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Automating the new native VCSA bootstrap "Easy Install" in vSAN 6.6

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In case you missed the previous article, have a read here which goes into greater detail behind the new VCSA bootstrap installer (also known as vSAN Easy Install) which is part of the new vSAN 6.6 release. As I hinted at the end of the previous post, customers not only have a simplified way of bootstrapping the VCSA on vSAN from a UI standpoint but they can also completely automate this leveraging some of the new vSAN Management 6.6 APIs, which are the same APIs that the UI uses.

A new Managed Object called VsanVcsaDeployerSystem is now available when connecting to either a standalone ESXi host as well as a vCenter Server. It contains the following three methods:

Here is the workflow for automating the VCSA bootstrap installer:

Step 1 - Connect directly to the ESXi host which you wish to bootstrap vSAN. You will use the VsanPrepareVsanForVcsa() API which accepts a list of disks for either a Hybrid or All-Flash vSAN datastore.

Step 2 - Deploy the VCSA like you normally would using the CLI Installer. You will specify the ESXi host that you had just prepared in Step 1 which includes the vSAN Datastore that was setup as part of that process.

Step 3 - Once the VCSA has been successfully deployed, you will connect to the vCenter Server and use the VsanPostConfigForVcsa() API which will create a vSphere Datacenter, vSphere Cluster and enable it with vSAN (which can also include Dedupe/Compression if you are using an All-Flash setup) and then automatically add the ESXi host that you had just bootstrapped. If you have provisioned other ESXi hosts that have not been configured with vSAN, you can also include that into the API request. The really nice thing about this "post" API is that rather than having to call into several existing vSphere APIs to setup vCenter Server, you can do all of that just using this single API!

To help demonstrate the use of the these new vSAN Management APIs, I have created a simple Python script which exercises these new APIs called vsan-vcsa-deployer-sample.py The script supports three operations: listdisk, prepare and post.

Here is an example of running the listdisk operation which will list all available disks that are currently not in use and can be used by vSAN:

python vsan-vcsa-deployer-sample.py -s 192.168.1.100 -u root -p VMware1! --operation listdisk

Once you have the disks information, you can then use the prepare operation as shown below to bootstrap your ESXi host:

python vsan-vcsa-deployer-sample.py -s 192.168.1.100 -u root -p VMware1! --operation prepare --cache "SAMSUNG MZVPV128" --capacity "Samsung SSD 850"


At this point, you are now ready to deploy the VCSA using the CLI Installer. Once that has completed, you can complete the process by using the post operation and provide the required parameters to setup vCenter Server including the ESXi host that you had just bootstrapped so it can be added to the vCenter Server inventory as shown below:

python vsan-vcsa-deployer-sample.py -s 192.168.1.200 -u '*protected email*' -p VMware1! --operation post --datacenterName "VSAN-Datacenter" --clusterName "VSAN-Cluster" --esxName 192.168.1.100 --esxUsername root --esxPassword VMware1!


Once the post operation has completed, you will have a fully configured vCenter Server which you can check by logging into the vSphere Web Client. Pretty slick, if you ask me!

Project USB to SDDC - Part 3

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OK, the wait is finally over! In this final article, we will now walk through the process of getting access to this project as well as how to get this deployed in your own environment. For those that just want to see the code, you can find it at the Github project below:

Github Project: https://github.com/lamw/usb-to-sddc

Below are the details outlining the environment and software requirements as well as the instructions to consume this in your own home lab environment. The content below is a subset of what is published on the Github project, but this should get you going. For more details, please refer to the Github project and if you have any issues/questions, feel free to file a Github issue.

Environment Requirements:

  • USB key that is at least 6GB in capacity
  • Access to either macOS or Linux system as the script that creates the USB key is only supported on these two platforms
  • No additional USB keys must be plugged into the hardware system other than the primary installer USB key
  • Hardware system must have at least 2 disk drives which can either be 1xHDD and 1xSSD for running Hybrid vSAN OR 2xSSD for running All-Flash vSAN
  • Both Intel NUC 6th Gen and Supermicro E200-8D and E300-8D have been tested with this solution. It should work with other hardware systems that meet the minimum requirements but YMMV

Software Requirements:

Note: Other ESXi / VCSA 6.5.x versions can also be substituted, this includes the latest ESXi 6.5d (vSAN 6.6) release which I have also verified myself.

UPDATE (04/17/18) - No changes are required to get vSphere 6.7 to work, the only minor thing to be aware of is that the vSphere Web Client customization has changed in 6.7 and so you need to set VCSA_WEBCLIENT_THEME_NAME="" as empty string or you will find that the UI will not load unless you delete the customization directory in the VCSA that was pulled down automatically.

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Project USB to SDDC - Part 2

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In the previous article, I provided some background on the origin of the project. In this article, we will now focus on the technical details and how the solution actually works.

Hardware

This solution was originally developed against an Intel NUC but I had designed it to be generic so that it could run on any system which meets the minimum requirements which is just having two disks (HDD & SSD or two SSDs) which is used to create a vSAN datastore.

Here is the BOM for the Intel NUC that we had used:

During the Sydney VMUG, we had did a live demo using an Intel NUC. Prior to the Melbourne VMUG, fellow VMware colleague Tai Ratcliff reached out and offered to let us borrow his Supermicro kit for the demo which was great as the hardware was much beefier than the NUC. Thanks Tai!


I had already been hearing great things about E200-8D platform but I had not had the opportunity to get my hands on the system to play with. After only spending a little bit of time with the platform while prepping for the VMUG event, I can see why is a pretty slick system for a vSphere/vSAN based home lab, especially if you need to go beyond 32GB of memory which is where the Intel NUCs currently max out at.

The other appealing features for this platform is that it comes with 2x10GbE, 2x1GBe and an IPMI interface for remote management which is a huge benefit for not needing to connect an external monitor and keyboard. The system is also Xeon based w/6-Cores and can go all the way up to 128GB of memory. Tai had also recently published a blog article comparing the Supermicro E200-8D and the Intel NUC, which I think is worth a read if you are deciding between these two platforms.

Note: If you are considering purchasing the Supermicro E200-8D or any other system for that matter, check out this exclusive vGhetto discount here.

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