Cloud Control Plane for SDDC Compliance and State Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing software-defined data center (SDDC) management solutions are insufficient for customers with multiple SDDCs deployed across different geographical regions and hybrid environments, as they lack efficient compliance monitoring and upgrade management capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A cloud control plane manages SDDC configurations by updating a desired state document and instructing data centers to align with the specified state, using a declarative approach with human-readable JSON files, and employing virtual infrastructure management servers and virtual network management servers to enforce compliance and remediation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a declarative approach is used to define the desired state of SDDC, then the deployment and upgrading of SDDC configuration is simplified, but the ability to monitor and manage compliance across multiple SDDCs in hybrid environments remains insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
A cloud control plane is introduced as an intermediary between multiple SDDCs and the desired state definition. The cloud control plane receives the declarative desired state document, monitors the running state of multiple SDDCs, compares them against the desired state, and manages compliance remediation centrally, thereby simplifying compliance monitoring across hybrid environments while maintaining the declarative deployment approach
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud control plane serves multiple functions: it stores the desired state document, monitors the running state of multiple SDDCs across different regions and environments, performs compliance checking by comparing desired state with actual state, and manages remediation. This multi-functional approach consolidates complex compliance monitoring tasks into a single universal system
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple SDDCs are deployed across different geographical regions and hybrid environments, then the system's adaptability and versatility are improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring compliance status increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cloud control plane implements a feedback mechanism by continuously monitoring the running state of multiple SDDCs, comparing it against the desired state stored in the desired state document, and identifying compliance drift. This feedback loop enables automatic detection of compliance status across distributed SDDCs, making it easier to measure and detect compliance even as deployment flexibility increases
Solution Approach 2:
The cloud control plane acts as a central intermediary that collects state information from multiple geographically distributed SDDCs, standardizes the data, and performs unified compliance checking. This intermediary approach simplifies the complexity of monitoring multiple SDDCs across hybrid environments by providing a single point of control for detecting and measuring compliance status
3Reliability
If centralized management of multiple SDDCs is implemented, then compliance monitoring capability is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The management system is segmented into distinct functional components: a cloud control plane for centralized coordination, local control planes in each SDDC for regional management, and configuration agents for executing specific tasks. This segmentation allows centralized compliance monitoring capability while distributing system complexity across multiple manageable components rather than concentrating all complexity in a single system
Data Source
AI summary
A method of managing configurations of a plurality of data centers that are each managed by one or more management servers, includes the steps of: in response to a change made to the configurations of one of the data centers, updating a desired state document that specifies a desired state of each of the data centers, the updated desired state document including the change; and instructing each of the data centers to update the configurations thereof according to the desired state specified in the updated desired state document. The management servers include a virtual infrastructure management server and a virtual network management server and the configurations include configurations of software running in the virtual infrastructure management server and the virtual network management server, and configurations of the data center managed by the virtual infrastructure management server and the virtual network management server.