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Quick Tip - Convert VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Deployment Workbook XLSX to JSON

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The deployment wizard for VMware Cloud Builder (CB) can accept either an XLSX or JSON configuration file that describes your desired VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployment.


Interestingly enough, only an XLSX template is available for users to download, edit and then provide that back as user input. While I can appreciate the rich logic that has been built into the CB workbook, I personally would prefer to work with something a bit more straight forward like JSON, especially for the ability to easily source control via Git/etc.

I have been spending some time with VCF 4.5 and CB this week and I have always wondered if there was a way to convert to JSON format given an XLSX as the initial input. While poking around the logs, I noticed a reference to the following script /opt/vmware/bringup/scripts/json-generator.sh which is used by CB to convert an XLSX to JSON document.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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