zPods¶

zPods are the nested environments name in the zPodFactory framework.

List zPods¶

❯ zcli zpod list

Create zPods¶

To create a zPod you will need to provide a few parameters:

• name: The name of the zPod (must start with a letter; emoji characters are rejected). Non-superadmin users may be required to prefix names with their username when ff_restrict_zpod_with_username_prefix is enabled.
• profile: The profile to use (use zcli profile list). If ff_zpod_default_profile is set, --profile can be omitted.
• endpoint: The endpoint to deploy onto (use zcli endpoint list). If only one endpoint exists, it is selected automatically.

Additional options:

zcli zpod create <name> -p <profile> -e <endpoint> \
  --description "My lab" \
  --domain custom.domain.lab \   # optional domain override
  --enet <enet_name> \           # optional ENET override
  --wait                         # wait until deploy completes

❯ zcli zpod create name -p profile -e endpoint

For example:

❯ zcli zpod create test -p base -e sddc-lab

This will create a zPod with the following attributes:

• name: test — concatenated with zpodfactory_default_domain for the zPod FQDN (test.zpodfactory.domain). The core appliance is at zcore.test.zpodfactory.domain.

• profile: base — deploys the components defined in that profile. A typical base profile includes:

  • zcore-13.7 (mandatory core: DNS/DHCP, NFS, guest VLAN routing)
  • esxi-8.0u3i (Host Id: 11, CPU: 4, Mem: 48GB)
  • esxi-8.0u3i (Host Id: 12, CPU: 4, Mem: 48GB)
  • vcsa-8.0u3i

• endpoint: sddc-lab will reference the endpoint to use to deploy the zPod. In this case it will be the sddc-lab endpoint that is configured by an Administrator, and should link to the physical environment that will host this zPod nested environment.

Accessing the zPod¶

Once deployed, inspect connection details with:

❯ zcli zpod info test

This shows networking, component URLs, credentials, and Proxmox UI links where applicable. Use -j for JSON or -f to pick panels: b Basic, n Networking, c Components, s Storage, d DNS (for example -f bnc).

For vCenter:

• username: administrator@name.zpodfactory.domain
• password: Each zPod has a generated password — fetch it from zcli zpod list or zcli zpod info.

For other components, use the default administrator account for that product (root, admin, etc.; administrator for VCD). The password is always the zPod password.

Destroy zPods¶

❯ zcli zpod destroy name