- What is VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)?You are here
- Why VCF? Business Value & Use Cases
- VCF Licensing Explained
- VCF Architecture Deep Dive
- VCF Hardware Requirements & Bill of Materials
- VCF Networking with NSX — Deep Dive
- VCF Storage: vSAN OSA vs ESA
- VCF Workload Domains Explained
- VCF Day 2 Operations
- Installing VCF 9.1 Step-by-Step
What is VMware Cloud Foundation?
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is Broadcom’s integrated Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) platform. It brings together compute (vSphere), storage (vSAN), networking (NSX), and centralized lifecycle management (SDDC Manager) into a single, fully validated, and automated stack. Instead of deploying and managing each VMware product independently, VCF treats the entire infrastructure as a unified platform — a private cloud ready out of the box.
Think of VCF as the difference between buying car parts and buying a complete, tested vehicle. Individual VMware components are powerful, but VCF ensures they are deployed correctly, integrated securely, and maintained together as a cohesive unit.
Core Components of VCF
Every VCF deployment includes the following integrated components:
VMware vSphere (ESXi + vCenter Server)
vSphere is the compute foundation of VCF. ESXi is the bare-metal hypervisor installed on each physical host. vCenter Server provides centralized management of all ESXi hosts, virtual machines, clusters, and resource pools. In VCF, vCenter Server instances are deployed automatically by SDDC Manager — one per workload domain.
VMware vSAN
vSAN provides hyper-converged storage by pooling the local disks of ESXi hosts into a shared, distributed datastore. Unlike traditional SAN or NAS, vSAN requires no external storage array — the storage lives on the same hosts running your workloads. VCF 9.1 supports both vSAN OSA (Original Storage Architecture) and vSAN ESA (Express Storage Architecture, NVMe-only).
VMware NSX
NSX delivers software-defined networking and micro-segmentation for VCF. Every VCF deployment requires NSX — it provides overlay networking (VXLAN/Geneve), distributed routing, load balancing, and firewall capabilities entirely in software. NSX eliminates the dependency on physical network changes for VM network provisioning.
SDDC Manager
SDDC Manager is the brain of VCF. It orchestrates the initial deployment (bring-up), manages the lifecycle of all components, handles certificate management, password rotation, and drives updates across vSphere, vSAN, and NSX in a coordinated, validated sequence. You interact with SDDC Manager via a web UI or its REST API.
VMware Aria Suite (Optional Add-ons)
VCF optionally integrates with VMware Aria (formerly vRealize) for advanced operations: Aria Operations (performance monitoring), Aria Automation (infrastructure-as-code), and Aria Log Insight (centralized log analytics). These are add-on components, not part of the base VCF deployment.
The Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) Concept
The SDDC is the architectural philosophy underpinning VCF. The idea is simple: abstract compute, storage, and networking from the physical hardware, then deliver all three as software services. This abstraction provides three key benefits:
- Agility — provision new networks, storage volumes, or compute clusters in minutes rather than weeks of hardware changes.
- Consistency — every VCF deployment follows the same validated architecture, eliminating configuration drift.
- Automation — SDDC Manager handles patching, certificate renewals, and lifecycle upgrades automatically, reducing operational toil.
VCF vs Standalone VMware Products
| Aspect | Standalone VMware | VMware Cloud Foundation |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Manual, per product | Automated via Cloud Builder |
| Lifecycle management | Per product, manual patches | Unified via SDDC Manager LCM |
| Networking | NSX optional | NSX required and pre-integrated |
| Storage | Any (SAN, NAS, vSAN) | vSAN (HCI, software-defined) |
| Validation | Customer responsibility | Broadcom-validated BOM |
| Support | Per product SKU | Single VCF support contract |
VCF Deployment Models
VCF can be deployed in two primary models:
- VCF Standard — Full VCF stack with SDDC Manager, vSphere, vSAN, and NSX. This is the primary deployment model for new VCF installations and is what this series focuses on.
- VCF Import (formerly VCF Subscription Upgrade) — Allows existing VMware environments to be brought under SDDC Manager management without a full reinstallation. Useful for brownfield migrations.
Key Terminology
- Management Domain — The first and only required domain in a VCF deployment. It hosts all management workloads: SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, NSX Managers, and optionally Aria components. Minimum 4 hosts.
- Workload Domain (VI Domain) — Additional domains created after the management domain to run business workloads. Each gets its own vCenter Server and NSX instance. Minimum 3 hosts each.
- Cloud Builder — A dedicated virtual appliance used only during initial bring-up. It reads a JSON specification file and deploys the full management domain automatically.
- BOM (Bill of Materials) — The exact, validated set of software versions for each VCF component. SDDC Manager enforces BOM compliance during lifecycle operations.
Broadcom Documentation
These are the primary official resources for VCF:
- VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation Hub
- VCF 9.1 Official Documentation
- VCF Architecture Overview
- VCF Release Notes (Broadcom KB)