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JOURNAL OF Intelligent Infrastructure Insights for the Modern Datacenter Era · by Dr Pranay Jha Explore the Guides

VCF 9.1 Day-2 Operations: The Complete Guide (VCF 9.1 Day-2 Operations Step by Step Guide)

Before you start. This series assumes a working VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 fleet. If you have not built one yet, follow the VCF 9.1 Deployment complete guide first, then return here for the operational tasks that keep the fleet patched, backed up, and healthy.

A step by step guide to running VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 after it is built. It covers the routine operations every fleet needs, meaning upgrades, patching, certificate and password rotation, backup and restore, and the scale, health and security tasks you handle over the life of the environment. Each task marks whether it is a routine operation, an optional capability, or a scenario you run only when it applies. New parts publish regularly. Start at Part 1, or jump to the task you need.

In progress · 2 of 20 parts published
Start here
  1. 01Day-2 operations overview and operating model
Phase 1 · Lifecycle and patching
  1. 02Upgrade VCF 9.0 to VCF 9.1
  2. 03Apply async patches and hotfixes (coming soon)
  3. 04Set up an offline depot (coming soon)
Phase 2 · Certificates and identity
  1. 05Rotate certificates (coming soon)
  2. 06Rotate passwords and manage credentials (coming soon)
  3. 07Integrate Active Directory and identity providers (coming soon)
Phase 3 · Backup and recovery
  1. 08Configure SDDC Manager and fleet backups (coming soon)
  2. 09Back up vCenter and NSX Manager (coming soon)
  3. 10Restore VCF components from backup (coming soon)
  4. 11Protect workloads with VMware Live Recovery (coming soon)
Phase 4 · Scale and capacity
  1. 12Add ESXi hosts to a cluster (coming soon)
  2. 13Add a cluster to a workload domain (coming soon)
  3. 14Decommission a cluster or workload domain (coming soon)
  4. 15Expand vSAN storage and use vSAN ESA (coming soon)
  5. 16Add external storage to a workload domain (coming soon)
  6. 17Replace a failed ESXi host (coming soon)
Phase 5 · Health and security
  1. 18Monitor fleet health with VCF Operations (coming soon)
  2. 19Harden VCF to security baselines (coming soon)
  3. 20Configure NSX Federation across VCF instances (coming soon)

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About the Author

Dr Pranay Jha

Dr. Pranay Jha is a Cloud and AI Consultant with 18+ years of experience in hybrid cloud, virtualization, and enterprise infrastructure transformation. He specializes in VMware technologies, multi-cloud strategy, and Generative AI solutions. He holds a PhD in Computer Applications with research focused on Cloud and AI, has published multiple research papers, and has been a VMware vExpert since 2016 and a VMUG Community Leader.