Deep Dive into VCF 9.1 Deployment Architecture, Platform Scope, and First Instance FQDN & IP Address Planning

One of the most important design considerations while deploying VMware Cloud Foundation is selecting the appropriate deployment model based on scalability, resiliency, and operational requirements.

VCF 9.1 introduces flexible deployment options that allow organizations to choose between a Simple Deployment Model and a High Availability (HA) Deployment Model. While both deployment models provide the core capabilities of VMware Cloud Foundation, the HA deployment adds additional clustered and replica nodes for critical services to ensure better availability and operational continuity.

The following table provides a detailed comparison of the deployment scope for each platform component across both deployment models.

VCF Installer Deployment Scope per Platform

Component Group	Component Node / Instance	VMware Cloud Foundation Simple	VMware Cloud Foundation High Availability
VMware vCenter	vCenter	Yes	Yes
VCF Operations	operations (primary node)	Yes	Yes
	operations (replica node)	No	Yes
	operations (data node)	No	Yes
	cloud proxy	Yes	Yes
	license server	Yes	Yes
VMware NSX	NSX Manager (node 1)	Yes	Yes
	NSX Manager (node 2)	No	Yes
	NSX Manager (node 3)	No	Yes
VCF Automation*	automation (node 1)	Yes	Yes
	automation (node 2)	No	Yes
	automation (node 3)	No	Yes
SDDC Manager	SDDC Manager	Yes	Yes
VCF Management Services	VCF services runtime	Yes	Yes
	Fleet lifecycle	Yes	Yes
	SDDC lifecycle	Yes	Yes
	Software depot	Yes	Yes
	Identity broker	Yes	Yes
	Salt RaaS	Yes	Yes
	Salt master	Yes	Yes
	Telemetry	Yes	Yes

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Simple Deployment Model

The Simple deployment model is designed for:

• Smaller production environments
• Lab and test deployments
• Resource-constrained infrastructure
• Faster deployment with lower VM footprint

In this model, only the primary nodes for core services are deployed. This minimizes infrastructure consumption while still providing the complete VCF management experience.

High Availability Deployment Model

The High Availability (HA) deployment model is recommended for:

• Enterprise production environments
• Mission-critical workloads
• Large-scale cloud deployments
• Environments requiring resiliency and fault tolerance

The HA model deploys additional nodes for services such as:

• Operations
• NSX Managers
• VCF Automation
• Data and replica services

This architecture ensures service continuity even during node failures.

Why HA Deployment Matters

The HA deployment architecture significantly improves:

• Platform resiliency
• Operational uptime
• Management plane availability
• Lifecycle management continuity
• Automation service reliability

For example:

• Multiple VMware NSX Manager nodes provide clustered NSX management availability.
• Additional Operations nodes improve monitoring and analytics resiliency.
• Multiple Automation nodes enhance self-service portal and API availability.

With VMware Cloud Foundation, organizations now have greater flexibility in choosing a deployment architecture that aligns with their business and operational requirements.

The Simple deployment model offers a lightweight and faster deployment approach, while the High Availability model delivers enterprise-grade resiliency for production environments. Selecting the correct deployment model during the planning phase is critical for ensuring long-term scalability, availability, and operational success of the VCF platform.

First VCF Instance FQDNs and IP Address Requirements

During the planning and deployment phase of VMware Cloud Foundation, it is important to properly reserve Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and IP addresses for all management components and infrastructure services.

The number of required FQDNs and IP addresses varies depending on whether you deploy the platform using the Simple Deployment Model or the High Availability (HA) Deployment Model.

The following table provides a detailed overview of the naming and IP addressing requirements for the first VCF instance deployment.

First VCF Instance FQDNs and IP Addresses

 

 

Component	Category	Simple Deployment FQDNs and IP Addresses	High Availability Deployment FQDNs and IP Addresses
vCenter	vCenter	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
NSX Manager	NSX Manager nodes	1 FQDN	3 FQDNs
	NSX Manager Cluster VIP	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
SDDC Manager	SDDC Manager	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
vSAN	vSAN Network	1 IP Address for each host	1 IP Address for each host
vMotion	vMotion Network	1 IP Address for each host	1 IP Address for each host
VCF Operations	Primary node	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	Replica node	-	1 FQDN
	Data node	-	1 FQDN
	Load balancer (Optional)	-	1 FQDN
	Cloud Proxy	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	License Server	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
VCF Automation	VCF Automation	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	VCF services runtime	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	VCF Automation nodes	5 IP Addresses	5 IP Addresses
VCF Management Services	Fleet components	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	Instance components	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	VCF services runtime	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	VCF services runtime nodes	12 IP Addresses minimum 30 IP Addresses for Day-N expansion operations	12 IP Addresses minimum 30 IP Addresses for Day-N expansion operations
	Identity broker	1 FQDN	1 FQDN
	Log management*	1 FQDN 6 IP Addresses 2 IP Addresses for each additional replica	1 FQDN 6 IP Addresses 2 IP Addresses for each additional replica
	Real-time metrics*	6 IP Addresses	6 IP Addresses
VCF Operations for Networks	Platform node*	1 IP Address	1 IP Address
	Collector node*	1 IP Address	1 IP Address

* Component deployment is a Day-N operation

** Do not use capital letters in the FQDN.

DNS Planning

Proper DNS planning is mandatory before starting the deployment of VMware Cloud Foundation. Every component requiring an FQDN must have:

• Forward DNS resolution
• Reverse DNS resolution
• Reachable network connectivity
• Reserved static IP assignments

High Availability Requires Additional Resources

The HA deployment model requires:

• Additional FQDNs for clustered services
• More management IP addresses
• Additional load balancing endpoints
• Increased network planning

For example:

• VMware NSX requires three NSX Manager node FQDNs in HA mode.
• VCF Operations introduces replica and data nodes for resiliency.
• Additional IP pools are required for runtime services and future Day-N operations.

Day-N Expansion Readiness

VCF 9.1 reserves additional IP addresses for future scalability and lifecycle operations. This simplifies:

• Deploying additional services later
• Enabling optional capabilities
• Expanding automation and management services
• Future workload domain growth

Accurate DNS and IP address planning is one of the most critical prerequisites for a successful VMware Cloud Foundation deployment.

Organizations deploying the High Availability model should carefully size and reserve additional networking resources to support clustered infrastructure services, operational scalability, and Day-N expansion activities.

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