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The following walk through covers the creation of the workload domain using the SDDC Wizard.
Within SDDC Manager, select Workload Domains from the Inventory menu on the left. Click + WORKLOAD DOMAIN > VI Workload Domain in Figure 41. This initiates the workload wizard.
If an image is already being used, go to the next step in the wizard. If an image is not in use, create one using any available vCenter using the same base version, such as, 7.x, as that in the BOM.
Note: ESXi is the only component in the image, which means both the commissioned hosts will validate successfully against it.
Note: The warning in the previous image contains a critical message that the user should heed, since the wizard will not prevent the user from continuing if their hosts do not comply. The message clearly states that the first two physical NICs recognized by ESXi will be used. For many customers, those two NICs may not be the ones that are cabled. For example, in this environment the physical NICs appeared as in Figure 48 for one of the hosts. The first two NICs are not cabled, while the second two are. VCF expects vmnic0 to be assigned to switch vSwitch0 prior to installation and vmnic1 to be available.
The only solution VCF offers to this situation is to use the API, rather than the UI. If the user is comfortable with that solution, then it can certainly be done. If not, however, it is possible to re-order how ESXi discovers the NICs. VMware offers the following knowledge base article which details the process to re-order: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2091560. In short, the user creates aliases so that the vmnic order can be switched. In this environment the following alias exchanges were made, switching vmnic2 to vmnic0 and vmnic3 to vmnic1:
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type pci --alias vmnic0 --bus-address m0000306f
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type pci --alias vmnic2 --bus-address m0000206f
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type logical --alias vmnic0 --bus-address "pci#m0000306f#0"
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type logical --alias vmnic2 --bus-address "pci#m0000206f#0"
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type pci --alias vmnic1 --bus-address m00003079
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type pci --alias vmnic3 --bus-address m000020d3
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type logical --alias vmnic1 --bus-address "pci#m00003079#0"
localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ deviceInternal alias store --bus-type logical --alias vmnic3 --bus-address "pci#m000020d3#0"
Once these commands are complete, a reboot of the ESXi host will re-order the NICs. For one of the hosts, the new order is shown in Figure 49.
The SDDC Manager now undertakes the creation of the workload domain on NFS. The user can watch the progress of creation by checking the Configuration Status column under Inventory > Workload Domains as in Figure 51. The creation will take some time.
Once complete, use the hyperlink for the PowerFlexNFSWkld domain to drill-down into the workload domain. Select Hosts to see the ESXi hosts for the domain and note that the Data Store Type column is NFS as in Figure 52. The domain is now ready for application deployment.