{"id":203,"date":"2025-09-09T23:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/?p=203"},"modified":"2025-09-10T09:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:02:16","slug":"%f0%9f%94%92-micro-segmenting-my-vcf-home-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/?p=203","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd12 Micro-segmenting My VCF Home Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-10.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-10.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-10-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-10-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-10-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The power to secure workloads at their very core is what excites me most. With technologies like the vDefend Firewall, we can stop threat actors in their tracks, long before they ever touch an operating system. This isn\u2019t security bolted on after the fact; it\u2019s protection woven directly into the I\/O chain at the vNIC level, where it\u2019s most effective. And my passion for this goes far beyond my role at Broadcom, it comes from years of working in network and security architecture and knowing firsthand how critical it is to prevent threats before they have a chance to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes this different is <strong>where the enforcement<\/strong> happens. We stop unwanted traffic right at the <strong>vNIC level in the I\/O chain<\/strong> deep in the kernel, before it ever has a chance to propagate. There\u2019s no need to hairpin traffic, no complex re-architecture of the network, and no forced dependencies on fragile designs. We\u2019re already in the hypervisor, already in the kernel; we just need to enable the functionality, on board your Distributed Virtual Port Groups (DVPGs), and apply policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"927\" height=\"829\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png 927w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-300x268.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-768x687.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Pro Tip:<\/strong> DFW operates closest to the workload, blocking malicious traffic <em>before<\/em> it touches the OS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrast this with \u201cmicro-segmentation\u201d approaches elsewhere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the public cloud, security often means slicing networks into increasingly smaller subnets just to make use of Security Groups. It\u2019s a process that\u2019s time-consuming, complex, and unforgiving, demanding absolute precision. The trade-off? You lose advanced controls and visibility, leaving you dependent on protections inside the operating system rather than stopping threats before they get there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In traditional environments, segmentation often requires hairpinning traffic through multiple physical firewalls. These appliances are not optimized for East-West traffic, making the approach costly, inefficient, and difficult to scale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Both approaches add operational complexity. With vDefend, we can achieve segmentation in a <strong>more direct, efficient, and inherently secure way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why I say from a <strong>security perspective, we\u2019re built different<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And to make this journey even smoother, I will be using <strong>Nikodim Nikodimov\u2019s GitHub repo<\/strong> as my \ud83d\udee0\ufe0f Terraform baseline for automating port association, group creation, and tagging of my Distributed Firewall (DFW) policies for my Management Domain:<br>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\">vcf-mgmt-wld-security on GitHub<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For anyone diving into VMware Cloud Foundation and vDefend Firewall looking to truly segment their Management Domain, this is an incredible starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>A few requirements before you get going:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A VCF Environment and NSX Managers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In VCF 9.0 your NSX will grab a valid VCF license from the vCenter that it&#8217;s connected to, this happens automatically<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A valid vDefend Firewall License <em>(The VCF license must be present prior to adding the vDefend Firewall license)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Activate NSX on DVPGs<\/strong>, this can be done from the <strong>NSX Manager<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>System Tab<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Fabric Drop Down<\/strong> \u2192 <strong>Hosts Sub Tab<\/strong> in the <strong>\u2699\ufe0f Actions menu<\/strong>. (Screenshot below)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A machine with Terraform installed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nikodim&#8217;s GitHub Repo \ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\">vcf-mgmt-wld-security on GitHub<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"github-embed github-embed-repository github-logo-mark\">    <p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\" target=\"_blank\">\t\t\t<strong>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/strong>\t\t<\/a>\t\t<br>        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security<\/a><br>        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/network\" target=\"_blank\">0<\/a> forks.<br>        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/stargazers\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a> stars.<br>        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/issues\" target=\"_blank\">0<\/a> open issues.<br>        <details open>            <summary>Recent commits:<\/summary>            <ul class=\"github_commits\">                                    <li class=\"github_commit\">                        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/commit\/c14dd30aa1032c1315f945eb83a4307a1f3ff924\" target=\"_blank\">VCF 9.0.X initial update<\/a>, ans                    <\/li>                                    <li class=\"github_commit\">                        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/commit\/76fb3d4c61319f565540d0eace46cf5b612add0b\" target=\"_blank\">Fix the VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy Service ports<\/a>, Nikodim Nikodimov                    <\/li>                                    <li class=\"github_commit\">                        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/commit\/b6c769f7415c7719405c3281b26b92ce580c10b1\" target=\"_blank\">split shared services policy<\/a>, Nikodim Nikodimov                    <\/li>                                    <li class=\"github_commit\">                        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/commit\/07440b6287605b444005ae15fad0e821a8d18caa\" target=\"_blank\">Security Services Platfrom v5.0 update<\/a>, Nikodim Nikodimov                    <\/li>                                    <li class=\"github_commit\">                        <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\/commit\/54f4cd9f3c92dc1c1ebdc91d64e5177b315d8a33\" target=\"_blank\">Security Service Platform related changes<\/a>, Nikodim Nikodimov                    <\/li>                            <\/ul>        <\/details>    <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>In my environment, I\u2019ve already Activated NSX on my DVPGs, and the process completed fairly quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"228\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-1024x228.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-1024x228.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-300x67.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-768x171.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-1536x342.png 1536w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-1-2048x455.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The number one question I am asked, is there any impact on existing traffic?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>No Outage on Existing Traffic<\/strong> \u2192 The action does <em>not<\/em> bounce VMs or drop traffic. VMs attached to those DVPGs keep running normally.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Policy Enforcement Becomes Active<\/strong> \u2192 Once activated, NSX policies (DFW rules, groups, tags, etc.) can be applied to workloads on those port groups. That\u2019s the main effect.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No Network Rewiring<\/strong> \u2192 This doesn\u2019t rewire your uplinks or force a switch migration. Traffic forwarding continues as before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s included in <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/github.com\/vmware-nsx\/vcf-mgmt-wld-security\">Nikodim&#8217;s GitHub<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-3-1024x619.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-3-1024x619.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-3-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-3-768x464.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-3.png 1122w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After downloading the repo, your primary focus should be the <strong>terraform.tfvars<\/strong> file, this is where you\u2019ll define the details of your environment. Files with the m01 prefix correspond to your Management Domain, while those with the w01 prefix are for your Workload Domain. In my Home Lab, I don\u2019t have a Workload Domain deployed, so I simply commented out several of the w01 entries to make everything work smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how I edited my <strong>terraform.tfvars<\/strong> file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>dns_server          = \"10.20.254.254\"\nntp_server          = \"10.20.254.254\"\ndhcp_server         = \"10.20.254.254\"\nad_server           = \"10.20.254.250\"\nsmtp_server         = \"10.20.254.251\"\n<strong>bastion_host        = \"192.168.1.169\"<\/strong>\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#make sure you put a valid host here, this was my main workstation. If you fail to list a valid value here you won't be able to access your Management Components.<\/mark>\ntools_server        = \"10.20.254.100\"\nbackup_server       = \"10.20.254.100\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#sftp server<\/mark>\nsiem_server         = \"10.20.250.221\"\n\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\"><strong>#mgmt-domain<\/strong><\/mark>\nnsx_manager         = \"nsx.varchitected.com\"\nnsx_username        = \"admin\"\nnsx_password        = \"VMware123!VMware123!\"\nsddc_manager        = \"sddc-manager\" \n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is a virtual machine name<\/mark>\nm01_vcenter         = \"vcenter\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is a virtual machine name<\/mark>\nm01_nsx_manager_a   = \"nsx-a\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is a virtual machine name<\/mark>\nm01_nsx_manager_b   = \"nsx-b\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is a virtual machine name<\/mark>\nm01_nsx_manager_c   = \"nsx-c\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is a virtual machine name<\/mark>\nm01_edges           = \"10.90.250.91-10.90.250.92\"\nm01_hosts           = \"10.20.250.101-10.20.250.104\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is looking for an IP Address or Range<\/mark>\nm01_sspm            = \"10.20.255.100-10.20.255.130\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#this is looking for an IP Range<\/mark>\nvm_management_dvpg  = \"vcf-vds01.&#91;DVPG 250] SDDC MANAGEMENT\"\naria_x_ans          = \"vcf-vds01.&#91;DVPG 250-1] ARIA SUITE\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#DVPG<\/mark>\naria_ans            = \"vcf-vds01.&#91;DVPG 250-1] ARIA SUITE\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#Same as above<\/mark>\nm01_ssp_dvpg        = \"vcf-vds01.&#91;DVPG 255] VDEFEND SSP\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#I have a dedicated DVPG for SSP<\/mark>\nm01_sspi_vm         = \"ssp-deploy\"\n\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\"><strong>#wld-domain<\/strong><\/mark>\nw01_vcenter         = \"\"\nw01_nsx_manager_a   = \"\"\nw01_nsx_manager_b   = \"\"\nw01_nsx_manager_c   = \"\"\nw01_edges           = \"\"\nw01_hosts           = \"\"\nw01_sspm            = \"\"\nw01_ssp_dvpg        = \"\"\nw01_sspi_vm         = \"\"\n<mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-3-color\">#I don't have a Workload Domain in my lab<\/mark><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Don&#8217;t be me.<\/strong> I accidentally assigned my entire <strong>SDDC-MGMT DVPG<\/strong> (<code>vcf-vds01.[DVPG 250] SDDC MANAGEMENT<\/code>) as a member of the Aria Suite group. While this Terraform works fine if you have configured a <strong>dedicated DVPG<\/strong> for your Aria Suite components, it\u2019s something to be careful with. You may need to change the Terraform to validate against a Tag. Terraform will validate any DVPG listed in the <code>tfvars<\/code> file, so a misconfiguration here could unnecessarily block traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"362\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-1024x362.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-1024x362.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-300x106.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-768x271.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-1536x543.png 1536w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-2-2048x724.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Looks like my \u201cDeny Any\/Any\u201d rule has been busy clocking miles, those counters are sky high. Of course, dropping it at the end of the Aria Suite Policy means it\u2019s happily catching\u2026 well, all of my traffic before it gets to the Application level.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>I updated the group membership to use a<strong> tag-based approach <\/strong>for the VMs tied to the Aria Management components. I made the change through the GUI, though it could just as easily have been done in Terraform. Nikodim\u2019s Terraform configuration provides a solid head start by eliminating much of the manual policy creation, it\u2019s then up to you to tailor and complete it for your specific environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"325\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-4-1024x325.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-4-1024x325.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-4-300x95.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-4-768x244.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-4.png 1382w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"412\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-5-1024x412.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-5-1024x412.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-5-300x121.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-5-768x309.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-5.png 1425w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The policy is now behaving as intended, with traffic reaching the Application category without being denied first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Another critical rule is outbound internet access. While your Network team may enforce this at the perimeter firewall, you should also enforce it yourself. In this case, we\u2019re using <strong>Context Profiles<\/strong> to allow outbound HTTPS traffic only to the <strong>Broadcom Depot FQDNs<\/strong> for updates, nothing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-1024x197.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-1024x197.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-300x58.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-768x148.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-1536x296.png 1536w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-7-2048x394.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This <strong>INTERNET_FQDNs <\/strong>Context Profile is configured to target wildcard domains for the destination of your rules, you can be more specific with the domains used if you want (see below):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-8-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-8-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-8-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-8-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-8.png 1392w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><a href=\"https:\/\/knowledge.broadcom.com\/external\/article\/327186\/public-url-list-for-sddc-manager.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/knowledge.broadcom.com\/external\/article\/327186\/public-url-list-for-sddc-manager.html\">Public URL List for SDDC Manager<\/a><\/summary>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Name<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Versions<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>URL<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Purpose<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>VMware Depot<\/td><td>9.x, 5.x, 4.5.x<\/td><td>dl.broadcom.com<\/td><td>Download SDDC bundles<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>VCF Telemetry (CEIP)<\/td><td>9.x,5.x,4.5.x<\/td><td>vcsa.vmware.com<\/td><td>Telemetry data<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>VVS Data<\/td><td>9.x, 5.x<\/td><td>vvs.broadcom.com<br>storage.googleapis.com<\/td><td>VVS compatibility data<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>vSAN HCL Data<\/td><td>9.x, 5.x<\/td><td>vsanhealth.vmware.com<br>storage.googleapis.com<\/td><td>vSAN Hardware Compatibility List<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>VxRail Depot<\/td><td>9.x, 5.x, 4.5x<\/td><td>emc.com, dl.dell.com<\/td><td>Download VxRail bundles<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>VCF Licensing<\/td><td>9.x<\/td><td>vcf.broadcom.com<\/td><td>License validation<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, NSX evaluates policies left to right, top to bottom<strong> \u2192<\/strong>&nbsp;policy and rule order matters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ethernet \u2192<\/strong>&nbsp;Layer 2 rules.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Emergency<\/strong> <strong>\u2192<\/strong> High-priority, critical rules.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Infrastructure<\/strong> <strong>\u2192<\/strong> Rules for core network services and infrastructure components.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Environment \u2192<\/strong>&nbsp;Rules for specific environments like production or development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Application \u2192<\/strong>&nbsp;Application-specific rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/www.varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-6-1024x176.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-6-1024x176.png 1024w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-6-300x52.png 300w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-6-768x132.png 768w, https:\/\/varchitected.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-6.png 1279w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are a few best practices and preparation tips to keep in mind before moving into Production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Flip any Default Drop rules to allow initially in Terraform until you have it working the way you want, once you validate traffic flow you can flip these rules to drop. A list of the Default Drops are below:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>M01_WLD Default Drop<\/strong> \u2192 M01_WLD Policy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>W01_WLD Default Drop<\/strong> \u2192 W01_WLD Policy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aria Suite Default Drop<\/strong> \u2192 VCF01 Aria Suite Policy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lock down management access to your trusted Bastion Hosts, and always plan for disaster. Because it\u2019s not if it happens, it\u2019s when.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tighten your outbound internet policy so only your vCenter and SDDC Manager have the outbound access they truly need. Threat groups like <strong>Scattered Spider <\/strong>have abused outdated vCenter appliances to maintain persistence in environments. With proper segmentation in place, it becomes highly unlikely that these clowns could scale the walls you\u2019ve built. Restrict only to HTTPS and use Context Profiles only for the specific Domain Names that the Appliances need.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Always use <strong>Applied To<\/strong> wisely, let your policies land only where they\u2019re needed. No sense in weighing down every VM\u2019s firewall when a few will do. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Test, validate, verify, and confirm that your rules are working the way you want. Leverage CURL, Netcat, Telnet, and Ping to validate the connectivity between your appliances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use the Security Services Platform (SSP) included with vDefend Firewall to uncover unprotected flows in your environment, and secure them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don&#8217;t forget to consider 3rd party solutions like Backup Vendors that heavily interact with your vCenter and Hosts. Also ensure that your SFTP Backups for your VCF Appliances are working as expected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use the <strong>VMware Ports and Protocols<\/strong> site as a reference point of the ports used for communication in VCF: <a href=\"https:\/\/ports.broadcom.com\/\">https:\/\/ports.broadcom.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And as always\u2026 keep your layers tight and your traffic light,  stay segmented, my friends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, the takeaway is simple: with the right policies and segmentation, you can secure your Management Domain, VI Workload Domains, Virtual Machines, Containers, and AI workloads, all from a single platform. Bringing enterprise-grade protection to your modern private cloud. I hope this walkthrough showed you not just the \u201chow,\u201d but also gave you the confidence to take the next steps in hardening your environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The power to secure workloads at their very core is what excites me most. With technologies like the vDefend Firewall, we can stop threat actors in their tracks, long before they ever touch an operating system. This isn\u2019t security bolted on after the fact; it\u2019s protection woven directly into the I\/O chain at the vNIC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,28,27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-terraform","category-vcf-adv-srv","category-dfw","category-vcf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varchitected.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}