vCloud Director¶

Configuration¶

Add vCD Cloud From Infrastructure -> Clouds¶

Navigate to Infrastructure -> Clouds
Select + ADD
Select VCLOUD DIRECTOR from the Clouds list
Select NEXT
Populate the following:

Name

Name of the Cloud in Conduit

Location

Description field for adding notes on the cloud, such as location.

Visibility

For setting cloud permissions in a multi-tenant environment. Not applicable in single tenant environments.

API URL

vCloud Director API Url

Example: https://org.vcd.company.com

USERNAME

vCD Organization Administrator User

NOTE:: User must have an Organizational Administrator Role in the selected Origination for successful provisioning

PASSWORD

vCD Organization Administrator User password

ORGANIZATION

Select Organization. Dropdown populates upon successful authorization.

VDC

Select VDC. Dropdown populates upon successful authorization.

Inventory Existing Instances

If enabled, existing Virtual Machines will be inventoried and appear as unmanaged Virtual Machines in Conduit .

NOTE: Multiple Organizations/VDC’s can be added by creating additional Clouds in Conduit.
DOMAIN

Specify a default domain for instances provisioned to this Cloud.

SCALE PRIORITY

Specifies the priority with which an instance will scale into the cloud. A lower priority number means this cloud integration will take scale precedence over other cloud integrations in the group.

APPLIANCE URL

Alternate Appliance url for scenarios when the default Appliance URL (configured in admin -> settings) is not reachable or resolvable for Instances provisioned in this cloud. The Appliance URL is used for Agent install and reporting.

TIME ZONE

Configures the time zone on provisioned VM’s if necessary.

DATACENTER ID

Used for differentiating pricing among multiple datacenters. Leave blank unless prices are properly configured.

NETWORK MODE

Unmanaged or Managed

SECURITY MODE

Defines if Conduit will control local firewall of provisioned servers and hosts.

Important

When local firewall management is enabled, Conduit will automatically set an IP table rule to allow incoming connections on tcp port 22 from the Conduit Appliance.

STORAGE MODE

Single Disk, LVM or Clustered

GUIDANCE

Enable Guidance recommendations on cloud resources.

DNS INTEGRATION

Records for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected DNS integration.

SERVICE REGISTRY

Services for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected Service Registry integration.

CONFIG MANAGEMENT

Select a Chef, Salt, Ansible or Puppet integration to be used with this Cloud.

CMDB

Select CMDB Integration to automatically update selected CMDB.

AGENT INSTALL MODE
- SSH / WINRM: Conduit will use SSH or WINRM for Agent install.
- Cloud-Init (when available): Conduit will utilize Cloud-Init or Cloudbase-Init for agent install when provisioning images with Cloud-Init/Cloudbase-Init installed. Conduit will fall back on SSH or WINRM if cloud-init is not installed on the provisioned image.
API PROXY

Required when a Proxy Server blocks communication between the Conduit Appliance and the Cloud. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure -> Networks -> Proxies tab.
PROXY

Required when a Proxy Server blocks communication between an Instance and the Conduit Appliance. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure -> Networks -> Proxies tab.

Bypass Proxy for Appliance URL

Enable to bypass proxy settings (if added) for Instance Agent communication to the Appliance URL.

USER DATA (LINUX)

Add cloud-init user data or scripts. Assumes bash syntax.
Select NEXT
Select an existing or create a new Group to add the Cloud to. The Cloud can be added to additional Groups in a Groups Clouds tab.
Select NEXT
Review and then Select COMPLETE

Add vCD Cloud From Infrastructure -> Groups¶

Navigate to Infrastructure -> Groups
Select a Group
Select the CLOUDS tab
Scroll down to VCLOUD DIRECTOR and select + ADD
Populate the following:
Name

Name of the Cloud in Conduit

Location

Description field for adding notes on the cloud, such as location.

Visibility

For setting cloud permissions in a multi-tenant environment. Not applicable in single tenant environments.

API URL

vCloud Director API Url

Example: https://org.vcd.company.com

USERNAME

vCD Organization Administrator User

NOTE:: User must have an Organizational Administrator Role in the selected Origination for successful provisioning

PASSWORD

vCD Organization Administrator User password

ORGANIZATION

Select Organization. Dropdown populates upon successful authorization.

VDC

Select VDC. Dropdown populates upon successful authorization.

Inventory Existing Instances
If enabled, existing Virtual Machines will be inventoried and appear as unmanaged Virtual Machines in Conduit .

NOTE: Multiple Organizations/VDC’s can be added by creating additional Clouds in Conduit.
DOMAIN

Specify a default domain for instances provisioned to this Cloud.

SCALE PRIORITY

Specifies the priority with which an instance will scale into the cloud. A lower priority number means this cloud integration will take scale precedence over other cloud integrations in the group.

APPLIANCE URL

Alternate Appliance url for scenarios when the default Appliance URL (configured in admin -> settings) is not reachable or resolvable for Instances provisioned in this cloud. The Appliance URL is used for Agent install and reporting.

TIME ZONE

Configures the time zone on provisioned VM’s if necessary.

DATACENTER ID

Used for differentiating pricing among multiple datacenters. Leave blank unless prices are properly configured.

NETWORK MODE

Unmanaged or Managed

SECURITY MODE

Defines if Conduit will control local firewall of provisioned servers and hosts.

Important

When local firewall management is enabled, Conduit will automatically set an IP table rule to allow incoming connections on tcp port 22 from the Conduit Appliance.

STORAGE MODE

Single Disk, LVM or Clustered

GUIDANCE

Enable Guidance recommendations on cloud resources.

DNS INTEGRATION

Records for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected DNS integration.

SERVICE REGISTRY

Services for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected Service Registry integration.

CONFIG MANAGEMENT

Select a Chef, Salt, Ansible or Puppet integration to be used with this Cloud.

CMDB

Select CMDB Integration to automatically update selected CMDB.

AGENT INSTALL MODE
SSH / WINRM: Conduit will use SSH or WINRM for Agent install.

Cloud-Init (when available): Conduit will utilize Cloud-Init or Cloudbase-Init for agent install when provisioning images with Cloud-Init/Cloudbase-Init installed. Conduit will fall back on SSH or WINRM if cloud-init is not installed on the provisioned image.
API PROXY

Required when a Proxy Server blocks communication between the Conduit Appliance and the Cloud. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure -> Networks -> Proxies tab.
PROXY

Required when a Proxy Server blocks communication between an Instance and the Conduit Appliance. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure -> Networks -> Proxies tab.

Bypass Proxy for Appliance URL

Enable to bypass proxy settings (if added) for Instance Agent communication to the Appliance URL.

USER DATA (LINUX)

Add cloud-init user data or scripts. Assumes bash syntax.
Select NEXT
Review and then Select COMPLETE

How to create vCloud Director templates for Conduit¶

Create a new machine in VMware vCenter and install a base version of your preferred Windows build.

Apply any service packs / updates to the operating system.
Set the Network location to Private the below PowerShell will set the location.

Get-NetConnectionProfile | Set-NetconnectionProfile -NetworkCategory private

Configure WinRM to allow remote management and open the firewall.
- To do this, under local computer Administrator, open a command prompt and run winrm quickconfig
Install VMware tools
Install .Net at least 4.5
Enable remote PowerShell this can be done in PowerShell.
```
Enable-PSremoting
```
Shutdown the virtual machine and convert to a template.

Note

Do not run sysprep

Create a new machine in VMware vCenter and install a base version of your preferred Linux distro build. If you are using cloud init as part of your image you will need to ensure your virtual machine has a cdrom.

Before installing the operating system setup a single ext or xfs partition without a swap disk (This is so that growpart can extend the disk. growpart currently does not support lvm)
Install the distro and apply any updates to the operating system and security updates
Install cloud-init using command yum install cloud-init
Install cloud-utils-growpart using command yum install cloud-utils-growpart
Install vmware tools
Install git by running yum install git
epel-release
selinux set to permissive (enforced can cause problems with cloud-init)

Create a new machine in VMware vCenter and install a base version of your preferred Linux distro build. If you are using cloud init as part of your image you will need to ensure your virtual machine has a cdrom.

Before installing the operating system setup a single ext partition without a swap disk (This is so that growpart can extend the disk. growpart currently does not support lvm)
Install the distro and apply any updates to the operating system and security updates
Ensure you have set a root password
Install cloud-init by running sudo apt install cloud-init
Install cloud-utils-growpart sudo apt install cloud-utils
Install desired hypervisor drivers (Virto, Open-VM Tools)
Install git by running sudo apt install git
As Debian 9 includes network manager ensure this is disabled. Change the below file

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

to the following:

managed=false

We also recommend disabling network manager and setting the network adapter to eth0 rather than the automatically assigned name. https://support.conduitdata.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002881228-Creating-a-CentOS-7-Conduit-VMware-Image

To import your template into vCloud director you will need to login as either an administrator or organisation administrator.

Once logged into vCloud director you will then need select Manage Organizations and then select your organization.

From within the organisation click on Catalogues > select an existing catalogue or create a new catalogue.

Note

Please note once you connect Conduit to your vCD environment, it will create a catalogue called Auto Conduit. This is a working catalogue and is ignored by Conduit when searching for images, so any images in the catalogue will not be synced into Conduit

Open the catalogue and select the import template from vCenter and then browse the data stores for your templates. Select your template and the type in a new name and description then check the copy template into vCloud director.

Once you click ok the import process will begin. When the import has completed the template will appear in Conduit within Provisioning > Virtual Images

If the image does not appear within the virtual images you may need to use the filters to filter the virtual images by the vmware ( vmdk / ovf / ova) type.

You may also need to refresh the cloud. To do this go to Infrastructure > Clouds > select the vCloud Director cloud > select Refresh.