The HCX Network Underlay Characterization and Performance Outcomes technical paper provides information to help HCX users understand the relationships between the network underlay and VMware® HCX.
With HCX performance, various dimensions of environmental and load data need to be considered. One of the dimensions is the network underlay and the HCX performance derived from the underlay capabilities. In this regard, Characterizing an Underlay for HCX means understanding whether the underlay meets the minimum HCX requirements for providing successful virtual machine migrations and network extension services, and understanding baseline performance outcomes for given underlay conditions (even with the inclusion of IPSec VPN or SD-WAN, or VPN services which were previously not supported for HCX implementations).
This document attempts to put these considerations in perspective and also tries to provide some guidance on how to verify whether the performance is optimal for the given environment and parameters.
[Prepared October 2021 with HCX 4.2][Updated to 1.1 March 2022 - Corrections]