How To

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 […]

As every good administrator knows, from the security point of view rotating password on all of your infrastructure components is mandatory on a regular basis. VMware Could Foundation (VCF) is not an exception. VCF consists of many components like SDDC Manager, NSX Manager, vCenter Server(s) etc. so changing all passwords for every component will become a lengthy task. Luckily, there is a build-in tool in the SDDC Manager that will change the password on all […]

In the past few months, I’ve done some very interesting VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployments at several customers. One thing that I’ve seen a lot in the field is that the physical switches are not properly prepared for the imaging. In order to start imaging, you have to install the correct firmware and erase the configuration on the switches. Also, depending on the vendor, you have to put the switch in appropriate mode before the […]

In vSphere 6.7, we finally have the vCSA 6.7 Backup Schedule which I think was one of the most requested features for this release. Schedule can be set up using either the API, CLI or through the UI. I will not cover this step-by-step as the process is quite self-explanatory. Instead, once you create a couple of manual and automatic backups, you may discover that the backup files have different naming structure as depicted below. […]

In the last couple of projects, I was tasked with designing a new Platform Services Controller (PSC) and vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) topology based on specific availability requirements. One of the things I noticed is that admins tend to forget that you need to create a PSC ring topology in a multi-site PSC & vCS design. Let’s have a look why this is important and how to create a PSC ring topology in vSphere 6.5. […]