VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is a complete software-defined management solution that consists of VMware vSphere, VMware NSX-T Data Center, VMware vSAN, and vRealize Suite. The installation of VCF is driven by VMware Cloud Builder. The various components serve the following roles:
- VMware Cloud Builder: A virtual appliance the user deploys that automates the building of the management domain of VCF by accepting the planning guide (xls) as input. Subsequent domains are provisioned through the SDDC Manager.
- SDDC Manager: Automates the life cycle management of VCF. It enables patching and upgrades, firmware application, and the general day to day operation of VCF.
- VMware vSphere: Virtualizes the bare-metal servers using the ESXi software and aggregates them in the vCenter Server.
- VMware NSX-T Data Center: Provides the networking for the VCF solution along with security and automation. NSX-t is designed for both private and public clouds.
- VMware vSAN: Aggregates local or direct-attached storage in a single pool that can be shared across all ESXi hosts in the VCF environment. vSAN is a required component of the management domain.
- vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager: An optional component of VCF which, when deployed, can be used to enable other vRealize Suite products. These products can manage infrastructure and applications in the private or public cloud.
VMware portrays the high-level VCF implementation as depicted in Figure 4.
Figure 4. VMware Cloud Foundation