Prerequisites for a Workload Domain

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 VMware NSX 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.
  Note: If you are using VMFS on FC as principal storage, and the VI workload domain is using vSphere Lifecycle Manager images as the update method, then only two hosts are required. Workload Management requires a vSphere cluster with a minimum of three ESXi hosts.
• 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.
• 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.
• If you are using VMFS on FC storage for the VI workload domain, you must configure zoning, mount the associated volumes and create the datastore on the hosts.
• To use the License Now option, you must have valid license keys for the following products:
  • VMware NSX
  • vSAN (No license required for VMFS on FC)
  • 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 Managing License Keys in VMware Cloud Foundation.