If you want to move your existing VMware vSphere clusters to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and you have an existing VCF environment, you can import your vSphere clusters to VCF. However, if you don’t have any pre-existing VMware SDDC Manager instances deployed, you can still manage your existing vSphere environment like VCF by converting your vSphere environment to VCF.
I’ve previously shared written step-by-step instructions, but I know that some people find video content more helpful. In my recent webinar with Cecilio Alvarado, head of VCF Portfolio Services Engineering and Lifecycle Services at Broadcom, I walked through the process of how to do this.You can check out the full webinar replay at the end of this blog, but let’s take a look at some of the highlights we covered.
Webinar highlights
The webinar starts with an overview of VCF. VCF is a private cloud platform that automates and orchestrates deployment and management of compute, storage, and networking. The fundamental building block of VCF is the workload domain, which houses compute, storage, and networking resources and includes operational functions for deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management. The initial workload domain deployed is the management workload domain. Subsequent workload domains are for running applications. VMware SDDC Manager provides automated workflows for initial deployment, lifecycle management, scaling operations, and Day 2 operations such as password/certificate management.
The first step of the conversion process is to precheck the existing vSphere environment to ensure it meets conversion prerequisites. A python script is run directly on the VMware vCenter to perform the precheck. The precheck identifies potential issues that need to be addressed before conversion. In the webinar I show demos of running prechecks and remediating issues on vCenter, specifically upgrading an incompatible vCenter and VMware ESX hosts.
The next step is to prepare the environment for conversion. This includes downloading the SDDC Manager appliance OVA, VCF Import Tool, and appropriate VMware NSX bundle. The NSX JSON file contains critical information for the new NSX deployment including license keys, bundle path, and IP/DNS/gateway/subnet details for the NSX Manager cluster nodes. This file needs to be configured correctly for the conversion process. The last step in preparing the environment is to make sure the SDDC Manager appliance is deployed. Here I show a demo of deploying an SDDC Manager appliance that includes selecting the OVA file, providing a name, choosing the deployment location, accepting the end-user license agreement (EULA), selecting storage, configuring the network, and setting passwords for various VCF user accounts.
The final step is performing the actual conversion. This includes running prechecks from SDDC Manager, creating the vCenter instance in SDDC Manager, and deploying the new NSX environment. After the conversion script is completed and the services on the SDDC Manager need to be restarted, the SDDC Manager interface should show the converted vSphere environment as a management domain. I walk through demos showing these final steps.
Key takeaways
- VCF streamlines the process of upgrading and managing infrastructure.
- The automated workflows reduce complexity, manual intervention and errors.
- The VCF Import Tool allows you to convert your existing vSphere environments to VCF enabling simplified operations and management.
- Pre-checks are crucial to a successful conversion.
- VCF Professional Services can help with complex remediations and configurations.
On-demand replay
If you missed the webinar, you can watch the replay below. Discussion and demo timestamps are provided if you would like to jump directly to specific sections.
01:35 Introductions and agenda
04:41 VCF 5.2 overview
10:02 Importing vs. converting vSphere discussion
13:50 Demo of running prechecks on vCenter
16:48 Demo of upgrading vCenter
21:50 Demo of upgrading ESX hosts
25:03 Preparing the environment discussion
27:01 Demo of deploying an SDDC Manager appliance
32:23 SDDC Manager detailed precheck discussion and demo
39:35 Demo of convert process
47:10 Q&A
Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about moving to VCF 5.2 and how VCF Professional Services can help, check out these other blogs written by Cecilio and myself:
