An architect is designing a new VMware software-defined data center (SDDC) that will consist of...

Hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy cache the image (stateless caching):

Set up and apply a host profile for stateless caching. You can cache the image on a local disk, a remote disk, or a USB drive. Continue provisioning this host with vSphere Auto Deploy. If the vSphere Auto Deploy server becomes unavailable, for example because hundreds of hosts attempt to access it simultaneously, the host boots from the cache. The host attempts to reach the vSphere Auto Deploy server after the boot operation to complete configuration.

Hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy become stateful hosts:

Set up and apply a host profile for stateful installs. When you provision a host with vSphere Auto Deploy, the image is installed on the local disk, a remote disk, or a USB drive. For subsequent boots, you boot from the disk. The host no longer uses vSphere Auto Deploy.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.install.doc/GUID-C6FBA22C-048A-455F-9D45-58834445ACA5.html