AWS VPC architecture basics for VMware administrators

AWS VPC architecture for beginners

It isn't possible to directly add cloud resources to an on-premises vSphere infrastructure. Instead, AWS uses its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to provision a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud where you can launch AWS components.

VPC functions as the top-level container in AWS. The AWS administrator sets up and controls access to everything in the AWS VPC architecture, though he can delegate this responsibility to other administrators. It's a best practice to create subordinate admin accounts to handle daily work in the VPC rather than using the primary admin account.

VPCs can't extend across regions, but you can have multiple VPCs. Multiple VPCs are especially useful within large companies or groups of companies because they keep each company within its own AWS container.

Once the admin has set up the VPC, he must place it in a region, which is a cluster of highly redundant data centers that function as a single logical group. VPCs can't extend across regions, but you can have multiple VPCs. Multiple VPCs are especially useful within large companies or groups of companies because they keep each company within its own AWS container.

Using multiple VPCs also makes management easier because there are smaller groups and fewer requirements per container, which makes them less prone to issues. Should a problem arise in one company's VPC, the problem will be limited solely to that VPC, and won't affect other VPCs.

VPC chain of command

Each VPC has a master user account. This account can create additional new accounts and either spin up resources as needed or defer the task to a subordinate user account it has created. By default, these subordinate user accounts have no rights within the infrastructure unless the AWS administrator assigns rights to them.

There are four core resource groups within each VPC: Identity and Access Management, Elastic Compute Cloud, Networking and other services, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service.

If you log in to the master account, you'll see that there are several sizes and types of VMs you can use. Elastic Block Storage underlies these VMs. Depending on your organization's finances and requirements, consumption is set on a per-model basis.

Note that AWS resources do not provide the option to define hardware sizes; the admin can only use the sizes Amazon provides. If a server becomes too large for its sizing, the admin can scale it up to a higher level of CPU, RAM and so on. Scaling up is a quick fix, but it requires downtime and is limited to the resources AWS provides.

AWS provides several images from which the administrator can deploy resources. It's also possible to create highly customized images, which can be useful in a larger deployment.

A new AWS setup also requires the admin to choose a region in which to place his resources. It's important to choose the right region because different regions have different cost implications.

In short, all VMware-AWS integrations -- with the exception of the AWS Cloud -- will use this AWS VPC architecture as the base element of any service offering that extends VMware infrastructure.