VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 2: Environment Prerequisites

This is part 2 of a series of posts on VMware Cloud Builder.

• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 1: Overview
• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 2: Environment Prerequisites
• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloudbuilder – Part 3: Deployment Parameters File
• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 4: Generating SSL Certificates
• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 5: Cloud Builder Deployment & Environment Validation
• VMware Validated Design – Automated Deployment with Cloud Builder – Part 6: Deploy The SDDC

In this post I will cover the initial environment prerequisites required before you can deploy your VMware Validated Design SDDC with Cloud Builder. These fall into 5 key areas:

1. Prerequisites for Virtual Infrastructure Layer Implementation in Region A
2. Prerequisites for Operations Management Layer Implementation in Region A
3. Prerequisites for Cloud Management Layer Implementation in Region A
4. Prerequisites for Business Continuity Layer Implementation in Region A
5. Generate Certificates for the SDDC Components in Region A

1. Prerequisites for Virtual Infrastructure Layer Implementation in Region A
   1. Prepare ESXi Hosts
      1. Install ESXi
         1. NOTE: You may ask why you must install the ESXi hosts yourself when we have included binaries for ESXi in the binaries bundle? The reason here is simple: This allows you to install your ESXi hosts using whatever vendor approved image you need, which may include specific drivers
      2. Configure Management Network, VLAN & DNS on all hosts
      3. Configure a Virtual Machine Port Group on all hosts
      4. Configure SSH & NTP
      5. Mount NFS storage to all hosts for archiving log data, backup, and application templates
   2. Configure DNS to emulate an existing load balancer IP address (as NSX is not deployed yet)
2. Prerequisites for Operations Management Layer Implementation in Region A
   1. Deploy and configure an Ubuntu Server VM for vSphere Update manager
3. Prerequisites for Cloud Management Layer Implementation in Region A
   1. Deploy & Configure a master vRealize Automation IaaS windows virtual machine. This will be cloned for each vRealize Automation IaaS virtual machine
   2. Deploy and configure a Windows virtual machine to host the SQL Server database required for the vRealize Automation IaaS components
4. Prerequisites for Business Continuity Layer Implementation in Region A
   1. NOTE: Required if doing a Multi-Region deployment
   2. Deploy & configure a windows virtual machine for Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
5. Generate Certificates for the SDDC Components in Region A
   1. Ensure your Certificate Authority (CA) meets the required prerequisites
   2. Obtain the latest CertGenVVD-version.zip from VMware Knowledge Base article 2146215
   3. Create & add a certificate template to the CA.
   4. Generate the required certs

So there you have it…the initial environment prerequisites for deploying a VMware Validated Design SDDC with VMware Cloud Builder. Next up will be taking a look at the deployment parameters file.