This is a scenario that is not covered very well in our current VCF 9.0 docs (I am working to rectify that), where a customer has more than 1 existing VCF 5.x instance and they want to move to VCF 9.0. The upgrade of the first instance and the addition (or upgrade) of VCF Operations & VCF Automation are documented. But how do you go about adding those additional VCF 5.x instances into your new VCF 9.0 fleet? Although it looks like a long post, the process is pretty straightforward.

TL;DR Version

• Create an integration in VCF Operations for the new VCF instance.
• Update the integration to use a system-managed service account.
• Add the new management domain vCenter as a deployment target in fleet management.
• Deploy a VCF Operations collector to the new instance.
• Update the integration to use the new collector/collector group.

Step By Step Version

First, you should upgrade the additional instances to 9.0. This is not a mandatory step (and sometimes may not be possible for operational reasons), but it will set you up to be able to consume all of the features of VCF 9.0.

Next, create a new VMware Cloud Foundation integration in VCF Operations for the SDDC Manager of the additional VCF instance.

• In the VCF Operation UI, navigate to Administration > Integrations, and click Add.

• Click VMware Cloud Foundation on the Account Types screen.

• Enter a friendly name for the instance and enter the FQDN for SDDC Manager.
• To add a new credential, click the + next to credential

• Enter a username and password with the ADMIN role in SDDC Manager, and click OK. For now, I am using administrator@vsphere.local as we will change this to a service account later.

• Leave the Collector / Group as Default for now. This will also be changed later.
• Click Validate Connection and accept the certificate.

• Expand Advanced Settings, change Enable Domain Monitoring on Creation to true, and remove the VCF Configuration limits File Name (if it is populated).

• To add the connection, click Add.

• Acknowledge the Account Monitoring Notification and click OK.

• On the Integrations screen, expand VMware Cloud Foundation and expand the new Integration. You will see that the workload domain components are in a stopped status. To start them, click the vertical ellipsis at the VCF instance level and click Start Collecting All.

To move away from using a defined credential to a system managed service account, click the vertical ellipsis at the VCF instance level and click Edit.

• On the Cloud Account Information screen, under System Managed Credential, click Activate, and click Save.

• You can now safely delete the ADMIN role credential you created earlier. On the Integrations screen, click Credentials.

• On the Credentials screen, click the vertical ellipsis next to the credential you created and click Delete.

• Click Yes to confirm the delete operation.

Next you need to add the management domain vCenter as a deployment target to allow you to deploy VCF Operations collector(s).

• Navigate to Fleet Management > Lifecycle > Settings > Deployment Targets, and click Add Deployment Target.

The Add Deployment Target wizard will find vCenter instances that are configured as a VCF integration and present a list to choose from.

• Select the vCenter and click Validate.

• Once the validation is successful, click Add.

• Monitor the task status until it completes.

• To deploy VCF Operations collector(s) to the newly added VCF instance, navigate to Components and click operations in the components list.

• Before adding new nodes to the VCf Operations cluster, it is advisable to perform an inventory sync to avoid any drift. Click Trigger Inventory Sync.

• On the Trigger Inventory Sync pop-up, click Submit.

• Monitor the inventory sync task until it completes and then navigate back to the Add Nodes screen and click Add Node. As you have already performed the Inventory Sync, it can be ignored here. Click Proceed.

• On the Infrastructure screen, select the newly added management domain vCenter from the drop down and select the target cluster, network and datastore and click Next.

• On the Networks screen, do not make any changes. You will set the network information on the collector directly. Click Next.

• On the Components screen, uncheck Take component snapshot, as it is not required when adding collector nodes.

• Before you can deploy the collector, you need to add a root user password for the collector to the credentials store. On the Components screen, click Add Password.

• Enter the password details and click Add.

• Scroll down to Components and click the + to add a component. From the list, select Cloud Proxy. Note: Cloud Proxy is the legacy name for the VCF Operations Collector.

• Enter the details for the collector and click the settings icon on the right.

• Update the network details to reflect the newly added VCF instance

• If additional NTP servers are required, under NTP Settings, click Add New Server. Enter the server details and click Submit.

• To change the NTP Server selection, click Edit Server Selection.

• On the Select Servers screen, select the correct server(s) and click Next. If required, adjust the server priority and click Finish.

• Under Root Password, click Select Root Password and select the root password created earlier.

• Under Timezone, select the correct timezone from the dropdown and click Save.

• On the Components screen, click Next.

• On the Precheck screen, click Run Precheck, and wait for the precheck to complete successfully. Once its complete, click Next.

• On the Summary screen, click Submit to deploy the collector(s).

• Monitor the deployment task to completion.

• On the Integrations screen, expand VMware Cloud Foundation and expand the new Integration. Click the vertical ellipsis at the VCF instance level and click Edit.

• Under Collector / Group, select the newly deployed collector, and click Validate Connection.

That takes care of the instance-level setting, which will be applied to any new workload domains. You must repeat the process at a per-workload domain level for any existing domains.

• Click the vertical ellipsis at the domain level, and click Edit.

• On the vCenter screen, change the Collector / group to the new collector and click Validate Connection. Click Ok on the Test Connection popup and click Save.

• Now you should see your new VCF instance using the correct collector/group.

If you are using VCF Automation, your new VCF instance should now be discovered automatically.