You can use the VMware Imaging Appliance (VIA) included with the Cloud Builder VM to image servers for use in the management domain and VI workload domains.
You can use VIA to image servers prior to adding them to Cloud Foundation as part of the host commissioning process. For information about imaging servers prior to bring-up, see the VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture and Deployment Guide.
You must have access to the Cloud Builder VM to use the VMware Imaging Appliance. If you deleted VIA after bring-up, you can redeploy it as described in "Deploy Cloud Foundation Builder VM" in the VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture and Deployment Guide.
Server Prerequisites
The servers that you image must meet certain prerequisites:
- PXE Boot is configured as primary boot option
- Install device is configured as the second boot option
- Legacy boot mode configured in BIOS (UEFI boot mode is not supported)
- Servers are in the same L2 domain as the Cloud Builder VM
- Servers are reachable over an untagged VLAN/Network (VLAN ID 0)
- The Cloud Builder VM is deployed on an untagged VLAN/Network
- Server hardware/firmware should be configured for virtualization and vSAN and match the Cloud Foundation BOM as described in the Release Notes
- Physical hardware health status should be "healthy" without any errors
- Any onboard NICs are deactived on the servers and only the two 10 GbE NICs reserved for use with Cloud Foundation are enabled in BIOS
The default root credentials for servers imaged with VIA are user root, password EvoSddc!2016.
