Step-by-step VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2.1 install

In my previous post I was working with NSX-T, however due to some urgent requirement I started testing latest VCF suite. Hence this post is not about NSX-T, its about deploying VCF in home lab. Now as we all know that VCF is a pre-packaged bundle which comes with pre-validated versions of VMware portfolio products, and helps organizations adopt the private cloud with very little manual efforts. It uses automation to deploy the SDDC.

I am running VCF deployment on a single physical server, hence at some point in time I will run out of resources, at that point I will switch to deployment of VCF using VLC, VLC is the VMware Cloud Foundation Lab Constructor designed for professionals like us who wants to test product but can be limited due to physical resources. I am doing it old fashion way just to demonstrate how deployment would happen in real world, however VLC would actually be better to test the product. In case you do not have resources to test it at your ease no need to get disheartened, you can use simulation to learn.

What is vExpert?? Should I apply??

Well, I am not sure if you are aware of it or not but, applications are open for vExpert 2021. Now the big question what is vExpert and should I apply for it?

Let me answer the second question first, and answer is "YES, you should".

Home Lab Step-by-Step-NSX-T 3.1 design and Install-P1

 In my previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-10-vSAN 7, we completed single site vSAN cluster setup. Now we will start deployment of NSX-T manager, after completing NSX-T manager installation we will talk about the different design scenarios, and we will discuss the deployment method for them as well.

If you are new to software defined networking space, then I would highly recommend reading Getting Started with NSX-T: Logical Routing and Switching: The Basic Principles of Building Software-Defined Network Architectures with VMware NSX-T by Iwan Hoogendoorn and If you at advanced level then would recommend reading Multi-Site Network and Security Services with NSX-T: Implement Network Security, Stateful Services, and Operations

Before we start deployment of our NSX-T manager, we need to make sure we are ready with pre-requisites. What are those pre-reqs? Well these are clear system requirements for NSX-T, hence kindly check them properly and make sure everything is in place.

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-10-vSAN 7

In my previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-9-HA-DRS, we completed the deployment of our virtual SDDC, and now we are ready to test different solutions.

Here, I would try to add some history, relevance and information about the solution we will be deploying in our lab environment. This should give you a fair understanding why we are doing something and what is the use case. Which becomes very helpful when we go out in real world for designing solutions for our customers.

So, let’s start with vSAN. First question which should be answered is “What is vSAN”?

Probably you already know the answer of this question, if not than let me help you with that.

Every datacenter (physical or virtual) comprises of five core elements, Compute, Storage, Network, Backup/Recovery and Security.

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-9-HA-DRS

In my previous post, Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-8-vCenter we have successfully deployed vCenter server, and now we are ready to configure vCenter server.

Just be aware that as we are performing these actions in a nested environment, we will face performance issues, hence do not run out of patience due to slowness and delayed response. 

Now in order to start we will login to the vCenter server https://vcsa.lab.local, using SSO credentials.

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-8-vCenter

In my previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-7-Shared storage, we have configured shared storage, DNS entries and NTP setup. Now we are ready to deploy vCenter.

Lets start by downloading the vCenter ISO from VMware Customer connect portal.

Once you have downloaded the ISO, we can start deployment process.

Locate the downloaded ISO and mount it on the base machine ( I am using addc server for this task).

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-7-Shared storage

 In my previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-6-Nested-ESXi we completed, installation of nested esxi servers, and now we are ready to create shared storage for our nested SDDC environment.

To facilitate shared storage to our ESXi servers, we have already installed iSCSi target server role on ADDC in our previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-5-Infrastructure Services now its time to configure the shared volume and for that we added one extra disk to the ADDC server. You can ignore the extra disk I added other than the one highlighted (I am using it for keeping ISO files).

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-6-Nested-ESXi

In my previous post, Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-5-Infrastructure Services we have completed configuration of Active Directory, DNS and NTP (DC will serve as NTP), these are our infrastructure services.

Now we are ready for deployment of Nested ESXi servers. installation procedure is same as physical server however, there are few things we need to keep in mind while creating the VM for nested environment.

So lets start, login to the physical ESXi server with root credentials by navigating to https://"youresxiIP and under virtual machines select option Create VM.

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-5-Infrastructure Services

 In my previous post Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-4-virtual router, we configured complete underlay networking for our Nested SDDC, We will do BGP configuration  once we advance thru the lab.

As now we have Compute, Storage and Network ready, we need the infrastructure services, such as DNS, Active Directory and NTP.

We need to install one windows server which will serve as an active directory, DNS and iSCSi server for our setup.

In order to install the windows server, we would need windows server ISO. Now we will start installation of the server.

We will login to the ESXi server we installed, https://youresxiIP and use "root" credentials for login.

We will use the same steps as we used in deploying CSR1000v in our previous post and we will deploy it on the management network. We will use below mentioned IPs for our servers.

Home Lab Step-by-Step Part-4-virtual router

 

In my previous post HomeLab Step-by-Step Part-3-Networking, we have completed configuration of required port groups, datastore etc. Now we are ready to start deployment of virtual router.

We will be creating a network topology shown in this image.