VCF 9.1 On DPC 1.4 – Walkthrough (Part1: Management WLD)

Note: this is an example for reference only please use the DELL installation procedures provided by Dell and referenced below.

PART1 PART2 PART3 PART4

This is the first in a series of posts covering VCF 9.1 On DPC 1.4. The following post provides an example walkthrough covering the process of:

Deploying the VxRail Management Workload Domain Cluster

Versions used in this example are VCF 9.1 On DPC 1.4. Release Information:

Announcing VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell Private Cloud v1.4

Management Workload Domain Creation

VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell Private Cloud 1.4 delivers a turnkey experience for deploying a fully integrated private cloud platform. Using Dell Automation Platform and Orchestrator (DAPO), much of the infrastructure provisioning and configuration is automated, helping administrators move from bare-metal infrastructure to a production-ready VCF environment with minimal manual effort. In this walkthrough, we’ll examine the key deployment stages, from platform preparation and orchestration setup through to the deployment of the VCF Management Workload Domain

Deploy & Configure: Dell Automation Platform and Orchestrator

The first step in the VCF 9.1 on DPC 1.4 deployment is to deploy the Dell Automation Platform and Orchestrator (DAPO) OVA to a supported ESX or vCenter host (ESX in this example). DAPO provides the automation and orchestration services that will be used throughout the deployment, including infrastructure discovery, validation, and VCF deployment workflows.

While the OVA deployment itself only takes a few minutes, the appliance requires additional time to initialize services and complete orchestrator configuration. Plan for approximately one hour before DAPO is fully operational and ready for use.

With DAPO deployed and ready, the next steps are:

License DAPO
Create an Orchestrator Client
Generate the dpc.yaml configuration file
Upload the required DPC bundles

With the bundles uploaded, the next stage is to prepare and validate the infrastructure:

Create the required secrets for authentication and service integration.
Add the compute assets (PowerEdge servers).
Add the storage assets (PowerStore arrays).
Verify all server NICs are up and correctly connected to the network infrastructure.
Confirm the WWNs are present on the PowerStore arrays and visible to the connected hosts.

Completing these checks early helps avoid connectivity and storage discovery issues during the deployment of the VCF Management Workload Domain Cluster.

Important: The VCF Installer root and VCF Installer Local User (admin@local) credentials must meet VMware Cloud Foundation password complexity requirements. Ensure both passwords are at least 15 characters in length and satisfy the required complexity rules before creating the secrets in DAPO. Additionally, the password configured for the admin@local account is also used for the vcf user account created during the deployment. The vcf account provides SSH access to the VCF Installer and later the SDDC Manager appliance for deployment monitoring and troubleshooting. Failure to meet these requirements will cause validation failures during the VCF Installer deployment phase and prevent the workflow from progressing successfully.

In Part 2, we’ll focus on the automation workflows that drive the Dell Private Cloud deployment. The walkthrough will cover importing the DPC blueprints into DAPO and configuring the VCF on DPC Deployment Blueprint. We’ll step through the blueprint workflow, review the required inputs, validate the environment, and kick off the automated deployment process that provisions the VCF Management Workload Domain.