VCF or VVD BOM - Source of Truth

[barnette08]

Hey All,

A popular topic of conversation in a meeting today was around which BOM is intended to be the source of truth now that VCF/VVD have merged more/less.  When looking at VVD of course because of the recent VCF alignment SDDC Mgr shows within the VVD BOM - just as one example.

So what is the source of truth and which BOM is intended to be used when?

TIA!

[abhilashhb]

You will not like it when I say this. "It depends".

You need to understand that VCF and VVD are two different things. VCF delivers bundled software for depoying a complete SDDC stack with lycycle automation and VVD delivers Design and Guidance documents covering both VCF (and non VCF) and vRealize products.

A customer has to choose one depending on what they need. If they want to go the DIY route and use a three tier infra stack (or VCF) with vRealize Suite, then VVD is the source of truth. If they are just looking at deploying an SDDC and nothing more than modernizing their data center, then VCF is the truth.

That said, there are efforts being put to converge these as much as possible so that they talk the same language and align on the design guidance they are providing to the customers. If you see any deviation, please create a post and we can address it from a roadmap perspective.

[barnette08]

So when someone deploys VCF 4.x they are to use the VCF 4.x BOM as the source of truth, only until the point of deploying vRSLCM?  Once vRSLCM is deployed (which of course assumes other vRS components will be deployed) the VVD 6.x BOM is to be used because those components have moved to manual guidance?

[abhilashhb]

Yes, you are right on that. This is what the Release notes for VCF 4.0 says on vRS deployment:

vRealize Suite 8.1 support: Cloud Foundation automates the deployment of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.1. Follow the VMware Validated Design guidance to use vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to deploy vRealize Automation 8.1, vRealize Operations Manager 8.1, and vRealize Log Insight 8.1.

Hope that makes it clear.

[tenthirtyam · Accepted solution]

It's important to understand the distinction between the BOM in a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) release and a VMware Validated Design (VVD) release.

As of VVD 6.0, it includes VCF 4.0. From that point, the BOM in the VVD may extend past the base of VCF. For example, VCF 4.0.0/4.0.1 does not include the specific vRealize Suite product versions since it's not automate/integrated at this time; however, this is in the VVD 6.0.0/6.0.1 BOM. A future release of of VCF may not include specific vRealize Suite management/content packs however the VVD does.

Let's say, for example, that what if the next release of the VVD included vRealize Network Insight 5.3 (vRNI) along with Architecture+Design and Deployment Guidance but it was not a core part of the VCF BOM (yes, it's in the SKU). Then vRNI would be a part of the VVD BOM but not the baseline VCF BOM. Another example is that VVD 6.0.1 includes Red Hat OpenShift WLD A+D and Deployment Guidnance - this is part of the VVD BOM, not the VCF baseline BOM. The point is, that the VVD extends upon the baseline VCF BOM.

Hope this helps.