Part 1: Planning & Discovery
DOCUMENT CATEGORY: Runbook SCOPE: Pre-deployment planning and discovery PURPOSE: Identify requirements and assess site readiness MASTER REFERENCE: Microsoft Learn - Plan Azure Local
Status: Active
Before beginning an Azure Local deployment, thorough planning and discovery ensures a smooth implementation. This phase identifies requirements, assesses site readiness, and establishes the foundation for a successful deployment.
In This Section
- Discovery Sessions - Structured workshops for requirements gathering
- Naming Standards - Naming conventions for Azure Local resources
- Discovery Checklist - Comprehensive questionnaire for gathering customer requirements
- Site Assessment - Physical and network infrastructure evaluation
- Multi-Site Planning - Considerations for multi-location deployments
- Hardware Requirements - Hardware and connectivity prerequisites
- Landing Zone Strategy - Azure landing zone configuration decisions
Planning documents use numbered prefixes (01-06) rather than the step-NN- prefix used in deployment stages. This reflects their nature as reference materials and decision frameworks rather than sequential procedural steps.
Key Activities
| Activity | Description | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Discovery | Gather business and technical requirements | Completed questionnaire |
| Site Survey | Assess physical infrastructure and connectivity | Site assessment report |
| Architecture Design | Define cluster topology and network design | Architecture diagram |
| Resource Planning | Size compute, storage, and networking | Bill of materials |
Prerequisites
Ensure you have completed these items before starting the planning phase.
- Access to customer stakeholders (IT, facilities, security)
- Understanding of workload requirements
- Network topology documentation (if available)
- Physical site access for assessment
Next Steps
After completing planning and discovery, proceed to CI/CD Infrastructure for CI/CD Infrastructure setup, then Azure Foundation to set up the Azure environment.