Migration from vCloud to Cloud Foundation

[olivergatchell]

Can someone point me to resources that guide migration (upgrade if you will) from vCloud Suite to Cloud Foundation?

For example, customer owns vCloud Suite Advanced and wishes to build on this foundation to create a private cloud. They also need NSX and vSAN.

Would they ask VMware to apply a fair value of these licenses towards purchase of a Cloud Foundation edition? To be more specific, do vRealize Automation, vRealize Operations, which are bundled in the vCloud Suite, have any value which can be applied to buy (upgrade to) SDDC manager in one of the Cloud Foundation suites?

Oliver

[frank_wegner · Accepted solution]

There are a range of VMware Cloud Foundation SKUs which all contain SDDC Manager and other components a la carte. So you do not need any fair value conversion. You just take your existing licenses and buy the missing pieces via the respective SKU. Your VMware sales contact can work out the details for you. If you still need other support let me know.

Note that SDDC Manager, vSphere, vSAN, and NSX are always required in Cloud Foundation. All other components are optional.

[olivergatchell]

thanks, Frank

I understand the SKUs and how you can pick and choose the right SKU with the right components to build the Cloud Foundation. Again, thank you for the clarification.

I misunderstood SDDC Manager, thinking it is a comprehensive Cloud Manager. But it's not. It complements vRealize Suites. Now, we know that virtual networking (NSX) and virtual storage (vSAN) and virtual compute(ENT+) are building blocks required for Cloud (private or public).

But what are the essential building blocks for Cloud Management?

We know that at least SDDC Manager is required. Is that sufficient?

Or do we need one of the Suites (STD, ADV or ENT) of vRealize to also declare sufficient if not optimal Cloud Management capability?

Oliver

[frank_wegner]

You can think of SDDC Manager as an installer and a tool to update other software. SDDC Manager has nothing to do with Cloud Management. Cloud Management is solely provided by vRealize Suite. SDDC Manager is the tool which installs vRA and other products.

In a little more detail (related to VMware Cloud Foundation 2.3):

SDDC Manager installs and updates vSphere, vSAN, and NSX

SDDC Manager installs vRealize Log Insight, Horizon View, App Volumes, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Automation

Other tasks SDDC Manager performs include (this is not a comprehensive list):

• automate configuration of physical switches
• automate configuration of physical x86 hosts
• automate creation of vSAN clusters, vCenter Server installations
• automate NSX configuration
• automate installation and set up of vRealize Log Insight plug-ins to monitor all sorts of data
• automate the creation and set of of virtual desktops for Horizon View environments

But SDDC Manager does not provide any "outward facing" capabilities, it is an internal automation engine under the hood of VMware Cloud Foundation. So you will need to use vRealize Suite components in addition to VMware Cloud Foundation. Let me know if you need to know more.

[olivergatchell]

Frank,

great explanation, thanks

Back to the question: what constitutes a private or public cloud?

ca 2013, vCloud Director (multi-tenancy) and Chargeback (making IT look like a 3rd party service provider) were essential to defining a private cloud; this is oversimplifying,  assumed ENT+ & may have included some N&S

With Cloud Foundation in mind is there a minimum set of VMware products (families) that constitute a private or public cloud as defined by VMW?

For example ENT+, NSX (ADV), vSAN(ADV), vRealize Suite (ADV), SDDC Manager (I'm throwing up balls)

Oliver

[frank_wegner]

To have a private cloud in a software-defined data center you would need vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and the vRealize Suite.

Here is my personal opinion which is not necessarily an official VMware statement:

A private cloud is not defined by products but by capabilities. And even these definitions vary. Here are some examples of properties of a private cloud:

* Deploy new IT services within less than an hour (a few minutes?)

* Have a self service portal to request and deploy new IT services

* Scale out on demand

Again, these requirements may be more strict, and you may have other requirements. Once all requirements are defined you can start checking which products would help supporting your plans. And you may end up with the very list I mentioned at the beginning of my answer.

For public cloud I would use the same examples as above and add the additional one:

* Not running in my own data center

[olivergatchell]

thanks, again