A VCF Automation 9.1 catalog that builds a complete nested VCF lab per request, each in its own VPC. How it differs from capturing a hand-built lab, and what building from code buys you.
The nested-lab catalog as three Org Builder packages that install, upgrade and uninstall a VCF Automation organization. How made and found keep an uninstall honest, and what two live runs proved.
Plain VPC subnets silently blackhole a nested ESXi host. Why, and the trunk subnet and binding map design that makes nested labs work as an ordinary NSX VPC tenant.
Three nested-ESXi pods with byte-identical addressing, down to the MACs, and no route between them. How overlapping VPC address ranges turn cookie-cutter environments into a feature.
The whole isolated pod, nested ESXi hosts and all, as one VCF Automation blueprint in the catalog. How the blueprint is built, the order it enforces, and the three things it can’t express.
A second vNIC on a nested host adds no physical redundancy, so why add it? We expected bringup to want one, and pulling vmnic0 mid-SSH proved the trunk copes: 0% loss, session intact.
How an interactive PowerShell script grew into a catalog item that builds complete nested VCF 9.1 instances from one request form. The design rules that made it survivable, and the traps behind them.
A 400-line menu-driven PowerShell script became a cloud template, two vRO actions and two subscriptions. Where each behaviour belongs, four non-obvious decisions, and the ‘yes’ that isn’t ’true’.
Stage 2 of the lab factory: a vRO workflow turns an environment number into a VCF 9.1 deployment spec, validates it and starts bringup, because the request dies long before the eight-hour build does.