What allows VMware Cloud Foundation to build a complete SDDC on VxRail is the SDDC Manager and VxRail Manager software tool integration shown in Figure 5. SDDC Manager orchestrates the deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management of vCenter, NSX, and vRealize Suite above the ESXi and vSAN layers of VxRail. It unifies multiple VxRail clusters as workload domains or as multi-cluster workload domains. Integrated with the SDDC Manager management experience, VxRail Manager is used to deploy, configure, and lifecycle manage ESXi (which now includes VCF with Tanzu since it is now integrated into vSphere), vSAN and hardware firmware taking advantage of the native VxRail Continuously Validated State update bundle framework, which is only available through the VxRail HCI System Software. The deployment of VxRail clusters uses the native VxRail Manager first run cluster creation process. For VxRail LCM, it is seamlessly integrated into the SDDC Manager orchestrated LCM workflows that use VxRail Manager to execute it natively. VxRail Manager also monitors health of hardware components and provides remote service support.

Figure 5.              VxRail Manager and SDDC Manager integration