Checkout how to automatically populate all the configuration values in the Supervisor activation wizard by importing a JSON configuration file that you have exported from previous Supervisor deployments. When troubleshooting an unsuccessful Supervisor deployment or deploying a new Supervisor with a similar configuration, you can change the configuration values directly in the JSON file before you import it in the wizard. This way you save time from filling in all the values in the activation wizard manually and can just focus on the areas that need change.

You can export the configuration of a Supervisor in two ways:

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Initiate a Supervisor deployment in one of the following ways:
    • If you haven't successfully deployed Supervisor yet, click Get Started on the Workload Management page.
    • If you want to deploy an additional Supervisor in your environment, select Workload Management > Supervisor > Supervisors > Add Supervisor.
  2. From the top right corner, select Import Config.

    The vSphere Client verifies the values in the JSON file. Errors might be displayed if the uploaded file is invalid or corrupted JSON. Similarly, errors will appear if the JSON file lacks the spec version or if the spec version exceeds what is currently supported by the client. Therefore, you should only edit the setting that you needed before importing the configuration file. If the file is corrupt, you can use the JSON schema to generate a an empty Supervisor configuration, that you can fill in with the values that you need.

  3. In the Upload Supervisor Configuration dialog, click Upload and select a JSON configuration file you have exported previously.
  4. Click Import.
    The values recorded in the JSON configuration file are populated in the Supervisor activation wizard. You still might need to enter certain settings manually, such as load balancer password.
  5. Click Next through the wizard and fill in any values where required.
  6. In the Review and Confirm page, scroll up and review all the settings that you configured thus far and make final changes if needed.
  7. Click Finish when ready with reviewing the settings.
    The activation of the Supervisor initiates the creation and configuration of the control plane VMs and other components.

What to do next

Once you complete the wizard for enabling a Supervisor, you can track the activation process and observe potential issues that require troubleshooting. In the Config Status column, click view next to the status of the Supervisor.
Figure 1. Supervisor activation view

The Supervisor enablement view displays the conditions in the enablement process and the respective status.

For the deployment process to complete, the Supervisor must reach the desired state, which means that all conditions are reached. When a Supervisor is successfully enabled, its status changes from Configuring to Running. While the Supervisor is in Configuring state, reaching each of the conditions is retried continuously. If a condition is not reached, the operation is retried until success. Because of this reason, the number of conditions that are reached could change back and forth, for example 10 out of 16 conditions reached and then 4 out of 16 conditions reached and so on. In very rare cases the status could change to Error, if there are errors that prevent reaching the desired state.

For more information on the deployment errors and how to troubleshoot them, see Resolving Errors Health Statuses on Supervisor Cluster During Initial Configuration Or Upgrade.