Category Archives: VCF

Planning the Hardware Requirements for the VMware Cloud Foundation Management Domain, Part 2: Cloud Operations and Automation

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In Part 1, we built the hardware build of materials and determined the utilization of a basic VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) management domain deployment. But we need to put the “cloud” in by adding automation and self-service capabilities provided by vRealize Suite. To accomplish that, we can use SDDC Manager to deploy all the components of the vRealize Suite: Operations, Automation, and Log Insight into the SDDC. In this post, we’ll explore the compute and storage requirements for these components like we did in the previous post. This is going to explore the components required for a single region SDDC. There are a few more steps and components needed for setting up Cross-Region support.

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Planning the Hardware Requirements for the VMware Cloud Foundation Management Domain

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When talking with customers about deploying a standard VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) architecture, the topic of the hardware requirements and details for the management domain are usually glossed over. There’s a basic understanding that it will consist of 4 hosts with sufficient resources to run the SDDC components for the workload domains that it manages. When it comes time for purchasing though, what is the actual hardware that will run the management domain and does VMware have recommended specs for hardware for the management domain?

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Valid VMware License Types in Cloud Foundation (VCF) API

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When I first start working with an API, I aim for low-hanging fruit. REST APIs, by nature, should be very generic in how they’re interacted with; however, there’s usually small nuances to take into consideration. For example, I recently found out that the VMware Cloud on AWS API uses a csp-auth-token header for authentication and authorization.

While authorization and authentication to the VCF API was straightforward (SDDC Manager username and password), I struggled the first time with POSTing a new VMware license due the API requiring a specific format for productType.

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Automating VMware Cloud Foundation with PowerVCF

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In a recent post, I wrote about interacting with VCF using the API to add a new license key as a simple way to begin familiarizing myself with the API. As a huge proponent of PowerShell, I began looking for a module to talk to the API but came up empty handed. I began working on a module with vSphere admins in mind because I know the important role PowerShell plays in day-to-day operations. During a conversation with Jase McCarty, he told me about the PowerVCF project which does exactly that! The module was initially developed and is maintained by Brian O’Connell and has 50 cmdlets which covers ~70% of the API calls in VCF 3.9.0:

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Where’s My VMware Cloud Foundation License?

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A common question I receive from customers is why they don’t see a VMware Cloud Foundation license in the MyVMware portal. What appears instead is licenses for each individual product that make up the VCF edition you purchased. Which is typically:

  • vSphere & vCenter
  • vSAN
  • NSX
  • SDDC Manager
  • vRealize Operations, Automation, and Log Insight
  • Horizon (optional)
  • Enterprise PKS (optional)
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Announcing VMware Cloud Foundation 3.8

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VMware Cloud Foundation 3.8 was released in July 2019 and the biggest news in this release is the addition of public RESTful APIs for common tasks that are performed for workload domains and other day 2 operations. Managing Cloud Foundation in the SDDC manager is incredibly intuitive but customers have significant investment in existing IT and business systems such as vRA or ServiceNow. 

In large scale cloud foundation deployments like I work with in Global Accounts, this will be a heavily used feature because customers now have the ability to utilize existing provisioning workflows in vRA or create new workflows that allow ops teams to orchestrate even higher levels of automation. Some common operational tasks that are available in version 1 of the API are:

  • Commission and decommission hosts
  • Create and delete workload domains
  • Scale clusters
  • Manage network pools

Cloud Foundation 3.8 also adds capability for the SDDC manager to patch and upgrade all vRealize Suite components and NSX-T. In previous versions, SDDC manager could deploy vRealize Suite but initial config, patching, and upgrades were handled manually through each individual component. The Cloud Foundation engineering teams has been rapidly deploying enhancements and this version comes just 6 weeks since the last major release.

For further details such as release notes and planning and upgrade guides for Cloud Foundation 3.8, visit VMware Docs.