VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail makes operating the data center fundamentally simpler by bringing the ease and automation of the public cloud in-house by deploying a standardized and validated network flexible architecture with built in lifecycle automation for the entire cloud infrastructure stack including hardware. As shown in Figure 2, full stack automation is in place for day 0, day 1 and day 2 operations. On day 0, there is the automated deployment and installation of VxRail clusters and SDDC software. On day 1, there is the automated environment configuration and resource provisioning. On day 2 there is automated end-to-end infrastructure patch and upgrade.
Figure 2. VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail delivers end-to-end stack lifecycle automation
Core components for VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail come from both VxRail and Cloud Foundation. VxRail provides the base HCI hardware, ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, VxRail Manager and Dell EMC SRS appliance. Cloud Foundation provides SDDC Manager, NSX and vRealize Log Insight (core includes license for the Management Domain only). Optional add-on components include the VMware vRealize Suite: VMware vRealize Operations™, VMware vRealize Log Insight™ (additional license for workload domains), VMware vRealize Automation™, VMware vRealize Business for Cloud™; VMware vRealize Network Insight™, VMware Horizon® Suite: Horizon, and VMware App Volumes™; and VMware Tanzu. Figure 3 illustrates the VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail core and optional components.
To learn more about the VMware SDDC components listed above, please check Appendix D: VMware Cloud Foundation and Appendix E: VMware SDDC common component details.
Figure 3. VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail core and optional components
Every VxRail provides the benefits of a jointly engineered HCI appliance that is built for VMware and is powered by vSphere, vSAN, and VxRail HCI System Software (which includes VxRail Manager) according to standardized HCI designs. With VxRail, a customer gets several highly valuable built in features that are driven by the capabilities of VxRail HCI System Software. These include scalable VxRail deployments, VxRail cluster creation and node add/remove capabilities, serviceability creation in vCenter, vCenter plugin for VxRail workflow automation, and more.
Every VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail deployment is based on the standardized architecture. VMware has validated the suite of components (vSphere, vSAN, NSX, vRealize Suite, Tanzu, etc.), that when used together, provide all of the data center virtualization and cloud management services a customer needs to build a private cloud. VMware takes these components, performs interoperability testing on them, but also develops a set of standardized component level designs on how they should be configured with each other according to VMware best practices. It is when you combine both the component qualification with a set of documented and validated standardized SDDC level architecture designs that you have a fully validated SDDC design.
The following figure shows how Dell Technologies joint engineering efforts for VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail fit together and what unique value-added features are introduced by each component.
Figure 4. VCF on VxRail deep integration features that simplify, streamline, and automate operations of SDDC
Let’s discuss these, starting from the bottom of the diagram: