vCloud Director depends on vCenter Server to provide vSphere resources to its tenants and on vShield Manager to provide network services to the cloud. Therefore, vShield Manager should be deployed and configured even before vCloud Director is installed.

vCD will appear as an extension when you add vCenter server to it, similar to other extensions in the Solutions Manager tab in the vSphere client.

Once vCenter Server is added to vCD, the vSphere client sets a property on the vCD-managed VMs, called managed by property. This property protects vCD-managed VMs from being modified by the vSphere client.

In addition, changing the vCenter Server connection settings for the vShield Manager is possible; you could even use a different vShield Manager altogether. If vCloud Director loses its connection to a vCenter Server instance or if you change the connection settings, you can reconnect...