Top VCF 9 Updates: Installer, NVME, and More

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What are my things I would like to test

  • VCF 9 installer (VCF 9 Beta i looked good)
  • NVME Tiering
  • vSAN ESA Dedub
  • VCF 9 with Ubiquiti
  • Kubernetes Service now includes Windows containerization
  • NSX VPC Support

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The VCF Cloud Foundation Installer makes lives a lot easier! More about this coming very soon

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The VCF Operations Console is looking good! I used it in the VCF 9 beta

More about this also later!

Benefits of the Ubiquiti Flex 2.5G in a Home Lab

For my home lab I used for many years the Netgear GS108 unmanaged switch.

I works great.

Gigabit Unmanaged Switch-serie - GS108 | NETGEAR

Because the rest of my home work exist of Ubiquity devices I’ve wanted for a long timo to replace my netgear switch’s with a managed one. But the question was which one?

I used the Flex Mini behind the TV and for my PC and NAS. But not for my “server”.

With the release of the Flex 2.5G Switch it will make my homelab a little futher proof.

I have bought in de past the Synology DS723+ which support 2.5G en 10G with a optinal adapter. I wrote about it here

I have the luck that I don’t need to consult with the WAF ☺ Sow the decision was made quickly

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now I can really use VLANs within the various virtualization solutions and keep things separate from each other

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My labs are even more realistic because of this upgrade!

Deploying VCF Workload Domain with One NSX Manager

For your VCF homelab you wan to keep the resources small with a little bit overhead.
In this post I will talk about how i managed to deploy a VCF Workload Domain with a single NSX Manager, instead of the standard three nsx nodes.

Warning: Use this only in a Homelab!

The trick is to SSH into your SDDC Manager using the vcf user, and the password used during bring-up of the management domain.

When logged in, run su and log in as root using the password used during bring-up.

run: vi /etc/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/application-prod.properties

Hit i in your keyboard to go into insert mode. Go to the end of the file, and append the following:

nsxt.manager.formfactor=medium
nsxt.manager.resources.validation.skip=true
nsxt.manager.cluster.size=1
nsxt.manager.wait.minutes=120

This will make it so that any workload domain you deploy has one NSX Manager, and that it uses a smaller size. Once done, hit ESC in your keyboard, then type :wq and hit enter to save the file. (w = write, q = quit).

Then run systemctl restart domainmanager and you are good to go!

This worked in my nested Cloud Foundation deployment in my lab running 5.2.1.0.

You will still have to fill in the information for the extra nodes in the UI.

Easy Script to Create DNS Records in VCF Lab

When you build your VCF Lab environment you want to create your DNS records automatically. I use for DNS a Windows Server.

The Script:

function ConvertTo-DecimalIP {
param ([string]$ip)
$parts = $ip.Split(‘.’) | ForEach-Object { [int]$_ }
return ($parts[0] -shl 24) + ($parts[1] -shl 16) + ($parts[2] -shl 8) + $parts[3]
}

function ConvertTo-DottedIP {
param ([int]$intIP)
$part1 = ($intIP -shr 24) -band 0xFF
$part2 = ($intIP -shr 16) -band 0xFF
$part3 = ($intIP -shr 8) -band 0xFF
$part4 = $intIP -band 0xFF
return “$part1.$part2.$part3.$part4”
}

$zone = “testlab.nl”
$startip = “192.168.200.10”

$dnsrecords = “vcf-m01-cb01″,”vcf-m01-sddcm01″,”vcf-m01-esx01″,”vcf-m01-esx02″,”vcf-m01-esx03″,”vcf-m01-esx04″,”vcf-w01-esx02″,”vcf-w01-esx03″,”vcf-w01-esx04″,”vcf-w01-esx04″,”vcf-m01-nsx01a”,”vcf-m01-nsx01b”,”vcf-m01-nsx01c”,”vcf-m01-nsx01″,”vcf-w01-nsx01a”,”vcf-w01-nsx01b”,”vcf-w01-nsx01c”,”vcf-w01-nsx01″,”vcf-m01-vc01″,”vcf-w01-vc01″
$count = $dnsrecords.count

# Convert start IP to decimal

$decimalIP = ConvertTo-DecimalIP $startIP
$i = 0

# Loop and print incremented IPs

foreach ($dnsrecord in $dnsrecords) {
$i -lt
$count;
$i++
$currentDecimalIP = $decimalIP + $i
$currentIP = ConvertTo-DottedIP $currentDecimalIP
Add-DnsServerResourceRecordA -Name $dnsrecord -ZoneName $zone -AllowUpdateAny -IPv4Address $currentIP -CreatePtr
Write-Output “DNS record $dnsrecord in $zone with $currentIP is created” -ForegroundColor Green

Deploying Windows VMs with Terraform and Packer

A whale ago, I started using Packer for creating Windows Templates for using in my home lab.
I blogged about it here: Windows Server 2025 “Preview” deployment with Packer

So now I want to deploy a template with Terraform, which was created earlier by Packer.

First, we need to ensure we have the Terraform downloaded and the vSphere provider Initialized.

  1. Install Terraform: You can download it from the official Terraform website and follow the installation instructions for your operating system.

I made my life a little easier to create a PowerShell script that downloads the latest version: Download Terraform.ps1

  1. Initialize Your Terraform Configuration: Create a directory for your Terraform configuration files. Inside this directory, create a `main.tf` file (or any `.tf` file) where you will define your provider and other configurations.
    Define the vSphere Provider in Your main.tf: Add the following block to your Terraform configuration file to specify the use of the vSphere provider:

terraform {

  required_providers {

    vsphere = {

      source = “HashiCorp/vsphere”

      version = “> 2.11”

    }

  }

}

provider “vsphere” {

  user           = vcenter_username

  password       = vcenter_password

  vsphere_server = vcenter_server

  # If you have a self-signed cert

  allow_unverified_ssl = true

}

Replace ”vcenter_username”, ” vcenter_password” , ”vcenter_server” with your actual vSphere credentials and server address.

  1. Basic Terraform Commands

Terraform.ps1

# Go to the Terraform download folder

$terraformfolder = ‘d:\automation\terraform\’

Set-Location $terraformfolder

# Download Terraform plugins

.\terraform.exe init

# Test Run

.\terraform.exe plan

# Run Terraform

.\terraform.exe apply

# Clean Up what you created

.\terraform.exe Destroy

Initialize the Terraform Working Directory: Run the following command in your terminal from the directory where your Terraform configuration file is located:

terraform init

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This command will download the vSphere provider and initialize your Terraform working directory. It sets up and downloads the necessary provider plugins for Terraform to interact with vSphere.

Verify the Installation: After running `terraform init`, you should see output indicating that the vSphere provider has been successfully installed. You can now proceed to create Terraform configurations to manage your vSphere resources.

Deploy a Template VM within vSphere

In this example, we are deploying a VM running Windows Server 2022.

Terraform Module Structure

  1. variables.tf: Define the variables for the module.
  2. main.tf: Contains the main configuration for the VM.
  3. outputs.tf: Define the outputs for the module.

Variables.tf

variable “vsphere_user” {

  default     = “<your_vcenter_username_here>”

   description = “vSphere username to use to connect to the environment – Default: administrator@vsphere.local”

}

variable “vsphere_password” {

  default     = “<your_vcenter_password_here>”

  description = “vSphere vCenter password”

}

variable “vsphere_server” {

  default = “<your_vcenter_here>”

  description = “vSphere vCenter server”

}

variable “datacenter” {

  default = “<your_datacenter_here>”

  description = “vSphere datacenter”

}

variable “cluster” {

  default = “<your_cluster_here>”

  description = “vSphere cluster”

}

variable “network” {

  default = “<vcenter_network>”

  description = “vSphere network”

}

variable “datastore” {

  default = “<your_destination_datastore_>”

  description = “vSphere datastore”

}

variable “template” {

  default = “<your_template_name_here>”

  description = “Template VM”

}

variable “customization_specifications” {

  default = “<vcenter_customization_specifications>”

  description = “Customization Spec”

}

When you run “.\terraform plan” you do a test run to check your coding

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When you run “.\terraform apply” build your virtual machine

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Based on: https://vminfrastructure.com/2025/03/11/deploying-a-vm-using-terraform/

It works but it need some tweaking and fixing.

Adding a TPM2.0 security device does not work right now
Server 2025 customization does not work

My HomeLab anno 2024

My home lab is manly used for testing new stuff released by VMware (70%) en Microsoft (20%) other stuff (10%)

For the Base I use my Home PC

Intel i5 12600k
128 GB Memory
2 x 2TB Samsung 980 and 990 Pro SSD.
Windows 11 Pro
VMware Workstation Pro

On my Home PC running
Server 2022 (Eval for DC)
ESXi801 (16 GB) (NSX Demo Cluster)
ESXi802 (16 GB) (NSX Demo Cluster)
ESXi803 (64 GB) (General Cluster) )
ESXi804 (64 GB) (General Cluster)
ESXi805 (24 GB) (Single Node vSAN Cluster)
ESXi806 (16 GB) (4 Node vSAN Cluster)
ESXi807 (16 GB) (4 Node vSAN Cluster)
ESXi808 (16 GB) (4 Node vSAN Cluster)
ESXi809 (16 GB) (4 Node vSAN Cluster)

ESXi701 (24GB) (General Cluster)
ESXi702 (24GB) (General Cluster)

In general cluster there a running the most VM’s. Also here I am testing Packer and Terraform.

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Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving

For a while I used a 2TB Samsung SSD a Storage for ESXi Server through Truenas
But I wanted a larger storage for all my VM’s.

After reading on William Liam blog Synology DS723+ in Homelab and Synology NFS VAAI Plug-in support for vSphere 8.0

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Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving

I used not the original Synology Parts. Following parts works fine.
Kingston 16 GB DDR4-3200 notebook memory
WD Red SN700, 500 GB SSD
WD Red Pro, 8 TB

* For Read-Write caching you need 2 SSD devices.

For mouting the NFS shared I created a little powercli script.

https://github.com/WardVissers/VMware-Powercli-Public/blob/main/Add%20NFS%20DataStore%20Github.ps1

My Favorites Visual Studio Code Plugins

When i begon with scripting using PowerShell ISE for Coding.

PowerShell ISE and Visual Studio Code are free coding tools from Microsoft.

But when Visual Studio Code was released back in 2015 i was switching to that. Powershell ISE i still use on a daily base for some basic tasks.

But with de Extenions list for Visual Studio Code getting better and better scripting is much faster and without errors and easyer to read.

The list with favo extensions is getting bigger en bigger.
Which makes my live a little easyer and helpfull.

So the list of my Favorites:
Prettier – Code Formatter
TODO Highlight
Code Spell Checker
Dutch – Code Spell Checker
Code Snap
Error Lens
Hashicorp HCL
HashiCorp Terraform

Because AI is hot I ám currently testing the following plugins
ChatGPT
GitHub CoPilot
GitHub CoPilot Chat

Using the ChatGPT/CoPilot plugins makes scripting even faster

Windows Server 2025 “Preview” deployment with Packer

As Windows Server 2025 Preview is officially released, I wanted to test a  automated build of the Windows Server 2025 Preview release. So that I can deploy this in my home lab and going to test the new features if I can find the time….

About Hashicorp Packer

Hashicorp Packer is a self-contained executable producing quick and easy operating system builds across multiple platforms. Using Packer and a couple of HCL2 files, you can quickly create fully automated template(s) with latest Windows Updates en VMware Tools. When you schedule a fresh builds after patch Tuesday  you have always an up-to-date and fully secured template.

When using VMware customization tools. You can spin up vm’s in minutes.

Automated Windows Server 2025 “Preview” Build

Files you need?
The files and versions I am using at the time of this writing are as follows:

Outside of downloading both Packer and Windows Server 2022 Preview build, you will need the following files:

  • windowsserver2025.auto.pkrvars.hcl – houses the variable values you want to define.
  • windows2025.json.pkr.hcl – the Packer build file
  • Answer file – Generated with Windows System Image Manager (SIM) you can download the file below
  • Custom script file(s) – optional

Other considerations and tasks you will need to complete:

  • Copy the Windows Server 2025 ISO file to a vSphere datastore

Windows Server 2025 unattend Answer file for the automated Packer Build

Like other automated approaches to installing Windows Server, the automated Windows Server 2025 Packer build requires an answer file to provide answers to the GUI automatically and other installation prompts that you normally see in a manual installation of Windows Server.

You will find the scripts here: https://github.com/WardVissers/Packer-Win2025

The only problem that I had was: Switching from Nic from Public to Private

# Set network connections profile to Private mode.

Write-Output ‘Setting the network connection profiles to Private…’

do {

    $connectionProfile = Get-NetConnectionProfile

    Start-Sleep -Seconds 10

} while ($connectionProfile.Name -eq ‘Identifying…’)

Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name $connectionProfile.Name -NetworkCategory Private

Excalidraw replacement for Microsoft Visio?

Sometimes you want to make a design of something.
A whiteboard is then very handy. In most cases you would to like to use Microsoft Visio.
But on my home pc I don’t have Visio. A free alternative is Excalidraw.

You can draw some thing cool like this: (This for Demo only has no function)

A diagram of a computer network

Description automatically generated

Highlight some libraries.excalidraw.com:

IT icons
Microsoft 365 icons
VMware Architecture Design
Veeam
Veeam unofficial
Technology Logos
Fortinet
Kubernetes Icons Set
Microsoft Azure cloud icons
Misc Azure Icons
Azure General
Azure Compute
Azure Storage
Azure Containers
Azure Network
Azure cloud services icons
Cloud

Would be nice if we see more venders on the list.

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