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Minimal resources for deploying VCF 9.0 in a Lab

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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 supports two types of deployment mode for the applicable components (e.g. NSX Manager, VCF Operations, VCF Automation, etc), Simple (Single-node) or High Availability (Three-node).

For Lab/Learning Purposes or Proof-of-Concepts, the Simple VCF deployment will allow users to experience the full capabilities of VCF 9.0, while minimizing the resources required when compared to VCF 5.x where you had to have three NSX Managers as an example.


Since the GA of VCF 9.0, I know many folks have started to prepare their lab environments and I wanted to share the minimal resources that you would need to deploy the initial VCF 9.0 stack also referred to as a VCF Fleet for lab purposes:

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Using HTTP with VCF 9.0 Installer for Offline Depot

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After deploying the new VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Installer appliance, the first thing you must setup is the software depot which is where the VCF Installer will go to download the software binaries for deploying either VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) or VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

Users have two options to select from:

  • Online Depot - Connect over the internet to Broadcom (directly or in-directly via network proxy), which will require a download token to be provided
  • Offline Depot - Connect locally to a depot that you have setup (using the VCF Download Tool) within your own environment

By default, the VCF Installer connects to Broadcom's online depot using HTTPS, which is expected when connecting over the public internet. With that said, for an offline depot that is running within your own infrastructure, you can simplify the offline depot setup by serving the content over HTTP, which also removes the need to setup a TLS certificate for your web server.

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Crowdsourced Lab Hardware for ESXi 9.0 Dashboard

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For a major new vSphere release, it can be challenging to understand whether your existing hardware will continue to work or if you need to upgrade.

During the development of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, I had put together a survey that would crowdsource from internal users who have successfully installed ESXi 9.0, so that it can be used as a reference for the community. We have almost 50 submissions, including details about the hardware platform but the also the different key I/O devices across networking, storage and graphics! I would like to give a big thanks to all the VMware/Broadcom employees who contributed to the initial dataset and I hope to see this grow as our users start to play with VCF 9.0 in their lab envionments

You can view the dashboard results by visiting: https://lamw.github.io/community-lab-hardware-for-esxi9/

If you would like to contribute your own system that has NOT already been submitted, please fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/dXbzpTz4JpwP8bXr7