Career and Virtual Musings
In the lab I’ve been testing different functionalities and features of VMware Cloud Foundation 9. I’ve demonstrated importing an existing vSphere 8.x domain, deploying NSX and performing Lifecycle to 9.0 using VCF Operations.
For this one, it’s deleting a VI Workload domain; “build it up, only to tear it down..” however that saying goes.
Please review Broadcom article for assistance with this; Delete a Workload Domain
In lab I have some resource limitations when deploying some of our larger VCF appliances; VCF Automation & VCF Operations for Networks.
Within the VCF Management interface, there is a section to add additional vCenters where we can deploy VCF appliances.
From the VCF Operations console go to Fleet Management >> Lifecycle >> VCF Management >> Settings >> Deployment Targets. Click ‘Add Deployment Target’
If the vCenter is added under Integrations, it appears under our organization and allow us to validate and Add.
Tasks will kick off and completed successfully.
Time to get fresh install of VCF Operations for Logs 9.01.0 installed in the homelab. Going to start this off with the assumption that the Online or Offline Depot is configured and you have downloaded required binaries from Binary Management.
From the VCF Operations console >> Fleet Management >> Lifecycle >> VCF Management >> Binary Management
You will Install, Patch and Upgrade binaries.
When the downloads complete, click ‘Overview’ under VCF Lifecycle and we will locate Operations for Logs and click ‘Add’
For this deployment, because it’s my homelab, a single appliance will suffice, however for production it’s recommended you have a minimum of 3 to form a cluster. You can read more about preparations here; VCF Operations for Logs Detailed Design
On the next step, you can generate a certificate containing the FQDNs and IPs for your appliances.
Populate Infrastructure Deployment details, and click Next
Populate general network IP information; Domain, Domain Search Path, DNS, NTP, Gateway and subnet for the appliance.
The next step is to fill out the Components section and there are too many options to list, but ensure to have IPs for your cluster and VM appliance as well as other settings.
Pre-Check successful, let’s get it!
The final screen will be a confirmation, download the settings and even view what the topology will look like.
Success.
From the VCF Operations console go to Fleet Management >> Lifecycle >> VCF Management and a banner appeared informing you of an upgrade. Click ‘Learn More’
You will see there are no updates available and another symptom I ran into is when trying to download any VCF Operations 9.0.1.0 binaries, I receive the following error
LCMCOMMON92001
Quick Google Search and found a Community Article, shout out to the community member for pointing out the System Patches section. download fails with Error Code: LCMCOMMON92001 | VMware Cloud Foundation
Back into VCF Management under ‘Patch Binaries’ there is a ‘fleet management’ patch available, select and click Download
Navigate to the System Patches section under VCF Management and click ‘New Patch’ This should take you to the patch that was just downloaded.
Ensure to use the ‘Create Snapshot’ feature to take a snapshot of the Fleet Management appliance.
Select the patch and click Next.
Proceed with Review and click ‘Install’ The Fleet appliance should go offline and the VCF Management pane may not show available for a brief moment.
Done..
In my previous blog I wrote up the process of importing a vCenter instance while on version 8.x. My next venture is getting it upgraded to VCF 9, this would be vCenter, ESX & NSX.
Now that the domain is part of my VCF Fleet, from the VCF Operations console, go to Fleet Management >> Lifecycle >>
You can see the there is a different icon for the Workload Domain GENAPP
To the right side there is a Configuration Update available.
Upon completion, checked the vCenter and it created a new DVPG, tagged with the correct VLAN and then made the pg Ephemeral
We can move to Plan Upgrade or Plan Patching located under ‘Available Updates’, let’s see what Plan looks like
There is our build out, which we can also customize.
Finally, summary of steps being performed
The next step is Configuring and Scheduling the Upgrade.
Jump to Part 2 – https://khizeran.com/2025/10/24/upgrading-a-vcenter-8-x-workload-domain-to-9-0-1-0-in-vcf-operations-part-2/
Jump to Part 3 – https://khizeran.com/2025/10/24/upgrading-a-vcenter-8-x-workload-domain-to-9-0-1-0-in-vcf-operations-part-3/