VCF 9.1 - VCF Instance & Fleet Consolidation/Relocation

An interesting set of deployment scenarios has been coming up as customers begin planning their upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1. Customers' existing deployments are often the result of years of organic growth, evolving operational requirements, and infrastructure constraints. Whether driven by available hardware, project timelines, or changing business priorities, today's deployment topology is not always the one customers would choose if they were starting from scratch.

For some customers, rather than performing a like-for-like upgrade, customers is using the transition to VCF 9.1 as a natural opportunity to consolidate and/or relocate some of their existing deployments, better aligning their architecture with current operational and infrastructure requirements.

UPDATE (08/01/2026) - This blog post has been updated with additional information, including step-by-step instructions for relocating VCF 5.x and 9.0.x Instances between Aria Operations/VCF Operations instances, example screenshots that walk through a relocation workflow, and a summary table covering all supported relocation scenarios. As part of validating these workflows, I have also shared this feedback with the product team to help improve the official VCF product documentation with this guidance.

VCF Instance Consolidation/Relocation

For customers with multiple VCF 5.x deployments, a common objective is to consolidate all or a subset of their VCF Instances into one or more VCF 9.1 Fleets. In addition to reducing operational overhead, this allows customers to take advantage of the centralized management capabilities introduced with VCF Fleets, which were not available in VCF 5.x.

In VCF 5.x, Aria Operations could integrate with a VCF 5.x Instance using either the standard Aria Operations integrations or VCF Aware Mode when deployed with Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager. Users had the ability to remove and re-add this integration, which effectively enabled VCF Instance relocation. However, this capability was a by-product of how Aria Operations integrations worked rather than an intentionally designed VCF Instance relocation workflow.

Since Aria Operations is a Day-N deployment in VCF 5.x, individual VCF 5.x Instances may or may not include a local VCF Operations instance. For VCF 5.x Instances that do include a local VCF Operations instance, upgrading to VCF 9.1 will result in each VCF Instance becoming its own independent VCF 9.1 Fleet.

In the example above, we have four VCF 5.x Instances. Instance A will serve as the foundation for the new VCF 9.1 Fleet, while Instances B, C, and D will be consolidated into that same Fleet.

• Instance B - Contains a local Aria Operations instance deployed in VCF Aware Mode.
• Instance C - Contains a local Aria Operations instance deployed in standard (non-VCF Aware) mode.
• Instance D - Does not contain a local Aria Operations instance

Depending on how each VCF 5.x Instance (B, C, and D) is configured, the process for unregistering it from its local Aria Operations instance and re-registering it with another Aria Operations instance will vary based on the following scenarios:

• Scenario 1: Consolidate Instance B with Instance A's Aria Operations
  • Step 1 - Remove the VCF Instance integration from Aria Operations B
  • Step 2 - Disassociate Aria Operations B from SDDC Manager B
  • Step 3 - Add the VCF integration from Instance B to Instance A's Aria Operations
• Scenario 2: Consolidate Instance C with Instance A's Aria Operations
  • Step 1 - Remove the VCF Instance integration from Aria Operations C
  • Step 2 - Add the VCF integration from Instance C to Instance A's Aria Operations
• Scenario 3: Consolidate Instance D with Instance A's Aria Operations
  • Step 1 - Add the VCF integration from Instance D to Instance A's Aria Operations

Example Screenshots for Steps above:

Assuming all three scenarios above have been completed and the VCF 5.x Instances have been re-registered with the Aria Operations instance in VCF Instance A, upgrading to VCF 9.1 will result in the following VCF 9.1 Fleet:

VCF Instance integration with VCF Operations 9.1 is handled differently, and there is currently no supported method to relocate a VCF 9.1 Instance that is part of a VCF 9.1 Fleet. Customers planning to consolidate or relocate VCF Instances should account for this during their VCF 9.1 upgrade planning, as these activities must be be completed before upgrading.

Additional Considerations:

• Aria Operations does not support migrating historical data to another Aria Operations instance, if you need to retain the historical metrics for planning or auditing purposes, you may want to retain the Aria Operations instances even after the unregistration process. If not, you can decommission the VM once you have successfully performed the relocation.
• Aria Operations should be updated to a minimum of 8.18 / 9.0 before attempting relocation, verify Aria Operations compatibility with the Broadcom Interoperability Matrix
• Ensure an VCF Operations Cloud Proxy is deployed within each relocated VCF Instance, prior to performing a VCF 9.1 upgrade, as this is a requirement for SDDC Manager and VCF Operations functionality
• Ensure that you have sufficient licensing entitlements configured within your primary Aria Operations before relocating your VCF Instances

VCF Fleet Consolidation/Relocation

Another scenario that has come up involves customers with multiple VCF 9.0.x Fleets looking to consolidate their VCF Instances into fewer VCF 9.1 Fleets. Prior to upgrading to VCF 9.1, VCF Instances can be relocated between VCF 9.0.x Fleets by removing the existing VCF Operations integration and registering the VCF Instance with another VCF Operations instance. This must be completed before upgrading to VCF 9.1, as there is currently no supported method to relocate a VCF 9.1 Instance that is part of a VCF 9.1 Fleet

VCF Instance Consolidation/Relocation with Existing VCF 9.1 Fleet

If you already have a VCF 9.1 Fleet deployed, either through a new deployment or an upgrade, and later decide to consolidate or relocate an existing VCF 9.1 Instance, this is currently not supported.

However, if you have VCF 5.x or VCF 9.0.x Instances that have not yet been upgraded to VCF 9.1, you can still relocate those VCF Instances into an existing VCF 9.1 Fleet before performing the upgrade. This approach provides the greatest flexibility, allowing you to immediately take advantage of the benefits of a VCF 9.1 Fleet while upgrading the relocated VCF Instances to VCF 9.1 on your own timeline using VCF 9.1 Fleet Lifecycle Management.

• Scenario 1:
  • Step 1: Add VCF 5.x SDDC Manager Integration to VCF 9.1 Operations in VCF 9.1 Fleet
• Scenario 2:
  • Step 1: Remove the VCF 5.x Instance integration from its local Aria Operations
  • Step 2: Add VCF 5.x SDDC Manager Integration to VCF 9.1 Operations in VCF 9.1 Fleet
• Scenario 3:
  • Step 1: Remove the VCF 5.x Instance integration from its local Aria Operations
  • Step 2: Disassociate VCF 5.x Aria Operations from its local SDDC Manager
  • Step 3: Add VCF 5.x SDDC Manager Integration to VCF 9.1 Operations in VCF 9.1 Fleet
• Scenario 4:
  • Step 1: Remove VCF 9.0.x Instance from VCF 9.0 Operations
  • Step 2: Add VCF 9.0.x SDDC Manager Integration to VCF 9.1 Operations in VCF 9.1 Fleet
• Scenario 5:
  • Not Supported

Additional Considerations:

• Aria Operations does not support migrating historical data to another Aria Operations instance, if you need to retain the historical metrics for planning or auditing purposes, you may want to retain the Aria Operations instances even after the unregistration process. If not, you can decommission the VM once you have successfully performed the relocation.
• Aria Operations should be updated to a minimum of 8.18 / 9.0 before attempting relocation, verify Aria Operations compatibility with the Broadcom Interoperability Matrix
• Ensure an VCF Operations Cloud Proxy is deployed within each relocated VCF Instance, prior to performing a VCF 9.1 upgrade, as this is a requirement for SDDC Manager and VCF Operations functionality
• Ensure that you have sufficient licensing entitlements configured within your primary Aria Operations before relocating your VCF Instances

VCF Fleet & Instance Consolidation/Relocation Futures

Given the growing interest in this use case as customers plan their VCF 9.1 deployments, this capability is being evaluated by product management for a future VCF 9.1 release. The goal is to enable VCF Instance relocation as a Day-N operation rather than as part of the upgrade workflow, reducing both upgrade complexity and the operational risk associated with making multiple architectural changes during an upgrade.

If this is something you might be interested in or have other use cases or requirements, feel free to leave a comment with as much detail as you can and I will be sure to forward this to the product team for their considerations.