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VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.2 Design Decision Checklist Updated: 13 February 2018 This document provides all 349 decisions in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.2 Architecture and Design into a simple spreadsheet for quick reference. It includes columns for determining your level of adherence to the architecture and any justification for deviations. - - Gary Blake | VCP | VCP-Cloud | VCAP-DCA | VCAP-DCD | VCAP-CID Senior SDDC Integration Architect | SDDC Design and Test | Integrated Systems BU

We're happy to announce that on 13 February 2018 we released the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.2. The VMware Validated Designs provide our customers prescriptive guidance and tools, to plan, build, and operate a Software-Defined Data Center. The designs are extensively tested to ensure all components and their specific versions are validated to work in unison, to scale to predetermined design objectives, and operate as our customers expect. Unlike Reference Architectures which may focus on an individual product or purpose without lifecycle management guidance, the VVD for SDDC is a holistic approach to designing a full SSDC stack, applicable to a broad set of uses with a commitment to ongoing upgrade guidance. What's New VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.2 provides the following new features: Updated Bill of Materials that incorporates new product versions Guidance to design and implement a dual-region SDDC that has multiple availability zones Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication implementation is moved to a new SDDC layer for business continuity. An improved order of deployment to enable monitoring capabilities in the SDDC as early as possible during deployment. The operations management layer now comes before the cloud management platform layer. Metrics about Site Recovery Manager are now surfaced in vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Log Insight New naming scheme for the tenant accounts in vRealize Automation for improved indication of the account purpose. Upgrade guidance to provide the best path to upgrade from VMware Validated Design 4.1. Product Group and Edition Product Name Product Version VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus ESXi 6.5 U1 vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 U1 vSphere Update Manager 6.5 U1 VMware vSAN Standard or higher vSAN 6.6.1 VMware NSX for vSphere Enterprise NSX for vSphere 6.4 VMware Site Recovery Manager Enterprise VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.5.1 VMware vSphere Replication VMware vSphere Replication 6.5.1 VMware vRealize Automation Advanced or higher vRealize Automation 7.3 * vRealize Orchestrator 7.3 VMware vRealize Business for Cloud Advanced vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3.1 VMware vRealize Operations Manager Advanced or higher vRealize Operations Manager 6.6.1 vRealize Operations Management Pack for NSX for vSphere 3.5.1 vRealize Operations Management Pack for Storage Devices 6.0.5 vRealize Operations Management Pack for Site Recovery Manager 6.5.1.1 VMware vRealize Log Insight vRealize Log Insight 4.5.1 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for NSX for vSphere 3.6 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for vRealize Automation 7 1.5 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for vRealize Orchestrator 7.0.1+ 2.0 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 3.1 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for Linux 1.0 vRealize Log Insight Content Pack for Site Recovery Manager 1.2 * If you are already running VMware Validated Design 4.2, you must apply the patches in VMware Knowledge Base article 2151693. If the communication in the vRealize Automation cluster is interrupted or is slow, the root partition of the vRealize Automation appliance can be filled up with log data. To prevent from having the space of the root partition of the vRealize Automation appliance exhausted, you must apply patches of the vRealize Automation 7.3 appliance and its Health Service. See VMware Knowledge Base article 2151693. VMware makes available patches and releases to address critical security issues for several products. Verify that you are using the latest security patches for a given component when deploying VMware Validated Design. VMware Solution Exchange and in-product marketplace store only the latest versions of the management packs for vRealize Operations Manager and the content packs for vRealize Log Insight. This table contains the latest versions of the packs that were available at the time this VMware Validated Design was validated. When you deploy the VMware Validated Design components, it is possible that the version of a management or content pack on VMware Solution Exchange and in-product marketplace is newer than the one used for this release. - - Gary Blake | VCP | VCP-Cloud | VCAP-DCA | VCAP-DCD | VCAP-CID Senior SDDC Integration Architect | SDDC Design and Test | Integrated Systems BU

VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1 Design Decision Checklist Updated 08 January 2018 This document provides you all 310+ decisions in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1 Architecture and Design into simple spreadsheet for quick reference. It includes columns for determining your level of adherence to the architecture and any justification for deviations.

Miss a VMware Validated Design session at VMworld or didn't have an opportunity to attend? We got you covered. This quick post includes links to the related session recordings at VMworld 2017 US. PBO2686BU - Best Data Center Practices: How VMware Validated Designs Can Simplify Your Life PBO1721BU - VMware Validated Design for SDDC Architecture Deep Dive PBO1295BU - VMware Validated Design for Remote/Branch Office Technical Overview PBO2631BU - A Base Design for Everyone’s Data Center: The Consolidated VMware Validated Design PBO1480BU - Moving into Your New Software-Defined Data Center! Migrating and Integrating Workloads

Multiple Availability Zones - VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.1 | 28 August 2017 |  Early Access As many of you may know, we opened this Early Access sub-community to provide you an opportunity to download and discuss pre-released design materials for the VMware Validated Designs. We want you discover the latest content for blueprints that are in development and learn about the direction of the next generation architectures and advance operational guidance. Today it's my pleasure to announce the early access materials for the Multiple Availability Zones in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1. The documentation contains a validated model of the Software-Defined Data Center and provides a detailed design of each management component of the stack. Within this documentation, you'll find an Architecture Overview section that discusses the principles of the multi-availability zone design along with a Detailed Design section that includes all design decisions along with their justification, and implications. Where applicable, we also include associated architecture diagrams like logical design of the availability zones for a protected region, as seen below. This design also uses two regions, and three availability zones - two availability zones reside in Region A and a single availability zone resides in Region B (LAX). The following diagram shows the how the current design could also be expanded to include multiple availability zones in the future. Got feedback? We want to hear from you. So dive into this latest early access content and share your feedback directly with our architects and product managers here in this early access community.

On August 22nd 2017 we released the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.1 - continuing VMware commitment to delivering our standardized, proven, and robust data-center level designs for the Software-Defined Data Center. As we talk to customers and partners on a daily basis, there are many questions about the design. We wanted a way to provide a quick architecture reference as you get started with the design. It is my pleasure to share the architecture reference poster for the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.1. This poster depicts many portions of the fundamental architecture for both quick reference and discussion. The poster has six major sections. Let’s highlight these below. Logical Components Architecture – This section illustrates the logical architecture and the how the solutions are deployed and integrated across a full-stack, dual-region Software-Defined Data Center. From vCenter Servers and load-balanced Platform Services Controllers, to cross-region and cross-vCenter NSX, through cloud operations and automation with the vRealize Suite, this section touches it all. Core and Pod Architecture – This section illustrates the pods used in the design and how they are constructed and deployed to provide a common set of scalable building blocks for your Software-Defined Data Center. Distributed Logical Networking and Application Virtual Networks – This section illustrates the design’s use of distributed logical routing across a dual-region Software-Defined Data Center by incorporating VMware NSX into the management stack. It also depicts the deployment of the full-stack of SDDC solutions with Application Virtual Networks and network services provided by NSX. Storage – This section illustrates the use of vSAN and NFS in the design. VMware Validated Designs are designed and tested with VMware vSAN in the management & shared edge and compute pods for primary storage and NFS for secondary storage (templates, archives, and backups.) While previous releases of the design required vSAN as the management pods’s primary storage, in 4,1 we’ve relaxed this requirement. We highly recommend the use of vSAN, but any supported storage solution may be used when using the design. Pods and Clusters – This section illustrates, at a high-level, how the design pulls together the pods, solutions, and the use of distributed logical routing. Region Protection and Disaster Recovery – This section illustrates how the design protects vRealize Automation, vRealize Orchestrator, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Business for Cloud in management stack using Site Recovery Manager along with NSX. Want representation of the poster for a discussion or meeting? Get it at SpeakerDeck. If you’d like to see the poster hanging on your office wall, the PDF size is 51in x 31in. Stay tuned for more coming soon, but in the mean time you can find all VMware posters at vmware.com/go/posters. If you have any questions or have feedback, reach out to me on Twitter as @tenthirtyam. VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1 Release Notes What’s New in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.1 Blog Read the documentation at vmware.com/go/vvd-docs

DOWNLOAD NOW On March 2nd 2017 we released the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.0. A milestone release in our commitment to delivering our customers standardized, proven, and robust data-center level designs for the Software-Defined Data Center. The excitement from our customers and partners for this release has been phenomenal – from the wave of product updates, new advanced day-two operations, streamlined online access, and the release of the Solution Enablement Toolkit for partners. As we talk to customers and partners on a daily basis, there are many questions about the design. We wanted a way to provide a quick architecture reference as you get started with the design. It is my pleasure to share the architecture reference poster for the VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center 4.0. This poster depicts many portions of the fundamental architecture for both quick reference and discussion. The poster has six major sections. Let’s highlight these below. Logical Components Architecture – This section illustrates the logical architecture and the how the solutions are deployed and integrated across a full-stack, dual-region Software-Defined Data Center. From vCenter Servers and load-balanced Platform Services Controllers, to cross-region and cross-vCenter NSX, through cloud operations and automation with the vRealize Suite, this section touches it all. Core and Pod Architecture – This section illustrates the pods used in the design and how they are constructed and deployed to provide a common set of scalable building blocks for your Software-Defined Data Center. Distributed Logical Networking and Application Virtual Networks – This section illustrates the design’s use of distributed logical routing across a dual-region Software-Defined Data Center by incorporating VMware NSX into the management stack. It also depicts the deployment of the full-stack of SDDC solutions with Application Virtual Networks and network services provided by NSX. Storage – This section illustrates the use of vSAN and NFS in the design. VMware Validated Designs are designed and tested with VMware vSAN in the management & shared edge and compute pods for primary storage and NFS for secondary storage (templates, archives, and backups.) VMware vSAN is required for the management pod; however, the choice of storage used in the shared edge and compute pod, and additional compute only pods is always at the discretion of the customer. We highly recommend using VMware vSAN Ready Nodes for the management pod, the VMware Validated Designs may use systems on the VMware Compatibility Guide for vSAN. Pods and Clusters – This section illustrates, at a high-level, how the design pulls together the pods, solutions, and the use of distributed logical routing. Region Protection and Disaster Recovery – This section illustrates how the design protects vRealize Automation, vRealize Orchestrator, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Business for Cloud in management stack using Site Recovery Manager along with NSX. If you’d like to see the poster hanging on your office wall, the PDF size is 51in x 31in. Stay tuned for more coming soon, but in the mean time you can find all VMware posters at vmware.com/go/posters. If you have any questions or have feedback, reach out to me on Twitter as @tenthirtyam. VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.0 Release Notes What’s New in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.0 Video and Blog Read the documentation at vmware.com/go/vvd-docs

Updated 120 July 2017: Added some additional vSphere 6.5 Ports (8900 and 12080) Updated 18 May 2017: Added vSAN 6.5 Ports and Protocols Tab This document is a community release that provides the best determination of ports and protocols used across the products and versions in the VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.0. As an added bonus, sections for portions of Horizon 7, not that are currently not a part of the design, are included in the document.