---
name: vmwaresolutions-vpc-vcf-architectures
title: Supported VMware Cloud Foundation architecture models
description: As of 17 July 2025, new automated installations of Red Hat® OpenShift® for VMware® are no longer available for new or existing deployments of VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instances. You can still use or delete your existing Red Hat OpenShift for VMware automated installations until 16 July 2026. The service will no longer be available from 17 July 2026.
last-updated: 2025-10-24
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmwaresolutions?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Supported VMware Cloud Foundation architecture models
{: #vpc-vcf-architectures}

As of 17 July 2025, new automated installations of Red Hat® OpenShift® for VMware® are no longer available for new or existing deployments of VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instances. You can still use or delete your existing Red Hat OpenShift for VMware automated installations until 16 July 2026. The service will no longer be available from 17 July 2026.
{: deprecated}

VMware Cloud Foundation™ supports two base architecture models - consolidated and standard. You can select a model according to the requirements of your deployment and organization. If you plan to deploy a small-scale environment and extend it according to your needs, or if you work on an SDDC proof-of-concept you can select a consolidated architecture. For a production environment, you can implement a standard architecture according to VMware's production best practices.

## Consolidated architecture model
{: #vpc-vcf-architectures-consolidated}

In this model, the management and customer workloads run on a shared management domain. The environment is managed from a single VMware vCenter Server®. VMware vSphere® resource pools provide isolation between management and customer workloads. Resource pools must be properly configured as the compute capacity is shared between the management and compute workloads.

![VMware Cloud Foundation consolidated architecture model on IBM Cloud VPC](../../images/vcf-vpc-v2-arch-cons.svg "VMware Cloud Foundation consolidated architecture model on IBM Cloud VPC."){: caption="VMware Cloud Foundation consolidated architecture model on IBM Cloud VPC" caption-side="bottom"}

Initial cluster in the management domain hosts includes VMware vCenter Server, NSX manager cluster, SDDC manager, and NSX edge nodes. VMware NSX edge™ deployment is a separate workflow, but in IBM Cloud VPC, it is done through the Terraform and Ansible automation as part of the initial provisioning.

## Standard architecture model
{: #vpc-vcf-architectures-standard}

Currently, the offering does not support the standard architecture model.
{: important}

With the standard architecture model, the management workloads run on a dedicated management domain and the customer workloads are deployed in separate virtual infrastructure (VI) workload domains. Each VI workload domain is managed by a separate vCenter Server instance, which provides for scalability and allows for autonomous licensing and lifecycle management. 

## Related links
{: #vpc-vcf-architectures-links}

* [VMware Cloud Foundation architecture](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-5-2-and-earlier/5-2/getting-started-with-vcf-5-2/cloud-foundation-architecture.html){: external}