VCF

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 brings a suite of powerful automation tools, and for many administrators, deploying the Operations Orchestrator (formerly vRO) as a standalone, external appliance provides greater flexibility and isolation. In this guide, I will walk you through the process of deploying VCF Operations Orchestrator 9 using the OVA method, followed by the necessary command-line configurations to get your authentication up and running. Prerequisites Before you begin, ensure you have the following: ...

Upgrading your SDDC Manager from version 9.0 to 9.0.1 is a relatively straightforward process when done through the integrated Lifecycle interface. Below is a guide to go over this patch upgrade. 1. Navigate to the Update Section Log into Operations → Fleet Management. Under Lifecycle → VCF Instances, select the VCF instance you want to upgrade. Look for the available update section. If you see SDDC Manager Update 9.0.1, click the Download icon. If no update appears, double-check your depot configuration and ensure your binary repositories are correctly set up. ...

Deploying the VCF Fleet Management (Operations / Fleet Manager) appliance using an OVA is a common approach when standing up a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 environment or re-deploying the component. Below is a refined guide covering the deployment, configuration, and integration steps. 1. Prerequisites & Downloading Binaries Before you deploy the OVA: Log into the Broadcom Support Portal and obtain the required binaries and OVA files for the Fleet Manager. Direct link can be found here. ...

Upgrading your VCF Fleet Management from version 9.0.0 to 9.0.1 is a relatively modest patch update, but careful execution ensures minimal disruption. Below is a step-by-step guide to walk you through the process safely. Download the Patch Download the patch by going to Fleet Management -> Binary Management -> Patch Binaries -> Select fleet management -> Download. ...

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) introduces a streamlined deployment experience with the VCF Installer appliance, replacing the older Cloud Builder model. One of the core components in that workflow is VCF Operations, which provides unified lifecycle, monitoring, and fleet management across your private cloud environment. In this guide, we walk through deploying VCF Operations 9 from an OVA, detailing prerequisites, deployment steps, and post-deploy tasks. 1. Prerequisites & Preparation Before you deploy, make sure these items are in place: ...

When upgrading the VCF Operations Fleet Management appliance to 9.0.1, you might hit a reboot surprise: vPostgres fails to start, and the fleet-management certificate is regenerated. You’ll see journal errors like: pg_ctl: could not open PID file "/var/vmware/vpostgres/current/pgdata/postmaster.pid": Permission denied systemd[1]: vpostgres.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE Broadcom’s KB confirms the symptoms and provides the manual steps to fix permissions on the Postgres data dir and to normalize the regenerated cert/key filenames, followed by service restarts. If you are also moving the analytics side to the same release, I covered upgrading VCF Operations to 9.0.1 using a .PAK file separately. ...

When a vSphere admin places an ESXi host in vCenter maintenance mode, VCF Operations should automatically suppress host alerts for that object, without pausing metric collection, and then restore alerting when maintenance ends. Why this approach? In VCF 9, you can avoid alert noise during maintenance in two ways: Maintenance Schedules – pause both collection and alerts during a defined window (best for planned maintenance). Policy-based alert suppression (this post) – keep metrics flowing but disable host alert definitions while the host is in maintenance. This is done with a policy attached to a dynamic custom group keyed to the host’s Maintenance Mode property. Note on naming: In VCF 9, VCF Operations is the successor to Aria/vRealize Operations and is part of the unified Cloud Foundation experience. If you’re upgrading from Aria Operations, see Broadcom’s “Upgrade to VCF Operations 9.0.” ...

Patch 2 prepares Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager (ASLCM) for VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 migrations. It does not deliver new features or hot-fixes, so only install it if VCF 9.0 (or the new VCF Operations appliance) is on your near-term roadmap. Why Patch 2 Matters Patch 2 updates the appliance-level services that let ASLCM recognize and orchestrate VCF 9.0 components (for example, Aria Operations 9.0). Without it, the 8.18 lifecycle UI cannot import or upgrade those binaries. If you are staying on VCF 5.x/8.x for a while, you can safely defer this patch. ...

With the release of VCF 9 I wanted to get my lab upgraded. The release blog can be found here and the release notes are here Please note that some of the components within the VCF will still need additional upgrading. Please read the release notes for additional details. We can start by going to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Select the domain -> Updates -> Plan Upgrade. ...

In this blog we will go over deploying a VCF 9 instance using existing components. This assumes the VCF Installer appliance is already deployed and configured. Once logged on and binaries downloaded we can go through the Deployment wizard Click Deployment Wizard to bring up the menu Click on VMware Cloud Foundation ...