Stage 1: Designing the deployment

Designing an VMware Smart Assurance deployment consists of gathering necessary information and then using the information to develop a plan for the deployment.

Gathering the information is a process that involves both the designer and the network and application administrators. The administrators must provide details of their organization’s network and application infrastructure. Chapter 2, “Gathering Basic Information,” describes this process.

This information is then applied to develop a deployment design that will properly support the infrastructure. The design should also account for projected growth of the network and applications.

While the deployment is being designed, all plans, decisions, and supporting information must be documented. Typically, this documentation takes the form of a solution architecture diagram and a deployment build guide. In their preliminary stages, this diagram and guide may be used in the response to an organization’s request for proposal (RFP) or request for quote (RFQ).

After a deployment is contracted, the information in the solution architecture diagram and deployment build guide can be refined and verified.

Design is covered in the following chapters:

• Chapter 3, Designing the Service Assurance Deployment,

• Chapter 4, Designing for Topology Operations,

• Chapter 5, Planning for Notifications,

• Chapter 6, Designing for EMC Smarts Users,

• Chapter 7, Deploying Business Impact Processing, (optional)

  Normally, this design process is performed by VMware Smart Assurance Professional Services or an VMware Smart Assurance partner with extensive input from the organization’s IT staff.