VCF 9.0 LAB a Nested Deployment

Broadcom recently announced the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 9. This is more than just vSphere—it’s a comprehensive modern private cloud platform that enables you to build, operate, consume, and protect your infrastructure with greater efficiency and control.

I’ve already installed ESXi 9.0 on my 4 nodes, ADD 2x4TB disk with NVME controller

Hardware SPEC:

Makes sure the NTP, DNS configured correctly, make sure /sbin/generate-certificates command has been ran in the ESX hosts

Network SETUP

PortGroup with Trunk ALL vlans

Next, we’ll need to create the necessary DNS entries for the environment. I’ll place all the management appliances in the same VLAN.

It’s time to install the VMware Cloud Foundation Installer.

Once the VMware Cloud Foundation Installer is deployed and configured, connect to it to set up the Depot settings.

The first step is to connect to the Online Depot.

Provide the token and Authenticate

Once connected to depot download all Binarys

Once all binaries have been downloaded, we can proceed with the deployment.

I am deploying a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fleet.

and there is no Existing components

fill out required information

Filling out details and sizing for VCF Operations

Filling out details for VCF Automation

Fill out vCenter details

Fill out NSX details

Fill out VSAN details

Provide ESX root password for all hosts and confirm all fingerprints

Attention: There have been some changes to the password requirements for ESXi. Passwords that contain a dot (.) may no longer be accepted.
Make sure not to include a dot in your ESXi password.

Fill out Network details

fill out Distributed switch / The NSX Transport Zone is defined at the bottom section of the switch configuration.

Fill out FQDN for the SDDC Manager

Review the provided information carefully. I recommend downloading the JSON specification in case of a failure—this makes it much easier to restart the process.

let’s validate & deploy

Finaly Deployment in progress

Possible troubleshooting
VCF 9.0 bring-up fails during the ESXi host validation step unless I reconfigure some of the VCF Installer configuration files.

1. Connect to the Installer appliance via SSH, switch user to ‘root’.
2. Backup the LCM application properties file:cp /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/conf/application-prod.properties /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/conf/application-prod.properties.bak
3. Modify the LCM application properties file:
   • Open the file for editing:
     vi /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/conf/application-prod.properties
     • Locate the line vcf.compatibility.controllers.compatibilityCheckEnabled= and change its value to false. If the line does not exist, add it to the end of the file:
       vcf.compatibility.controllers.compatibilityCheckEnabled=false
     • Save and exit the file (in vi, press Esc, then :wq!, then Enter).
4. Restart the LCM service:systemctl restart lcm.service
5. Backup the Domain Manager application properties file:cp /etc/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/application-prod.properties /etc/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/application-prod.properties.bak
6. Modify the Domain Manager application properties file:
   • Open the file for editing:
     vi /etc/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/application-prod.properties
   • Locate the line vcf.domainmanager.validation.enableVvsInteropValidation= and change its value to false. If the line does not exist, add it to the end of the file:
     vcf.domainmanager.validation.enableVvsInteropValidation=false
   • Save and exit the file.
7. Restart the Domain Manager service:systemctl restart domainmanager.service
8. Verify Services are Running:systemctl status lcm.servicesystemctl status domainmanager.serviceEnsure both show as active (running).
9. Retest the operation that was previously failing due to compatibility checks.

VCF 9.0 bring-up fails during ESX Host vSAN HCL Compatibility, you have to generate custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON for VMware Cloud Foundation https://williamlam.com/2023/12/dynamically-generate-custom-vsan-esa-hcl-json-for-vmware-cloud-foundation-vcf-5-1.html

I got error

i had to reclaim disks manuelly

I hope this article has been informative. thank you for reading.