In last post of this series we learnt the process of SDDC bringup aka Management Domain deployment. Also we verified we are able to login to SDDC manager. The management domain is integrated in SDDC manager by default during bringup process.

In this post I will walk through steps of deploying a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain. If you are new to vCF and wondering what a workload domain is, then in simpler words its resource cluster where end users will provision their vm’s.

If you are not following along this series, then I recommend reading earlier posts of this series from below links:

1: Physical/Virtual Infra Preparation

2: DNS and IP Pools Requirements for vCF 

3: Nested Esxi Host Deployment & Configuration

4: Deploying Management Domain aka SDDC Bringup

All the components that will be managing the VI workload domain are deployed in management domain for e.g vCSA, NSX etc. 

Note: NSX controllers for workload domain are deployed on Esxi hosts that are part of workload domain.… Read More

This is probably the most important post of this series. In this post we will learn how to bring up the SDDC i.e the Management Domain deployment.

Before we start the process we need to have the vCF 3.7.x cloud builder ova handy which can be downloaded from here

Cloud Builder deployment is pretty much straight forward.  Not covering the steps of deployment as nothing fancy there. Once the cloud builder vm boots up, open console of the vm to fetch the URL to access UI.

Download and Complete Deployment Parameter Sheet

Before we do anything in Cloud Builder UI, we need to prepare the deployment parameter sheet. This sheet can be downloaded from same location from where you downloaded the cloud builder ova.

There are various entries that needs to be filled up in the deployment sheet. This sheet needs to be filled very carefully as mistakes can lead to deployment failure or incorrect deployment.… Read More

In last Post of this series, I talked about the DNS records and IP Pools that should be in place for a successful vCF deployment.

In this post I will walk through steps needed to create nested Esxi and post installation steps.

Before we plan to create nested Esxi hosts or physical, we need to identify the build/version of Esxi and other components that are compatible with a given vCF version. VMware KB-52520 help you identify this.

For vCF 3.7 please refer to below table for build number needed. 

Once I had build info handy, I deployed 4 nested ESXi hosts for the management workload domain. These VMs were created with following specifications:

• 10 vCPUs
• 64 GB Memory
• 4 Hard disks (Thin Provisioned): 16 GB (Boot disk0), 100 GB (vSAN cache tier), 150 GB, 150 GB (vSAN capacity tier). 
• 2 VMXNET3 NICs connected to the same Portgroup
• Virtual hardware version 14 (compatibility: Esxi 6.7 or later during vm creation)
• Guest OS: Other
• Guest OS version: VMware ESXi 6.5 or later
• Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS enabled
• EFI firmware

Esxi Host Patching

I initially installed hosts with Esxi 6.7 U1 Build 10302608 (as i had this iso handy) and then patched it to Esxi 6.7 EP 09 Build 3644319.… Read More

When you are planning for a vCF deployment, you need lot and lot of IP’s and DNS records. 

In my environment I have an AD integrated DNS running on MS 2012 R2.

If you are only planning on deploying the Management Workload Domain in your environment you only need to create the forward and reverse lookup records for Management Workload Domain. If Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain will be introduced in future then you need to plan the DNS records accordingly.

Note: Please see this article for comprehensive list of DNS requirement for vCF deployment.

Below is the list of DNS records that I created in my environment:

Workload Domain	Hostname	IP Address
Management	vcfesx01	172.20.31.101
Management	vcfesx02	172.20.31.102
Management	vcfesx03	172.20.31.103
Management	vcfesx04	172.20.31.104
Management	vcf-psc01	172.20.31.105
Management	vcf-psc02	172.20.31.106
Management	vcf-mgmtvc	172.20.31.107
Management	vcf-mgmtnsx	172.20.31.108
Management	vcf-sddcmgr	172.20.31.109
Management	vcfvrli (iLB)	172.20.31.110
Management	vcf-vrli01	172.20.31.111
Management	vcf-vrli02	172.20.31.112
Management	vcf-vrli03	172.20.31.113
Virtual Infrastructure	wld-esxi01	172.20.31.165
Virtual Infrastructure	wld-esxi02	172.20.31.166
Virtual Infrastructure	wld-esxi03	172.20.31.167
Virtual Infrastructure	vcf-wldvc01	172.20.31.168
Virtual Infrastructure	vcf-wldnsx01	172.20.31.169
NA	vcf (cloud builder appliance)	172.20.31.100
NA	vcf-lcm	172.20.31.118

Note: If you are planning to deploy vRealize and Horizon infrastructure using vCF, you need to create additional records as per product DNS requirement. … Read More

Recently I got chance to do a nested vCF 3.5/3.7 deployment in my lab and it was a great learning. Few friends of mine reached out to me to know more about VMware Cloud Foundation product as a whole and how we can get our hands dirty on it. 

Through this series of articles, I want to share my experience with you on how to do a successful vCF 3.7 deployment in a nested environment.  

What is VMware Cloud Foundation (vCF)?

As per VMware official documentation

VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated software stack that bundles compute virtualization (VMware vSphere), storage virtualization (VMware vSAN), network virtualization (VMware NSX), and cloud management and monitoring (VMware vRealize Suite) into a single platform that can be deployed on premises as a private cloud or run as a service within a public cloud.

vCF helps you to deploy a true SDDC environment in your infrastructure by following the VMware Validated Design recommendations and makes the life cycle management of SDDC very easy.… Read More