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VCF 9.1.1 - Single ESX Host for VCF Fleet, VCF Workload Domain or VCF Cluster

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For a production deployment of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), there is a good reason why you might not want to run everything on a single ESX host. 😅

Assuming you understand how the minimum ESX host requirements are derived for VCF deployments, there are certainly benefits to deploying a resource-optimized VCF environment for lab or proof-of-concept (POC) purposes. Being able to exercise workflows such as creating a new VCF Workload Domain or adding a new VCF Cluster with just a single ESX host can be extremely useful.

In fact, this has been possible since VCF 5.x and is something I have personally used to quickly stand up a full VCF environment or expand an existing one, which I have documented over the past few years:

While the scenarios above are the most common use cases for a single ESX host, deploying a new VCF Cluster with just one host has been a less common request, but it has also been possible.

To be able to deploy a new VCF Fleet, Workload Domain or Cluster using just a single ESX host requires applying a workaround, which I have captured in my comprehensive VCF 9.1.x Installer and SDDC Manager Configuration Workaround for Lab Deployments blog post.

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Bypassing Minimum Unique Flows & Metric Collection Period for vDefend Security Services Platform (SSP) 5.2 Lab Deployments

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After successfully deploying vDefend Security Services Platform (SSP) 5.2 in my VCF 9.1.1 environment, I came to learn that SSP requires at least 1,000 unique flows before it can generate a security assessment of your environment.


Similarly, SSP also requires a minimum of three days of collected flow data before it can generate a flow capacity assessment.


If you have a small lab environment like myself, generating 1,000 unique flows can be difficult, and having to wait several days to demonstrate certain SSP capabilities may not be ideal, especially for proof-of-concept deployments. Here is how you can work around these default requirements when deploying SSP in a lab environment.

Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by Broadcom, please use only in a non-production environment for lab and learning purposes.

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PowerShell Module for vDefend Security Services Platform (SSP) 5.2 Installer Configuration and Instance Deployment

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After recently sharing my automation for deploying the vDefend Security Services Platform (SSP) 5.2 Installer, the next logical step was automating the configuration of the SSP Installer and deployment of an SSP Instance. To make this easy and reusable, I have created a new PowerShell Module for vDefend SSP that automates these workflows from end to end.

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