Convert a vSphere Environment to a Management Domain or Import a vSphere Environment as a VI Workload Domain in VMware Cloud Foundation

You complete the necessary procedures to prepare your environment for converting or importing an existing vSphere environment to VMware Cloud Foundaiton and then validate the environment after the process is complete.

Convert to a Management Domain

Follow this procedure if your environment does not have SDDC Manager deployed and you want to convert an existing vSphere environment to the VMware Cloud Foundation management domain.

Review the following topics before proceeding:

• Considerations Before Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments into VMware Cloud Foundation
• Network and Compute Requirements for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments
• Download Software for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments

Step	Task Name	Additional Info
1	Copy the VCF Import Tool to the Target vCenter Appliance
2	Run a Precheck on the Target vCenter Before Conversion	The precheck determines if the environment can be converted to the management domain
3	Remove the VCF Import Tool from vCenter.	The convert operation is run from SDDC Manager, once deployed.
4	Generate an NSX Deployment Specification for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments	Only required if you plan to deploy NSX during the convert operation.
5	Deploy the SDDC Manager Appliance on the Target vCenter
6	Upload the Required Software to the SDDC Manager Appliance
7	Run a Detailed Check on the Target vCenter Before Conversion or Import
8	Convert or Import the vSphere Environment into the SDDC Manager Inventory	The workload domain will be marked type: MGMT
9	Add Licenses for Converted or Imported Workload Domains in SDDC Manager
10	Validate a Converted Management Domain or Imported VI Workload Domain

If you make changes to an imported or converted environment using the vSphere client, you can use the sync workflow in the VCF Import Tool to manually update the SDDC Manager inventory with any out-of-band changes applied from vCenter Server. See Manage Workload Domain Configuration Drift Between vCenter Server and SDDC Manager.

Import as a VI Workload Domain

Follow this procedure if your environment already has SDDC Manager deployed and you want to import an existing vSphere environment as a VI workload domain.

You can convert/import up to a combined total of 24 workload domains.

Review the following topics before proceeding:

• Considerations Before Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments into VMware Cloud Foundation
• Network and Compute Requirements for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments
• Download Software for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments

Step	Task Name	Additional Info
1	Upload the Required Software to the SDDC Manager Appliance
2	Generate an NSX Deployment Specification for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments	Only required if you plan to deploy NSX during the import operation.
3	Run a Detailed Check on the Target vCenter Before Conversion or Import
4	Convert or Import the vSphere Environment into the SDDC Manager Inventory.	The workload domain will be marked type: VI
5	Add Licenses for Converted or Imported Workload Domains in SDDC Manager
6	Validate a Converted Management Domain or Imported VI Workload Domain

If you make changes to an imported or converted environment using the vSphere client, you can use the sync workflow in the VCF Import Tool to manually update the SDDC Manager inventory with any out-of-band changes applied from vCenter Server. See Manage Workload Domain Configuration Drift Between vCenter Server and SDDC Manager.