This part of the lab is presented as a Hands-on Labs Interactive Simulation. This will allow you to experience steps which are too time-consuming or resource intensive to do live in the lab environment. In this simulation, you can use the software interface as if you are interacting with a live environment.

The orange boxes show where to click, and the left and right arrow keys can also be used to move through the simulation in either direction.

We begin at the SDDC Manager Dashboard:

Cloud Foundation makes it easy to add new servers to an existing rack in order to expand your cloud capacity.  Let’s begin by reviewing our current host inventory.

1. Click on VIEW DETAIL next to Physical Resources
   • We see that there are 8 hosts available in the rack named Lassen, along with a summary of the available CPU, Memory and Storage capacity.  
2. Click the rack icon labelled LASSEN 8 HOSTS
3. Click on the scroll bar to scroll down
   • We see additional details for each of the hosts.
   • Let’s expand our capacity by adding two new servers to the rack.  
4. Click on the DASHBOARD
   • Prior to adding the new servers, we first need to physically install them in the rack and cable them up in accordance with the Cloud Foundation wiring diagram.  Then we use the VMware VIA appliance to install VMware ESXi and create a manifest file.
   • Next, we will switch to the VIA to install ESXi on the new hosts.
5. Click on the VMware Imaging Appliance browser tab
   • VCF software bundles are uploaded to the VIA.  Software bundles contain the SDDC software components that make up each VCF release.  We begin at the Bundle tab by selecting the bundle version we want to use to image the hosts.    
6. Select the Available Versions drop down and select bundle version 2.3.0-7526927
7. Click Activate Bundle.  
8. Click the Imaging tab.
   • Imaging refers to the process of installing ESXi onto the physical servers in preparation for adding them to the SDDC.  We can image entire racks or individual components.  Each imaging run is assigned a name, description and run ID.  
9. Click the Name box and type "Expand Rack"
10. Click the Description box and type "Expand Rack"
11. Click on deployment type drop down and select "Cloud Foundation Individual Component".  
    • The Device Type defaults to ESXI SERVER.  
12. Select the Number box
13. Enter the number 2
14. Select the Vendor drop down
15. Select Quanta Computers, Inc.
    • In this example,  our imaging run is named "Expand Rack" and we will install ESXi on two servers.
16. Click Start Imaging
    • The VIA prepares the ESXi image from the activated bundle and starts a DHCP service.  When prompted, we power cycle the hosts to initiate the PXE boot process which will install ESXi.  
    • After ESXi has been installed on both the hosts, the VIA will automatically verify the results.  
17. Click Complete
    • With the server imaging complete, we can now download the manifest file associated with these hosts.  
18. Click the Inventory tab
    • By default, the last imaging run is displayed.  Here we see our "Expand Rack" imaging run has been assigned the Run ID 17.
19. Click the Download Manifest link to save a copy.
    • With the ESXi installed on the servers and a copy of manifest file downloaded, we're now ready to add the servers in Cloud Foundation.
20. Click the VMware Cloud Foundation browser tab
21. Click SETTINGS
22. Click ADD HOST.
23. Click the Select the Rack to add Host drop down
24. Select LASSEN
25. Click BROWSE
26. Select the vcf-imaging-details-Expand-Rack.tgz file
    • This is the manifest file that we downloaded from the VIA.
27. Click Open
    • SDDC Manager will use the information provided in the manifest file to discover the newly imaged hosts.
28. Click CONTINUE
    • SDDC Manager uses the information in the manifest file to discovers the newly imaged hosts in the rack to verify they are accessible.
29. Click CONTINUE
    • SDDC Manager then proceeds to add the hosts to the VCF inventory and complete the ESXi configuration.  A process called "bring up".  We can monitor the progress in the UI.
    • When done we are notified that both hosts have been successfully added.  
30. Click OK
    • We see a summary of the completed steps.
31. Click the scroll bar two times to scroll down and review the completed steps
32. Click DASHBOARD to return to the SDDC Manager dashboard
    • Here we see the inventory now shows 10 hosts.  
33. Click VIEW DETAILS next to Physical Resources
    • We see the Lassen rack now has 10 hosts, along with a summary of the capacity provided by the 10 hosts.  
34. Click  the icon labeled LASSEN 10 HOSTS  
35. Click the scroll bar to scroll down
    • We are able to view the host details and confirm the new servers have been successfully added.

This concludes our simulation on how to use the use the powerful automation capabilities of the VMware SDDC Manager to easily expand your Cloud Foundation capacity by adding new servers to an existing rack.  

To return to the lab, click the link in the top right corner or close this browser tab