How to Enable EVC During VMware Cloud Foundation Management Domain Deployment

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Installer lacks an option to enable Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) during Management Domain deployment.
• Attempting a JSON deployment with the clusterEvcMode parameter fails with the error REQUIRE_HANDLERS_FOR_JAVA8_OPTIONALS due to strict Jackson serialization limitations causing parsing errors.
  • The exact error message observed is: 
    Java 8 optional type java.util.Optional<...HighAvailability> not supported by default: add Module "com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jdk8" to enable handling.
• This workaround enables EVC during deployment for non-vSAN environments.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1

Cause

The VCF Installer UI does not include an EVC configuration option.
JSON deployments fail when clusterEvcMode is specified due to Jackson parser serialization constraints that cannot be bypassed via standard options.

Resolution

*** This procedure is currently not supported for VMware vSAN environments. ***

 

Prerequisites:

• Shared datastore access must be available from the ESX hosts used for the Management Domain.

• One spare ESX host is required (deploy VCF with one fewer host than planned, using the excluded host as the spare).

• For JSON deployments, the "clusterEvcMode" parameter must be completely removed from the JSON file before starting.

• This procedure is currently not supported for VMware vSAN environments.

Phase 1: Pause the Installer Process

1. Start the normal VCF deployment using the VCF Installer.

2. Monitor the deployment progress until the VMware NSX deployment phase begins (an OVF deployment task will appear in VMware vCenter).
   

3. Open an SSH session to the SDDC Manager(VCF Installer) appliance using the vcf user account.

4. Switch to the root user using the su - command.

5. Run the following command to forcefully restart the domain manager service:
   systemctl restart domainmanager

6. In vCenter, cancel the ongoing NSX OVF deployment task. This intentionally causes the deployment to fail and pause.
   If the NSX VM directory exists in the datastore, delete it.

Phase 2: Re-register vCenter and Enable EVC

1. Shut down both the SDDC Manager (VCF Installer) and vCenter virtual machines.
2. Access the original Management ESX host via the VMware Host Client.
3. Unregister the vCenter VM from the inventory (Do not delete the VM files from the datastore).
4. Log in to the spare ESX host and ensure the shared datastore is mounted using the exact same name as the Management Domain.
5. Navigate to the shared datastore > Files > vCenter VM directory, select the .vmx file, and register the vCenter VM to the spare ESX host.
6. Modify the vCenter VM network settings to use a standard port group on the exact same VLAN.
   (Because the Management Domain has already migrated to a distributed switch, port group reconfiguration is required on the spare ESX host).
7. Power on the vCenter VM.
8. Log in to vCenter and configure the desired EVC baseline on the target cluster.
   Note: The vCenter VM must be removed from the inventory to prevent it from showing as orphaned, which blocks EVC modifications. 
9. Shut down the vCenter VM and unregister it from the spare ESX host's inventory.

Phase 3: Failback and Resume Deployment

1. Log back into the original Management ESX host via the VMware Host Client.
2. Re-register the vCenter VM from the shared datastore.
3. Modify the vCenter VM network settings to reconnect it to the original distributed port group.
4. Power on the vCenter VM, followed by the SDDC Manager(VCF Installer) VM.
5. Log into the VCF Installer and click Retry to resume the deployment. The installer will restart from the NSX deployment phase and complete successfully.
6. (Optional) After deployment completes, commission the spare ESX host and add it to the Management Domain cluster using SDDC Manager.