VVD

VMware VVD 5.0 – BOM

David Ring VMware , , ,

Previous posts:
VMware VVD 4.2 – BOM
VMware VVD 4.3 – BOM

VMware Validated Design 5.0

The following is a list of all the components and their versions as per VMware Validated Design 5.0.

This new VVD 5.0 release includes for example vSphere 6.7 U1, NSX 6.4.4, vSAN 6.7 U1, vRealize Log Insight 4.7, vRealize Business 7.5, vRealize Operations 7.0 and vRealize Automation 7.5.

Note: the list below can be officially found @VMware VVD 5.0 Release Notes

‘vRealize Lifecycle Manager v1.2’ (vRSLCM) was introduced with VVD 4.3, as per VVD 5.0 vRSLCM 2.0.0 Patch2 is the latest certified version. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) v2.0 is a centralized way to manage the vRealize suite of products from a single pane of glass, allowing users to perform tasks such as installation, configuration, content management, integrated market place, upgrades, patching, certificate management, support matrix lookup among other admin tasks.. more details can be found here on the What’s New video for vRSLCM 2.0.

In terms of ‘Whats New’ the biggest addition in this release is the introduction of VMware Cloud Builder (an automation tool leveraged to deploy the SDDC stack, such as the vRealize suite, vSphere, NSX and vSAN) and talking from experience this will save you ALOT of manual effort in terms of deploying the SDDC stack. Cloud Builder essentially cuts for example the Standard Deployment for Region A implementation doc to ~80 pages from ~400! @LifeOfBrianOC has written an excellent series of blog posts detailing VVD Cloudbuilder deployment process: VMware Validated Designs – Automated Deployment with Cloudbuilder

Continue reading →

VVD on VxRail – Sizing

David Ring VMware, VxRAIL , , ,

VMware Validated Design (VVD) for SDDC on Dell EMC VxRail

Accelerating the path to the VMware Software Defined Data Center (SDDC). Offering VVD with complete vSAN, NSX and vRealize capabilities on the No.1 Dell EMC HCI platform. VMware Validated Design (v4.2) Certified Partner Architecture on the Dell EMC VxRail 4.5 based on PowerEdge 14g.

VxRail VVD

The following details the minimum VxRail hardware requirements per region for both the Management & Edge/Compute Workload Domains in order to implement the architecture of a VVD design on VxRail. Continue reading →

VVD on VxRail – Shared Edge & Compute Domain (External vCenter Installation)

David Ring VMware, VxRAIL , , , , ,

Note: this is an example for reference only please use the VxRail ‘External vCenter’ installation procedures provided by Dell EMC.

The following will require an understanding of the VVD on VxRAIL design for which all associated documentation can be found here:

VMware Validated Design 4.2 on VxRail Deployment Guides

This post details how to install a VxRail appliance leveraging an external vCenter server, for example this is the case when you wish to deploy a VVD on VxRail solution where the second VxRail instance used for the Shared Edge and Compute Domain (Workload Domain) requires the use of an external vCenter (vCenter is deployed on the Management Domain VxRail Appliance). This process is strictly for the workload domain  and differs from the procedure used to deploy the first Management Domain VxRail Appliance. For more information on the architecture of VVD on VxRail please check out this cool lightboard video from Jason:

VVD for SDDC on VxRail Lightboard Overview

To begin you will need to have the Shared Edge and Compute Domain (Workload Domain) vCenter deployed on the management VxRAIL Appliance. Continue reading →

vCenter VCSA 6.5 – Repoint to New PSC

David Ring VMware, VxRAIL , , , , ,

Please also see related post:

VCSA 6.0U2 Lookup SSO Domain Name & Site Name

The following details how to repoint a vCenter VCSA using an external PSC within the same site to a different PSC FQDN. One reason for completing such a task is in the event of your active PSC failing you can simply repoint VC to a second PSC in the same site. The reason I completed such a task was part of a VxRAIL VVD deployment leveraging a load balanced PSC config which required to repoint the VxRAIL management VC to the LB FQDN.

If you wish to confirm the current configuration status of PSC & VC simply navigate via the Web Client:

Home->Admin->System Config->Nodes->Objects

vcsarepoint0 Continue reading →