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VMFleet Prerequisites

Tool: VMFleet Category: Tool Guide

In addition to the common prerequisites, VMFleet requires the following.

Cluster Storage Requirements

Requirement Details
Base VHD Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Core Gen2 VHDX for fleet VMs
Collect Volume 200GB+ ReFS volume named "Collect" for VMFleet result aggregation
CSV Space Sufficient free space on CSVs for fleet VMs (count × memory + data disk)
Azure Local marketplace pathing Valid azure_local.custom_location_id and azure_local.storage_path_id in config/variables.yml

Software Requirements

Requirement Details
VMFleet Module PowerShell VMFleet module (Install-Module -Name VMFleet)
DiskSpd Included with VMFleet; no separate installation required
Az PowerShell Az.Accounts and Az.Resources for marketplace image REST operations
WinRM access Working PowerShell remoting from management station to all cluster nodes

Base Image Preparation

Run the image preparation script before first deployment. It checks whether the image already exists on cluster storage, and if not, triggers a marketplace download and tracks progress until completion.

.\src\infrastructure\Prepare-VMFleetBaseImage.ps1 `
    -ConfigPath "config/variables.yml" `
    -ClusterConfigPath "config/clusters/my-cluster.yml"

On success, the script prints the resolved VHDX path. Copy that value into storage.base_vhd_path in config/variables.yml before running Deploy-VMFleet.ps1.

Validation

Run pre-checks to verify VMFleet-specific readiness:

.\src\solutions\vmfleet\Invoke-VMFleetPipeline.ps1 `
    -ClusterConfigPath "config/clusters/my-cluster.yml" `
    -WhatIf

Checks performed:

  • Cluster node connectivity via WinRM
  • Storage Spaces Direct health status
  • Required CSV volumes exist and are online
  • Base VHD file exists and is accessible
  • Sufficient disk space for fleet VMs
  • VMFleet PowerShell module availability