Deployment requirements for converting vCenter server instances to VCF management domains with Fibre Channel datastores

10/03/2025 Contributors

Review the requirements for converting a vSphere 8 cluster with NetApp ONTAP FC datastores to a VMware Cloud Foundation management domain.

Infrastructure requirements

Make sure the following components and configurations are in place.

NetApp ASA R2/ASA/AFF storage system with a storage virtual machine (SVM) configured to allow FC traffic.
Logical interface (LIF) created to carry FC traffic and associated with the SVM.
FC zoning configured on the switches designated to carry FC traffic.
A vSphere 8 cluster with 4 x ESXi hosts and a vCenter appliance colocated on the cluster.
Distributed port group configured for vMotion on the VLANs or network segments established for this purpose.
Downloaded software required for the VCF conversion. For required software, go to Download Software for Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments.
Prerequisites for ONTAP tools are met.

For complete information on prerequisites for ONTAP tools refer to Prerequisites for ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere deployment.

ONTAP tools for VMware vSphere 10 can be installed in either HA or non-HA configurations.

For supported storage and other considerations for converting or importing vSphere to VCF 5.2, refer to Considerations Before Converting or Importing Existing vSphere Environments into VMware Cloud Foundation.
For information on configuring ONTAP storage systems, refer to the ONTAP 9 documentation.
For information on configuring VCF, refer to the VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 documentation.

After you've reviewed the deployment requirements, deploy ONTAP tools and provision the FC datastore.