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Quick Tip: Automating PAK Upload & Installation for VCF Operations

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While testing an update workflow, I needed to update VCF Operations directly, which can be performed through the /admin UI and by uploading and then installing the PAK file. Although the process itself is straightforward, the two-step workflow and the waiting between each step make it feel longer than the actual update.


I figured there had to be a way to automate the process, but I was not able to quickly find anything online. After browsing both the VCF Operations API and the VCF Operations Cluster and Slice Administration (CASA) API, I found the APIs needed to automate both the PAK upload and installation.

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Password, Certificate & Backup Management UI/API for VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 9.1 

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When it comes to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) capabilities such as the new unified Fleet Management, it is important to distinguish between the deployment type and the deployment entitlement.

Deployment Type

Deployment Entitlement

  • VVF
  • VCF

Although related, these are two distinct concepts, and conflating them can lead to confusion about which capabilities are available in a given deployment.


To add to the confusion, the VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) deployment type includes a non-VCF Installer deployment workflow, officially referred to as VVF without VCF Management Services.  This workflow deploys the standalone VVF components, including vCenter Server, ESX, VCF Operations, and VCF License Server, rather than a VCF Management Services-based deployment. As a result, capabilities such as Log Management, which rely on VCF Management Services, are not available in this deployment model.

Customers have the flexibility to choose the deployment type that best meets the requirements of a given environment, independent of their VVF or VCF entitlement. While this flexibility is intentional, it can also lead to questions about where core management capabilities, such as password, certificate, and backup management, are exposed.

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Quick Tip: Reducing High CPU Utilization on NSX due to slow Entropy from AMD Zen4/5 CPUs

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AMD Zen4/Zen5 processors have been known to have slower entropy generation, which can lead to higher CPU utilization for workloads that depend on random number generation. I recently learned from a colleague (Ross Wynne) about a simple optimization for NSX Manager that can significantly reduce CPU utilization when running on AMD Zen4/Zen5 processors.

Shut down your NSX Manager VM and add the following VM Advanced Setting. This allows the guest operating system to retrieve entropy directly from the ESXi host, which already includes optimizations for entropy generation on AMD Zen4 and Zen5 processors.

isolation.tools.getEntropy.disable = FALSE


Note: Ensure you have applied the recommended entropySource configuration for your physical ESX host in addition to this configuration change.

In my limited testing, I have observed the NSX Manager load average drop to less than 5, whereas it was consistently much higher before applying this optimization. I will continue to monitor my environment, but this is definitely a worthwhile optimization to add to your VCF homelab toolkit. This configuration change can also benefit NSX Edge and NSX Virtual Network Appliances (VNA).