Refer to the Introduction to the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Import Tool blog to learn more about the VCF Import tool.
With the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.2 in July of 2024, we introduced the VCF Import tool, a new command-line interface (CLI) designed to help customers streamline their transition to a private cloud. This tool helps you quickly extend the SDDC Manager’s fleet management capabilities—such as certificate management, password management, and lifecycle management—to your existing vSphere or vSphere with vSAN deployments. Integrating SDDC Manager’s fleet management with your current infrastructure is seamless, without impacting running workloads, the vCenter server, vSphere APIs, or your management processes.
I’m pleased to announce a recent update to the VCF Import tool that makes it even easier to import your existing vSphere infrastructure to a modern private cloud. This latest release adds support for a broader range of vSphere environments and topologies and relaxes some of the constraints that were in place with the previous versions.
Downloading the Latest Updates
This latest update is available as part of the 5.2.1.1 dot release under VCF 5.2.1. To download the update, login to the Broadcom Software portal and under “My Downloads” navigate to “VMware Cloud Foundation”, expand “VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2”, and select “5.2.1”. The latest (5.2.1.1) version of the VCF Import Tool is available under the “Drivers & Tools” tab as shown in the screenshot below.
The ability to import vSphere clusters that have shared vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS)
Prior to this update, the VCF import tool required that each cluster have a dedicated VDS. This convention follows the recommended practice of keeping vSphere clusters isolated and avoiding dependencies across clusters. However, many customers instead elect to have fewer VDS’ in their environment and as such will often create a single VDS that is shared across multiple clusters. With this latest update we have added support for both dedicated and shared VDS configurations. This provides customers the flexibility of choosing their VDS deployment topology and makes it easier to import existing workloads into Cloud Foundation.
Support for importing clusters with LACP is enabled
Many customers prefer to use the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) on their physical switches to enable link aggregation. However, using LACP with VCF has traditionally not been supported. This latest update introduces support for LACP with both converted and imported domains. With this, the use of LACP is no longer an obstacle to moving vSphere infrastructure into Cloud Foundation.
Importing vSphere Environments with a mix of vLCM Images and Baselines
When deploying vSphere clusters, VCF provides the option to choose between using vSphere Lifecycle Management (vLCM) images or baselines. vLCM images is the newest approach for applying software updates to vSphere hosts and is based on a modern desired state model. vLCM baselines follow a traditional approach to applying updates based on creating baselines and attaching them to clusters. As customers transition from the older baseline approach to the newer image-based approach, we’re seeing many customers running with a mixed configuration where some clusters are using vLCM Images and others are using vLCM baselines. This mixing of images and baselines presented a challenge as VCF required that all the clusters in a vCenter inventory use the same vLCM type. With this latest release we now support importing mixed environments where some clusters are using vLCM Images and some clusters are using vLCM baselines. Again, this helps make it easier for customers to move to VCF by making it easier to bring existing infrastructure into a Cloud Foundation private cloud without having to make any changes or modifications.
Relaxing of Guardrails for vSphere Standard Switches and Standalone Hosts
Along with the changes noted above, this latest update also relaxes several constraints that previously prevented some topologies from being imported. This includes allowing the import of vSphere environments configured with vSphere Standard Switches, enabling support for vSphere environments that have standalone hosts in the vCenter inventory, as well as adding support for single-node clusters. Do note that while we have relaxed the constraints to allow these components to co-exist in the vCenter inventory, it is required for each vCenter instance to have at least one vSphere cluster that meets the minimum requirements as outlined in the Cloud Foundation Administration guide.
Conclusion
While on the outside it may look to be a simple dot release I think you’ll agree that the VCF 5.2.1.1 update to the VCF Import tool provides a lot of nice improvements. By adding support for shared VDS, enabling support for LACP, enabling a mix of vLCM images and baselines, and relaxing several of the guardrails we are making it even easier for customers to use the VCF Import tool to import their existing vsphere infrastructure into a modern private cloud built on VMware Cloud Foundation.
To learn more about the Cloud Foundation Import Tool:
- Watch this video demonstration: VCF Import Demo Video.
- Read the VCF Import Overview Blog.
- Refer to the Cloud Foundation Administration Guide.
