Deploy the VCF Installer Appliance on ESXi

Overview

This VCF Installer appliance deployment walkthrough starts with the downloaded OVA and follows the ESXi deployment wizard. I cover the appliance inputs, network settings and initial access used to prepare my lab for the next deployment stage.

Related background: VCF Installer Download Site

Before deploying the OVA

• Use the linked Broadcom download page to obtain the VCF Installer OVA for the release you intend to deploy. Sign in with an account authorized to download it, check the filename/version and verify the published checksum when available. The screenshots show the 9.0.0.0 appliance; do not treat that build as the latest release.
• Choose an ESXi host and datastore with capacity for the selected appliance deployment. Confirm the target port group, VLAN, routing and firewall rules before power-on; the appliance must reach the management systems, DNS and NTP services it will use.
• Reserve an unused static IPv4 address, subnet mask and gateway. Prepare the appliance FQDN and matching forward (A) and reverse (PTR) DNS records, plus DNS server and search-domain values.
• Prepare the required appliance passwords and reachable NTP servers. Enter NTP during OVA customization: Broadcom KB 422243 documents later deployment validation failures when this input is omitted.
• If the target VM network is not ready, disable automatic power-on and correct its VLAN mapping first. Broadcom KB 405833 describes a VCF 9.0 bring-up failure associated with a missing port-group VLAN during initialization.

Deploy the installer OVA

Once you have downloaded the VCF installer, login to your esxi host and click on virtual machines.

Click on Create/Register VM, and select Deploy a virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File. Then click Next.

Enter a name for the virtual machine and click to select files.

You are going to select the VCF installer ova you downloaded and click Next.

Select a datastore where this appliance will be installed and click Next.

Click I Agree on the license agreement and click Next.

Select the network mappings, disk provisioning for the appliance. I have pre-configured my VM Network to the correct VLAN id for all my management servers. Then click Next.

Configure the appliance

You will want to expand Application and enter the appropriate configuration settings

Also expand the Networking Configuration and enter the appropriate settings for your network. Click Next when completed

Start and access the installer

Review the settings at the Ready to complete screen and if correct, click Finish. This will start the VCF installer deployment and it will power on after it has deployed the OVA.

Depending on how your network is setup this could take some time to deploy and after the appliance has powered on it will require some additional time to complete the setup. Once the appliance has finished setting up and deploying, you can access it via web browser with the hostname you provided.

Installer readiness check

Before starting the next deployment stage, check the following expected results. This is a readiness checklist, not a new lab-validation report.

• The OVA deployment task completes and the appliance remains powered on without a startup error.
• The appliance FQDN resolves to the reserved address, and reverse lookup returns the intended name using your configured DNS servers.
• The web interface opens by FQDN from the management workstation. Verify that the certificate belongs to the intended appliance before signing in; resolve unexpected name or trust problems.
• The appliance inputs show the intended hostname, network and NTP values. Resolve connectivity or time-synchronization errors before proceeding.

Installer access alone does not prove that a VCF deployment is ready. Prepare the install binaries through your chosen online or offline depot workflow, and run the validation for the deployment you select.