If you have easy access to VMware vCloud Director, and you want to learn to deploy and configure this multi-talented infrastructure into your lab for personal upskilling, then read on. Easy access is as simple as using your VMware

account login to download the vCloud Director.

I wrote about Veeam and vCloud Director sometime back, and had many IT professionals contact me to ask how to acquire, install and configure vCloud Director so they could experience it for themselves. A quick search through the internet will reveal many articles and blogs describing the steps to install vCloud Director. I decided share with you my own experience of deploying, configuring and integrating Veeam with VMware vCloud Director. A one stop shop of Veeam VCloud Director integration, if you like.

Deploy Linux OS as a vCloud Cell

vCloud Director will run on the Linux Operating System (OS). To start the deployment, you must first deploy and prepare the Linux server; then deploy the VMware vCloud Director on top. The Linux server specifications you will need are as follows:

• O.S: CentOS 7 (64-bit)
• CPU: 2 vCPU
• RAM: 4GB
• HDD: 20GB
• 2 NIC cards and 2 IP addresses. One is for HTTP access, and the other is for the Proxy Console we will set up.

Prepare SQL Server DB

Before we get started with the vCloud Director installation, we must create the database that will be used by the vCloud Director. It must be present before and during the deployment. In this example of the installation, I will be using Microsoft SQL server. vCloud Director supports MS SQL, Oracle DB and PostgreSQL servers.

To create the vCloud director database, let’s walk through the following steps:

• Ensure your SQL Server Authentication mode set as SQL Server and Windows. Check the radio button for this.

• Start a new SQL Query and enter the following commands to create the vCloud Director Database. Here, the database name is [vcloud]:

USE [master]
GO

CREATE DATABASE [vcloud] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = N’vcloud’, FILENAME = N’C:\vcloud.mdf’, SIZE = 100MB, FILEGROWTH = 10% )
LOG ON
(NAME = N’vcdb_log’, FILENAME = N’C:\vcloud.ldf’, SIZE = 1MB, FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS
GO

USE [vcloud]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [vcloud] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;
ALTER DATABASE [vcloud] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON;
ALTER DATABASE [vcloud] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON WITH NO_WAIT;
ALTER DATABASE [vcloud] SET MULTI_USER;
GO

USE [vcloud]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [vcloud] WITH PASSWORD = ‘vcloudpass’, DEFAULT_DATABASE =[vcloud],
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE =[us_english], CHECK_POLICY=OFF
GO

CREATE USER [vcloud] for LOGIN [vcloud]
GO
USE [vcloud]
GO
sp_addrolemember [db_owner], [vcloud]
GO

Now you are ready to begin the deployment. You just point the Cell to [vcloud] to use the new database.

Prepare CentOS and Install the vCD Cell

After creating the SQL Database, our [vcloud], now you prepare the Linux OS for the deployment of the vCD cell. You should have completed the Linux OS deployment by this step.

Login to the Linux server, and run the following command to install the vCloud Director pre-requisites packages:

• yum install alsa-lib bash chkconfig coreutils indutils glibc grep initscripts krb5-libs libgcc libICE libSM libstdc libX11 libXau libXdmcp libXext libXi libXt libXtst module-init-tools net-tools pciutils procps redhat–lsb sed tar which nfs-utils nfs-utils-lib cifs-utils

 

• Copy and run the “vmware-vcloud-director-distribution-9.0.0-6681978.bin” file you acquired from VMware.

 

• During the extraction and deployment, you will be asked if you are installing a cluster, or if you are ready to deploy a cluster. In our case, we will install a standalone cell:

• During the deployment, we will be asked to provide a certificate. Now is a good time to generate a temporary certificate before resuming the deployment.

 

• To generate a temporary certificate, run the following command:
  • /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool generate-certs -j -p -o /tmp/cell.ks
  • Provide a password

 

• Resume the deployment by typing:

  /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/configure

• Choose the HTTP service IP address:

• Choose the remote console proxy IP address:

• Enter the path to the certificate you just generated in the previous step; then enter the certificate password:

• Chose the SQL Server and enter the server details :

• Start the service now – yes

• Check for the two OKs to confirm that the services started.

Initial Configuration of the Cell

After the deployment and successfully starting the vCD service, use the browser to access the vCdloud Director configuration web interface.

• At the welcome screen, accept the license agreement.
• At the license key text box, enter the vCloud Director license key:

• Create an Admin account:

• Specify your System Settings:

• Review the “Ready to Complete” screen, then click Finish.

Now, you are ready to start your advanced configuration and creating your Tenants accounts and configurations.

Conclusion

On this blog, I have summarised the steps I took, the same steps you will need, to deploy the VMware vCloud Director. vCloud Director is a great product; but I wish it was that easy to download by IT professionals out there for their training and hands-on experience.

One other thing that would make it easy is delivery as an OVF, rather than the long process we just went through. However, after you see the Cell up and running, you will be amazed by the product and will quickly forget the path you took to get this great feature up and running. I hope this blog will help you fast-track your vCloud Director deployment and please don’t forget to share.