Book Image

VMware vCloud Director Cookbook

By : Daniel Langenhan
Book Image

VMware vCloud Director Cookbook

By: Daniel Langenhan

Overview of this book

VMware vCloud Director is an enterprise software solution that enables the building of secure, private clouds by pooling together infrastructure resources into virtual data centers. The tool enables self-service via a web interface to reduce the management overhead and offers amazing possibilities for production and development environments. Thus, the tool will ensure efficient management of resources with data center efficiency and business agility. "VMWare VCloud Director Cookbook" will cover a lot of ground, ranging from easy to complex recipes. It will not only dive into networks, data-stores, and vApps, but also cover vCloud design improvements, troubleshooting, and the vCloud API. "VMWare VCloud Director Cookbook" is split into different sections, each of which deals with a special topic in vCloud - from networks, to vApps, to storage and design. This book contains over 80 recipes with the difficulty levels ranging from simple to very advanced. You will learn how to automate vCloud easily and quickly with the API, and also learn how to isolate a vApp and still fully access it without risking the network. Design considerations that need to be addressed while deploying the vCloud and more will also be looked into. "VMWare VCloud Director Cookbook" will make your life as an admin a lot easier by providing you with some good recipes that have been proven to work in small to large enterprises.

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VMware vCloud Director Cookbook
Daniel Langenhan
Oct, 2013 | 364 pages
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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
VMware vCloud Director Cookbook
VMware vCloud Director Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Setting Up Networks
Setting Up Networks
Introduction
Setting up an External Network
Creating 1,000 isolated networks without VXLANs
Making VXLANs work
Integrating the Cisco 1000v into vCD
Giving your networks an Edge
Doing it all(most) without a Distributed Switch
2
vCloud Networks
vCloud Networks
Introduction
Deploying a vApp with a vApp router
Forwarding an RDP (or SSH) session into an isolated vApp
Accessing a fully isolated vApp or Organization Network
Using Organization Networks for interconnection between vApps
Using templates with firewall and NAT settings
Connecting a physical device to an isolated network
Sharpening the Edge
Using vApp Network fencing
Creating multitiered vApp Networks
Ensuring no change in IP after redeployment
Automatic IP management for External Network Pools
Creating load-balanced VMs in an organization
Creating a secure connection between organizations (which can be in different vClouds)
Monitoring which network resources have been used where
3
Better vApps
Better vApps
Introduction
Proper vApp startup and shutdown
Adding a VM to a vApp
Importing a vApp into vCloud
Exporting a vApp from vCloud
Creating a sandbox environment
Using Guest Customization with pre and post deploy
Using PowerShell or Perl to perform Guest Customization tasks
Sharing a vApp
Joining VMs automatically to domains
Using vApp maintenance mode
4
Datastores and Storage Profiles
Datastores and Storage Profiles
Introduction
Adding a new storage profile to vCD
Using a specific datastore for templates
Using storage profiles for storage tiering
Making operations on NFS datastores faster
Working with vApp templates and their Shadows
Reducing the chain length of Linked Clones
Configuring storage alarms
Monitoring storage
The problems associated with the backup and restore of vCloud
5
Working with the vCloud API
Working with the vCloud API
Introduction
Using PowerShell with vCloud Director
Accessing REST with Firefox
Accessing vCD via PHP
Using vCenter Orchestrator to automate vCloud
A scripted cell shutdown
Adding ISO files to vCD automatically
6
Improving the vCloud Design
Improving the vCloud Design
Introduction
Creating a naming standard
Using service accounts in the vCloud environment
Setting up networks for the vCloud VM
Working with vCloud roles
Keeping your templates under control
Choosing the right Allocation Model
Using OvDCs for compute tiering
Understanding how the different vCloud types impact the design
Retrofitting a shared directory into an existing vCD Cell
Connecting more than one vCloud Cell to the same infrastructure
Creating multiple vCD Cells for the same vCloud
Load balancing vCD
Working with catalogs in vCloud 5.5
7
Operational Challenges
Operational Challenges
Loading Windows Sysprep packages in vCloud
Exchanging SSL certificates
Bypassing SSO login into vCloud
Backing up vCloud
Recovering the vCloud system
Changing the name of an organization
Shutting down and starting up the vCloud environment
Using metadata to improve provisioning
Using vSphere Host Profiles with vCloud
Using vCloud with vCenter Auto Deploy
Defining a vCloud development cycle
Making the VM BIOS ID (UUID) unique
Importing from Lab Manager into vCloud
Using branding to make vCloud look different
Putting an ESXi host into maintenance
Updating vCloud Cells without interruption
Updating a vCloud with only one cell
Updating a vCenter in vCloud
Updating vCNS
Expanding vCD resources
Resizing a VM hard disk
Cloning a running vApp
Removing infrastructure from vCloud
8
Troubleshooting vCloud
Troubleshooting vCloud
Introduction
Looking for errors in the vCloud GUI
Working with vCloud logfiles
Creating and uploading VMware support files
Setting up and using vSphere Syslog Collector
Troubleshooting vCloud Router traffic
Troubleshooting the Java client
Recovering from an outage
Appendix
Appendix
Index
Index

Reducing the chain length of Linked Clones

When you are provisioning and copying VMs, the chain length of linked clones goes up and performance goes down. Here is how to shorten the chain.

Getting ready

We need a vApp that has been copied from a vApp or a vApp template.

How to do it...

  1. Log in to vCloud.

  2. Navigate to the vApp that has been copied.

  3. Double-click on the vApp to get to the VMs.

  4. Right-click on a VM and select Properties.

  5. Click on General.

  6. Scroll down to Chain Length. The value should now be 2 or more. If that's not the case, make a copy of the vApp and enter the copy.

  7. Click on Cancel.

  8. Right-click again on the VM, but now select Consolidate.

  9. Click on Yes if you want to collapse the disks.

  10. Depending on the size of the hard disk attached to the VM, this operation can take a while. In some cases, hours.

  11. Then right-click on the VM again and select Properties.

  12. In General, scroll down to Chain Length. The value should now be 1.

How it works...

Have a quick look at the introduction of this chapter to review...

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