How To

One of the coolest features in the VMware Cloud Foundation 3.x release is in my opinion the ability to automatically replace SSL certificates for vSphere and vRealize components. SDDC Manager supports both Microsoft and non-Microsoft certificate authorities but in current release only Microsoft Certificate Authority is supported for automatic replacement of the certificates. I am not going to explain how to set up a MSCA but in case you need one, there are configuration steps […]

In the previous post, we’ve created a workload domain with a cluster. In your VMware Cloud Foundation environment, you can stretch workload domain clusters in the management domain or in the VI workload domain across two availability zones. More on availability zones can be found in the documentation. As always, before you begin, check the requirements for a stretched workload domain cluster in the documentation. Note – Once a cluster is stretched, you cannot un-stretch […]

Once the Network Pools are created and ESXi hosts are commissioned, the next logical step in the VCF 3.0 deployment is to create workload domain. A workload domain is a policy-based resource container with specific availability and performance attributes and combining vSphere, vSAN, and NSX into a single consumable entity for a specific purpose. Before you begin, gather the following information for the new workload domain. New WLD name New Cluster name Organization name New […]

After a successful bing-up you can now start to add ESXi hosts to the SDDC manager inventory in order to create workload domains. This process is called commissioning within the SDDC Manager. However, before you can add the hosts, you must configure network pools first. ESXi host can also be removed or decommissioned from the SDDC Manager but needs to be cleaned up before they can be used again. Adding an ESXi host to the […]

The VCF 3.0 bring-up process will deploy and configure the management workload domain using the Cloud Builder appliance and the process is quite straightforward. Make sure that all prerequisites and preparation steps from the previous blog post are completed before you begin. VCF 3.0 Bring-up Cloud Builder Deployment Parameter Guide (Excel sheet) As already mentioned in the previous blog post, you can obtain the deployment parameter guide (Excel sheet) from the Cloud Builder itself once […]

It’s been a while since my last blog post and that is mainly because I was working on a couple interesting engagements where I was co-designing and deploying VMware Cloud Foundation 3.0 for a number of our customers. If you are not familiar with VCF, I suggest having a look at the product page on VMware website. Since VCF 3.0 is a fairly new and emerging VMware product, I will share my experience in a […]