The Edge Compute Stack host can also be deployed directly from a pre-created virtual machine packaged in an OVA.

The key differences from the preceding section are as follows:

  • This method uses a OVA package instead of the VMware Edge Compute Stack installer media.

  • The entire VMware Edge Compute Stack ESXi install phase is skipped, using the sizing of the VM baked in the OVA package.

  • The VMware Edge Compute Stack configuration input is provided directly through YAML files instead of ks.cfg kickstart document.

  • Download Edge Compute Stack OVA along with deployment script and sample YAML input files on the machine where Fusion is running.

  • Modify ec_firstboot.yaml sample to specify the GitOps configuration and Kubernetes workloads to be run (in addition to or in absence of GitOps provided workload). Optionally, if not provided with deployment script, the Edge Compute Stack host runs the workload specified only through GitOps, if specified. This mode is useful for quick deployment verification and demo purpose.

  • Invoke the deployment script at a shell terminal prompt as follows. The deployment script imports the OVA as a virtual machine, configures guestenv config for the Edge Compute Stack host.

Procedure

  1. Download the following files to a local folder:
    1. deploy_ecova.sh
    2. ec_config.yaml
    3. ec_firstboot.yaml
  2. Edit the ec_config.yaml file according to your requirements.
  3. Edit the ec_firstboot.yaml file according to your requirements.
  4. Start a terminal session and change directory (cd) to the folder where these items are downloaded and run the following commands:
    1. chmod +x ./deploy_ecova.sh
    2. Replace CLI arguments appropriately in the following command: 
      /deploy_ecova.sh -v fusion \  -o "path/to/ecs-3.5.0-20240617-24036327-boot2live.ova" \  -m a-unique-VM-name -r 'some-ec-ESXi-root-password' \  -f "./ec_firstboot.yaml" \  -t "path/to/a/dir/to/store/ova-imported-vm"
      Note:

      ec-ESXi-root-password (specified in the -r CLI argument) must meet the ESXi password complexity requirements.