Virtual data center architecture starting point
The starting baseline includes VM/physical workloads, CPU and memory trends, storage capacity/IOPS/latency, network throughput, rack/power, licensing and growth data. The design is based on peaks, failover reserve and lifecycle, not averages.
Planning the compute, storage and network layers
Compute clusters and NUMA/CPU features, memory reserve, datastore/volume layout, the storage network, uplinks and management networks are matched to the workload profile. Redundancy in one layer should not hide a single point of failure in another.
Redundancy and performance validation
The expected behavior is written down for host, switch/uplink, controller, disk/volume and power loss scenarios. Performance testing uses a production-like IO and network profile, and HA testing is measured with capacity in an N+1 state.
Post-build operations checklist
The short checklist below is a practical field reference for virtual data center build projects:
| Control Area | Expected Output |
|---|---|
| Baseline | Workloads, capacity and lifecycle |
| Design | Compute, storage, network and failure domains |
| Migration | Pilot, waves, maintenance and rollback |
| Acceptance | Performance, HA, monitoring and backup |