VMware Validated Design is a family of solutions for data center designs that span compute, storage, networking, and management, serving as a blueprint for your Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) implementation. The documentation of VMware Validated Design consists of succeeding deliverables for all stages of the SDDC life cycle.

VMware Validated Design 6.x is Discontinued

VMware Validated Design 6.x has been discontinued after VMware Validated Design 6.2 and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2. Starting with VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3, the guidance for the SDDC components natively supported by the VMware Cloud Foundation automation is moved to the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation and the guidance for the solutions on top of VMware Cloud Foundation is now published under a new class of technical reference implementations called VMware Validated Solutions.

For full information on VMware Validated Solutions including guided documentation flows, solution overviews, FAQs, and CLI repository, see The Cloud Platform Tech Zone.

VMware Validated Design 5.1.x Support is Continued

The VMware Validated Design 5.1.x product line continues until a feature parity and architectural equivalence in VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x becomes available, and a transition guide to VMware Cloud Foundation is published. Starting with VMware Validated Design 5.1.2, new releases consist of updated Bill of Materials (BOM) to support updates to latest supported product versions. They no longer contain guidance on clean deployment of VMware Validated Design. Security patches and hot fixes are addressed by using BOM updates for the latest VMware Validated Design 5.1.x version.

Guided Documentation Map

The documentation of VMware Validated Design implements a sequence which reflects the stages for implementing and maintaining an SDDC.

Figure 1. Visual Map of the VMware Validated Design 6.x Documentation

VMware Validated Design documentation contains guidance on building and maintaining an SDDC. In addition to the step-by-step SDDC deployment, the documentation addresses most required post-deployment guidance.

Overview of Documentation Delivery

The VMware Validated Design documentation is published in several iterations. At the release date, the core documents that introduce VMware Validated Design and provide guidance on the SDDC design, planning, and deployment become available live. The remaining documents are updated in groups until the entire set is compliant with the Bill of Materials of the VMware Validated Design release.

What's New in VMware Validated Design 6.2

See VMware Validated Design 6.2 Release Notes.

Versions of VMware Cloud Foundation in VMware Validated Design

VMware Validated Design documentation can be used as an extension to the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation. Each version of the VMware Validated Design documentation uses an exact VMware Cloud Foundation version.
VMware Cloud Foundation Version VMware Validated Design Version
4.2 6.2
4.1 6.1
4.0.1 6.0.1
4.0 6.0

Documentation for VMware Validated Design 6.x

Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Introduction to VMware Validated Designs and deployment preparation workbook Introducing VMware Validated Designs VMware Validated Design 6.2
Planning and Preparation Workbook
Management domain guidance Architecture and Design for the Management Domain VMware Validated Design 6.2
Deployment of the Management Domain in the First Region
Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region
Workload domains guidance Architecture and Design for a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain VMware Validated Design 6.2
Deployment of a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain in the First Region
Deployment of a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain in the Second Region
Architecture and Design for a vSphere with Tanzu Workload Domain
Deployment of a vSphere with Tanzu Workload Domain
Architecture and Design for a Red Hat OpenShift Workload Domain VMware Validated Design 6.0.1
Deployment of a Red hat OpenShift Workload Domain
Solutions guidance Architecture and Design for Cloud Operations and Automation VMware Validated Design 6.2
Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation
Architecture and Design for Backup and Restore VMware Validated Design 6.0.1
Backup and Restore
Operational guidance Operational Verification VMware Validated Design 6.2
Shutdown and Startup
Upgrade
Certificate Replacement VMware Validated Design 6.1
Table 1. Additional Resources on VMware Technology Network
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Design Decisions Checklist VMware Validated Design 6.2
Visio Diagrams VMware Validated Design 6.0

Guided Documentation Map for VMware Validated Design 5.1.x and Earlier

The documentation of VMware Validated Design implements a sequence which reflects the stages for implementing and maintaining an SDDC.

Figure 2. Visual Map of the VMware Validated Design Documentation 5.1.x and Earlier

VMware Validated Design documentation contains guidance on building and maintaining an SDDC. In addition to the step-by-step SDDC deployment, the documentation addresses most required post-deployment guidance.

VMware Validated Design supports three SDDC implementations - Standard SDDC, ROBO SDDC, and Consolidated SDDC. See SDDC Architectures.

After you deploy the SDDC, VMware Validated Design provides several types of post-deployment guidance:

  • Operational guidance
  • Security and compliance guidance
  • Scenarios for using the system according to an IT use case, such as workload provisioning and intelligent monitoring
  • Guidance on adding workload domains with an architecture for VMware software that is additional to the list of required products.

You can also use technical notes to adjust your system to a certain network and data center setup.

For information on the document types, see VMware Validated Design Documentation Structure and Audience. For information on Standard SDDC, Consolidated SDDC, and ROBO SDDC architectures, see VMware Validated Design SDDC Architectures.

Documentation for VMware Validated Design 5.1.x and Earlier

Use the following documents, available for the latest or earlier release of VMware Validated Design, to design and implement a validated SDDC.

Table 2. Introduction to VMware Validated Designs and Core Documentation for Standard SDDC
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Introducing VMware Validated Designs VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Architecture and Design
Planning and Preparation
Deployment of Region A
Deployment of Region B
Deployment for Multiple Availability Zones
Table 3. Operational Guidance for Standard SDDC
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Upgrade from 5.1 to 5.1.1 VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Upgrade from 5.0.x to 5.1 VMware Validated Design 5.1
Monitoring and Alerting VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Operational Verification
Backup and Restore
Site Protection and Recovery
Certificate Replacement
Table 4. Documentation for Consolidated SDDC
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Architecture and Design for Consolidated SDDC VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Planning and Preparation for Consolidated SDDC
Deployment for Consolidated SDDC
Certificate Replacement
Table 5. Documentation on Workload Domains with VMware NSX-T
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Architecture and Design for VMware NSX-T Workload Domains VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Deployment of VMware NSX-T Workload Domains
Architecture and Design for VMware NSX-T for Workload Domains with Multiple Availability Zones VMware Validated Design 5.1.2
Deployment of VMware NSX-T for Workload Domains with Multiple Availability Zones
Architecture and Design for VMware Enterprise PKS with VMware NSX-T Workload Domains VMware Validated Design 5.1
Deployment of VMware Enterprise PKS with VMware NSX-T Workload Domains
Table 6. Security and Compliance Documentation
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Introducing Security and Compliance Version-independent
Security and Compliance Configuration for ISO 27001 VMware Validated Design 5.1.2
Compliance Kit for ISO 27001
Security and Compliance Configuration for NIST 800-53 VMware Validated Design 5.1.1
Compliance Kit for NIST 800-53
Security and Compliance Configuration for PCI
Compliance Kit for PCI
Table 7. VMware Hybrid Cloud Documentation
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Architecture and Design for Extending VMware Validated Design to VMware Cloud on AWS VMware Validated Design 5.x
Table 8. Technical Notes on VMware Validated Design
PDF Documentation Latest Available Version
Migrating to VMware Validated Design Version-independent
Deploying VMware Validated Design Using OSPF Dynamic Routing
Extending VMware Validated Design with Multiple Regions
Scaling Up and Scaling Out VMware Validated Design
Table 9. Additional Resources on VMware Technology Network
Deliverable Latest Available Version
Design Decisions Checklist VMware Validated Design 5.1.x
Visio Diagrams
Table 10. Documentation for ROBO SDDC
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Architecture and Design for ROBO SDDC VMware Validated Design 4.3
Planning and Preparation
Deployment
Certificate Replacement
Table 11. Scenario Guides
Online Documentation Latest Available Version
Scenarios for IT Automating IT VMware Validated Design 4.3
Scenarios for Intelligent Operations

Documentation for VMware Cloud Foundation

The following documents extend the portfolio of VMware Cloud Foundation.

Online Documentation Last Available Version
Deployment of VMware vRealize Suite 2019 on VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10 VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9.1 Site Protection and Recovery VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9.1
Using Hosts with Multiple Physical NICs with VMware Cloud Foundation 3.x VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10
Deployment of VMware NSX-T Workload Domains with Multiple Availability Zones for VMware Cloud Foundation VMware Cloud Foundation 3.9
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0.x

Learn More About VMware Validated Design

Hands-on Labs for the SDDC

For hands-on experience with the SDDC, try the Software-Defined Data Center hands-on labs.