VMware vCloud Director. What's new in version 9.0?



    VMware vCloud Director (vCD) is a proven solution that helps cloud service providers provide Multi-Tenant Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). vCloud Director offers a turnkey hybrid cloud solution for vSphere. What new features have expanded the functionality of the Tenant portal vCloud Director version 9.0, which was released the other day?

    Improved user interface


    The completely updated HTML5 user interface is designed to make it easier for tenants to use the cloud. The web console powered by Adobe Flex is still available. To access the tenant’s new user interface, users must log in with the URL:

    https: // {vCD _URP_IP} / Tenant / {organization_name}

    Key client processes such as creating vApp instances, deploying new virtual machines, changing the network topologies and others have been redesigned to increase simplicity and efficiency. For example, a new virtual machine can now be created on a single screen interface with several options, previously it took seven steps.


    VCloud Director 9.0 HTML 5 Tenant Portal Demonstration

    Some of the improvements that tenants will see in the new interface:

    • Virtual machines can now be viewed as maps. Each card has the ability to select actions or options, such as Power, Properties, creating a snapshot.
    • Now Org vDC (Virtual Datacenter) Networks can be viewed on the Network tab, which allows you to create and edit vDC networks.
    • Standalone virtual machines can be created and viewed with virtual machines that are part of the vApp container. There is also the possibility of filtering. vCD 9.0 eliminates the need to create vApp to create a separate virtual machine. vCD automatically creates a vApp virtual container for virtual machines.

    Multisite management


    The Multisite feature allows you to provide single sign-on to a tenant who has several virtual data centers (Org vDC) running different vCDs. The tenant in one session gets access to several Org vDC, which are managed by different instances of vCloud Director, using the same credentials. Service providers managing two or more vCD instances will need to link / map one site to another by establishing a site-to-site association. A site can have several associations, but a link between sites can consist of only two objects.

    After two sites managed by separate instances of vCD are connected by the System Administrator, Organization Admins can establish trust between them. Each Organization must create a pair of Public / Private Key in order to establish trust among themselves. At the same time, local and LDAP users on different sites must have the same user names, roles, and SAML authentication.

    The following API will provide the attributes of the site, as shown in Figure 1.

    GET: https: // {{vcloud.example.com}} / api / site


    Figure 1. The REST API for receiving site data The

    API below will generate local site data that will used to communicate with the remote site, as shown in Figure 2.

    GET: https: // {{vcloud.example.com}} / api / site / association / localAssociationData


    Figure 2. Data for setting up the association

    The system administrator will have to send this association data to the site B API and vice versa.

    Once the sites are connected, the organizations on these sites can be similarly connected with receiving the organization association link on site A and sending it to the organization association API on site B.

    GET: https: // {{vcloud.example.com} } / api / admin / org / SiteA-OrgA / associations / localAssociationData

    Distributed Logical Router


    vCD 9.0 makes it possible to use a distributed logical router to manage routing needs between two or more Org vDC networks. Distributed Logic Router (DLR) provides a faster way to build routing tables between org vDC networks. This eliminates the need to route traffic through the Edge Gateway. Prior to vCD 9.0, a tenant could have several org vDC networks, routing between these networks was always done using the Edge Gateway, which was located between these and the external network. vCD deploys DLR through NSX. DLR functionality is located in kernel modules on ESXi hosts that are part of the Provider vDC cluster. The DLR is logically located between the Org vCD network and the Edge Gateway. vCD will automatically create uplink for DLR,

    Tenant networks with DLR will be able to use the DHCP and DNS functions of the border gateway through a node that will be managed using vCD.

    By default, when an edge gateway is created, the tenant can enable DLR, as shown in Figure 3. This will allow the DLR to be connected to the Edge Gateway in the backend for North South traffic traffic (external data center traffic) from the org network.

    After upgrading to vCD 9.0, existing border gateways will be able to enable DLR by right-clicking on the Edge Gateway.


    Figure 3. Distributed Logical Router option when creating an Edge Gateway

    Trunking Support for External Networks and Routed Org Networks


    A cloud provider may have clients who want to connect their vLANs to Org vDC networks. vCloud Director had the functionality of creating external networks with support for vLANs, but not Trunked vLAN. VCD 9.0 now adds trunking support for external and routed networks.

    To enable trunking support, create an external network in vCD that has been configured with vLANS trunking support. For Routed Org Network, select the Guest vLAN Allowed check box when creating a network, as shown below.



    Flexibility of placing border gateways in a separate pool


    Using vCD 9.0, a provider can define a pool / cluster of resources that can be used to host NSX Edge Gateway virtual machines. This is done by defining the attribute in the Provider vDC metadata. A metadata attribute called placement.resourcepool.edge = resourcepool moref can be defined in Provider vDC. Resourcepool moref is the moRef identifier of the cluster / Edge resource pool. Resource pools and their moRef can be obtained by requesting via the vCD API (see Figure 2).

    Right-click Provider vDC -> Properties -> Meta-Data Tab


    Figure 4. Metadata created to host border gateways in the moRef 'resgroup-28' cluster

    Note. Creating a default pool when creating a Provider vDC is now an option. The user can choose the option “create a default network pool” or choose from the existing custom VxLAN network pool, as shown below.



    Monitoring and VM Metrics


    vCloud Director can collect and store various VM performance metrics. These metrics include data on CPU / memory / storage utilization of the virtual machine, average latency of disk operations, and more. Previous releases of vCloud Director used Kairos DB, managed by Apache Cassandra. With vCD 9.0, Kairos DB does not need to store and collect metric data. Metric data can be stored directly in the Cassandra database.


    vCloud Director 9.0 Metrics Dashboard Demo


    vRealize Operations Manager Tenant App for vCloud Director

    Extensibility


    The vCD UI extensibility framework allows you to extend the Tenant Portal user interface by adding additional sections. Using the framework, you can add a new section that can link to a third-party portal or can be a built-in iFrame.

    Architecture changes


    PostgreSQL Support


    vCloud Director 9.0, in addition to Microsoft SQL and Oracle, supports the PostgreSQL database as an external database. This release supports PostgreSQL version 9.5, cluster configurations, and SSL connections.

    For clients with MS SQL or Oracle databases, the Cell Management Tool (CMT) will help you migrate them to a pre-installed instance of the PostgreSQL database. The 'dbmigrate' option in CMT will help transfer the existing database to a new instance of PostgreSQL.

    [bash] # cell-management-tool dbmigrate

    After migrating the database, use the 'reconfigure-database' parameter in CMT so that vCD starts using the new PostgreSQL database.


    Figure 5. CMT tool for database migration

    vCenter Guest OS and hardware consistency


    When the administrator of the service provider begins to create a vDC, the hardware version defined by vCD will be the highest that the computing cluster can support. This allows vCD to expand the list of guest operating systems that it can support. vCD will support all guest OSs that the vSphere environment supports.

    vCD-vCenter Latency


    vCloud Director can now maintain latencies of up to 100 milliseconds between itself and the vCenter server. This helps service providers use one instance of vCD to manage vCenter servers that can be located remotely.

    Network enhancements


    Security groups


    vCloud Director 8.20 introduced NSX Distributed Firewall (DFW) capabilities for self-service tenants. They can define DFW policies by creating individual rules for virtual machines or vApp. At the same time, they can also apply these policies in general to a set of IP addresses, MAC addresses, or objects such as virtual machines, Org vDC networks, etc. To use these features, you need to know these IP sets exactly. addresses, MAC addresses, or objects.

    You can get acquainted with the full set of features of the vCloud Director 8.20 control panel using the free test access to the Cloud4Y cloud for legal entities.

    vCloud Director 9.0 introduces Security Groups that help dynamically define and enforce security policies. The tenant administrator can determine the matching criteria for individual virtual machines through security groups, and DFW policies can apply to these security groups.

    To create security groups, right-click Edge Gateway-> Edge Gateway Services-> Grouping Objects-> Security Groups


    Figure 6. Creating a security group

    Data Storage Enhancements


    Hot migration of customer data between data warehouses


    Using vCloud Director 9.0 Service Providers will be able to hot migrate data from individual tenants from one data warehouse to another. All objects related to the Organization, including virtual machines, catalogs, images, etc., will be transferred to another data warehouse. This operation can only be performed by the administrator of the cloud provider or by a user with access.


    Figure 7. Migrating

    tenant storage To reconfigure tenant storage, go to vCD
    Mange & Monitor-> Organizations-> Right click Organization-> Migrate Tenant Data

    This launches a wizard that helps you select the source and destination storages for transferring tenant data. You can transfer data from more than one tenant at the same time.

    Keep in mind that designated datastores must be visible to all hosts that are part of a cluster / resource pool. In addition, Storage Profiles must match both source and destination vaults.




    Figure 8. Selecting data sources and target repositories for tenant data migration

    Virtual Volume Support (vVols)


    vCloud Director 9.0 adds support for data warehouses created in vCenter using virtual volumes. When creating a Provider vDC, vCD allows you to add data stores with vVols support.

    Conclusion


    vCloud Director 9.0 completely updates the process of performing daily operations with virtual infrastructure both by service providers and tenants. This release focuses on simplifying provider operations by adding support for multisite management and PostgreSQL. Cloud customers will appreciate the new HTML5 user interface, which has become much more convenient and efficient. Of course, we plan to move to 9-ku. It will take us some time to conduct infrastructure validation and testing. We will inform you about the transition to the new version later.

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