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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) using USB Network Adaptor

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To deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), your physical or virtual ESXi host must have at least two network adaptors to be able to migrate to Distributed Virtual Switch (VDS), which is configured as part of the VCF Bringup process. While you can technically migrate to a VDS with just a single network adaptor using this trick, it is definitely easier if you have a system that meets this basic requirement.

Earlier this year, I demonstrated that you can deploy VCF using just an Intel NUC with only 64GB of memory, which would be the minimum to run single node VCF Management Domain, however it does not leave you with much room for running other workloads due to pushing the memory limits.

The ASUS PN64-E1 is currently one of my top favorite small form factor kits, especially being able to support up 96GB of memory using the new non-binary DDR5 memory modules. After the release of VCF 5.1, I wanted to use the ASUS PN64-E1 for a VCF deployment, but there was only one problem ... my particular configuration of the PN64-E1 only had a single network adaptor!

I thought I could out smart the VCF Bringup pre-check by using a USB network adaptor and installing the popular USB Network Native Driver for ESXi 😉

However, it turns out the pre-check is looking for PCIe-based network adaptors, so while the system does have two network adaptors, it still failed the pre-check and prevented the deployment from continuing. I ended up reaching out some of the VCF Engineers to see if there were any workarounds and he was kind enough to provide me with a nice workaround that would benefit our users looking to play and explore VCF in a lab environment.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by Broadcom, use at your own risk.

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Dynamically generate custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1

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I recently shared on how you can deploy the latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1 release with vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) using Nested ESXi and leveraging a custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file, which I had created to workaround the required vSAN ESA pre-check during the VCF Bringup process.

I will admit, I actually did not the create the custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file manually, it was auto-generated using automation 😉

My initial goal was to make it easier for anyone to play with VCF 5.1 using both Nested ESXi as well any physical system that is capable but may is not on the official VMware vSAN ESA HCL. After a lot of trial and error testing with Nested ESXi, I finally had a functional PowerCLI script that can then be used to run against a standalone ESXi host to dynamically generate a compatible custom vSAN ESA HCL JSON file that can then be used with both VCF 5.1 with vSAN ESA or even a standalone vCenter Server deployment for vSAN ESA enablement.

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Custom vSAN HCL JSON for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1 and vSAN ESA using Nested ESXi

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One of the exciting new features in the latest VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.1 release is the support for the vSphere 8.0 Update 2 and the new vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA), which can be enabled for both the VCF Management and Workload Domain.

As many of you already know, one of the easiest way to explore and play with new VCF releases is by leveraging Nested ESXi, which dramatically reduces the amount of time for setting up the infrastructure before you can start deploying VCF. This is how I initially played with VCF 5.0 and I had assumed the same would also work for the latest VCF 5.1 release.

Shortly after kicking off the VCF Bringup process, I noticed it failed immediately with an error about validating the virtual disks on my Nested ESXi VM against the vSAN HCL!? 😧


I thought this was really strange, especially in a non-VCF deployment, enabling vSAN ESA using vCenter Server only gives you a warning about your hardware not being on the vSAN HCL but does not stop you from continuing with the deployment. For testing and homelab purposes, this is completely acceptable and the fact that vCenter Server allows this operation but VCF blocks it, was an interesting UX decision.

If hardware validation against the vSAN HCL is required for VCF 5.1 when enabling vSAN ESA, then this would severely impact who can play with the latest VCF release, at least if you wanted to try out vSAN ESA.

UPDATE (05/28/24) - If you are using Nested ESXi and wish to enable vSAN ESA for a VCF Workload Domain, please take a look at this blog post HERE for more details.

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