VCF domain built by the VCF Installer to host a VCF Instance's management components, plus fleet-wide components such as VCF Operations and VCF Automation in the first instance. Business workloads may run there too.
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Terms in this definition
- VCF domain
A single vCenter together with the storage, switching, NSX Manager and clusters it controls. Every VCF Instance has one for management, plus optional extra ones for workloads.
- VCF Installer
Successor to Cloud Builder: either converges an existing vSphere environment into VCF or deploys from scratch a new VCF Instance or fleet, with its management domain and core components.
- VCF Instance
Combination of a management domain with any number of workload domains, each instance having its own NSX, SDDC Manager and vCenters. A VCF fleet is made up of one or more of them.
- VCF Operations
VCF's console for running the fleet. It covers alerting, monitoring, capacity, reporting, log analysis and licensing alongside fleet management of identity, passwords, certificates and lifecycle.
- VCF Automation
Self-service platform in VCF for provisioning VM, Kubernetes and AI workloads. Providers manage regions and tenants in one portal, while tenants handle projects and consumption in theirs.
- FIRST
A DAX function available only inside visual calculations. It fetches the value at the start of one axis of the visual's matrix, which makes it handy for comparing each point with the first; its opposite is LAST.
Related terms
- Convergence
In VCF 9.0, adopting a vCenter you already run, with its hosts and optionally Aria products, as the management domain of a brand-new fleet or instance; absent pieces are deployed for you. Enhanced Linked Mode setups are excluded.
- SDDC Manager mode
Permanent state a VCF Installer appliance adopts after deployment onto a host meant for the management domain: from then on it acts as that instance's SDDC Manager and can never install anything again.
- Shared NSX instance
NSX Manager instance serving several workload domains, so new workload domains join it instead of deploying their own; the management domain's NSX Manager is never used for this. Edge clusters may be shared too.
- workload domain
Domain in VCF for business applications. It gets a dedicated vCenter and NSX that may be dedicated or shared; the management components live separately in the management domain.