:
- At least four hypervisors (3+1) are required to safely run production workloads. That ensures the availability and durability of the vSAN data in the event of a server failure or during maintenance tasks.
- The available resources for your workloads are times the resources per server model, excluding one of the servers (hypervisors), minus the VMware software overhead, which varies depending on its configuration, such as vSAN data reduction.
Hypervisor technology is all based on enterprise-leading market brands, powered by Intel or AMD processors at your choice.
On your request, the Private Cloud can be scaled up and/or down by introducing additional servers of the same model as the existing ones increasing, at a time, the compute and storage capacity of your Private Cloud.
Storage
VMware HCI provides NVMe-based vSAN storage out of the box, making use of drives installed in the same hypervisors where the compute capacity comes from.
Upon request on creation, additional NAS/SAN storage can be connected to your platform from the Leaseweb redundant and high-performing storage pools.
This secondary storage can be ordered per GB and requires a minimum size of 500GB.
Backup as a Service
We have Backup as a Service, powered by Veeam Technologies. This solution gives you the option to backup only those virtual machines which require extra protection and continuity. For the virtual machines you chose, you can define your own policy retentions, execute restores, and execute many management tasks. We take care of the platform and keep it updated and patched at software and hardware levels. The backup platform is completely hosted by Leaseweb to increase data security.
For specifics and details, please see this article.
Disaster Recovery as a Service
Disaster recovery solutions for single tenants can be delivered between two dedicated Private Clouds. Powered by disaster recovery market leader Zerto, Leaseweb manages the software platform 24/7 and keeps software components up to date.
You have the freedom to decide what virtual machines require protection/replication in the secondary site, as well as full control of the replication process and recovery orchestration.
The replication line between Leaseweb Data Centers is included in the monthly fee, regardless of your replication policy and bandwidth usage.
Available Locations
Leaseweb VMware HCI is available in the following locations:
- Amsterdam-01 (AMS-01)
- Amsterdam-02 (AMS-02)
- Frankfurt-10 (FRA-10)
- London-01 (LON-01)
- London-12 (LON-12)
- Washington-02 (WDC-02)
- San Francisco-12 (SFO-12)
If your desired location is not on this list, please contact us: we are continuously expanding our services in different regions.
Software
Microsoft Software
We are able to provide Microsoft licensing according to the Service Provider License Agreement. Keep in mind that to run some Microsoft software, such as the Windows operating system, or SQL Server, a minimum of the underlying hypervisors must be licensed, and the related virtual machines must be attached to them so that they are all the time running on licensed hardware.
VMware Software
VMware licensing is included from Leaseweb. Due to license restrictions, own VMware licenses cannot coexist with Leaseweb licenses on the same platform.
By default, the enabled licenses for your platform are vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCenter Server Standard, vSAN Advanced and NSX-T SP Base. Further licensing levels can be provided upon availability.
Network and IP addresses
NSX-T virtual network
The VMware HCI platform is provided with an NSX-T virtual network, which allows you to create your virtual network topology on top of the plain physical network, including load balancing and firewalling.
You can define your internal networks within your organizations through the vSphere management console and NSX-T.
These internal networks, with private addresses, are not connected to the Internet, and allow you to connect your workloads and cross-connect different virtual machines.
This flexibility gives many options to set up and deploy layered-based solutions, e.g.: Backend and Frontend, with your own internal IP addresses.
Internet connection and traffic
We offer two network choices for your service: Volume and Premium.
- The Volume network offers one or more default Tier1 transit providers and selected peering connections, and is engineered to provide a cost-efficient solution to high bandwidth needs.
- The Premium network offers full redundancy on all routers and uses multiple quality Tier1 transit providers, as well as private and public peering. For more information on the network types and the network type availability matrix, refer to this article on network types.
For more information on our billing options, refer to this article on bandwidth billing.
Public IP addresses
For Private Cloud, you can buy ranges of public IPv4 addresses starting with a /29. These IP addresses are charged per unit (/32) or range (other).
Please keep in mind that due to the nature of subnets, several IP addresses per range are reserved and cannot be assigned to devices as service IPs. That reduces the total number of usable IP addresses per range.
If a range wider than /28 is required, our sales team can help you with this request.
Leaseweb Private Network
Leaseweb Private Network is available on demand, allowing the VMware platform to be connected to other Leaseweb services.
For more information, please see Private Network for all the details of this service.
Service Level Agreements
We do provide, by default and for all contracts, competitive Service Level Agreements to ensure computing availability and support services.
By default, Basic SLA is provided to VMware HCI deployments. Extended SLAs can be arranged on demand. More information about the SLA levels can be found here.
Upgrade and downgrade the Private Cloud
You can upgrade and downgrade the amount and type of servers of your VMware HCI platform by contacting Support.
The same limitations as for the deployment of a new platform will apply: All servers in the platform must be the same model (processor, memory, disk), and they must be at least 4 servers for production workloads (3 for test/development environments)
Depending on the required change, most upgrade requests can be fulfilled in hours.
VMware API access
We provide the ability to consume and manage your platform through the VMware APIs. API calls are free of charge.
