Procedure to order Flexible instances

1. In the VMware Solutions console, click the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) for Classic card in the Create a resource section.

2. On the Create tab, click the Flexible card in the Resource type section.

3. To specify the instance configuration name, click Browse configurations and choose a configuration in the VMware instance configuration manager.

   • If you do not see any configurations in the list and you want to create one, you must first save the instance settings as a new configuration without placing an order.
   • If you want to update a saved configuration or create a new configuration based on a saved one, select the configuration from the side panel, make your changes, and then save.

4. Enter the instance name and select a resource group.

5. Select the VMware vSphere® version for your instance.

6. Select the VMware® components for licensing:

   Bring Your Own License (BYOL) is no longer supported except for migrations or upgrades of existing BYOL clusters. Use this feature only if you are upgrading or migrating an existing BYOL cluster.

   If you do select that you are providing your own license, an IBM Cloud ticket is opened automatically. This ticket requests the default vSphere licenses on your ordered bare metal servers to be replaced with your provided licenses.

   You are responsible to track the ticket so that you replace the vSphere license on the newly ordered VMware ESXi® servers. This way the IBM Cloud infrastructure grants the cancellation of the initially provided IBM Cloud infrastructure vSphere license charge. To replace your ESXi vSphere license, see Configure license settings for an ESXi host.

7. Complete the bare metal server settings:

   1. For data center location, click the Edit icon and select the geography, data center, and pod where the instance is to be hosted.
   2. Select the CPU model:
      • For Cascade Lake servers, select the CPU model and the RAM size.
      • For SAP-certified Cascade Lake servers (vSphere 7 only), choose one of the preset configurations.
   3. Specify the number of bare metal servers.

8. If you selected the VMware vSAN component, complete the vSAN™ storage configuration.

   • If you want more storage, select the High performance with Intel Optane checkbox.
   • Specify the disk types for the capacity and cache disks, and the number of disks.
   • If you want to Enable vSAN deduplication and compression, toggle its switch on.

9. Complete the network interface settings:

   1. Enter the hostname prefix and domain name.
   2. Select the network setting of either Public and private network or Private network only.
   3. Select the uplink speed. The 25 Gb option is available only for specific pods and data center locations.
   4. Select the network interface that you want to use.
      • If you want to order new public and private VLANs, click Order new VLANs.
      • If you want to reuse the existing public and private VLANs when they are available, click Select existing VLANs and specify the VLANs and optionally the subnets.
   5. If you are ordering public VLANs, specify whether to apply the FortiGate Physical Appliance 300 Series HA Pair to secure your cloud environment.

10. On the Summary pane, review the instance settings and the estimated price.

    • To save the settings as a new configuration template without placing an order, click Save configuration, enter a name for the configuration, and click Continue.
    • To save the updates to a saved configuration, click Save configuration, select Modify current configuration, and click Continue.
    • To save the updates to a new saved configuration, click Save configuration, select Create new configuration, enter a new name for the configuration, and click Continue.

11. To place the order, make sure that the account to be charged is correct, review and accept the terms, and then click Create.

    Only the IBM Cloud bare metal servers are installed. You are responsible for installing and configuring various components after instance deployment, such as VMware vCenter Server, VMware NSX®, and VMware vSAN - Enterprise or Enterprise Plus editions.