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Clearing resource locks with VCF 9.0 Installer

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While deploying a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 Fleet, I had observed the VCF Installer task for checking the deployment status for VCF Automation (VCFA) had taken longer than expected and it eventually failed to complete.


While the deployment of VCFA will take some time, especially if you are using consumer grade hardware like I was, I was actually monitoring the granular progress within VCF Operations (VCFO) under Fleet Management->Lifecycle->VCF Management->Tasks and you should see an active task labeled VCF Automation which is representing the deployment of VCFA.

Perhaps it was my impatience ... but I had noticed the VCFA task had already completed but the VCF Installer still did not progress further after waiting maybe 10-15 minutes.

I had the (not so) brilliant idea of attempting to force a re-check of the task by simply rebooting the VCF Installer ...

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Workaround for single NIC using NFS storage with VCF 9.0

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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 brings additional flexibility by supporting multiple types of principal storage: vSAN (OSA/ESA), Fibre Channel & NFS v3 that users can now choose from.


Right before heading out for PTO a couple of weeks ago I was experimenting with NFS as my principal storage for deploying my initial VCF 9 Fleet with a Minisforums MS-A2 system. While the MS-A2 does have multiple network adapters that are supported with ESXi 9.0, I only had the ethernet NIC connected.

While a single NIC can be used to deploy VCF 9.0, especially when using vSAN as the principal storage. However, in my testing with NFS and a single NIC, the migration from Virtual Standard Switch (VSS) to Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) ran into some issues.

Note: When using NFS as your principal storage, the NFS network must reside in its own dedicated VLAN (e.g. can not be shared with the ESXi Management Network)

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Quick Tip - Updating Firmware on Minisforum MS-A2

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I recently had to setup a couple more Minisforum MS-A2 which will be used to deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 for a special VMUG event at Broadcom's Palo Alto headquarters this week.

One of the first things I like to do with any new hardware system is to check the vendors website to make sure that I am running the latest firmware and drivers. I know many of you in the VMware Community have acquired the popular MS-A2 for VCF 9, so this is a good reminder to make sure your firmware is up to date!

My MS-A2 kits all shipped with the 1.0.1 version of the firmware and as of publishing this blog post, the latest version is 1.0.2. While reading the release notes for 1.0.2, I saw that one of the new feature is the ability to control the fan speeds, which was really the only negative feedback I had in my MS-A2 review, that fans were quite loud when any load was placed on the system.

Spoiler alert ... changing the fan speed to either balance and/or quiet did not make a difference 🤣 ... so YMMV with this new feature 😅

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