VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9 comes with many some great new features, such as:
- Cluster-Level Upgrade Support: Provides an option to select individual clusters within a workload domain for ESXi upgrades.
- Multi-Instance Management: Allows you to monitor multiple Cloud Foundation instances from a single console.
- Fibre Channel Storage as Principal Storage: Virtual Infrastructure (VI) workload domains now support Fibre Channel as a principal storage option in addition to VMware vSAN and NFS.
- Support for Additional Composable Hardware: Server composability has been extended to include the ability to compose and decompose Dell MX servers, enabling Dell MX customers to compose servers as per workload needs.
- Improved NSX Data Protection: SDDC Manager can configure NSX Managers to back up on a SFTP server in a separate fault zone. It is recommended that you register a SFTP server with SDDC Manager after upgrade or bring-up.
- Cloud Foundation APIs: API support has been extended. For more information, see VMware Cloud Foundation API Reference Guide.
- L3 Aware IP Addressing (API only): NSX-T based VI workload domains now support the ability to use hosts from different L2 domains to create or expand clusters.
- Developer Center (Beta feature): Enables you to access Cloud Foundation APIs and code samples from SDDC Manager Dashboard.
- BOM Updates for the 3.9 Release: Updated Bill of Materials with new product versions.
This article will focus on multi-instance
Multi-Instance Management (aka Federation)
I had many customers (since VCF 2.x) asking many many times for this feature so it’s great to finally have it. It basically enables multiple VCF deployments to be managed from a single pane of glass. It’s like having a manager of SDDC Managers, much like we’ve seen in the past with products such as Cisco UCS Director.
Multiple Cloud Foundation instances can be managed together by grouping them into a federation, such that each member can view information about the entire federation and the individual instances within it. Federation members can view inventory across the Cloud Foundation instances in the federation as well as the available and used capacity (CPU, memory, and storage). This allows you to maintain control over the different sites and ensure that they are operating with the right degree of freedom and meeting compliance regulations for your industry. It also simplifies patch management by showing the number of patches available across sites in the global view.
Source
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/3.9/com.vmware.vcf.admin.doc_39/GUID-3DA5C89A-DA53-4EB4-91C6-AE39B212F0DC.html
If you want to know more about what multi-instance read
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/3.9/com.vmware.vcf.admin.doc_39/GUID-AAC035D9-42B5-48BA-BB86-A3AD4C764A31.html
Design considerations
- high availability of multi-instance is only possible when there are 3 controllers deployed in the federation
- keep each controller in a different availability zone
- if you only have one controller managing two VCF sites and this one fails, you are losing the multi-instance functionality
Configuration
Click on “Multi Instance Management”
Fill in the form
The SDDC Federation will start creating
Initialising Fabric Controller
Creating message topics
Controller Services starting
Upon completion you will be presented with a nice world map view
Clicking on the site is going to display the site details
Once the master has been defined other VCF instances can join the federation or you can invite them (Invite Member) from the master.
Coming up next
In the next article I will show you how to join a second VCF site to an existing federation
References
Cloud Foundation 3.9 Release Notes
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9 Operation and Administration Guide
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