VCF ON VXRAIL 4.0 – DEPLOYING VREALIZE SUITE (PART1 – VRSLCM)

VCF Version: 4.0.1.1

Note: ensure ‘My VMware’ creds are entered successfully in the SDDC Manager repository settings and the list of available products are being displayed in the SDDC Manager repository.

Before we can deploy vRSLCM we first need to download the the vRSLCM product Binary. From within the SDDC Manager console click Repository->Bundle Management and download the VMware Software Install Bundle – vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.1.0:

To begin the deployment of vRSLCM navigate to Administration->vRealize Suite->vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager and click DEPLOY:

Before proceeding with the deployment of vRSLCM there are few pre-reqs that need to be met:

AVN (Deployed as per Cloud Builder)
IP subnet & Gateway
DNS entry, FQDN & IP Address for vRSLCM appliance

Once you have validated that the required pre-reqs are met using tools such as nslookup to check forward/reverse DNS records and confirming the AVN is routable to the management network, then click BEGIN:

The appropriate network settings auto populate with the correct AVN values

vRealize AVN
Subnet Mask & Gateway for the dedicated network
DNS & NTP

Next enter the vRSLCM vm appliance settings:

vRSLCM FQDN
System Admin (SDDC Mgr uses this account to communicate with vRSLCM)
SSH Root Account

Review provided settings and click FINISH:

Validation in-progress (checks forward/reverse DNS records):

Deployment in progress. Click on task and open the deploy vRSLCM task to track progress of the installation:

View from vSphere UI, OVF being deployed:

If the install pauses at the following stage it most likely this implies MTU has not been set correctly for the NSX-T edge overlay network. This is due the fact NSX-T relies on the GENEVE (GEneric NEtwork Virtualization) standard which requires Jumbo Frames 1600>. The following slide show details modifying the ToR switch NSX-T edge overlay network with jumbo frames config, failing the task and hitting ‘retry’:

Details of tasks performed during the vRSLCM deployment:

On successful completion of the vRSLCM deployment task it is now possible to log into vRSLCM console via SDDC Manager, navigate to Administration->vRealize Suite->vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager and click the lick vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager:

Enter the System Admin password provided for the install:

The vRSLCM console opens and from here we can see the config and imports applied as part of the SDDC Mgr deployed vRSLCM:

Network topology view from NSX-T manager UI details the Application Virtual Network including the two NSX-T Edge virtual appliances in the management workload domain to support upstream connectivity for the AVN (the 2 edges are hosting the T0&1 G/W’s):