Runs Kubernetes containers straight on ESX in a Supervisor, inside a tiny VM with its own Linux kernel for strong isolation. It depends on NSX, so it comes with VCF rather than VVF.
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Terms in this definition
- Agents (classic) API
First-generation Foundry Agent Service API, based on threads, messages and runs. It is deprecated, replaced by conversations and responses, and retires on 31 March 2027.
- ESX
VMware's bare-metal hypervisor, installed on each host in a VCF fleet. Up to version 9.0 it was known as ESXi.
- LAMP
Short for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (Perl and Python also fill the P): a widely used open-source stack for web applications whose database is frequently Azure Database for MySQL.
- ACID
Four promises a database transaction makes: atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability. Azure Cosmos DB honours them, with snapshot isolation, only inside one logical partition, using stored procedures, triggers or transactional batch.
- NSX
Software that handles networking and security across VCF, covering firewalling, load balancing, NAT, VPCs, overlay segments and Tier-0/1 gateways.
- VMware Cloud Foundation
Broadcom's platform for private cloud. It unifies management of NSX, vSAN, vSphere, VCF Automation and VCF Operations as one fleet; VVF, by contrast, lacks automation and cloud management.
- VVF
Broadcom's offering for running enterprise VMs and containers, bundling vSphere and vSAN with simplified deployment and operations management. VCF builds on it, adding the integrated automation and cloud management that VVF does not include.
Related terms
- Embedded vCLS
vCLS as delivered on ESX 8.0 Update 3 or newer, built using vSphere Pod technology, with a ceiling of two vCLS VMs in each cluster. From vCenter 9.0 vCLS is on its way out, and retreat mode is advised.