WilliamLam.com

Quick Tip: Selective ESX Host Patching in VCF 9.1

by // 2 Comments

Prior to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1, users could choose whether to apply an ESX update across all or a selected set of vSphere Clusters, but there was no additional granularity for selecting specific ESX hosts within a cluster. This has been a frequently requested capability, especially for excluding specific ESX hosts from an update or performing a controlled rollout across one or more vSphere Clusters.

Fleet Lifecycle Management in VCF 9.1 has been enhanced with a new custom host selection capability that allows users to select specific ESX hosts within a vSphere Cluster for patching.

[Read more...]

Playing with Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) in vSphere 9.1 using an ASUS NUC

by // 2 Comments

Introduced in VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1, Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) is the next evolution of Auto Deploy. Like Auto Deploy, it automates both ESX installation and host configuration. Instead of relying on the traditional PXE/TFTP boot process and Host Profiles, ZTP uses modern UEFI HTTP Boot along with vSphere Configuration Profiles (VCP) to provision a fully configured ESX host that automatically registers itself into the desired vSphere Cluster.

While ESX has supported UEFI HTTP Boot for some time, adoption has been gradual as organizations continue to rely on existing PXE/TFTP-based deployment infrastructure. At the same time, the hardware ecosystem has steadily transitioned from legacy BIOS firmware to UEFI, making UEFI HTTP Boot more broadly available. Auto Deploy's iPXE implementation was a nice bridge to support traditional PXE/TFTP infrastructure while still getting the benefits of HTTP boot, especially when it comes to installing ESX over the network compared to a TFTP-based approach.

While cleaning out some old lab hardware, I came across a spare ASUS NUC 15 Pro that I was no longer using and wondered whether it supported UEFI HTTP Boot and could be repurposed for ZTP testing? 🤔

[Read more...]

Quick Tip: Automating PAK Upload & Installation for VCF Operations

by // Leave a Comment

While testing an update workflow, I needed to update VCF Operations directly, which can be performed through the /admin UI and by uploading and then installing the PAK file. Although the process itself is straightforward, the two-step workflow and the waiting between each step make it feel longer than the actual update.


I figured there had to be a way to automate the process, but I was not able to quickly find anything online. After browsing both the VCF Operations API and the VCF Operations Cluster and Slice Administration (CASA) API, I found the APIs needed to automate both the PAK upload and installation.

[Read more...]