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Flexible Combinations with VCF Fleet Deployment Models 

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When deploying a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Fleet, users can choose from two different deployment models: Simple (one-node) or High-Availability (3-node) within the VCF Installer, which applies to the VCF Automation, VCF Operations and NSX Manager components.


Here is a quick visual that represents the two different deployment models:


While the VCF Installer UI only provides two deployment options, the underlying VCF platform can actually support a combination of simple and HA deployment for the individual components based on your needs.

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Quick Tip - Deploy OVF/OVA with Basic Authentication Endpoint

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As part of rebuilding my VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.1 environment, a refresh of my VCF (Offline) Software Depot was needed to include the latest 9.0.1 binaries including various OVF/OVAs like Data Services Manager (DSM).

My VCF Software Depot has been configured with basic authentication, which is a requirement for the VCF Installer. This meant before I can import the DSM OVA into vCenter Server, I typically would need to download a local copy of the OVA, which got me thinking about this workflow ...

Can an OVF/OVA be deployed directly from a web server that requires basic authentication? 🤔

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Scaling ESX DCUI & Console for Compressed Screen Resolution

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I recently shared my VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 Mini Rack build, which includes the use of a tiny 7" LCD screen for direct console access to the ESX hosts. Since the LCD is optimizing for the 10" inch rack, it is also using a non-standard resolution of 1280x400, which can make the output pretty compressed as you can see from the ESX DCUI screen.


This is definitely a niche use case, but I was curious if we had any workarounds that could be used to improve the screen resolution, especially handling large amounts of text when going into the ESX Shell 🤔

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