To achieve centralized security and networking policies across multiple VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) instances, NSX Federation must be implemented. The core component of NSX Federation is the Global Manager, which provides a single management plane for all federated locations. Within the VCF architecture, SDDC Manager is the primary tool for automating the deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management of all software components. Therefore, the correct and officially supported procedure is to use the SDDC Manager workflow to deploy the NSX Global Manager cluster. This ensures the deployment is integrated and managed correctly within the VCF ecosystem.

A. Deploying a Global Manager cluster manually bypasses the VCF automation and lifecycle management provided by SDDC Manager, leading to an unsupported configuration.

B. A Local Manager (LM) only manages the networking and security for its specific, local VCF instance and cannot provide centralized policy management across multiple sites.

D. The VCF Installer (Cloud Builder appliance) is used for the initial deployment (bring-up) of the VCF management domain, not for deploying federation components for multi-location designs.

1. VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Documentation

Administering VMware Cloud Foundation

"NSX Federation for Multiple VMware Cloud Foundation Instances" section.

"To enable a unified policy configuration and consistent enforcement across multiple VMware Cloud Foundation instances

you can use NSX Federation. You use SDDC Manager to deploy the NSX Global Manager cluster for NSX Federation." This statement directly confirms that SDDC Manager is the tool used to deploy the Global Manager.

2. VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 Documentation

Planning and Preparation Guide

"NSX Federation with VMware Cloud Foundation" section.

"SDDC Manager automates the deployment of the NSX Global Manager cluster and the configuration of the NSX Local Manager cluster on the first VMware Cloud Foundation instance in the federation." This highlights the role of SDDC Manager in automating the deployment process

which is central to the VCF value proposition.

3. VMware Validated Design 7.2

Architecture and Design for Multi-Availability Zone Deployments

"NSX-T Data Center Federation Design for Multiple Availability Zones" section.

The design document specifies the architecture for multi-site VCF deployments. It details that the NSX Global Manager is deployed and managed through the SDDC Manager UI to establish the federation

reinforcing that this is the prescribed method within a validated architecture.