About Cloud Infrastructure #

The Cloud Infrastructure validated solution provides detailed design, implementation, configuration, and operation guidance for a workload domain that runs VMware Cloud Director tenant workloads in the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC).

A VMware validated solution is a technical validated implementation that is built and tested by VMware and VMware cloud providers to help customers resolve common business use cases. VMware validated solutions are cost-effective, performant, reliable, and secure. Each solution contains a detailed design, implementation, and operational guidance.

Automation for This Design in VMware Cloud Foundation #

The implementation tasks for some design decisions are automated by VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager(VCPLCM). You must perform the implementation manually for the rest of the design decisions as noted in the design implication. To provide a fast and efficient path to automating the Cloud Infrastructure implementation, this document provides Microsoft PowerShell cmdlets as code-based alternatives to completing certain procedures in each VCPLCM component’s user interface. You can directly reuse the PowerShell commands by replacing the provided sample values with values from your VMware Cloud Foundation Planning and Preparation Workbook. Additonal automation is provided using Postman collections for API automation and Terraform workflows for VMware Cloud Director automation.

Intended Audience #

The Cloud Infrastructure documentation is intended for Cloud Provider Architects and Administrators who are familiar with and want to use VMware software and the Cloud Infrastructure solution for VMware Cloud Foundation.

Support Matrix #

The Cloud Infrastructure validated solution is compatible with certain versions of the VMware products that are used for implementing the solution.

Software Components in Cloud Infrastructure #

VMware Cloud Foundation Version	Product Group	Component Versions
5.0	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 Release Notes
	Solution-added products	VMware Cloud Director 10.5 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.6 VMware Chargeback (Formerly vRealize Operations Tenant App) 8.10 RabbitMQ x.x VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.5
4.5	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5 Release Notes
	Solution-added products	VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.6 VMware Chargeback (Formerly vRealize Operations Tenant App) 8.10 RabbitMQ 3.8 VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.4
4.4.1	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4.1 Release Notes
	Solution-added products	VMware Cloud Director 10.4 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.5 VMware vRealize Operations Tenant App for VMware Cloud Director 8.6 RabbitMQ 3.8 VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.3

End of General Support Software Components in Cloud Infrastructure #

VMware Cloud Foundation Version	Product Group	Component Versions
4.4.0	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 Release Notes.
	Solution-added products Valid for VMware Cloud Verified Revalidation Only	VMware Cloud Director 10.3 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.4 VMware vRealize Operations Tenant App for VMware Cloud Director 2.6 RabbitMQ 3.8 VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.3
4.3.1	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.1 Release Notes.
	Solution-added products	VMware Cloud Director 10.3 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.5 VMware vRealize Operations Tenant App for VMware Cloud Director 2.6 RabbitMQ 3.8 VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.3
4.3.0	Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation	See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 Release Notes.
	Solution-added products	VMware Cloud Director 10.3 VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.5 VMware vRealize Operations Tenant App for VMware Cloud Director 2.6 RabbitMQ 3.8 VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.3

Please refer the interoperability matrix for more information about the supported products of VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager

Before You Apply This Guidance #

To design and implement the Cloud Infrastructure validated solution, your environment must have a certain configuration.

Supported VMware Cloud Foundation Deployment #

Workload Domain / Component	Deployment Details
Management domain	Automated deployment using VMware Cloud Builder. Availability of overlay-backed or VLAN-backed NSX segments in NSX-T Data Center for traffic in the same VMware Cloud Foundation instance and between VMware Cloud Foundation instances not required. See the following VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation: For information on deploying the management domain, see VMware Cloud Foundation Getting Started Guide and VMware Cloud Foundation Deployment Guide. For information on designing the management domain, see VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide for the Management Domain.
One or more virtual infrastructure workload domains	Automated deployment using SDDC Manager See the following VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation: For information on deploying the VI workload domains, see Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation Operations and Administration Guide. For information on designing a VI workload domain, see VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide for a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain.
NSX Edge cluster	Automated deployment using SDDC Manager See the following VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation: For information on deploying the NSX Edge cluster, see VMware Cloud Foundation Getting Started Guide and VMware Cloud Foundation Operations and Administration Guide. For information on designing the NSX Edge cluster, see VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide for a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain.
Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager and clustered Workspace ONE Access	Automated deployment of Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager by using SDDC Manager Automated deployment of the clustered Workspace ONE Access instance by using Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager. See the following VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation: For information on deploying Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager and the clustered Workspace ONE Access instance, see Getting Started with VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation Operations and Administration Guide. For information on designing Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager and the clustered Workspace ONE Access instance, see Design for Aria Suite Lifecycle and Access Management.
Identity and Access Management	Manual configuration using Identity and Access Management for VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Validated Solution See the following VMware Validated Solutions Documentation: For detailed design, implementation, configuration, and operation guidance on the use of Active Directory as an identity provider and authentication source, and on the use of role-based access control (RBAC) in SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, ESXi, and NSX-T Data Center, see Identity and Access Management for VMware Cloud Foundation.
Advanced Load Balancing	Manual deployment using Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Validated Solution See the following VMware Validated Solutions Documentation: For detailed design, implementation, configuration, and operation guidance on the use of NSX Advanced Load Balancer as a Load Balancing solution for workloads on VMware Cloud Foundation, see Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation.
Intelligent Operations Management	Manual deployment using Intelligent Operations Management for VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Validated Solution See the following VMware Validated Solutions Documentation: For detailed design, implementation, configuration, and operation guidance on the use of VMware Aria Operations for centralized monitoring and alerting through a single interface to review and act on events and alerts to deliver proactive management of system failures, see Intelligent Operations Management for VMware Cloud Foundation.
Intelligent Logging and Analytics	Manual deployment using Intelligent Logging and Analytics for VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Validated Solution See the following VMware Validated Solutions Documentation: For detailed design, implementation, configuration, and operation guidance on the use of VMware Aria Operations for Logs as a log analysis tool that delivers highly scalable log management with intuitive and actionable dashboards and sophisticated analytics, see Intelligent Logging and Analytics for VMware Cloud Foundation.

Overview of Cloud Infrastructure #

By applying the Cloud Infrastructure validated solution, you implement VMware Cloud Director, VMware Chargeback, Usage Meter and RabbitMQ on VMware Cloud Foundation using VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager

Implementation Overview of Cloud Infrastructure #

Stage	Steps
1. Plan and prepare the VMware Cloud Foundation environment.	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.
2. Deploy VMware Validated Solutions.	Follow the design and deployment guidance to deploy the required VMware Validated Solutions described above.
3. Deploy VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager	Configure Pre-requisites for deploying VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager Deploy VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager Appliance Setup the NFS share for product binaries
4. Deploy the Cloud Infrastructure components	Deploy and configure VMware Cloud Director. Deploy and configure VMware vCloud Usage Meter. Deploy and configure VMware Chargeback. Deploy and configure RabbitMQ.
5. Enable solution interoperability	Integrate all Cloud Infrastructure components with Identity and Access Management services Configure VMware Cloud Director for Advanced Load Balancing. Integrate all Cloud Infrastructure components with Aria Operations Manager. Integrate all Cloud Infrastructure components with Aria Operations for Logs.
6. Enable tenant workload provisioning.	Configure Infrastructure Resources(vCenter,NSX,etc). Configure Provider vDC. Configure Organization. Configure Organization vDC. Manage Edge Gateways,roles, System Settings,etc.
7. Onboard Tenants.	Configure tenant resources. Configure tenant roles. Configure Cataloge & vApp Templates. Deploy Virtual Machines. Deploy Container Applications, Kubernetes Clusters and applicationsfrom Helmchart repository and Marketplace using Content Hub.

Update History #

This Cloud Infrastructure solution is updated when necessary.

Revision	Description
1. 28 SEPT 2023	Update Product Version to the Latest
2. 11 SEPT 2023	Update VCD servion to 10.5 Update Provider and Tenant onboarding steps Update VCD version to VCF 5.0 Change product naming convention to the latest.
3. 29 MAR 2022	Revision 1 description Revision 2 description Revision 3 description

Disclaimer: #

The estimated time to deploy using automated workflow: 56 minutes
The estimated time to deploy is based on testing as of the date shown in configurations.
Estimated time to deploy value varies by use case, configuration, and other factors.
- Planning and Preparation
- Familiarity with PowerShell.
- Configuration of automation variables.
The estimated time to deploy for this solution is measured starting with two fully deployed and configured VMware Cloud Foundation instances, each with a management domain, each with a virtual infrastructure workload domain with an NSX Edge Cluster deployed to the virtual infrastructure workload domain, Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager and the Workspace ONE Access cluster deployed, and the Identity and Access Management for VMware Cloud Foundation solution applied. The endpoint is when VMware Cloud Director has been fully configured with a sample Tenant that can deploy workloads in a VMware Cloud Foundation workload domain.