The Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region documentation provides general guidance on the deployment of the management domain in Region B based on VMware Validated Design and step-by-step instructions for extending the single-region software-defined data center (SDDC) to dual-region by using NSX-T Federation that spans the software-defined network between the regions.

Intended Audience

The Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region documentation is intended for cloud architects, infrastructure administrators, and cloud administrators who are familiar with and want to use VMware software to deploy in a short time and manage a dual-region software-defined data center (SDDC) that meets the requirements for capacity, scalability, backup and restore, and extensibility for disaster recovery support.

Supported VMware Cloud Foundation Version

Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region is compatible with VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2.

Required VMware Software

The Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region documentation is compliant and validated with certain product versions. See VMware Validated Design Release Notes.

Before You Apply This Guidance

The sequence of the documentation of this design follows the stages for implementing and maintaining an SDDC.

To deploy the management domain in Region B and configure NSX-T Federation by following the prescriptive path of VMware Validated Design, your environment must have a certain configuration. For information on the deployment workflow of the SDDC components, see Deployment of VMware Validated Design in Introducing VMware Validated Design.

To apply Deployment of Management Domain in the Second Region, you must:

  • Complete the respective Planning and Preparation Workbook with your deployment options included.

  • Optionally, read Architecture and Design for the Management Domain.

  • Deploy a single-region SDDC management domain. See Deployment of the Management Domain in the First Region.

See Documentation Map for VMware Validated Design.

The same requirement applies if you are following the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation to deploy a virtual infrastructure workload domain. See the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation.

Using VMware Cloud Foundation for Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region

VMware Validated Design uses VMware Cloud Builder in VMware Cloud Foundation for automated deployment of the SDDC components for the management domain. You also use SDDC Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation for configuration and life cycle management of the SDDC components.

VMware Validated Design follows an example naming convention. The naming provides uniqueness of the objects across the SDDC. You can identify managed objects directly if you use many components that are linked together, for example, multiple vCenter Server systems working in Enhanced Linking Mode. For information on the naming convention, see Planning and Preparation Workbook.

Table 1. Automated and Manual Deployment and Configuration for the Management Domain in Region B
Operation Type By Using Automation Manual Configuration
Preparation for deployment -
  • Install and configure ESXi on the physical servers.
  • Prepare the Certificate Authority to enable SDDC Manager for certificate management.
  • Deploy VMware Cloud Builder.
Deployment Deploy the management domain by using VMware Cloud Builder. -
Post-deployment configuration Replace certificates in the SDDC by using SDDC Manager.
  • Join the management domain vCenter Server and ESXi hosts to Active Directory.
  • Configure the vSAN gateway as vSphere HA isolation address.
  • Configure Active Directory as an identity management provider for the SDDC.
  • Configure repository settings and federation for SDDC Manager.
  • Configure backups for NSX-T Data Center to an external SFTP server.
  • Implement the region-specific Workspace ONE Access instance.
Implementation of NSX-T Federation in both regions -
  • Deploy an NSX-T Global Manager Cluster in the Management Domain in Region A.
  • Prepare NSX-T Data Center Components and Enable NSX-T Federation for the Management Domain in Region A.
  • Integrate the NSX-T Global Manager for the Management Domain with the Region-Specific Workspace ONE Access in Region A.
  • Deploy an NSX-T Global Manager Cluster for the Management Domain in Region B.
  • Prepare NSX-T Data Center Components and Enable NSX-T Federation for the Management Domain in Region B.
  • Integrate the NSX-T Global Manager for the Management Domain with the Region-Specific Workspace ONE Access in Region B.
  • Set the NSX-T Global Manager in Region B as Standby for the NSX-T Global Manager for the Management Domain in Region A.
  • Post-Deployment Configuration for VMware Cloud Foundation Federation in Region B.

Update History

This Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region is updated when necessary.
Revision Description
07 APR 2021 Multiple fixes implemented across the guide.
09 FEB 2021 Initial release.