VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) has been a cornerstone for building robust private clouds in core data centers. VMware Cloud Foundation Edge extends these benefits, providing an integrated, automated platform designed for distributed environments. It brings the consistency, security, and operational efficiency of VCF to your edge locations, whether they’re small outposts or larger regional hubs.
Introducing Single-Node vSphere Supervisor: The Game Changer for VCF Edge in VMware Cloud Foundation
One of the most anticipated developments in VCF 9.0 for edge use cases is the ability to leverage single-node vSphere Supervisor.
Traditionally, deploying vSphere Supervisor, which enables Kubernetes capabilities on vSphere, required a cluster of at least three ESXi hosts. While suitable for larger edge sites, this presented a hurdle for ultra-lean deployments.
VCF 9.0 addresses these challenges by providing following new capabilities:
- Modernize Your Edge Footprint: Deploy a compact yet powerful solution that brings the full power of Kubernetes to even the smallest edge locations.
- Run both VM and Cloud-Native Workloads Locally: Directly host containerized applications and services on a single ESXi host, leveraging the integrated vSphere Supervisor for management.
- Maximize Resource Utilization: Get the most out of a single physical server by efficiently running both virtual machines and containerized applications, managed by a unified control plane.
Best fit Scenarios
Single node vSphere Supervisor is crucial for edge use cases due to several factors that align with the unique demands and constraints of edge deployments:
- Deploy Cloud-Native application in very small sites: Run containerized applications and VMs in places with limited space and power, like small retail branches, tactical edges, remote IoT gateways, or specific factory floor segments.
- Reduce Edge Footprint & Cost: Maximize the use of a single server to handle both traditional VMs and modern container workloads, cutting down on hardware and associated operational expenses.
- Enable Local Processing & Low Latency: Process data and run applications directly at the source, crucial for real-time analytics, AI/ML inference, and critical operational control at the edge.
- Simplify Remote Management: Benefit from centralized VCF management and automation for these single-server edge sites, minimizing the need for on-site IT staff.
Design Options:
Option 1: VCF Instance, single domain with single node cluster
| Design Requirement | Details | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Management Domain | One | Dedicated Cluster for all management components of VCF Fleet, such as VCF Operations, vCenter, SDDC Manager and NSX Customers have the flexibility to host this either locally at the edge location or at a central data center |
| vSphere Cluster | One or Multiple | Use the vCenter to create one node vSphere Cluster based on your requirement. |
| VCF Networking | vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) | Configure vSphere Distributed Switch for vSphere Supervisor |
| vSphere Supervisor | One | Supervisor needs to be enabled on a single node cluster by logging into vCenter. |
| Supervisor Zone | One | Assign zone during Supervisor activation process. |
| VCF Storage | Local Storage or External Storage | Ensure you have local or external storage |
| Licensing | VCF or VCF Edge License | Deploy VCF Fleet and apply either VCF or VCF Edge license. |
| Latency and bandwidth | 100ms and 10mbps | If your Edge sites are managed remotely from a central location, please ensure you have recommended latency and bandwidth described. |
| WAN link | Dedicated dual-link connection | A primary and secondary WAN link is recommended to maintain constant connectivity between vCenter and vSphere Supervisor-enabled hosts. |
ℹ️Note: When deploying Single node cluster for vSphere Supervisor in VCF Instance, you need to configure the cluster manually and add host to that cluster in the respective vCenter. There is no single node workload domain creation workflow with VCF Operations in this release.
Option 2: VCF Operations and vCenter with single node cluster
| Design Requirement | Details | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Management Cluster | One | Dedicated Cluster for all management components such as vCenter and VCF Operations. Customers have the flexibility to host this either locally at the edge location or at a central data center |
| VCF Operations | One | Mandatory component for license management |
| vSphere Cluster | Multiple | One node vSphere Cluster per site |
| VCF Networking | vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) | vSphere Distributed Switch is used for vSphere Supervisor and additional services. |
| vSphere Supervisor | One | Supervisor needs to be enabled on single node cluster by logging into vCenter |
| Supervisor Zone | One | Assign zone during Supervisor activation. |
| Storage | Local or External Storage | Ensure you have local or external storage attached to the host |
| Licensing | VCF Edge License | You can deploy this design as a VVF model with VCF Installer; however, you need to apply for the VCF Edge License after deployment. |
| Latency and bandwidth | 100ms and 10mbps | If your edge sites are managed remotely from a central location, please ensure you have recommended latency and bandwidth described. |
| WAN link | Dedicated dual-link connection | A primary and secondary WAN link is recommended to maintain constant connectivity between vCenter and vSphere Supervisor-enabled hosts. |
Pre-Supervisor Enablement Checklist
| Task | Details |
|---|---|
| Storage Policy Creation | Create a Storage Policy in vCenter |
| Cluster Configuration | Ensure DRS and vSphere HA are enabled on the cluster. |
| DRS | DRS – Set “Fully Automated” |
| vSphere HA | Host Failure Monitoring -Off (Disabled)VM Monitoring – ON Admission Control – Off (Disabled) |
| vSphere Distributed Switch | Create a separate VDS for VCF Edge compute cluster deployment |
| DVPG for Supervisor Control Plane | Create a separate port group for supervisor control plane |
| DVPG for workload | Create a separate port group for workloads. |
| DVPG for Native Load Balancer | Create a separate port group for load balancer |
Configuration Steps:
Step 1. Create VM Storage Policies for the Edge cluster
Select Datastore Specific Rules – Enable rules for “VMFS” Storage and complete the storage policy creation.
Step 2: Disable HA Admission Control
Disabling HA Admission Control will prevent vSphere HA from blocking virtual machine power-ons or migrations due to perceived resource constraints in a single-node environment, allowing for more flexible resource utilization.
Please see above for detailed design options for DRS and HA when you are creating the cluster.
Step 3 and 4 : Configure vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) and port groups
Step 5: Deploy vSphere Supervisor
For single-host vSphere Supervisor deployments, selecting an appropriate control plane size is crucial. We suggest utilizing either the “Tiny” or “Small” sizing options unless a specific requirement demands a different configuration, in which case the host should be sized accordingly.
Note: You can only scale up the control plane size after initial deployment, not scale down.
| Tiny | 2 CPUs, 8 GB Memory, 32 GB Storage |
| Small | 4 CPUs, 16 GB Memory, 32 GB Storage |
| Medium | 8 CPUs, 16 GB Memory, 32 GB Storage |
| Large | 16 CPUs, 32 GB Memory, 32 GB Storage |
Conclusion:
Organizations that demand the agility of cloud-native applications alongside the stability of virtual machines will benefit from the Single-Node vSphere Supervisor, introduced in VCF 9.0. This pivotal advancement makes it feasible to deploy robust VMs and container workloads on a single ESX host, significantly reducing the hardware footprint and operational complexity at the edge. Once vSphere Supervisor is enabled, customers have full flexibility to deploy VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS), Argo CD, and other supervisor services that are part of VCF. This design also provides comprehensive support for leveraging Argo CD to manage application deployment at scale.
Resources:
Please refer to VCF Edge Detailed Design for various other design patterns.
Planning and Preparation Workbook for resource requirements for VCF management components
Discover more from VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
