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VCF9 Building Infrastructure for POC and LAB enviornment

The VMware ecosystem has undergone some of its biggest transformations in recent years, and one of the most significant milestones is the Broadcom-backed release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9. This latest version introduces a modernized architecture that dramatically expands flexibility across both storage and networking layers—giving architects more freedom than ever to design environments that align with real-world operational and business requirements.

On the storage front, VCF 9 removes the long-standing dependency on vSAN as the mandatory principal storage. Organizations can now deploy Management and Workload Domains using NFS or Fibre Channel (FC) in addition to vSAN HCI (ESA/OSA). Supplemental storage options also expand, with support for iSCSI, NVMe, and vSAN Remote, enabling hybrid use cases and smoother brownfield integrations.

Networking sees an equally impactful shift. VCF 9 introduces Edgeless Networking for overlay, eliminating the need to deploy NSX Edge Nodes for east-west overlay connectivity. This not only simplifies deployment and reduces infrastructure overhead but also aligns better with modern data center fabrics like EVPN, ACI, and Arista environments where north-south routing is handled externally.

Overall, VCF 9 marks a major step toward a more open, flexible, and operations-friendly SDDC platform setting a strong foundation for scalable, modern cloud infrastructure.

Coming to the actual discussion to deploy the VCF 9 on Single ESXi or or Max 2. Here is the workaround you could apply.

1) Get the VCF Installer Downloaded from Broadcom portal which is actually reqjuired for every VCF deployment which is quite common.

2) Now, when you configure only 1 host into the VCF installer to deploy the VCF 9 its genuenly give you and error as you are not fullfiling the 3 host requirement in case of FC due to the hardcoded requirment set in VCF Installer.





All of this sounds great on paper—but the practical question many architects have is: “Can I actually run VCF 9 in my home lab, given its traditionally large footprint?”

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. You can deploy and explore VCF 9 in a home lab using just one or two ESXi hosts—but it does require a few tweaks and workarounds.

Under normal circumstances, the VCF 9 installer enforces the standard minimums:

  • 3 ESXi hosts when using vSAN (ESA/OSA)

  • 2 ESXi hosts when using NFS or FC

These values are perfectly valid for lab and PoC environments, but production deployments will require more hosts to meet HA, resiliency, and sizing best practices.

Now, coming to the actual topic—running VCF 9 on a single ESXi host or a maximum of two.
This is achievable, but you need to apply a specific workaround.

Steps Overview:

1) Download the VCF Installer
Start by downloading the VCF Installer bundle from the Broadcom portal, which is required for every VCF deployment.


2) Understand the Installer Limitation
If you attempt to configure VCF 9 with only a single ESXi host in the installer, you’ll immediately receive an error—because the host count check is hardcoded to validate a minimum of 3 hosts (for vSAN) or 2 hosts (for FC/NFS).

To bypass this, a small configuration modification is needed, which allows the installer to proceed even with a 1-node setup.


3) To bypass the hardcoded host-count validation in the VCF Installer, you need to add a feature flag inside the Cloud Builder appliance. Run the following command:

>> echo "feature.vcf.vgl-29121.single.host.domain=true" >> /home/vcf/feature.properties

4) For VCF 9 specifically, append the internal single-host deployment flag:

>> echo "feature.vcf.internal.single.host.domain=true" >> /home/vcf/feature.properties

5) Once the feature flags are added, restart the VCF Installer services so the changes take effect:

>> echo 'y' | /opt/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/scripts/cli/sddcmanager_restart_services.sh

6) After the services restart successfully, you can proceed with the VCF 9 installation using your 1-node or 2-node configuration.


Important Note

This workaround is intended only for lab and PoC environments. It is not officially supported by Broadcom, and you should not rely on this method for production deployments.

Additionally, ensure that your home lab meets the minimum CPU, memory, and storage requirements needed to run the VCF components successfully.






















Thanks for the reading :)

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