Here’s the blog post based on the information provided:

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While updating and testing my Automated VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Lab Deployment Script to support the latest VCF 5.1.1 release, I came across a strange error message in the Cloud Builder UI about uploading the personality to SDDC Manager. The message read: “Failed to upload personality to SDDC Manager”.

I was confused because my script had been working perfectly fine with previous versions of VCF. After some troubleshooting, I discovered that the issue was caused by a change in the way VCF 5.1.1 handles deployments using JSON deployment method. Specifically, the property “clusterImageEnabled” is now required to be explicitly defined under the “clusterSpec” section of the JSON file.

The “clusterImageEnabled” property determines whether the VCF Management Domain will be deployed using vSphere Lifecycle Manager (VLCM) image-based deployment or the legacy vSphere Update Manager (VUM) baseline deployment. The default value for this property is “true”, which means that VCF will use VLCM image-based deployment by default. However, if you want to use the legacy VUM baseline deployment, you need to set this property to “false”.

To fix the issue, I simply added the “clusterImageEnabled” property with the desired value of “true” to my JSON file, and the deployment completed successfully. Here’s an example of how the “clusterSpec” section of the JSON file should look like with the “clusterImageEnabled” property defined:

“`json

{

“clusterSpec”: {

“clusterImageEnabled”: true,

“clusterName”: “my-vcf-cluster”,

“datastore”: “ds-123456”,

“network”: “vn-123456”,

“subnet”: “sn-123456”

}

}

“`

I hope this helps anyone who is automating their VCF deployments using the Cloud Builder API. This change in VCF 5.1.1 may cause some issues if you’re not aware of it, but with this knowledge, you should be able to avoid any potential roadblocks.

In summary, when deploying a VCF environment using JSON deployment method, make sure to explicitly define the “clusterImageEnabled” property under the “clusterSpec” section of your JSON file. This will ensure a successful deployment and avoid any confusion or errors like the one I encountered.

That’s it for this blog post. If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!