Creating vCenter Groups in VMware Cloud Foundation 9: A Modern Alternative to Enhanced Linked Mode
- viquarmca
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
🚀 Introduction
With VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, VMware introduced a modernized approach to managing multiple vCenter Servers — the vCenter Group.
If you’ve been managing VCF environments prior to version 9, you’re probably familiar with Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) — the mechanism that allowed multiple vCenter Servers to share a common Single Sign-On (SSO) domain for unified visibility and management.
However, as environments scaled and lifecycle complexity increased, ELM began showing its limitations — especially when it came to upgrades, security boundaries, and scalability.
That’s where vCenter Groups come in —In VCF 9.0, VCF Operations provides a single console to manage VCF components, including vCenter instances. vCenter Linked Groups provide the mechanism for linking vCenter instances and providing centralized management and access to the linked vCenter instances
Before vCenter 9.0, ELM was the required method for providing a central view of management for multiple vCenter instances.
vCenter Groups Prerequisites
You must fulfill the following prerequisites before setting up vCenter Groups:
• vCenter must be registered with VCF Operations.
• The vCenter version must be 9.0 or later.
• VCF Single Sign-On must be configured.
• All vCenter instances must be configured with a common identity provider.
• vCenter must not be configured in Enhanced Linked Mode.
• Ensure that the IDP user has the required permission for each vCenter system.
• Verify that the user has the required vCenter Linking role assigned to access the vCenter instances.
Note : ELM is deprecated in VCF 9.0, and vCenter Groups is the preferred method to link vCenter instances in VCF 9.0 .
A maximum of 15 vCenter instances can be linked in a single vCenter Group.
How to Configure a vCenter Group in VCF Operations
Login to VCF OPS
Go to Infrastructure operations -> Configuration
Click on vCenter Linking
Click on Create Group and Give the Group Name -> Click Next
Select the vCenter instance which we want to group and Click Next
Review the Details and Click Finish
Once We Click Finish , you can see the Group name and 2 vCenter under a single group
Final Review , to verify the WLD VC is visible in the MGMT VC . Login to MGMT VC and click on the Linked vCenter Server systems
“Enhanced Linked Mode is dead!* Long live the new vCenter Linking!”
VMware Cloud Foundation instances are typically comprised of multiple vSphere environments. You can use the new vCenter Linking with vCenter Groups to make it easy to manage your fleet – seamlessly and without using shared administrator passwords.