SDDC Manager automates configuration, provisioning, and life cycle management of the entire SDDC stack. This automation helps administrators build and maintain the SDDC. It also automates the installation and configuration of vRealize Suite components. SDDC Manager complements well-known VMware management tools such as vCenter Server and vRealize Operations that are available for advanced administration tasks and integration with third-party software tools.

Figure 32.    SDDC Manager main dashboard

The automated deployment of VMware Cloud Foundation is performed with the help of Cloud Builder, which manages the orchestration of the initial deployment and configuration of an SDDC platform ensuring that it adheres to the architecture best practices outlined within VMware Validated Designs. Cloud Builder creates the management domain with the VMware SDDC components. Cloud Builder has been uniquely engineered to integrate with VxRail. When Cloud Builder is deployed with the VxRail profile enabled, it only deploys and configures the additional platform components that have not already been deployed and configured by VxRail Manager as part of standard VxRail cluster creation (such as deploying and configuration SDDC Manager and NSX, and more).