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Automated Lab Deployment Script for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 4.2

05.26.2021 by William Lam // 37 Comments

One of my pet projects that I have been looking into is to easily deploy the required infrastructure, using Nested ESXi of course, to be able to quickly standup a "basic" VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment. There are a couple of solutions that currently exists in the community that can help take a user from having no infrastructure to setting up all the components required to standup a complete functional VCF envionmrent, similar to that of a physical VCF deployment. As such, the pre-requisites for using those tools was a bit more than what I was looking for and can also feel overwhelming for a new user. I certainly fell into that category while looking at some of the existing tools.

Ultimately, my use case was slightly different and I also did not need all the bells and whistles such as configuring Application Virtual Networks (VCN) and this also meant that I could dramatically simplify the deployment. For example, instead of deploying the ESXi hosts from scratch, I could simply take advantage of my Nested ESXi Virtual Appliance and use that as a starting point. For those familiar with my various PowerCLI automated lab deployment scripts, I have created a simliar experience for VCF that will deploy a set of Nested ESXi Appliances along with the VMware Cloud Builder appliance, which is then used to deploy VCF on top of the Nested ESXi VMs. To ensure the user experience is as painless and simple, I also use the customer supplied configurations within the script to automagically generate the VCF configuration JSON file that can then be uploaded directly to the Cloud Builder appliance to begin the VCF deployment once the initial infrastructure has been deployed by the automation script.

Note: Although AVN and the respective NSX-T configuration is not in scope for the automation script, it is definitely possible to use a solution like VyOS or pfSense and using techniques like the following to automate the additional infrastructure to enable the ability to deploy a complete VCF environment. I will leave this as as fun and interesting learning exercise for the reader.

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, Nested Virtualization, PowerCLI, VMware Cloud Foundation Tags // VMware Cloud Foundation

JSON configuration to deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) with secondary VDS

05.18.2021 by William Lam // 4 Comments

I recently spent some time exploring VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) using VMware Cloud Builder, which is a tool that automates the entire VCF deployment and configuration when provided a set of ESXi hosts that meet all the pre-requisites. To begin a VCF deployment, users will typically provide a VCF deployment parameter workbook (XLS) which contains the configuration for your deployment which is then uploaded to Cloud Builder (UI or API).


I personally prefer the JSON option which Cloud Builder also supports, which for me is much easier to read and edit. For those interested, after submitting your XLS document, you can retrieve the generated JSON configuration file in the Cloud Builder filesystem located in /tmp/sddcspec-[UUID].json.

While working on some automation, I needed to separate out the ESXi and NSX-T networking, which by default is configured using a single Distributed Virtual Switch (VDS). This is a common configuration pattern for environments that only have two network adapters. However, if you have up to four network adapters, VCF can also support another deployment configuration where two VDS are used. I came to learn about this while talking to one of the Cloud Builder Tech Leads and shared the required JSON configuration changes to support this model.

Below is the JSON snippet for the required dvsSpecs section that demonstrates the use of a dual VDS configuration where NSX-T networking makes use of the additional vmnics.

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, VMware Cloud Foundation Tags // VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Validated Design (VVD) & VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Quick References

05.02.2017 by William Lam // 2 Comments

The other day, I had a customer ask about the latest version of the Ports and Protocols document that was put together by the VMware Validated Design (VVD) team which does a fantastic job of outlining all the connectivity between the products used within the VVD SDDC. It actually took me awhile to find after realizing it was posted on the VMTN Community rather than the official documentation page.

I also came across other VVD content that I thought would also be useful for customers and decided to create a VVD "Quick Reference" that organizes all of this content into a single place. In addition, I also created a nice short URL to the quick reference so you only have to remember that. After sharing this on Twitter yesterday, Ryan Johnson (TMM for VVD/VCF) got inspired and also created VMware Cloud Foundation Quick Reference which I also built a short URL for. If there is other content that you would like to see, feel free to drop me or Ryan a comment or better yet, submit a pull request on the Github page!

To access the Quick References, use the following short URLs:

  • https://github.com/lamw/vvd-quick-reference
  • https://github.com/ftwegner/cloudfoundation-quick-reference

Below is a quick screenshot of both the VVD and VCF Quick References:

Categories // VMware Cloud Foundation Tags // VCF, VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Validated Design, VVD

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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