VCF 9.1 On DPC 1.4 – Walkthrough (Part5: VI WLD)

Part 5: Commissioning Hosts for a New VI Workload Domain

With the Management Domain fully deployed and the Dell Private Cloud Day-1 workflow complete, the next step is to begin expanding the environment by creating a new Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Workload Domain. In this part of the series, we’ll return to Dell Automation Platform and Orchestrator (DAPO) and walk through the host commissioning workflow, which prepares additional PowerEdge hosts for use within VMware Cloud Foundation.

Host commissioning is a key prerequisite before a server can be consumed by VCF and added to a workload domain. DAPO automates the entire lifecycle, performing infrastructure discovery, inventory collection, hardware and network validation, firmware assessment, health checks, ESXi imaging, credential management, certificate updates, and post-deployment validation. The workflow concludes with PowerStore storage verification and runtime cleanup, ensuring each host is fully compliant and ready for production use.

Host Commissioning Preparation Overview

These screenshots cover the preparation work required before launching the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission workflow. The process starts with importing the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission blueprint into DAPO, followed by onboarding the target PowerEdge servers using their iDRAC management interfaces.

During onboarding, DAPO performs hardware discovery, inventory collection, and connectivity validation, ultimately placing the hosts into a Ready for Provisioning state. Once onboarded, the discovered hardware inventory is reviewed to verify server models, CPU and memory configuration, storage controllers, BIOS versions, and network adapters. Special attention is given to confirming that the required network uplinks are present, enabled, and reporting an Up status.

The final validation step focuses on Fibre Channel connectivity. Using DAPO, iDRAC, and PowerStore Manager, the Fibre Channel adapters, link status, and WWNs are verified to ensure the hosts are correctly zoned and visible to the PowerStore array. Completing these checks confirms that networking, storage, and hardware prerequisites have been met before moving on to the automated host commissioning workflow.

Host Commissioning Workflow Configuration and Deployment

The next stage of the host commissioning process focuses on configuring and launching the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission blueprint. During this phase, the workflow is connected to the onboarded PowerStore array using Fibre Channel storage, and a new PowerStore volume is defined for the future workload domain. Management networking details are then specified, including the subnet mask, gateway, management VLAN, DNS servers, NTP servers, and DNS domain.

The Hosts Settings section is used to add each server that will be commissioned into the workflow. For each PowerEdge host, the required details include the Service Tag, management IP address, hostname, ESXi root credential, and management uplink. In this example, three hosts (esx05, esx06, and esx07) are added to the deployment and configured to use a single management uplink, as recommended in the deployment guide.

Before deployment, the Execution Graph and Deployment Plan can be reviewed to understand the sequence of automated tasks that DAPO will perform. These include hardware discovery, inventory collection, NIC validation, bundle downloads, system profile application, firmware assessment, pre-image validation, ESXi re-imaging, credential rotation, certificate updates, post-image validation, PowerStore storage verification, and runtime cleanup. Reviewing these workflow stages provides valuable insight into the commissioning process and can significantly simplify troubleshooting if issues occur.

Once the deployment inputs and workflow plan have been validated, the blueprint is launched and a new deployment instance is created within DAPO. The deployment initially enters an Install Pending state before progressing through the commissioning lifecycle. At this point, DAPO begins preparing the hosts for VMware Cloud Foundation by validating hardware, applying firmware compliance, re-imaging ESXi, updating credentials and certificates, and performing the final checks required to bring the hosts into a Ready for Consumption state for a new VI Workload Domain deployment.

DAPO Host Commissioning Workflow Summary

These screenshots capture the end-to-end execution of the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission workflow, which prepares new PowerEdge hosts for inclusion in a VMware Cloud Foundation VI Workload Domain.

The process begins by deploying the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission blueprint and providing the required configuration, including PowerStore settings, management networking, DNS, NTP, and the host definitions. The target PowerEdge hosts are added to the workflow using their service tags, management IP addresses, root credentials, and designated management uplinks.

Once launched, DAPO performs a series of automated validation and preparation tasks, beginning with hardware discovery, inventory collection, NIC validation, bundle downloads, and input validation. The workflow then applies the required Dell system profile and performs a firmware assessment, automatically remediating any components that do not match the versions defined in the Dell Private Cloud hardware bundle. Firmware activities can be monitored from both DAPO and iDRAC, where component updates such as BOSS controller firmware upgrades are visible.

After firmware remediation completes, DAPO performs pre-image validation and proceeds to ESXi 9.1 imaging, automatically installing the validated Dell ESXi image on each host. The newly deployed hosts then perform management network validation checks, confirming gateway connectivity, DNS resolution, and hostname registration. Once imaging is complete, the workflow rotates ESXi credentials, updates host certificates, and performs comprehensive post-image health validation.

The final stages of the workflow validate PowerStore connectivity and confirm successful storage presentation to the newly commissioned hosts. Runtime cleanup tasks are then executed, deployment artifacts are removed, and the deployment transitions to a Deployed state. The execution graph shows all stages completed successfully, and the hosts are updated in the DAPO inventory to Online and Provisioned.

By the end of the commissioning process, the PowerEdge servers have been discovered, validated, remediated, imaged, secured, and integrated with storage. The hosts are now fully prepared and available for consumption by VMware Cloud Foundation, providing the infrastructure required to create the next VI Workload Domain cluster, which will be covered in the next part of the series.

Dell Private Cloud Extension Host Commissioning

The final set of screenshots covers the VCF onboarding phase that follows host commissioning. While the hosts were previously discovered, validated, remediated, and imaged through the DPC_VCF_Node_Commission workflow in DAPO, they are not yet visible within VMware Cloud Foundation. To make the hosts available for workload domain deployment, they must be onboarded through the Dell Private Cloud Extension within the Management Domain vCenter.

During this process, the wizard collects the required networking, storage, DNS, NTP, and network pool information before performing a series of automated validation checks, including input validation, ESXi version compatibility, and host network validation. Once validation completes successfully, the Commission Hosts operation is initiated, which registers the hosts with VMware Cloud Foundation and associates them with the configured network pool.

Following commissioning, the Dell Private Cloud Extension monitors the onboarding workflow and performs the required post-commissioning processing. Once completed, the hosts transition to a successfully commissioned state and become visible within VMware Cloud Foundation → Inventory → Hosts → Unassigned Hosts. In this example, esx05.lab.local, esx06.lab.local, and esx07.lab.local appear as Active and Unassigned, confirming that they have been successfully onboarded into VMware Cloud Foundation and are now available for consumption by a new workload domain.

This step is a critical part of the process, as DAPO commissioning alone does not make the hosts available within SDDC Manager. The Dell Private Cloud Extension onboarding workflow completes the registration process and exposes the hosts to VMware Cloud Foundation, allowing them to be selected during the creation of a new VI Workload Domain.