Hybrid Cloud · VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1
Plan the VCF 9 build before you open the workbook.
The official Broadcom Planning and Preparation Workbook has hundreds of fields across nine technical sheets. Opened cold, it produces gaps, wrong VLANs, and weeks of back-and-forth. This guide flips the order: lock the network and DNS plan first, run a role-based intake, then fill the workbook last, when it is mechanical.
The flow
The planning flow, in order
Prerequisites
Environment gate: hardware, network, AD, DNS, NTP, CA. Fix reds before anything else.
OpenNetwork / DNS Plan
One page, one meeting: VLANs, subnets, BGP, DNS, NTP, AD, certificates.
OpenIntake
Role-based questionnaire, grouped by who owns each answer.
OpenSizing & Fit Check
Interactive calculator: size the management fleet, check whether your hosts fit at N-1, and export or share the result.
OpenMulti-AZ Prep
Extra prep for stretched vSAN: witness, latency budgets, capacity.
OpenDay-2 Deployments
Fleet components deployed after bring-up: VCF Automation, Ops, and their network placement (Shared / Dedicated / NSX Overlay / VLAN Segment).
OpenDeployment Plan
An agile work breakdown (epics, stories, tasks); build your deployment scope and export it to Markdown or a backlog CSV.
OpenFirewall & Ports
Deployment-critical firewall flows by zone, the 9.1 port gotchas, and links to the authoritative Ports & Protocols tools.
OpenBackup & Depot
Build guide for the SFTP backup target and the offline depot / VCF Download Tool, with worked examples and gotchas.
OpenWorkbook Mapping
Intake answers mapped to workbook sheet and field label.
Open