The new vCenter Operations Management Suite has 4 versions available for the package, you can view the table here to compare versions. The highest version available is the Enterprise Plus, it looks like maybe VMware is starting to standardize on their version naming to match what vSphere has been using for years. This version offers the performance monitoring of vCOPs, Infrastructure Navigator, Chargeback manager and Configuration Manager. Until recently you would normally have to purchase these all separately and the cost was per VM based and could be pretty expensive for large environments.

One of the features that has me most excited was the integration between configuration manager and vCOPs. I saw a demo and cannot find it again right now. It showed that when viewing a host for example that is experiencing a performance issue you can correlate the change in performance with any configuration changes that took place at the same time the issue started. So if another team member or maybe yourself was updating a value on network cards and it did not produce any noticeable errors during the change. But vCOPs was tracking a change in performance the new suite will help brings these 2 separate tracks of information together to help fix issues and find root causes faster. Once I can find the screen shot again I will try to remember to update this post with it.

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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If self-service is suppose to be such a big part of Cloud, then the need for automation is going to play a big part. Not everything can be accomplished from creating templates and using customization to change the identity of the new VM. In server virtualization this worked great and saved time for most IT shops. But there were still manual processes that some shops needed to do. This breaks the idea of self-service IT, if a user still relies on someone to execute a manual process to have a VM or application provisioned from vCloud.

I guess what this mostly deals with is private cloud. Many IT shops are trying to automate the creation of as many servers and platforms as possible, to reduce their work load in provisioning new servers. But there are still some manual processes that need to take place and I think that being able to tie vCenter Orchestrator more tightly with vCloud Director could go a long way in help this issue.

Other cloud software companies such as DynamicOps are already doing this type of thing. By making the workflow or automation part of their offerings built into the same admin console. This allows for tight integration and opens up the options for what you are allowed to automate.

If you listen to rumors and in dark alleys you might hear that this type of integration is coming from VMware in a future release. Nobody knows if it will be the next release or even when that will happen.

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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StratoGen are seeking experienced VMware users to join the StratoGen vCloud Beta Program which is based on VMware vCloud Director.

Beta testing is a crucial element in the cycle of our product releases, and we work closely with the VMware community to ensure our products are the best they can be.  vCloud Director is a powerful but complex product and as such we are seeking experienced users to provide informed feedback on our product offering.

By participating in the program you will be provided with resources on our enterprise platform enabling you to build, deploy and manage virtual machines, vApps and networks using the StratoGen vCloud Director portal. You will be contacted on a periodic basis for feedback.

StratoGen is a leading VMware Service Provider Partner (VSPP) with an extensive cloud hosting platform based in London, UK.

If you would like to take part in the program please register at http://www.stratogen.net/products/vmware-hosting-vcloud.html

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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In the first section of the video we get another peek at the VMware vSphere management iPad app. There are some improvements that were made since we first say it at VMworld San Francisco. In the video he mentions that they hope to release a Beta version in a few weeks and then the final version late 2010 as a VMware Labs Fling. We get to see how you can now power cycle or restart a VM, get a look at home much CPU and Memory it’s consuming and some other details.

The next part of the video shows us the VMware View Client for iPad. We see a demo of it logging into the View portal at VMware corporate and connecting to a Windows 7 VDI machine. He then showcases the virtual Touch Pad that we had heard about in the last video from San Fran. The improvements that were made to the virtual keyboard are pretty cool. I like how they have added the Windows function keys and other standard keys that will make using a Windows VDI on an Apple iPad easier. VMware is definitely stepping up the level for portable VDI with this application.

In the final part of the video we get to see the web interface for the newly announced vCloud Request Manager from the iPad. This allows for requests to be made inside of vCloud Director that will require a managers approval. You are able to view all of your prior requests and see what is pending, approved or denied. This looks really cool and will go a long way for improving the mobility for people working with VMware and vCloud.

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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I will be showing you step by step that the vCD setup wizard takes you through. This will show you how to created Virtual Datacenters, Organizations, Networks and Pools, Catalogs and Media. You will begin to get a good base understanding of how vCloud Director works. I will also point out some similarities with Lab Manger 4.0 for those of you that have used LM in the past.

Logging into vCloud Director

Before getting to this initial login screen you will need to supply a password for the admin account and enter the vCloud Serial number. You will not be able to test out vCloud Director in your lab unless you get a trial code or have an NFR license, unless you are lucky enough to have a valid license code to use.

vCloud Director first time setup Wizard

Now that you have logged in you can see below you are presented with the first screen of the vCD setup wizard. This process is broken up into 8 main parts that will step you through setting the bones of the configuration.

Read my full blog post after the jump for complete details.

Attaching a new vCenter Server to vCD

The first step is to attach to a new or existing VMware vCenter server. This is going to allow vCloud Director to gain access to VMware hosts, networks and resources pools. You will need to supply the vCenter server name or IP address along with login credentials.

The next step is going to ask for details about connecting to the vShield Manager virtual machine that you imported. This is going to handle all of the firewall and security features in vCloud Director.

The last screen in this stage is displaying the information that you entered before committing it. Make sure to double check since it will be easier to change now than having to go back and change later.

Create Provider vDC

You have now moved to stage 2 of the initial setup wizard for vCD. In this stage you will create your first Provider vDC (Virtual Data Center). You can use vDC’s to divide up your compute power for locations, SLA’s or any other physical or logical reason that you may have.

You will now select a vCenter server to connect to from the first column. This will then populate a list of resources pools, these pools with show any that exist currently on your VC server. This includes the root pools for the VMware hosts.

Next you will select the datastore(s) that you wish to grant access to on this Virtual Datacenter. The list is populated based on the vCenter server that you selected in earlier step.

In this step you need to provide credentials so that vCD can install the vCloud Director agent onto each host to allow it access to the resource pools that you selected earlier. You can use a global set of credentials or an ID specific to a certain host depending on your setup.

The last page is a summary of your selections for this stage.

Create External network in vCD

So starts the next stage of the vCD setup wizard which covers the External network setup. This screen is going to pull networks/port groups from the vCenter server that you are connected to. These networks will allow you connection out to the internet or your production network for example. In my sample Lab used for this write up I create a couple of empty port groups.

This step is now gathering network related details and asking you to assign a Static IP pool for use on this network. This reminds me very much of Lab Manager 4 in setting up network within that product.

This step is just asking you to provide a meaningful name and description to the External Network so that it will make sense to people when looking at it later.

Final screen is again a confirmation screen showing your selections before committing them.

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Create Network Pool in vCD

So in this stage you are going to setup a Network Pool in vCloud Director. You can see from the image below that there could be 3 options based upon how you have setup your infrastructure. Since my lab is a simple setup for now I’m not using VLAN tagging or a vNetwork Distributed Switch. So my only option was to use vSphere port group based network pools.

This step is asking you to select the vCenter server that you will be using to setup this stage, in case you have more than one.

I am now able to select a port group from the list below. The only thing to note here was that it states that it must be an unused port group. So make sure that it is empty.

Again you are just providing a name and description that will make sense later. You could name these based on location, customer, business division or any other logical reason for your install.

Create New Organization in vCD

Now we move onto the next stage of vCD setup wizard. In this part we will be creating an Organization that will consume resources. This Organization is very similar to what an Organization was in VMware Lab Manager. You can use them to setup a Company, Customer or Business unit. Its up to you and your business need as to how you will divide things up.

For each Organization you will have different options on how you will setup LDAP for authentication. This is where vCD separates its self from Lab Manager. Since LM was geared towards working with only one LDAP. With vCD you can work with different LDAP sources for each Organization.

For simplistic reasons I choose not to use LDAP for my lab. So below I am creating a user manually for the sake of this lab. You can see that a role is assigned along with generic user information.

For the remainder of the user setup window you can see that for each user you have additional options that can be set. Your allowed to setup the number of Virtual Machines that can be stored or Running for the user.

This screen is showing the user that I created and allows me to create additional ID’s if needed.

This step allows you to choose whether the Organization that you are creating will be able to publish / share its Catalog with other Organizations within vCloud Director. There could be several reasons that come to mind that you might want to do this. Again you need to give this thought to see how it fits into your overall plan. You can always change this by editing the Org later on.

This step allows you to setup the Email preferences to allow VMware vCD to send email alerts.

This step is setting up the retention policies on Virtual Machines that will live within this Organization. On this screen you can set policies that control the Maximum runtime leases within VMware vCloud Director along with Storage Leases. There are also options to control the leases for vApp templates.

This screen is a continuation of the policies screen from above. Is this lower portion of the policies section you can set Quotas on the number of Running Virtual Machines and Stored VM’s.  There are also some additional limits at the bottom that can be applied for connections and resource intensive operations.

This last screen is the settings confirmation screen.

Allocate resources to an Organization

So onto the next stage of the setup and we are now Allocating resources to our Organization that we created earlier. You can see below the Provider DC that we created is listed and its showing us the percentage of Processor, Memory and Storage used.

On this step we are presented with 3 different Resource Allocation Models that we can use. The choices are Allocation Pool, Pay as you go and Reservation Pools within VMware vCloud Director.

In this screen I select the Resource Allocation Method so that you can see how resources are controlled. This Resource Model lets you control the amount of CPU GHz at a percent guarantee. You also have the same approach for Memory allocation. There is a setting more max number of VM’s that can be created also. In the lower portion vCloud Director is giving you an estimate based upon the settings you have chosen and the available resources of the Organization that you have setup.

I backed up a step and choose the Pay as you Go Model in vCD to let you see the options available with this method. This method is only commiting resources when the vApps are running in the Organization VDC.

And lastly the third model is the Reservation Pool Model that is being shown below. This method offers guaranteed resources to the Organization vDC and lets users control and commit on a per VM basis.

Next it’s asking we to allocate storage to this Organization. It is showing me the amount of space available in the Datastore that was assigned to the Org when we set that up earlier. You can then commit the amount that you want and decide if you want it to be Thin provisioned.

Now we need to select a Network Pool.

Next you need to name your Organization vDC just as we did in other steps. You also can choose to Enable the vDC now or leave it inactive for now.

The final screen is confirming your selections.

Add Network to an Organization

Ok it’s network time in the setup wizard. As you can see from the image below its allowing you to create Internal and External networks in your Org. This also reminds me a log of Lab Manager with it’s Virtual Networks. You can see from the option below that its using a NAT’d setup and routing the external traffic into our Org. There is also and Advanced setup option which is shown in the next image.

In this image I selected the Advanced option to setup the network settings.

This is the option that I ended up selecting for it’s simple setup. It will have a internal and external connection but the external will have a direct connection. So it won’t be fenced or fire walled off and need traffic routed to it.

In this step you are setting up the Internal Org Network for vCD. You can see the available port groups that are setup on your vCenter server. It allows you to see only networks that this Org has permissions to use or see all available networks.

You are now setting up IP information for your Internal Network.

Now you must name the Internal vCD Organization Network.

This step you are setting up the External Organization network and selecting from available networks that were setup earlier for external use.

Here is just the confirmation screen.

Create a vCD Catalog

Now onto the final step of the setup wizard. You are now going to create a Catalog for your customer. You are presented with a list of customers that are setup, select the right one and proceed. This is another step again that reminds me a lot of how Lab Manager worked. The vCD Catalog feature is kind like what the Library feature in Lab Manager strives to be. Within a Catalog you will be able to publish Templates, vApps and Media for people to consume.

Your just naming your Catalog in the vCD step.

This screen is asking if you want to have the vCD Catalog remain private to this Organization or allow if to be published for other Organizations to use.

You have now finished the basic setup of VMware vCloud Director. From this point you can create Virtual Machines, vApps and attach media to the Catalog and allow them to be used. All of these steps from the wizard are the same methods that you will use later on to add additional resources from within the vCD admin panel. So these screens will become very familiar as you use the product more.

OK as promised here is a list of good blog articles from other community members that have documented the setting up of the underlying infrastructure required to run VMware vCloud Director. These guys have created great step by step guides some including videos to show you how to create and install the virtual machines necessary before you can get to this stage.

Hany from Hypervisor – vCloud install

Duncan from Yellow Bricks – vCloud install

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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I had issue with using the ID that you create manually to allow vCD to connect to your Oracle DB. It seemed to work better using the system ID. Now I did not waste time looking into the issue but it did happen multiple times. I did follow the instructions that others had described as working.

Another issue that I had was once the Database connection issues were worked out and the vCloud Director configuration script was running it complained about the DB having an error and stopped the install. Now you are suppose to be able to restart the config script for vCD from the following directory (/opt/vmware/cloud-director/config). But since the install stopped mid stream it did not create that file. So my only option was to look up the vCloud Director RPM file and uninstall it. (vmware-cloud-director-1.0.0-285979)  Then I was able to re-attempt the install.

You can see my new post on vCloud Director install wizard

Some great vCloud Director install guides

Hypervizor by Hany Michael (Great post with videos)

Yellow Bricks by Dunncan Eping (Great post on a single laptop setup)

Virtually Ghetto by William Lam (Nice automated script install)

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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So how does this work out since Lab Manager was sold as normal per socket licenses and vCloud Director is now sold on the new VMware per VM licenses. It breaks down like this for each Lab Manager license you will get 20 per VM licenses of vCloud Director. So if you purchased 6 sockets of Lab Manager that would equal 120 Per VM licenses for vCD.

I personally could not find this promotion on the Partner portal so you should inquire with your VMware rep for details.

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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See some details from the PR released from VMware.

At VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, VMware will preview a cloud-based management service — codenamed Project Horizon — that will securely extend enterprise identities into the cloud and provide new methods for provisioning and managing applications and data based on the user, not the device or underlying operating system.

Project Horizon will establish a user’s “Cloud Identity,” securely extending on-premise directory services between private and public clouds and enabling customers to take advantage of the flexibility and new services in the public cloud while maintaining the security and control from their private clouds.

“A cohesive desktop strategy should provide secure, direct access to many types of applications, including SaaS and legacy and mobile applications, regardless of device type or location,” said Mark Bowker, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Project Horizon is an example of how VMware has the potential to help dramatically transform desktop and application delivery services, maintain IT control, and ensure a productive, personalized experience for the end user.”

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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To break this down in simple terms. I see this as the public version of vCloud that provides you the ability to link up your internal private cloud build on vCloud Director. This service allows you to provision app’s and VM’s out in the public space when you need to. Maybe its because you are out of space on your private cloud or that you just want something out there for other reasons. The vCloud Datacenter services gives you the interoperability that you want with ease of use and VMware is promising the security that Corporations are demanding. This will all be provided by vCloud Director and the new vShield product family.

Here some of what VMware has to say about vCloud Datacenter services.

Built to predefined specifications and based on secure VMware cloud infrastructure technology, vCloud Datacenter Services provide multilevel, auditable security through SAS 70 Type II or ISO 27001 compliance. vCloud Datacenter Services also provide best-in-class virtual firewall capabilities, Layer 2 isolation, role-based access control and the ability to integrate with Active Directory. Access to end user activity logs keeps you in control and allows you to calibrate user access levels for enhanced end user security.

Because vCloud Datacenter Services are built upon the same, globally consistent foundation as your internal datacenter or private cloud, VMware vCloud Director and VMware vSphere, internal virtualized applications can be easily moved to a vCloud Datacenter Services without re-architecting or refactoring. Rather than being locked into a proprietary cloud platform as you may be with other providers, you can choose the vCloud Service Provider that best meets your needs and manage, move and operate your applications as if they were on site.

Link to vCloud Datacenter services at VMware

Here are some of the differences between what vCloud Datacenter Service has to offer compared to public clouds.

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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I will try and provide some more details about each product below gathering any details that are available as of today. In the image below are some of the concerns that VMware is address based on what Enterprises have been telling them.

vShield Endpoint – vShield Endpoint provides on-host antivirus and malware protection that reduces performance latency and eliminates the need to maintain individual security agents in each and every virtual machine, helping to simplify security administration while minimizing the risk of malware infections. Datasheet

vShield App -VMware vShield App protects applications in the virtual datacenter from network-based threats. vShield App gives organizations the ability to create and manage business-relevant policies that adapt to dynamic cloud environments. It also provides deep visibility into network communications between virtual machines and granular enforcement through security groups. Datasheet

vShield Edge – vShield Edge is a network gateway solution that protects the edges of the virtual datacenter with DCHP, network address translation (NAT), firewalling, load balancing, site-to-site VPN, port group isolation and other capabilities that help organizations maintain proper segmentation between different organizational units. Datasheet

vShield Manager – Included with all vShield products, vShield Manager provides a central point of control for managing, deploying, reporting, logging and integrating third-party security services. Working in conjunction with vCenter Server, vShield Manager also enables role-based access control and administrative delegation as part of a unified framework for managing virtualization security.

vShield Zones – VMware vShield Zones, included with vSphere, provides basic protection from network-based threats in virtual datacenters, with application firewalling and policy management based on administrator-defined zones, using basic traffic information such as the source IP address, the destination port, and so on.

Here is a quote from a VMware product release.

Enterprise Partner Extranets – vShield lets enterprises extend their networks and application resources to branch offices, home offices and business partner sites through site-to-site VPN services that offer simplified provisioning, streamline administrative tasks and improve scalability. All traffic between sites is encrypted using IPsec to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of all site-to-site communications.

vShield Product Family Brochure

About Brian

Brian is a Technical Architect for a VMware partner and owner of this website. He is active in the VMware community and is helps lead the Chicago VMUG group. This blog Virtualize Tips was started to document and remember things that I come across while working with tech.

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