Deploying VCF Management Domains with NFS as Principal Storage

User Guides for VMware Solutions
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User Guide: Deploying VMware Cloud Foundation with Everpure NFS.

This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough for deploying a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fleet and integrating it with Everpure for NFS datastores.

Starting the VCF Deployment Wizard

  1. On the VMware Cloud Foundation Installer dashboard, locate the Deploy section.

  2. Click the DEPLOYMENT WIZARD button.

  3. Select VMware Cloud Foundation.

  4. As this is a greenfield management domain deployment, select deploy a new VCF fleet and click continue.

  5. This is a fresh deployment so we are not re-using any existing components.

General Configuration

On the General Information screen, provide the basic details for the VCF instance:

  1. VCF Instance Name: Enter a unique name for the instance (e.g., vcf-9-demo).

  2. Management domain name: Provide a name for the management domain (e.g., vcf-9-demo-mgmt).

  3. DNS domain name: Enter the DNS domain (e.g., alex.purestorage.com).

  4. DNS servers: Input the IP address(es) of the DNS servers.

  5. NTP servers: Input the IP address(es) of the NTP servers for time synchronization.

  6. Click NEXT to proceed.

VCF Operations Configuration

This section configures the appliances for VCF Operations:

  • VCF Operations Appliance

  • Appliance size: Select the appropriate size from the dropdown (e.g., Medium).

  • Operations primary FQDN: Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name for the primary appliance.

  • Set and confirm the Administrator Password and Root Password.

  • Load Balancer: Enter the Load Balancer FQDN.

  • Fleet Management Appliance: Enter the Fleet Management Appliance FQDN.

  • Operations Collector Appliance: Enter the Operations Collector Appliance FQDN.

  • Click NEXT.

VCF Automation Configuration

Configure the VCF Automation appliance details:

  • Appliance FQDN: Enter the FQDN for the automation appliance.

  • Administrator Password: Set and confirm the administrator password.

  • Node IP addresses: Enter the IP addresses for Node 1, Node 2, Node 3, and Node 4.

  • Internal Cluster CIDR: Specify the internal cluster CIDR.

  • Node name prefix: Provide a prefix for the node names.

  • Click NEXT.

vCenter Configuration

Enter the configuration details for the vCenter Server:

  • Appliance FQDN: Provide the FQDN for the vCenter appliance.

  • Appliance Size: Select a size (e.g., Medium).

  • Appliance Storage Size: Choose the storage size (e.g., Default).

  • Datacenter Name: Name your virtual datacenter.

  • Cluster Name: Name your cluster.

  • SSO Domain Name: Enter the Single Sign-On domain name.

  • Administrator Password & Root Password: Set and confirm the necessary passwords.

  • Click NEXT.

NSX Manager Configuration

Configure the details for the NSX Manager cluster:

  • Cluster FQDN: Enter the FQDN for the NSX cluster.

  • Appliance Size: Choose an appliance size (e.g., Medium).

  • Appliance FQDNs: Enter the FQDNs for Appliance 1, 2, and 3.

  • Passwords: Set and confirm the Administrator, Root, and Audit passwords.

  • Click NEXT.

Storage Configuration

Select and configure the principal storage for the management domain:

  1. Select the storage type. In this guide, we choose NFS.

  2. Configure the NFS datastore settings:

    • NFS Datastore Name: Enter a name for the datastore.

    • Path to NFS Share: Provide the path to your NFS share.

    • NFS Server IP Address: Enter the IP address of your NFS server.

  3. Click NEXT.

Host Configuration

Add the ESXi hosts that will be part of the management domain:

  1. Enter the ESX Root Password.

  2. For each host, enter its FQDN in the "Contract Fingeprint" section and click ADD.

  3. After adding all hosts, click CONFIRM ALL FINGERPRINTS.

  4. Once the fingerprints are confirmed, click NEXT.

Network Configuration

Define the network settings for various traffic types:

  • ESX Management Network: Provide the VLAN ID, CIDR, Gateway, MTU, and an IP address range.

  • vMotion Network: Provide the VLAN ID, CIDR, Gateway, and MTU.

  • NFS Network: Provide the VLAN ID, CIDR, Gateway, MTU, and an IP address range.

  • Click NEXT.

Distributed Switch Configuration

  1. Select a switch topology profile. For this guide, Storage Traffic Separation is chosen. Click Select.

  2. Two distributed switches will be created. Configure each one:

    • Distributed Switch Name: Provide a name.

    • MTU: Set the MTU value (e.g., 9000).

    • Uplinks: Assign physical network adapters (vmnics) as uplinks.

    • Network Traffic: Configure PortGroups for traffic types like ESX Management, VM Management, vMotion, and NSX Traffic.

  3. Configure the NSX Overlay Transport Zone, including VLAN ID and IP Pool details (CIDR, IP Range, Gateway).

  4. Click NEXT.

SDDC Manager Configuration

  1. Enter the Appliance FQDN for the SDDC Manager.

  2. Set and confirm the Root Password, VCF Password, and Administrator Password.

  3. Click NEXT.

Validate and Deploy

  1. On the Review page, carefully check the summary of all your configurations. You can click DOWNLOAD JSON SPEC to save the configuration.

  2. Click NEXT to proceed to the validation stage.

  3. The installer will validate all the deployment specifications. This process will check DNS resolution, NTP server reachability, password policies, and more.

  4. If any warnings appear, you can review them and click ACKNOWLEDGE to proceed.

  5. Once all validations pass successfully, click DEPLOY to start the VCF deployment.

The deployment process will now run automatically. You can monitor the progress of each task on the screen.

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed VMware Cloud Foundation and integrated it with Everpure for NFS storage.