The next step the systems administrator should take is to prepare and configure the ESXi hosts to be used in the deployment. According to the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation1, before you can deploy the management domain using VMware Cloud Builder, you must prepare the ESXi hosts that will be part of the management domain and the VI workload domains. You need to install ESXi on the hosts, configure the network settings, claim disks for vSAN, and optionally configure certificates for the hosts. You can use different methods to prepare the ESXi hosts, such as using a custom ISO image, using the VMware Imaging Appliance, or installing ESXi interactively1
Uploading the Deployment Parameter Workbook is not the next step, because it is done after preparing the ESXi hosts. The Deployment Parameter Workbook is a spreadsheet that contains all the parameters required for deploying VMware Cloud Foundation, such as IP addresses, host names, passwords, and license keys. You need to download and complete the workbook before uploading it to VMware Cloud Builder1
Configuring the Management Domain using custom certificates is not the next step, because it is an optional step that can be done after deploying the management domain. Custom certificates are used to secure the communication between the components of VMware Cloud Foundation, such as SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, and NSX-T Manager. You can use either self-signed certificates or certificates signed by a certificate authority (CA)1
Deploying the Management Domain using VMware Cloud Builder is not the next step, because it is done after preparing the ESXi hosts and uploading the Deployment Parameter Workbook. The management domain is the first domain that is deployed in VMware Cloud Foundation, and it contains the components for managing and operating the SDDC platform, such as SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, NSX-T Manager, and NSX Edge nodes. You use VMware Cloud Builder to deploy the management domain by following a guided workflow on its UI1
