The number of vCenter Server instances in your SDDC is determined by the number of workload domains. Each workload domain has a single vCenter Server instance. You determine the amount of compute and storage resources for the vCenter Server instance according to the scale of the environment, the plans for deployment of virtual infrastructure workload domains, and the requirements for isolation of management workloads from tenant workloads.

Deployment Type

You allocate a vCenter Server instance for the workload domain in each region, using Enhanced Linked Mode to connect, view, and search across all linked vCenter Server systems in the SDDC.

Table 1. Design Decisions on the Deployment Model for a Workload Domain vCenter Server

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

SDDC-KUBWLD-VI-VC-001

Deploy a dedicated vCenter Server system in the management domain associated with this workload domain.

  • Isolates vCenter Server failures to management or tenant workloads.

  • Isolates vCenter Server operations between management and tenants.

  • Supports a scalable cluster design where you might reuse the management components as more tenant workloads are added to the SDDC.

  • Simplifies capacity planning for tenant workloads because you do not consider management workloads for the Workload domain vCenter Server.

  • Improves the ability to upgrade the vSphere environment and related components by providing for explicit separation of maintenance windows:

    • Management workloads remain available while you are upgrading the tenant workloads

    • Tenant workloads remain available while you are upgrading the management nodes

  • Supports clear separation of roles and responsibilities to ensure that only administrators with proper authorization can attend to the management workloads.

  • Facilitates quicker troubleshooting and problem resolution.

  • Simplifies disaster recovery operations by supporting a clear demarcation between recovery of the management components and compute workloads.

  • Provides isolation of potential network issues by introducing network separation of the clusters in the SDDC.

None

Sizing Compute and Storage Resources

When you deploy the vCenter Server appliance, you select to deploy an appliance that is suitable for the size of your environment. The option that you select determines the number of CPUs and the amount of memory for the appliance.
Table 2. Compute Resource Specifications of vCenter Server

vCenter Server Appliance Size

Management Capacity

Number of vCPUs

Memory

X-Large environment

Up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines

24

56 GB

Large environment

Up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines

16

37 GB

Medium environment

Up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines

8

28 GB

Small environment

Up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines

4

19 GB

Tiny environment

Up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines

2

12 GB
When you deploy the vCenter Server appliance, the ESXi host or cluster on which you deploy the appliance must meet minimum storage requirements. You determine the required storage not only according to the size of the environment and the storage size, but also according to the disk provisioning mode.
Table 3. Storage Resource Specifications of vCenter Server

Appliance Size

Management Capacity

Default Storage Size

Large Storage Size

X-Large Storage Size

X-Large environment

Up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines

1805 GB

1905 GB

3665 GB

Large environment

Up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines

1065 GB

1765 GB

3525 GB

Medium environment

Up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines

700 GB

1700 GB

3460 GB

Small environment

Up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines

480 GB

1535 GB

3295 GB

Tiny environment

Up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines

415 GB

1490 GB

3245 GB
Table 4. Design Decisions on Sizing a Workload Domain vCenter Server

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication
SDDC- KUBWLD-VI-VC-002

Deploy an appliance for the workload domain vCenter Server of a medium deployment size or larger.

A vCenter Server appliance of a medium-deployment size is typically sufficient to manage tenant workloads that run in a workload domain.

If the size of the workload domain grows, you might have to increase the vCenter Server Appliance size.
SDDC- KUBWLD-VI-VC-003

Deploy the workload domain vCenter Server with the default storage size.

The default storage capacity assigned to a medium-sized appliance is sufficient.

None.