Introduction
Many organizations today are running excellent, stable virtualized environments based on VMware vSphere 8.x. You have your vCenter Server, your ESXi hosts, and perhaps even vSAN for storage and NSX for networking. It works, but managing lifecycle patches across these disparate components, maintaining architectural standards, and preparing for hybrid cloud integration can still be a manual, error-prone process.
Enter VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.
VCF is the integrated stack that brings vSphere, vSAN, and NSX together under a unified management plane called SDDC Manager. Moving from standalone vSphere to VCF isn’t just an upgrade; it’s an architectural shift toward standardized, automated infrastructure.
In the past, adopting VCF often meant building new environments from scratch (“greenfield”). However, with VCF 9.0, the capabilities for “Brownfield Ingestion”—taking an existing vSphere environment and bringing it under VCF management—have matured significantly.
This guide walks you through the high-level steps of converting an existing vSphere 8.x environment into the Management Domain of a new VCF 9.0 deployment.
Important Disclaimer Before We Begin
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This is a major architectural change. Do not attempt this in production without thorough testing in a lab environment first.
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Consult Official Documentation: VCF 9.0 requirements are strict. Always refer to the official VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Release Notes and Deployment Guide for the exact Bill of Materials (BOM) and prerequisites.
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VCF 9.0 Specifics: As VCF 9.0 brings new architectures, ensure your underlying hardware is fully compliant with the VCF 9.0 HCL (Hardware Compatibility List).
Phase 1: Prerequisites and The “Pre-Flight” Check
The success of a brownfield ingestion relies entirely on preparation. VCF is highly prescriptive. If your current network setup doesn’t match what VCF expects, the ingestion will fail.
Key Requirements Checklist:
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vSphere Versions: Your existing vCenter and ESXi hosts must be running specific versions supported for ingestion into VCF 9.0. You may need to patch them up to a certain baseline before you can bring them into VCF.
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Network Topology: Your existing vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) configuration, VLANs, MTU settings, and DNS/NTP must align precisely with VCF standards.
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Crucial: Ensure forward and reverse DNS lookup works flawlessly for all ESXi hosts, vCenter, and the future SDDC Manager appliance.
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Hardware Uniformity: Ideally, the hosts in the cluster you are importing should be identical in CPU, memory, and storage configuration to form a stable Management Domain.
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Licensing: You will need valid VCF 9.0 licenses (Cloud Foundation Enterprise or Standard keys) ready to apply after ingestion.
Phase 2: Deploying VMware Cloud Builder
The VMware Cloud Builder is a temporary appliance that acts as the “installer” for VCF. It orchestrates the deployment of SDDC Manager and the conversion of your existing environment.
Step 1: Download and Deploy the OVA Download the VCF 9.0 Cloud Builder OVA from the Broadcom/VMware portal. Deploy it onto your existing ESXi management cluster using the standard vSphere Client OVA deployment wizard.
Deploying the VMware Cloud Builder appliance into the existing vSphere environment.
Step 2: Initial Configuration Once the appliance boots, access its console to set essential passwords and ensure basic network connectivity.
Phase 3: Executing the Brownfield Ingestion
This is where the magic happens. We will access the Cloud Builder’s web interface and tell it about our existing environment.
Step 1: Access Cloud Builder UI Open a web browser and navigate to the IP/FQDN of the newly deployed Cloud Builder appliance. Log in with the admin credentials created during deployment.
Step 2: Select the Deployment Type VCF 9.0 Cloud Builder will present options for deployment. You are looking for the option related to “Convert existing vSphere environment” or “Brownfield Deployment” (Note: Exact UI naming may vary slightly in the final VCF 9.0 GA release).
Selecting the Brownfield Conversion workflow in VMware Cloud Builder.
Step 3: The Deployment Parameter Workbook (The “Spec Sheet”) For VCF 9.0, you typically provide the environment details via a structured Excel spreadsheet (the “Deployment Parameter Workbook”) or a guided UI wizard. This is the most critical data entry step.
You will need to provide information about existing components that Cloud Builder needs to discover:
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Existing vCenter FQDN and SSO credentials.
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Details of the Cluster to be converted (must contain at least 4 hosts for a standard Management Domain).
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Existing networking details (vDS names, port groups for Management, vMotion, vSAN).
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IP addresses needed for the new SDDC Manager appliance and NSX components that will be deployed.
Inputting existing vSphere cluster details into the configuration wizard.
Step 4: Validation (The Moment of Truth) Once the data is inputted, Cloud Builder will run a massive series of validation scripts. It logs into your current vCenter and checks everything: DNS entries, NTP drift, vDS configurations, host compatibility, available storage, etc.
Do not ignore warnings. Errors must be fixed in your existing environment before proceeding. This validation step often requires several iterations of “Validate -> Fix Issue in vSphere -> Validate Again.”
Step 5: Begin Ingestion Once validation is all green, click Deploy (or Convert).
The Cloud Builder will now automate a complex workflow:
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It deploys the SDDC Manager appliance.
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It deploys necessary NSX Managers (if not already present and compatible).
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It reconfigures the existing vCenter and hosts to place them under the governance of SDDC Manager.
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It establishes the cluster as the VCF “Management Domain.”
This process can take several hours. Grab a coffee.
Phase 4: Post-Ingestion and Validation
When the Cloud Builder reports success, your environment has transformed.
Step 1: Log into SDDC Manager Navigate to the FQDN of the newly deployed SDDC Manager. Log in using the SSO credentials defined during the setup parameters.
Step 2: Verify the Inventory On the SDDC Manager dashboard, you should now see your “Management Domain” listed as active. Drilling down into it, you should recognize your original vCenter server and your ESXi hosts, now managed by VCF.
Success! The existing vSphere infrastructure is now visible as the Management Domain within SDDC Manager.
Step 3: Apply VCF Licensing Your components are currently running on evaluation keys or their old vSphere keys. In the SDDC Manager UI, navigate to the Licensing section and apply your new VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 license keys to unlock full functionality.
Step 4: Decommission Cloud Builder Once you have verified everything is stable and working, the Cloud Builder appliance is no longer needed and can be powered off and deleted.
Conclusion: Welcome to the SDDC
By completing this brownfield ingestion, you haven’t just upgraded software; you’ve changed your operational model.
You no longer patch hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) directly in vCenter. Instead, you use SDDC Manager to “add” update bundles and orchestrate the patching of the entire stack—vCenter, ESXi, and NSX—in a validated, pre-tested order. You are now ready to easily expand your environment by deploying “Workload Domains” for your applications, leveraging the full power of the software-defined data center.