VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Getting Started PDF

Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation 07 NOV 2023 VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vm...

Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation 07 NOV 2023 VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com © Copyright 2021-2023 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc. 2  Contents 1 About Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation 4 2 VMware Cloud Foundation Overview 6 3 VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture 11 Workload Domains in VMware Cloud Foundation 13 VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Models 15 4 Deployment Overview of VMware Cloud Foundation 16 5 VMware Cloud Foundation Glossary 26 VMware, Inc. 3 About Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation 1 The Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation document provides a high-level overview of the VMware Cloud Foundation™ product. Intended Audience The information in Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation is intended for data center cloud architects and cloud administrators who are familiar with: n Concepts of virtualization and software-defined data centers (SDDCs) n Networking and concepts such as uplinks, NICs, and IP networks n Hardware components such as top-of-rack (ToR) switches, inter-rack switches, servers with direct attached storage, cables, and power supplies n Methods for setting up physical racks in a data center ® n Using VMware vSphere to work with virtual machines Related VMware Cloud Foundation Publications The VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Release Notes lists the software components, new features, compatibility, and known issues in this VMware Cloud Foundation release. The VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook provides detailed information about the inputs that are required to complete a VMware Cloud Foundation deployment. It also provides dynamic sizing guidance. The VMware Cloud Foundation Deployment Guide is intended for data center cloud administrators who deploy a VMware Cloud Foundation system in their organization's data center. The VMware Cloud Foundation Administration Guide contains detailed information about how to administer a VMware Cloud Foundation system in your data center. The VMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide provides best practices and step-by-step instructions about certain operations in VMware Cloud Foundation, such as, full-stack shutdown and startup. VMware, Inc. 4 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation The VMware Cloud Foundation Lifecycle Management document describes how to manage the life cycle of a VMware Cloud Foundation environment. You can open these documents from the VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation main page. Your VMware Cloud Foundation system includes a stack of VMware software products and components. You can find the documentation for those software products at VMware Docs. VMware Cloud Foundation Glossary The Chapter 5 VMware Cloud Foundation Glossary defines terms specific to VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware, Inc. 5 VMware Cloud Foundation Overview 2 VMware Cloud Foundation™ provides a ubiquitous hybrid cloud platform for both traditional enterprise and modern applications. Based on a proven and comprehensive software-defined ® ® ® ® stack including VMware vSphere , VMware VMware vSAN , VMware NSX , VMware vSphere with VMware Tanzu™, and VMware Aria Suite™, VMware Cloud Foundation provides a complete set of software-defined services for compute, storage, network, container and cloud management. The result is agile, reliable, efficient cloud infrastructure that offers consistent operations across private and public clouds. VMware, Inc. 6 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation vSphere Pod vSphere Pod Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters vSphere Pod SDDC NSX vSphere with VMware Aria Manager Tanzu Suite ESXi vCenter vSAN Server Data Center Edge Hyperscaler By using VMware Cloud Foundation, data center cloud administrators to provision an application environment in a rapid, repeatable, automated way versus the traditional manual process. VMware Cloud Foundation Components To manage the logical infrastructure in the private cloud, VMware Cloud Foundation augments the VMware virtualization and management components with VMware Cloud Builder™ and VMware Cloud Foundation™ SDDC Manager™. VMware, Inc. 7 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Cloud Foundation Component Description VMware Cloud Builder VMware Cloud Builder automates the deployment of the software- defined stack, creating the first software-defined unit known as the management domain. SDDC Manager SDDC Manager automates the entire system life cycle, that is, from configuration and provisioning to upgrades and patching including host firmware, and simplifies day-to-day management and operations. From this interface, the virtual infrastructure administrator or cloud administrator can provision new private cloud resources, monitor changes to the logical infrastructure, and manage life cycle and other operational activities. vSphere vSphere uses virtualization to transform individual data centers into aggregated computing infrastructures that include CPU, storage, and networking resources. VMware vSphere manages these infrastructures as a unified operating environment and provides you with the tools to administer the data centers that participate in that environment. The two core components of vSphere are ESXi and vCenter Server. ESXi is the virtualization platform where you create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances. vCenter Server is the service through which you manage multiple hosts connected in a network and pool host resources. vSAN vSAN aggregates local or direct-attached data storage devices to create a single storage pool that is shared across all hosts in the vSAN cluster. Using vSAN removes the need for external shared storage, and simplifies storage configuration and virtual machine provisioning. Built-in policies allow for flexibility in data availability. NSX NSX is focused on providing networking, security, automation, and operational simplicity for emerging application frameworks and architectures that have heterogeneous endpoint environments and technology stacks. NSX supports cloud-native applications, bare-metal workloads, multi-hypervisor environments, public clouds, and multiple clouds. vSphere with Tanzu By using the integration between VMware Tanzu and VMware Cloud Foundation, you can deploy and operate the compute, networking, and storage infrastructure for vSphere with Tanzu, also called Workload Management. vSphere with Tanzu transforms vSphere to a platform for running Kubernetes workloads natively on the hypervisor layer. When enabled on a vSphere cluster, vSphere with Tanzu provides the capability to run Kubernetes workloads directly on ESXi hosts and to create upstream Kubernetes clusters within dedicated resource pools. VMware Aria Suite VMware Cloud Foundation supports automated deployment of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. You can then deploy and manage the life cycle of Workspace ONE Access and the VMware Aria Suite products (VMware Aria Operations for Logs, VMware Aria Automation, and VMware Aria Operations) by using VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. VMware Aria Suite is a purpose-built management solution for the heterogeneous data center and the hybrid cloud. It is designed to deliver and manage infrastructure and applications to increase business agility while maintaining IT control. It provides the most comprehensive management stack for private and public clouds, multiple hypervisors, and physical infrastructure. VMware, Inc. 8 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation For a high-level deployment process, see Chapter 4 Deployment Overview of VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware Cloud Foundation Features The VMware Cloud Foundation features provide automated deployment and life cycle management of your SDDC, and enable provisioning of customer virtualized workloads and containers. VMware Cloud Foundation Feature Description Automated Software Bring-Up You prepare your environment for VMware Cloud Foundation by installing a baseline ESXi image on vSAN ReadyNodes. After the hosts are physically racked and cabled, VMware Cloud Foundation uses the physical network details you provide (such as DNS, IP address pool, and so on) to automate the bring-up and configuration of the software stack. During bring-up, the management domain is created on the four hosts you specified. When the bring-up process completes, you have a functional management domain and can start provisioning virtual infrastructure (VI) workload domains. Simplified Resource Provisioning with In VMware Cloud Foundation, a workload domains is a policy- Workload Domains based resource construct with specific availability and performance attributes. See Workload Domains in VMware Cloud Foundation. Virtual Machines and Containers Onto the By using the VMware Tanzu integration with VMware Cloud Same Platform Foundation, you can deploy and operate the compute, networking, and storage infrastructure for vSphere with Tanzu, also called Workload Management. vSphere with Tanzu transforms vSphere to a platform for running Kubernetes workloads natively on the hypervisor layer. When enabled on a vSphere cluster, vSphere with Tanzu provides the capability to run Kubernetes workloads directly on VMware ESXi™ hosts and to create upstream Kubernetes clusters within dedicated resource pools. The Kubernetes concept of namespace is integrated into vSphere and becomes the unit of management. By grouping VMs and containers into logical applications via namespaces, Virtual Infrastructure (VI) admins who used to manage thousands of VMs can now manage just dozens of applications which is a massive reduction in cognitive load. For more information about integrating VMware Cloud Foundation with vSphere with Tanzu, see Developer Ready Infrastructure for VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware, Inc. 9 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Cloud Foundation Feature Description Automated Life Cycle Management VMware Cloud Foundation offers automated life cycle management on a per-workload basis. Available updates for all components are tested for interoperability and bundled with the necessary logic for proper installation order. The update bundles are then scheduled for automatic installation on a per-workload domain basis. This allows administrators to target specific workloads or environments, for example development vs. production, for updates independent from the rest of the environment. vSphere Lifecycle Manager, a vCenter Server service, is integrated with VMware Cloud Foundation. By using vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can create cluster images for centralized and simplified life cycle management of ESXi hosts including firmware. When you select the image-based life cycle management mode at VI workload domain creation, you can update and upgrade the ESXi version on all hosts in the cluster collectively. You can also install and update vendor add-ons and components on all ESXi hosts in a cluster. See vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image Management. Stretched Deployment You can set up two availability zones in your environment and introduce high availability of management and customer workloads by configuring vSAN stretched clusters by using the SDDC Manager API. Availability zones protect against failures of groups of hosts. These group can consist of hosts in the same data center, for example, installed in different racks, chassis or rooms, or in different data centers with low-latency high-speed links connecting them. Using two availability zones can improve availability of management components running the SDDC, minimize downtime of services, and improve SLAs. See Stretched Cluster Management. NSX Federation You can use NSX Federation to propagate configurations that span multiple NSX instances in a single VMware Cloud Foundation instance or across multiple VMware Cloud Foundation instances. You can set up global networking, enabling failover of segment ingress and egress traffic between VMware Cloud Foundation instances, and implement a unified firewall configuration. In the management domain in a deployment with multiple VMware Cloud Foundation instances, you use NSX to provide cross-instance services to SDDC management components which do not have native support for availability at several locations, such as VMware Aria Automation and VMware Aria Operations. In a management domain, you can use NSX Federation only to connect to the management domains of other VMware Cloud Foundation instances. Avoid connecting a management domain with VI workload domains in a single NSX Federation instance. You configure NSX Federation in VMware Cloud Foundation manually. For more information on using NSX Federation with VMware Cloud Foundation, see NSX Design for VMware Cloud Foundation and Working with NSX Federation in VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware, Inc. 10 VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture 3 VMware Cloud Foundation consists of workload domains which represent application-ready infrastructure units including ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, storage (vSAN, NFS, VMFS on FC, or vVols), and NSX. According to the business requirements and resource availability, you can run the management components and customer workloads in separate workload domains following the standard architecture or in a shared workload domain following the consolidated architecture. VMware, Inc. 11 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Figure 3-1. Example Standard Architecture Data Center Fabric ToR ToR ToR ToR ToR ToR Switch Switch Switch Switch Switch Switch Management VI Workload VI Workload Domain Domain Domain VI Workload VI Workload Domain Domain ESXi Hosts ESXi Hosts ESXi Hosts Rack 1 Rack 2 Rack 8 VMware, Inc. 12 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Figure 3-2. Example Consolidated Architecture ToR ToR Switch Switch Management Domain Management Resource Pool Workload Resource Pool NSX Edge Resource Pool ESXi Hosts Rack 1 For information on designing a VMware Cloud Foundation environment including VMware Cloud Foundation requirements and industry recommendations, see the VMware Cloud Foundation Design documentation. Read the following topics next: n Workload Domains in VMware Cloud Foundation n VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Models Workload Domains in VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Cloud Foundation consists of workload domains which represent an application-ready infrastructure. A workload domain represents a logical unit that groups ESXi hosts managed by a vCenter Server instance with specific characteristics according to VMware best practices. A workload domain can consist of one or more vSphere clusters, provisioned automatically by SDDC Manager. Each workload domain contains the following components: n ESXi hosts VMware, Inc. 13 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation n One VMware vCenter Server™ instance n At least one vSphere cluster with vSphere HA and vSphere DRS enabled. n One vSphere Distributed Switch per cluster for system traffic and NSX segments for workloads. n One NSX Manager cluster for configuring and implementing software-defined networking. n One NSX Edge cluster, added after you create the workload domain, that connects the workloads in the workload domain for logical switching, logical dynamic routing, and load balancing. n One or more shared storage allocations. VMware Cloud Foundation supports two types of workload domains - the management domain and virtual infrastructure (VI) workload domains. Management Domain The management domain is created during the bring-up process by VMware Cloud Builder and contains the VMware Cloud Foundation management components as follows: n Minimum four ESXi hosts n An instance of vCenter Server n A three-node NSX Manager cluster n SDDC Manager n vSAN datastore n One or more vSphere clusters each of which can scale up to the vSphere maximum of 64 VI Workload Domains You create VI workload domains to run customer workloads. For each VI workload domain, you can choose the storage option - vSAN, NFS, vVols, or VMFS on FC. A VI workload domain consists of one or more vSphere clusters. Each cluster starts with a minimum of three hosts and can scale up to the vSphere maximum of 64 hosts. SDDC Manager automates the creation of the VI workload domain and the underlying vSphere clusters. For the first VI workload domain in your environment, SDDC Manager deploys a vCenter Server instance and a three-node NSX Manager cluster in the management domain. For each subsequent VI workload domain, SDDC Manager deploys an additional vCenter Server instance. New VI workload domains can share the same NSX Manager cluster with an existing VI workload domain or you can deploy a new NSX Manager cluster. VI workload domains cannot use the NSX Manager cluster for the management domain. VMware, Inc. 14 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Cloud Foundation Architecture Models VMware Cloud Foundation supports two architecture models - standard and consolidated, according to the requirements of your organization and the resource capabilities of your environment. Implement a standard architecture for workload provisioning and mobility across VMware Cloud Foundation instances according to production best practices. If you plan to deploy a small-scale environment and extend it according to customer adoption, or if you are working on an SDDC proof-of-concept, implement a consolidated architecture. Standard Architecture Model With the standard architecture model, management workloads run on a dedicated management domain and customer workloads are deployed in separate virtual infrastructure (VI) workload domains. Each workload domain is managed by a separate vCenter Server instance which provides for scalability and allows for autonomous licensing and life cycle management. Standard architecture is the recommended model because it aligns with the VMware best practice of separating management workloads from customer workloads. It provides better long term flexibility and expansion options. Workload domains can be on the same rack or can span across racks. Consolidated Architecture Model In this model, the management and customer workloads run together on a shared management domain. The environment is managed from a single vCenter Server and vSphere resource pools provide isolation between management and customer workloads. Resource pools must be properly configured as the domain is shared by the management and compute workloads. As you add additional hosts to a VMware Cloud Foundation system deployed on a consolidated architecture, you can migrate to the standard architecture by creating a VI workload domain and moving the customer workload VMs from the compute resource pool to the newly-created VI workload domain. After moving these VMs, you might need to update shares and reservations on the compute resource pool in the management domain. VMware, Inc. 15 Deployment Overview of VMware Cloud Foundation 4 The deployment of VMware Cloud Foundation is automated. You use VMware Cloud Builder to deploy the management domain, SDDC Manager to deploy VI workload domains for customer workloads, and VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle™ in VMware Cloud Foundation mode to deploy VMware Aria Suite products and Workspace ONE Access. You deploy management components manually only in a few cases according to the instructions. An example deployment flow can start with deploying all management components in VMware Cloud Foundation. You deploy the management domain and extend its capabilities with cloud management and cloud monitoring by using VMware Aria Suite or with other solutions. Next, you deploy VI workload domains for customer workloads and integrate each newly deployed domain with the solutions in place. Finally, you can introduce multiple availability zones for workload high- availability and mobility inside a data center, and additional VMware Cloud Foundation instances for workload mobility across physical locations. VMware, Inc. 16 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Figure 4-1. Example Deployment Flow for a Single VMware Cloud Foundation Instance SDDC Manager configures the vSAN Stretched Cluster vSAN Stretched Cluster SDDC Manager configures the vSAN stretched cluster vSAN stretched cluster 4. More Deployment Options 2.4 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle VMware Aria Suite Component VMware Aria Suite Component deploys the VMware Aria Suite product 2.3 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 3.4 SDDC Manager and user Workspace ONE Access connect the VMware Aria Suite deploys Workspace ONE Access product to the VI workload domain 2.2 SDDC Manager deploys VMware Aria VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle in VMware Cloud Foundation mode Suite Lifecycle 2.1 SDDC Manager creates NSX Edge Cluster, Tier-0 the NSX Edge cluster and segments and Tier-1 Gateways, for VMware Aria Suite components and Segments 2. VMware Aria Suite NSX Edge Cluster, 3.3 SDDC Manager Tier-0 and Tier-1 Gateways, creates the and Segments NSX Edge cluster SDDC Manager NSX Manager 1.3 Cloud Builder deploys NSX Manager virtual infrastructure and 3.2 SDDC Manager SDDC Manager vCenter Server deploys virtual vCenter Server infrastructure vSAN, NFS, VMFS on vSAN FC, or vVols 3.1 User or VMware 1.2 User or VMware Imaging Imaging Appliance Appliance installs ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi installs ESXi on on the domain hosts the domain hosts 1.1. User deploys VMware Cloud Builder Cloud Builder 1. Management Domain 3. Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain VMware, Inc. 17 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Figure 4-2. Example Deployment Flow with NSX Federation User deploys NSX Global User deploys NSX Global NSX Global Manager, NSX Global Manager, Manager for NSX Federation, Manager for NSX Federation, Cross-Instance Tier-0 Cross-Instance Tier-0 configures federation, configures federation, and Tier-1 Gateway, and Tier-1 Gateway, and stretches the SDN and stretches the SDN Cross-Instance Segment Cross-Instance Segment SDDC Manager configures the vSAN Stretched Cluster vSAN Stretched Cluster SDDC Manager configures the vSAN stretched cluster vSAN stretched cluster 4. More Deployment Options 2.4 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle VMware Aria Suite Component VMware Aria Suite Component deploys the VMware Aria Suite product 2.3 VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 3.4 SDDC Manager and user Workspace ONE Access connect the VMware Aria Suite deploys Workspace ONE Access product to the VI workload domain 2.2 SDDC Manager deploys VMware Aria VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle in VMware Cloud Foundation mode Suite Lifecycle 2.1 SDDC Manager creates NSX Edge Cluster, Tier-0 the NSX Edge cluster and segments and Tier-1 Gateways, for VMware Aria Suite components and Segments 2. VMware Aria Suite NSX Edge Cluster, 3.3 SDDC Manager Tier-0 and Tier-1 Gateways, creates the and Segments NSX Edge cluster SDDC Manager NSX Manager 1.3 Cloud Builder deploys NSX Manager virtual infrastructure and 3.2 SDDC Manager SDDC Manager vCenter Server deploys virtual vCenter Server infrastructure vSAN, NFS, VMFS on vSAN FC, or vVols 3.1 User or VMware 1.2 User or VMware Imaging Imaging Appliance Appliance installs ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi ESXi installs ESXi on on the domain hosts the domain hosts 1.1. User deploys VMware Cloud Builder Cloud Builder 1. Management Domain 3. Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain Read the following topics next: n Deploying the Management Domain n Deploying VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle and Workspace ONE Access n Deploying a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain n Deploying Additional Availability Zones and VMware Cloud Foundation Instances Deploying the Management Domain The management domain of a VMware Cloud Foundation instance contains the components for deployment and operation of virtual infrastructure for customer workloads. Following a certain sequence of operations, you bring up VMware Cloud Foundation first. This operation deploys the management domain. Then, you can proceed with deploying VMware Aria Suite products and VI workload domains. VMware, Inc. 18 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description 0. Plan and prepare for the management domain deployment. Work with the technology team of your organization on configuring the physical servers, network, and storage in the data center. Collect the environment details and write them down in the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet format (XLS). 1. Deploy the VMware Cloud Builder Appliance Deploy the VMware Cloud Builder appliance on a laptop running VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion, or on an ESXi host. 2. Prepare the ESXi Hosts for VMware Cloud Foundation Prepare a minimum of four ESXi hosts for the management domain by manually installing ESXi or by using the VMware Imaging Appliance. 3. Deploy the management domain by using VMware Cloud Builder. Download the deployment parameter workbook for VMware Cloud Builder for VMware Cloud Foundation or for VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail from VMware Customer Connect and fill in the details for the management domain deployment. In the workbook, select key-based licensing mode for VMware Cloud Foundation. You can use the details from the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook. Then, upload the deployment parameter workbook to VMware Cloud Builder. After VMware Cloud Builder validates the target environment against the specification in the deployment parameter workbook, perform bring-up of the management domain. After bring-up is complete, the management domain contains vCenter Server, vSAN, and SDDC Manager. Post-Deployment Configuration Configure the Repository After the deployment of the management Settings for SDDC Manager domain, configure SDDC Manager with repository credentials by using a VMware Customer Connect account. In this way, SDDC Manager can access the inventory of installation and upgrade bundles on depot.vmware.com. You can update the components of VMware Cloud Foundation as soon as an update is available. VMware, Inc. 19 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description Configure backup of Optional. management components. 1 Reconfigure SFTP Backups for SDDC Manager and NSX-T Data Center By default, backups of NSX-T Data Center and SDDC Manager are stored on the SDDC Manager appliance. You should change the destination of the backups to an external SFTP server to ensure you can recover these components in the event of a failure. 2 File-Based Backup of SDDC Manager and vCenter Server You should also configure a backup schedule for SDDC Manager and management domain vCenter Server, and export the vSphere Distributed Switch configuration. Configure certificate Optional. If you want to use SDDC Manager to management in SDDC Manager. manage CA-signed certificates for management components, prepare a Microsoft certificate authority server, configure the integration with SDDC Manager, and then update the certificates for components for establishing a secure communication to the components of VMware Cloud Foundation. Configure password To provide best security and proactively management. prevent any passwords from expiring, rotate passwords over a regular period according to the security policy of your organization, for example, every 90 days. You can use one of these password rotation options: n Auto-rotate passwords according to a schedule in SDDC Manager. n Manually rotate passwords. Create an automation account. If you plan to use VMware Cloud Foundation APIs in automation scripts, create a special service account and generate tokens for protected access to the automation platform. Deploying VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle and Workspace ONE Access VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle is the foundation for automated deployment of VMware Aria Suite products on VMware Cloud Foundation for operations management, logging and workload provisioning. You use Workspace ONE Access that is integrated with VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle for central role-based access control in VMware Aria Suite. VMware, Inc. 20 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description 0. Plan and prepare for the deployment of VMware Aria Work with the technology team of your organization on Suite Lifecycle and Workspace ONE Access. configuring the physical servers, network, and storage in the data center. Collect the environment details and write them down in the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet format (XLS). 1. Set up routing and networks in NSX. 1 Deploy an NSX Edge Cluster Deploy an NSX Edge cluster in the management domain and application virtual networks. SDDC Manager deploys the edge cluster and creates Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways for north-south and east- west routing for management components in VMware Cloud Foundation. 2 Deploy Application Virtual Networks When SDDC Manager creates the NSX segments for the application virtual networks, it connects them to the NSX gateways. See Application Virtual Network Design for VMware Cloud Foundation. 2. Deploy VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. You deploy VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle in the management domain. SDDC Manager provides inventory information about the management domain in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. SDDC Manager also configures the NSX Tier 1 gateway to support the load balancer for the cross-region solutions. Post-Deployment Configuration of VMware Aria Suite n Replace the Certificate of the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle Lifecycle Instance Upload a CA-signed certificate for trusted communication to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle n Configure Data Center and vCenter Server in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle Perform configuration procedures so that you can manage the deployment and life cycle of VMware Aria Suite. 3. Deploy Workspace ONE Access. Optional. If you want to provide centralized identity and access management to VMware Aria Suite, deploy a Workspace ONE Access instance and integrate it with Active Directory. For a clustered Workspace ONE Access instance, VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle calls SDDC Manager to configures the required NSX load balancer. VMware, Inc. 21 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description Post-Deployment Configuration for VMware Aria Suite n Add the Workspace ONE Access Passwords to Lifecycle and Workspace ONE Access VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle Optional. Create separate passwords for the administrator accounts for the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle global environment and Workspace ONE Access. n Image-Based Backup and Restore of VMware Cloud Foundation Optional. Create full virtual machine image-level backup jobs by using a backup solution that is compatible with VMware vSphere Storage APIs - Data Protection (VADP). 4. Deploy a VMware Aria Suite solution that is required by Deploy a VMware Aria Suite solution in VMware Cloud your SDDC design. Foundation and connect it with the platform and with other VMware Aria Suite components to form a fully- integrated cloud management system. For information on deploying VMware Aria Suite components and integrating them with the VMware Cloud Foundation platform, see VMware Cloud Foundation Validated Solutions. Deploying a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain After you deploy the management domain and VMware Aria Suite solutions in VMware Cloud Foundation, following a certain sequence of operations, you create a VI workload domain to run customer workloads with specific requirements. vCenter Server and the NSX Manager cluster for the VI workload domain are deployed on the management domain. You deploy the NSX edge cluster in the VI workload domain. See Workload Domains in VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware, Inc. 22 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description 0. Plan and prepare for the VI workload domain Work with the technology team of your organization on deployment. configuring the physical servers, network, and storage in the data center. Collect the environment details and write them down in the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet format (XLS). 1. Prepare the ESXi hosts and add them to VMware Cloud 1 Prepare ESXi Hosts for VMware Cloud Foundation Foundation. Prepare a minimum of three ESXi hosts for the VI workload domain by manually installing ESXi. 2 Create a Network Pool A network pool is a collection of subnets within a Layer-2 network domain. Each ESXi host is assigned IP addresses from this network pool for vSphere vMotion and storage. 3 Commission Hosts Adding hosts to the SDDC Manager inventory is called commissioning. Add hosts individually or use a JSON template to add multiple hosts at once. SDDC Manager validates the specification of the hosts against the requirements for operating in VMware Cloud Foundation. 4 Add License Keys Optional. Add license keys with sufficient capacity and required feature scope for vSphere, NSX, vCenter Server, and vSAN if used as principal storage. If the licenses you provided for the management domain at bring-up have enough capacity, you can use them instead. 2. Deploy a VI Workload Domain. After the hosts are commissioned, deploy the VI workload domain by using the automated workflow in SDDC Manager. 3. Deploy an NSX Edge Cluster. Deploy an NSX Edge cluster in a vSphere cluster in the VI workload domain to provide networking services and connectivity to the external network for your workloads. VMware, Inc. 23 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description 4. Connect the VMware Aria Suite solution to the After you deploy the VI workload domain, use SDDC workload domains. Manager to integrate it with the VMware Aria Suite components in your environment. For information on connecting VMware Aria Suite components with the VMware Cloud Foundation platform, see VMware Cloud Foundation Validated Solutions. Post-Deployment Configuration n File-Based Backup of SDDC Manager and vCenter Server Optional. Configure a backup schedule and location for the VI workload domain vCenter Server, and export the vSphere Distributed Switch configuration. n Configure certificate management in SDDC Manager Optional. If you want to manage signed certificates for management components of the VI workload domain, use the SDDC Manager UI to update them. n Configure password management To provide best security and proactively prevent any passwords from expiring, rotate passwords over a regular period according to the security policy of your organization, for example, every 90 days. You can use one of these password rotation options: n Auto-rotate passwords according to a schedule in SDDC Manager. n Manually rotate passwords. Deploying Additional Availability Zones and VMware Cloud Foundation Instances After you initially deploy VMware Cloud Foundation in a single availability zone, following a certain sequence of operations, you can expand the environment to multiple availability zones by using vSAN stretched clusters or add another VMware Cloud Foundation instance connecting it to the environment by using NSX Federation. VMware, Inc. 24 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Steps Description Deploy multiple availability zones in the management 1 Plan and prepare for configuring the vSAN stretched domain and in the VI workload domain. clusters. Work with the technology team of your organization on configuring the physical servers, network, and storage in the data centers. Collect the environment details and write them down in the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet format (XLS). 2 Deploy the vSAN witness appliance for the management domain on a third site and configure the vSAN stretched cluster for the management domain. 3 Deploy the vSAN witness appliance for the VI workload domain cluster on a third site and configure the vSAN stretched cluster for a vSAN cluster in the VI workload domain. Configure NSX Federation to add moreVMware Cloud 1 Plan and prepare for configuring NSX Federation. Foundation instances. Work with the technology team of your organization on configuring the physical servers, network, and storage in the data centers. Collect the environment details and write them down in the VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet format (XLS). 2 In the first VMware Cloud Foundation instance, deploy an NSX Global Manager cluster for the management domain. If you plan to implement customer workload mobility across physical locations, deploy an NSX Global Manager cluster for the VI workload domain too. Activate NSX Federation by setting each NSX Global Manager in the first instance as active. Connect the NSX Global Manager to the local NSX Manager and prepare Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways and NSX segments for stretched networking. 3 Deploy a second VMware Cloud Foundation instance. 4 Deploy manually one or more NSX Global Manager clusters in the second VMware Cloud Foundation instance. Set each NSX Global Manager in the second VMware Cloud Foundation instance as standby in the federation. Connect it to the local NSX Manager and complete the configuration of Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateway and NSX segments for stretched networking according to the requirements for workload mobility. 5 Add more VMware Cloud Foundationinstances connecting their local NSX Managers to the dedicated NSX Global Manager in the first instance. VMware, Inc. 25 VMware Cloud Foundation Glossary 5 In VMware Cloud Foundation, you perform specific operations and use unique constructs for automated SDDC deployment and maintenance. Term Description availability zone A collection of infrastructure components. Each availability zone is isolated from the other availability zones to prevent the propagation of failure or outage across the data center. In VMware Cloud Foundation, you implement availability of workloads across availability zones by using vSAN stretched clusters. Application virtual networks Virtual networks backed by overlay or VLAN NSX segments using the encapsulation (AVNs) protocol of VMware NSX. An AVN uses a single IP address space to span across data centers. bring-up Deployment and initial configuration of a VMware Cloud Foundation system. During the bring-up process, the management domain is created and the VMware Cloud Foundation software stack is deployed on the management domain. commission a host Adding a host to VMware Cloud Foundation inventory. The host becomes unassigned. composability The ability to dynamically configure servers to meet the needs of your workloads without physically moving any hardware components. You bind disaggregated hardware components (compute, network, storage, and offload components) together to create a logical system based on the needs of your applications. dirty host A host that has been removed from a cluster in a workload domain. A dirty host cannot be assigned to another workload domain until it is decommissioned, re-imaged, and commissioned again. decommission a host Removing an unassigned host from the VMware Cloud Foundation inventory. SDDC Manager does not manage decommissioned hosts. NSX Edge cluster A logical grouping of NSX Edge nodes. These nodes run on a vSphere cluster, and provide north-south and east-west routing and network services for the management or VI workload domain. free pool Hosts in the VMware Cloud Foundation inventory that are not assigned to a workload domain. host A server that is imaged with the ESXi software. install bundle Contains software for VI workload domains and VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. You can use an install bundle to deploy later versions of the software components in a new VI workload domain than the versions in the Bill of Materials for VMware Cloud Foundation. inventory Logical and physical entities managed by VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware, Inc. 26 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Term Description key-based licensing mode A workload domain is in key-based licensing mode when you use the domain's management components under perpetual or term licenses. keyless licensing mode A workload domain is in keyless licensing mode when you use the domain's management components under a cloud-connected subscription. After a workload domain is deployed in or converted to keyless licensing mode, switching back to key- based mode is not possible. Kubernetes - Workload With Kubernetes - Workload Management, you can deploy and operate the compute, Management networking, and storage infrastructure for vSphere with Tanzu workloads. A vSphere with Tanzu workload is an application with containers running inside vSphere pods, regular VMs, or Tanzu Kubernetes clusters. Lifecycle Manager (LCM) Automates patching and upgrading of the software stack. management domain One or more vSphere clusters of physical hosts that contain the management component VMs, such as vCenter Server, NSX Manager cluster, management NSX Edge cluster, SDDC Manager, and so on. The management domain supports only vSAN storage. network pool Automatically assigns static IP addresses to vSAN and vMotion VMkernel ports so that you don't need to enter IP addresses manually when creating a VI workload domain or adding a host or cluster to a workload domain. update bundle Contains software to update the VMware Cloud Foundation components in your management or VI workload domain. principal storage Required for each vSphere cluster, containing the data of the virtual machines in the cluster. For the management domain, only vSAN principal storage is supported. For a VI workload domain, you set the principal storage when creating the domain or when adding a cluster to the domain. You cannot change the principal storage later. See also supplemental storage. SDDC Manager A software component that provisions, manages, and monitors the logical and physical resources of a VMware Cloud Foundation system. SDDC Manager provides the user interface for managing VMware Cloud Foundation, CLI-based administrator tools, and an API for further automation. server A bare-metal server in a physical rack. After imaging, it is referred to as a host. supplemental storage Extends the capacity of the workload domain for hosting more virtual machines or storing supporting data, such as backups. You can add or remove supplemental storage to clusters in the management or VI workload domain at any time. unassigned host A host in the free pool that does not belong to a workload domain. vSphere Lifecycle Manager A vCenter Server service, which is integrated with VMware Cloud Foundation, that (vLCM) enables centralized and simplified life cycle management of ESXi hosts. virtual infrastructure (VI) One or more vSphere clusters that contain customer workloads. VMware Cloud workload domain Foundation scales and manages the life cycle of each VI workload domain independently. The vCenter Server instance and NSX Manager cluster for a VI workload domain are physically located in the management domain, while the NSX edge nodes - on the VI workload domain. VMware, Inc. 27 Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation Term Description vSphere Lifecycle Manager A grouping of multiple bulletins. You can attach a baseline to an ESXi host and check baseline the compliance of the host against the associated baseline. According to the type of content, baselines are patch baselines, extension baselines, and upgrade baselines. SDDC Manager creates the required baseline and baseline group for updating a cluster in a workload domain. vSphere Lifecycle Manager A precise description of the software, components, vendor add-ons, and firmware to image run on an ESXi host. You set up a single image and apply it to all hosts in a cluster, thus ensuring cluster-wide host image homogeneity. workload domain A policy-based resource container with specific availability and performance attributes that combines vSphere, storage (vSAN, NFS, VMFS on FC, or vVols) and networking (VMware NSX) into a single consumable entity. A workload domain can be created, expanded, and deleted as part of the SDDC life cycle operations. It can contain clusters of physical hosts with a corresponding vCenter Server instance to manage them. VMware Cloud Foundation supports two types of workload domains - the management domain and one or more VI workload domains. VMware, Inc. 28