Despite its name, the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Installer can deploy both VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) environments. Many users incorrectly believe the VCF Installer restricts you to only the specific product deployments that you have entitlements for, VVF deployment for VVF entitlements and VCF deployments for VCF entitlements.
The VCF Installer does NOT care nor has any knowledge of your license entitlements when performing a deployment. In fact, both VVF and VCF deployments will default to the 90 day evaluation period until the components are licensed by VCF Operations, which is performed by a user post-deployment to retrieve product entitlements.
Depending on your requirements, you might have a need to deploy a full VCF fleet in your primary datacenter while deploying a subset of the infrastructure components at a regional or edge location. One common scenario is deploying the VVF components (VCF Operations, vCenter, and ESX) and licensing them using your VCF entitlements, which is a fully supported use case.
While you can deploy the individual components using the VCF Operations OVA and the vCenter ISO installer, the VCF Installer provides a single workflow that deploys the VVF components end to end and automatically connects them. This workflow can also be fully automated by supplying the complete JSON configuration. Once deployment is complete, you can register VCF Operations with the Broadcom Business Service Console (BSC) to retrieve and apply the appropriate entitlement, whether VVF or VCF.
Finally, the VCF Installer also provides an advanced option to defer the deployment of both VCF Operations and/or VCF Automation, in case you wish to deploy to alternative networks (DVPGs or NSX Segments) from the initial Management Network selection.
Some users may choose to defer the deployment of VCF Automation until they are ready to modernize workload and service delivery through a self service portal. In this case, you can deploy a VCF fleet without VCF Automation and later perform the deployment as a Day-N operation using VCF Operations Fleet Manager. This is also now made clear in the VCF documentation, which was just updated on April 2nd, 2026
The VCF Installer is extremely flexible and key is not to mix up product deployment from product entitlement, those are two differen things!
William, i have a question for you, the support of VVF is discontinued or not? EMEA region, customers can buy licenses for VVF?
Please don't post in multiple forums and be patient. As answered on IN ...
You'll need to work with your regional account team at Broadcom to understand the available SKUs as they may differ from region to region, that is not something I've involved in or have any knowledge about
Is there any official guidance about deferring VCF Automation deployment? I know there's a checkbox in the VCF Installer that lets you skip it, but it also says "you agree to use VCF Operations to import your Aria Automation instance once the installer is complete". Are we able to defer it indefinitely? Is not having it going to cause LCM/supportability/etc. problems later on?
Hi Jefferson,
If this is net new deployment (greenfield) where you do NOT have Aria Automation, you can certainly defer VCF Automation, there's no impact from LCM nor support standpoint. If you have an existing Aria Automation deployment, then for it to be compatible with VCF 9.x, you will need import/upgrade that at some point to be able to take full advantage of the 9.x capabilities. Hope that makes sense
My concern is the documentation/installer workflow/etc. all seem to indicate VCF Automation is a required component of a VCF fleet. I know we can skip it by making the appropriate selections during the install wizard, but those selections all indicate I must deploy it later. I'd appreciate some official guidance from Broadcom (techdocs/KB/etc.) that indicates we're allowed to defer it indefinitely.
I have the same observation about it being an implied requirement.
Let me work with our PM/Documentation team. In the meantime, is there a specific part of the documentation where this isn't clear that its optional? Having a specific link or the page you're using would be helpful on where we can make this clear
The biggest spot is the installer UI that says we agree to connect it once the installer is complete. That at least suggests we can't skip it indefinitely. As far as the documentation I don't think there's anything that explicitly lists it as required, but it's always listed/shown as a component as opposed to the clearly optional components that regularly aren't included (VCF Ops for Logs/Networks, VIDB, etc.).
I found another spot that (mostly) suggests VCF Automation is required. The minimal deployment design (https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-0/design/blueprints/vcf-fleet-basic-management-design.html) includes VCF Automation. If you read down into the text there is an asterisk on the VCF Automation, but the picture at the top doesn't have that asterisk. Adding that asterisk there would be helpful.
While looking at other docs, I just found a spot that explicitly says VCF Automation is mandatory - "Starting with VCF 9, the previously optional management components ... VCF Automation (Aria Automation) are now mandatory." The following bullet points also indicate it's mandatory.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-0/deployment/upgrading-cloud-foundation.html
I've shared this with product team but in meantime, they've added https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-0/deployment/deploying-a-new-vmware-cloud-foundation-or-vmware-vsphere-foundation-private-cloud-/deploy-a-new-vcf-fleet-or-a-new-vcf-instance.html#:~:text=VCF%20Installer%20allows%20you%20to%20skip%20VCF%20Automation (to hopefully make it clear that VCFA is indeed optional during Day 0 and certainly Day N, if you chose to deploy)
Hi William,
I have a specific scenario regarding VCF 9 entitlements. Some of my customers are required to purchase VCF licenses due to their organizational profile, but they are not yet ready or willing to implement NSX.
If I use the VCF Installer to deploy only the VVF components (ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, and VCF Operations) and license them with their VCF entitlements, leaving NSX out of the deployment:
Is this a fully supported architecture by Broadcom/VMware?
Will the customer face any issues regarding support or Life Cycle Management (LCM) by not having the full VCF stack (specifically NSX) deployed in their primary site?
My goal is to ensure they don't lose support or fall into an 'unsupported configuration' by using a VCF license for a VVF-only footprint.
Thanks for your insights!
No issues as I’ve already alluded to in blog post