You can interactively install ESXi on all the hosts that will form the first cluster in the management domain, then you configure the management network, DNS, and NTP services. You can use the same process to add more hosts to the management domain later, or to install and configure hosts for VI workload domains.
ESXi 8.0 Update 3 and later support installing two data processing units (DPUs) for use with VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 or later.
You can utilize the two DPUs in Active/Standby mode to provide high availability. Such configuration provides redundancy in the event one of the DPUs fails. In the high availability configuration, both DPUs are assigned to the same NSX-backed vSphere Distributed Switch. For example, DPU-1 is attached to vmnic0 and vmnic1 of the vSphere Distributed Switch and DPU-2 is attached to vmnic2 and vmnic3 of the same vSphere Distributed Switch.
You can also utilize the two DPUs as independent devices to increase offload capacity per ESXi host. Each DPU is attached to a separate vSphere Distributed Switch and you have no failover between DPUs in such configuration.
Prerequisites
- Download the ESXi ISO from the Broadcom Support Portal. For the supported ESXi versions, see the Bill of Materials (BOM) section of the VMware Cloud Foundation Release Notes and the list of supported async patches in KB 88287. If the required version of ESXi does not have an ISO available on the Broadcom Support Portal, you can create one. See Create a Custom ISO Image for ESXi.
Note: If you are preparing hosts for a VI workload domain where the ESXi hosts have been async patched to a later version of ESXi than the version listed in the BOM, the new hosts must use the later version of ESXi.
- Make sure that you have a host machine for SDDC access. You use this host to connect to the data center and perform configuration steps.
- Verify that you have the completed Planning and Preparation Workbook.
- Verify the Prerequisite Checklist sheet in the Planning and Preparation Workbook.
