This is the VxRail configuration splash page.

• Click Get Started.

The next page displays the VxRail End-User License Agreement.

• To accept the license, click Accept.

VxRail can be configured using the step-by-step user interface or by uploading a JSON-formatted configuration file.

• Click Configuration file.
• Click VxRail Configuration.json. This Configuration File contains the required information for the VxRail Hands-on Lab.
• Click Open.

The Configuration File is uploaded. Now you will see the values from the file in the VxRail user interface.

The System page is used to configure the time zone and specify existing NTP, DNS, or proxy servers on your network.

• Look at the time zone, NTP server, and DNS server set by the Configuration File. A proxy server is not used.
• Click Next.

The Management page is used to configure the hostnames, network settings, and passwords for the ESXi hosts and for VxRail Manager and vCenter Server.

ESXi hostnames and IP addresses:

• An ESXi hostname consists of a prefix, a separator, an iterator, and a domain. Look at values loaded from the Configuration File.
• Look at the Preview field. The value shown, vxrail-esxi-a.corp.local, shows how the prefix, separator, iterator and domain are combined to form the hostname for the first ESXi node in the VxRail cluster. All other ESXi hosts follow the same pattern, incrementing the iterator.
• Look at the Starting and Ending addresses for ESXi hosts' IP pool. The Configuration File specified 5 IP addresses to allow for expansion. When planning for a VxRail cluster, you can optionally specify extra IP addresses for up to 64 nodes.

A new feature in VxRail 3.5 is the ability to join an existing vCenter Server instead of deploying a new vCenter Server for this VxRail cluster. This allows a remote central vCenter Server to manage multiple VxRail clusters in a single pane of glass.

Before you can join an external vCenter Server, you will need to

• know the hostname, vCenter Server administrative username and password (VMware1! in this example)
• create a unique VxRail management user and password (VMw@re1! in this example) on the external vCenter Server
• create or select an exisiting datacenter on the external vCenter Server.

When the VxRail appliance is built, a cluster is created under the datacenter with the unique cluster name you specify on this form (VxRail-HOL)

The vCenter Server instance we are using in this example has an embedded PSC, so External Platform Services Controller is unchecked.

• Click the scroll bar down.

• Click Next when you are ready to move to the next page.

Look at the information from the Configuration File:

• VxRail Manager - The hostname and IP address will be configured when the appliance is built.
• Networking - The subnet mask and gateway are used for all ESXi hosts and VxRail Manager.
• Passwords - All ESXi hosts in a VxRail cluster have the same root password. A root password for VxRail Manager must also be set. In this example, both passwords are set to VMware1!VMware1!

If we were deploying a new vCenter Server instead of joining an existing one, a single administrative user password would be specified for VxRail Manager, vCenter Server, and Platform Services Controller (PCS).

The vSphere vMotion page is used to configure the starting and ending addresses for the IP pool, the VLAN ID, and the subnet mask for vMotion.

• Look at the values that were set by the Configuration File. Five IP addresses were allocated to allow for future expansion. The VLAN ID was set to 0 because a flat network without VLAN tagging is used in this example.
• Click Next.

The Virtual SAN page is used to configure the starting and ending addresses for the IP pool, the VLAN ID, and the subnet mask for Virtual SAN.

• Look at the values that were set by the Configuration File. Five IP addresses were allocated to allow for future expansion. The VLAN ID was set to 0 because a flat network without VLAN tagging is used in this example.
• Click Next.

The VM Networks page is used to configure virtual machine network segments.

• Look at the VM networks that were specified in the Configuration File.
• Click Next.

The Solutions page can be used to configure logging to vRealize Log Insight or to an existing Syslog Server on your network.

• You can see that it was set it to "None" by the Configuration File.
• Click Next.

You can optionally review your configuration again before proceeding to validation.

• Click Review First,
• Click the scroll bar to move down the page.
• Click Validate. VxRail verifies the configuration data and checks for conflicts.

• Click Build VxRail.

VxRail implements data services, creates the new ESXi hosts, creates a Virtual SAN datastore, and joins the selected external vCenter Server. Configuration steps are shown faster than real-time in this simulation.

When you reach Hooray! the appliance is fully configured. You have completed the simulation of initial configuration.

• Click the RETURN TO THE LAB link the top right corner or close this browser tab.

The Hands-On Lab manual provides instructions to reach VxRail Manager where you can explore management features and add a new node to a VxRail cluster.