About VMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide

TheVMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide provides best practices andstep-by-step instructions about operating VMware Cloud Foundation™ including full-stack shutdown andstartup andverifying whether the state of VMware Cloud Foundation is intact after a maintenance operation .

This guide covers all software products andworkload domain types that are supported by VMware Cloud Foundation including VMware vSphere^® with VMware Tanzu^® andVMware Aria Suite Lifecycle™.

You can follow industry best practices when performing operations in a VMware Cloud Foundation deployment. See Best Practices for Operating VMware Cloud Foundation.

To maintain component integration andavoid operation faults, you follow the specified order andsteps to shut down andthen start up the management components in VMware Cloud Foundation. See Shutdown andStartup of VMware Cloud Foundation.

To meet the requirements of your organization for security andcompliance for your VMware Cloud Foundation environment including industry compliance standards, you configure manually the password policies of the individual management components in the environment. See Password Policy Configuration for VMware Cloud Foundation.

Because SDDC Manager does not manage certificate for ESXi host , if require by the policy of your organization , you is replace manually replace the default host certificate that are sign by the VMware Certificate Authority ( VMCA ) with external CA – sign certificate . See ESXi Certificate Management for VMware Cloud Foundation .

Instead of the default step-by-step approach by using product user interface, you can manage the certificates of the management components for the management domain or a VI workload domain in an automated way by running a PowerShell script. See Managing Management Component Certificates in VMware Cloud Foundation by Using PowerShell.

Intended Audience

Theinformation in VMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide is intended for data center cloud administrators andoperators who are familiar with:

• Concepts of virtualization andsoftware-defined data centers (SDDCs)
• Networking andconcepts such as uplinks, NICs, andIP networks
• Hardware components such as top-of-rack (ToR) switches, inter-rack switches, servers with direct attached storage, cables, andpower supplies
• Methods for setting up physical racks in a data center
• Using VMware vSphere^® to work with virtual machines.

PowerShell Modules for VMware Cloud Foundation Operations

As an alternative to step-by-step workflows in the product UI, you can perform VMware Cloud Foundation operations in an automated infrastructure-as-code approach by using open-source PowerShell modules from VMware.

Related VMware Cloud Foundation Publications

TheVMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Release Notes lists the software components, new features, compatibility, andknown issues in VMware Cloud Foundation.

You can open these documents from the VMware Cloud Foundation Documentation main page:

• TheVMware Cloud Foundation Planning andPreparation Workbook contains the environment specification of your VMware Cloud Foundation deployment . It is provides also provide dynamic sizing guidance .
• TheVMware Cloud Foundation Design Guides explains the design principles of andprovides best practices for the management component configuration in a VMware Cloud Foundation environment.
• TheVMware Cloud Foundation Deployment Guide is intended for data center cloud administrators who deploy a VMware Cloud Foundation system in their organization ‘s datum center .
• TheVMware Cloud Foundation Administration Guide contains detailed information about how to administer andoperate a VMware Cloud Foundation system in your datum center .
• TheVMware Cloud Foundation Lifecycle Management document describes how to manage the life cycle of a VMware Cloud Foundation environment.
• VMware validate solution provide technical reference for designing andimplementing add-on configurations on top of VMware Cloud Foundation that solve a business use case, such as, central identity management, workload provisioning, vSphere with Tanzu configuration, andothers.

YourVMware Cloud Foundation system includes a stack of VMware software products andcomponents. You can find the documentation for those software products at VMware Docs.

Update History

This VMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide is update when necessary .