Review the prerequisites before you deploy a VI workload domain.

  • If you plan to use DHCP for the NSX host overlay network, a DHCP server must be configured on the NSX host overlay VLAN for the VI workload domain. When NSX-T Data Center creates NSX Edge tunnel endpoints (TEPs) for the VI workload domain, they are assigned IP addresses from the DHCP server.
    Note:

    If you do not plan to use DHCP, you can use a static IP pool for the NSX host overlay network. The static IP pool is created or selected as part of VI workload domain creation.

  • Change the VxRail Manager IP Address
  • Update the VxRail Manager Certificate
  • A minimum of three hosts available for the VI workload domain.
  • If the management domain in your environment has been upgraded to a version different from the original installed version, you must download a VI workload domain install bundle for the current version before you can create a VI workload domain.
  • If you are bringing up a new system with VCF+, you cannot create a workload domain, create cluster or add edge clusters until the system pairs to the cloud and subscribed. These operations are blocked until then.
  • If you are using VCF+, workload domains can be a mix of keyed and keyless licenses. Mixing of license status (keyed/keyless) is permitted.
  • Decide on a name for your VI workload domain. Each VI workload domain must have a unique name. It is good practice to include the region and site information in the name because resource object names (such as host and vCenter names) are generated based on the VI workload domain name. The name can be three to 20 characters long and can contain any combination of the following:
    • Lowercase alphabetic characters
    • Numbers
    Note: Spaces are not allowed in any of the names you specify when creating a VI workload domain.
  • Decide on the following passwords:
    • vCenter Server root password
    • NSX Manager admin password
    Although the individual VMware Cloud Foundation components support different password requirements, you must set passwords following a common set of requirements across all components:
    • Minimum length: 12
    • Maximum length: 16
    • At least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, a number, and one of the following special characters: ! @ # $ ^ *
    • Must NOT include:
      • A dictionary word
      • A palindrome
      • More than four monotonic character sequences
      • Three of the same consecutive characters
  • Verify that you have the completed Planning and Preparation Workbook with the VI workload domain deployment option included.
  • The IP addresses and Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) for the vCenter Server and NSX Manager instances must be resolvable by DNS.
  • You must have valid license keys for the following products:
    • NSX-T Data Center
    • vSAN
    • vSphere

      Because vSphere and vSAN licenses are per CPU, ensure that you have sufficient licenses for the ESXi hosts to be used for the VI workload domain. See License Management.