Deployment Pathways for VMware Cloud Foundation 9

Introduction:

One of the big engineering initiatives for VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) has been to improve the deployment user experience. Not only have we further streamlined the deployment of a new VCF instance, VCF 9 caters to an expanded set of deployment topology types and use cases. The end result is a simplified, quicker and more repeatable set of workflows for our vSphere customers to get on the pathway to VCF.

VCF 9 provides several deployment pathways to modernize your infrastructure:

Deploy a new VCF Instance
Expand an existing VCF Fleet
Converge an existing vCenter deployment to VCF
Import a vCenter deployment into VCF

Let’s start by looking at how VCF 9 is deployed and scaled.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 is a major release which includes a number of significant new capabilities and a more integrated experience for private cloud administrators.

The VMware Cloud Foundation Installer appliance (VCF Installer) is new to VCF 9 and introduces a more flexible set of deployment workflows to suit an extended set of use cases.

The VCF Installer can be used to deploy a new VCF instance as part of a new Fleet.

Customers with multiple environments they can choose to deploy aadditional VCF instance(s) into an existing VCF Fleet.

Each VCF instance is deployed using vSphere and vCenter server, NSX, VCF Operations and VCF Automation. Configuring your VCF environment for vSAN delivers the full SDDC stack.

The VCF Installer also contains inbuilt workflows to converge (re-use) an existing vCenter deployment to a VCF management cluster. In this scenario an existing vCenter environment refers to a non-VCF deployment. When performing a conversion, the VCF Installer is deployed into the same cluster as the residing vCenter Server appliance. We support existing vCenter clusters configured for vSAN or existing clusters configured with external storage.

Once converged, the environment then becomes a fully functioning VCF instance which can then be managed, scaled and lifecycle managed as VCF.

This isn’t all the VCF Installer can do. The VCF Installer workflow also provides options to converge an existing VCF Operations instance and/or an existing VCF Automation instance. The VCF Installer appliance provides an easier, quicker and more repeatable set of workflows for our customers to get on the pathway to VCF

A closer look at the VCF Installer appliance

The VCF Installer appliance replaces the Cloud Builder appliance used in prior versions of VCF. It provides a flexible set of options which further simplify the deployment of an end-to-end private cloud environment.

It contains a UI-driven workflow and no longer requires the use of the Deployment Parameters Workbook (MS Excel spreadsheet). The VCF Installer also includes in-built options to converge and import existing vCenter, VCF Operations and VCF Automation instances without the need for VCF Import scripts.

Prior releases of Cloud Foundation have required Aria Operations and Aria Automation to be installed and lifecycle managed as separate Day 2 operations. From VCF 9, the VCF Installer appliance is used to deploy the full VCF stack comprising of compute, storage, networking, operations and self-service automation and VCF Operations is used to lifecycle manage the full stack.

How does the VCF Installer appliance work?

Inbuilt into this new and very light-weight VCF Installer Appliance are a set of enhanced deployment workflows and many new configuration options.

Upon connecting to the Broadcom Support Portal, the user downloads the software binaries by connecting to the online depot. Unlike with the Cloud Builder, the VCF Installer appliance does not include software binaries.

Customers also have the option to configure their own private off-line depot which can be used by multiple VCF instances. With an offline depot, the software binaries only need to be downloaded once which is very handy when managing multiple VCF instances.

Once the software binaries have been downloaded, the appliance can be used to deploy VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF). Deployment can be driven using the inbuilt Deployment wizard or the user can generate a re-usable JSON spec which can be uploaded, reviewed and validated from the UI. A JSON spec can also be uploaded and edited in the wizard.

A VCF instance can be deployed as part of a new VCF Fleet or to an existing VCF Fleet. A VCF Fleet may consist of multiple VCF deployments which can leverage common VCF Operations and VCF Automations instances.

The VCF Installer is used to initially configure the management cluster which can be deployed in one of two ways:

New components can be deployed which include VM appliances for vCenter Server, NSX, VCF Operations and VCF Automation.
Existing appliances for vCenter Server, VCF Operations and VCF Automation can be used.

When choosing to converge (re-use) an existing vCenter Server, the VCF Installer will converge an existing vSphere / vSphere with vSAN cluster to a VCF management cluster. The VCF Installer will deploy NSX as part of the conversion process.

If choosing to re-use an existing VCF Operations instance, it is recommended to select the vCenter server where it is deployed as the vCenter for first VCF management cluster.

The VM appliances for a new VCF Operations, VCF Automation and NSX instances can be deployed using a Simple (single node) appliance model or a High Availability appliance model.

Upon a successful deployment, the VCF Installer provides a link to launch VCF Operations which is used for management.

Lets look at the two appliance models in more detail:

When choosing a Simple Model a minimum of 7 appliances are required. These consist of a single appliance for vCenter server, SDDC Manager and NSX Manager. VCF Operations comprises of single appliances for VCF Operations Manager, a Fleet Management appliance and a VCF Operations collector. A single appliance is also deployed for VCF Automation.
When the supervisor option is selected a VKS appliance is deployed. Additional appliances can be deployed after the initial deployment has completed which includes the option to further configure VCF Operations for Logs, configure secure connectivity with a NSX Edge cluster and configure VIDB for Identity and Access.

A High Availability Model is recommended for production environments. When deployed using the High Availability model a minimum of 13 appliances are deployed comprising of 3x NSX Manager nodes, 3x VCF Operations nodes and 3x VCF Automation nodes. 3x appliances are also configured for VCF Operations for Logs and VKS.

Having 3x appliances provides high availability protection against hardware failure and also helps to minimize disruption and streamline lifecycle management, patching and upgrade operations.

Additional options which are not shown here include the ability to configure NSX load balancer appliances for selected components.

At any point in time a customer can choose to scale additional appliances for these components as a post installation operation. Furthermore, VCF Operations for Networks, HCX and a selection of other VCF Advanced services (Add-ons) can also be configured post deployment.

How do you operate a VCF 9 environment?

From VCF 9, private cloud operations and management is performed using the VCF Operations Console.

VCF Operations provides cloud administrators with a unified and feature rich operations experience which spans compute, storage, networking, fleet management and lifecycle management.

But wait – there’s more!

VCF Operations for VCF 9 also includes inbuilt workflows supporting an additional two (2) VCF deployment pathways. VCF Operations can also be used to:

Create new workload domains or…
Import additional (existing) vCenter deployments into an existing VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

Both options allow for the your private cloud platform to scale and provide centralized management and operations.

Importing additional vCenter deployments into a VMware Cloud Foundation instance

VCF Operations makes it easy to add existing vSphere, vSAN and NSX infrastructure into an existing VCF instance. VCF Operations provides UI-driven workflows for importing pre-existing vSphere infrastructure into a VCF instance as workload domains.

The ability to import pre-existing infrastructure into VCF expedites the path to VCF by allowing customers to leverage existing investments while simultaneously reducing costs. In addition, with this capability customers no longer need to be concerned with having to migrate existing workloads from existing infrastructure to VCF.

When importing a vCenter deployment into a VCF instance, all clusters within the vCenter server are imported and configured as part of a workload domain.
vSphere clusters configured with/without vSAN, vSphere clusters configured with/without NSX and any combination of the 3 software components can be used when importing a vSphere cluster to an existing VCF instance from VCF Operations.

NSX is deployed as part of the conversion process if it is not already present.

When importing a vCenter deployment into a VCF instance, all clusters within the vCenter server are imported and configured as part of a workload domain.

This VCF Operations workflow caters to a broad variety of cluster configurations which typically exist in existing vSphere environments.

Host Interoperability:

Hosts configured with single pNICs and clusters configured with LACP enabled
Single-node clusters and standalone hosts

Storage Interoperability:

2-node vSAN clusters, HCI mesh, vSAN storage clusters, vSAN stretched clusters can be imported
- Clusters configured using external storage using NFS, VMFS on FC, iSCSI can also be imported

Networking Interoperability:

vCenter Server deployments configured with or without NSX can be imported

Summary

VCF 9 provides several deployment pathways to modernize your infrastructure:

New deployments:

A new VCF 9 deployment requires a minimum of 4 hosts for the management cluster which is deployed using vSAN, NFS or VMFS on FC.
From VCF 9 the management cluster can be configured using vSAN ready nodes (recommended). Qualified vSphere server hardware can be used to support NFS/VMFS on FC) storage topologies. Consult the Compatibility Guide for further detail.
The management domain of a new VCF instance is configured for NSX. Each workload domain is also configured for NSX and is ready to be configured for NSX Virtual Networking (SDN).

Expand an existing VCF Fleet:

Deploy a new VCF instance as part of an existing VCF Fleet.
Each VCF Fleet is managed by a common instance of VCF Operations and VCF Automation.

Converge an existing vCenter deployment to VCF

VMware supports converging (re-using) existing vSphere clusters to VCF. Existing vCenter environments to be converged can be pre-deployed with vSphere or vSphere with vSAN. Existing vCenter environments with NSX installed are not initially supported to be converged to a VCF management domain at this time. A fresh instance of NSX is installed as part of the process.
A minimum number of hosts are required when converging (re-using) an existing vCenter environment to VCF. (3 vSAN ready nodes or 2 vSphere hosts configured using NFS or VMFS on FC). Refer to the VCF configmax site for further detail.

Import a vCenter Deployment into VCF

A minimum number of hosts are required when importing existing vCenter environments into VCF as a workload domain. (3 vSAN ready nodes or 2 vSphere hosts configured using NFS or VMFS on FC). Refer to the VCF configmax site for further detail.
Existing vCenter environments with NSX installed can be imported as Workload Domains.

A new VCF instance is deployed in evaluation mode. VCF is fully functional while the deployment is running in evaluation mode and allows a user to deploy additional hosts, workload domains and clusters. The VCF 9 instance is required to be licensed within the first 90 days of a deployment using a license file. VCF Operations directs the user to the Broadcom Business Services Console to complete this process.

From VCF 9, VCF Operations is used to manage one or more VCF instances. SDDC Manager 9 is installed or upgraded as a component of any VCF 9 instance. SDDC Manager will be deprecated in a future release.