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THE FACETS OF VSPHERE DESIGN
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As a result of this interdependency, you’ll fi nd that creating a design is often an iterative pro-
cess. Based on the functional requirements, you make a decision. Then, based on that decision,
you ensure that the decision is capable of supporting the functional requirements. If so, you
proceed with other decision points. If not, you revise the decision point based on the functional
requirements. This iterative process again underscores the importance of the functional require-
ments in the creation of the design.
At the beginning of this section, we told you that design is the process of determining the
way in which the different elements that make up a VMware vSphere environment should be
assembled and confi gured to create a virtual infrastructure that is strong yet fl exible. When we
factor in the key role that functional requirements play in unifying the technical, organizational,
and operational facets of a design, perhaps a better defi nition is that design is the process of
determining the way in which the different elements that make up a VMware vSphere environ-
ment should be assembled and confi gured in order to satisfy the functional requirements. Or, in
simpler terms, design is making the VMware vSphere environment do the things it needs to do.
Now that you have a better understanding of what VMware vSphere design is and why it’s
important, in the next section we’ll take a closer look at the facets of design.
The Facets of vSphere Design
As we described in the previous section and illustrated in Figure 1.1, your design must address
three facets, or the design will be incomplete. These three facets — technical, organizational,
and operational — are unifi ed by the functional requirements; but within each facet, a wide
variety of decision points must be specifi ed in the design.
The best way to understand how these facets differ from each other is to look at the types of
decisions that fall in each facet. This is graphically depicted in Figure 1.4.
Figure 1.4
Each facet of the
design primarily
addresses a differ-
ent type of decision,
such as who, what,
or how.
Technical
Decisions
About
What
Decisions
About
How
Decisions
About
Who
Organizational
Operational
REQUIREMENTS
FUNCTIONAL
In each facet of the design, you’ll make decisions based on the functional requirements, followed
by an iterative review (as illustrated in Figure 1.3) to ensure that the functional requirements
are still met based on the decision. In this section of this chapter, we’ll take a deeper and more
detailed look at these facets, examining some of the decision points that are involved.
We’ll start with the technical facet.
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