This is the business objective that translates to a conceptual model constraint, as it is an external

requirement that must be met by the system design, influencing how the architecture should be

shaped. Compliance audits often dictate specific standards, security, and operational procedures that

must be adhered to, which restricts the design choices in terms of governance and best practices.

The customer's requirements include the following:

Carry over existing VLANs for workloads: This can be easily achieved with a vSphere distributed

switch (VDS), as it supports the configuration of VLANs and ensures that they can be applied to

multiple ESXi hosts across the data center.

Networking for storage must not share the data path with workload traffic: By using aggregated

uplinks in the VDS configuration, the architect can easily separate workload traffic and storage traffic

by using different uplinks or VLANs. Aggregated uplinks ensure that there is sufficient bandwidth for

both workloads and storage, while keeping them logically separated in terms of traffic management.

Add additional VLANs: A VDS supports the dynamic addition of VLANs. New VLANs can be added and

managed centrally, reducing the complexity and management overhead when scaling the network.

Reduce management overhead: The use of a single VDS significantly reduces management

complexity compared to managing multiple vSphere standard switches (VSS). With VDS, network

configuration and management are centralized and simplified across all ESXi hosts.

Given that the new replacement servers have two 100 GB network cards, the aggregated uplinks in a

VDS configuration will provide the required network capacity while ensuring that traffic is properly

segmented and scalable.

The architect conducts workshops with stakeholders to gather business and technical requirements.

Workshops provide a collaborative environment where the architect can interact with key

stakeholders to gather both business and technical requirements. This approach helps ensure that

the final design aligns with the goals and needs of the business while considering the technical

constraints and capabilities.

The architect conducts multiple rounds of interviews with stakeholders, iteratively refining

requirements.

Multiple rounds of interviews allow the architect to gather input over time, refining the

requirements and addressing any evolving needs. This iterative approach ensures that the solution

meets the stakeholders' expectations and adapts as new information emerges.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) is used to manage ESXi host configurations and software versions

in a consistent and streamlined manner. In this case, the architect needs to account for the

heterogeneous hardware across two sites (Intel and AMD-based servers).

Since Intel and AMD processors are incompatible for remediation with a single vSphere Lifecycle

Manager image, the different processor architectures should be grouped by site (not across sites).

Within each site, vLCM can manage a single image per processor architecture, ensuring that each

site’s hosts with compatible processors are remediated consistently. Intel-based servers will be

managed with one image and AMD-based servers with another image, but they can be managed in

separate sites.

This approach avoids the issue where heterogeneous hardware with different processor types would

need separate images. By keeping them within the same site, the architecture simplifies the lifecycle

management and meets the requirement for minimizing clusters and ensuring service availability

during upgrades.

To enable high availability of virtual machines across different availability zones.

vSAN stretched clusters provide high availability by replicating virtual machine data across two

geographically separated sites (or availability zones). This ensures that in the event of a failure at one

site, the virtual machines can continue running from the other site, minimizing downtime and

ensuring business continuity. The solution is particularly useful for disaster recovery and fault

tolerance across multiple sites, meeting the requirement for high availability across different

availability zones.