You’ve just deployed a brand-new VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 instance. You’ve configured the VCF repository and have downloaded the vrslcm bundle. You think your all ready to start deploying VRSLCM, and then…

You see a error message in the SDDC Manager like this:

You frantically go look at the VCF documentation, hoping this is just a mistake. When you get there, you see this:

Depression sets in.

Fear not, intrepid user! You can still deploy vrslcm!

The problem is that when this VCF instance was deployed, the option to deploy a Application Virtual Network, or AVN, for use by the vRealize Suite of products was not selected. The AVN construct is designed to help assist you with disaster recovery (DR). It’s optional to deploy a AVN during the initial installation of VCF 4.0. You might do this if you do not want to deploy any of the vRealize products, or if you were not worried about DR, or if you are using a home lab and have resource limits. Whatever the reason, deployment of AVNs during the deployment of VCF was not selected.

To enable the ability to deploy vrslcm from the SDDC Manger, you simply have to refer to KB article 78608.  When you perform the steps listed in this KB Article, you are basically just creating a file that enables this feature within the SDDC Manager.

After restarting the VCF services, you can log back into the SDDC Manager UI and you should see the error message go away! Note, after doing this, you may see some additional LCM bundles appear for download. These bundles are for vCenter 6.7, and should not be applicable to a VCF 4.0 environment. You can safely ignore these.

As for why the VCF documentation says this is not possible – well that’s simply a bug and it should be fixed soon.

Now go get vRealize installed!