VMware vCenter

Cloud Management Platform (CMP) supports vCenter versions 6.5 through 9.x. A CMP environment is created for each imported cluster. The VMware Cloud on AWS resource handler is deprecated — use this handler for VMware Cloud on AWS virtual machines.

Before you begin

• The hostname of the vCenter server and an account CMP can authenticate with. For the privileges that account needs, see Minimum required permissions in vCenter/VMware.
• Network rules that allow HTTPS on port 443 between the CMP server and every vCenter and ESX host.

Add a vCenter resource handler

1. Go to Admin > Resource Handlers, select Add, then select VMware vCenter under Private Cloud.

2. Fill in the credentials dialog and select Continue.

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3. Enter a name and an optional description, choose clusters under Import VMware Clusters, set any remaining options, then select Done.

You must select at least one cluster. CMP creates an environment per cluster and runs a Sync Resource Handler metadata job to import the clusters, datastores, datastore tiers, networks, and templates.

The settings dialog also includes Virtual folder path, remote console options, and Split by cluster, which splits sync jobs so each one covers a single cluster. To change them later, open the handler’s Overview tab and select Edit Settings.

Import templates

An environment cannot be used until a template is imported and attached to it; the Templates tab shows a warning icon until this is done.

1. On the handler, open the Templates tab and select Import templates. The list comes from the vCenter server this handler is connected to.
2. Select templates, then select Import selected templates.

Select Sync templates to pick up templates added in vCenter since the last import.

Networks

Import networks from the handler’s Networks tab, and datastores from its Storage tab with Import datastores.

Network adapter type

The network adapter type set on a template in CMP overrides the adapter type of the virtual machines provisioned from it in vCenter. It may also override the adapter type on the template in vCenter.

1. Go to Admin > Integrations > Networks.
2. Select the network name, then select Edit.

NSX

If your vCenter supports advanced network configurations such as VXLANs and edge appliances, configure them on the handler’s NSX tab.

NSX endpoint

Defines the NSX Manager connection used to create VXLANs and edge appliances. See Network virtualization.

Edge Gateway Configuration

Sets the defaults used when creating an NSX Edge Services Gateway appliance, such as Provider Network, Cluster, Datastore, and CLI Credentials.

The provider network specified in the NSX Edge Configuration must be associated with an IP Pool; otherwise, CMP cannot determine the IP address for the gateway’s uplink interface. That network also needs a gateway and netmask configured in CMP.

vCenter parameters

The following parameters are imported, with options populated by CMP from what it discovers in vCenter.

VMware Cluster is not a parameter you set: CMP records it in the environment on import. VMware Adapter Type is set per network interface rather than per server. You can add VMware Datastore Free Space to an environment as described below.

Disks

VMware Datastore Free Space parameter

Give this parameter a single option on the environment. It matters most when adding a disk to an existing server.

If the server has no value for it, because it was discovered or built before the parameter was configured, CMP falls back to the environment and takes the first option it finds, so a single option is the safer configuration. If neither the server nor the environment has a value, CMP uses the global default. Global options and options set on a group are not consulted when adding a disk.

Modify or add disks

vCenter needs a datastore and a disk provisioning type whenever a disk is added. The modification API accepts these parameters:

• disk_size: the new size for the original disk.
• new_disk_size: the size of a disk being added.
• vmware_datastore: the datastore to provision the disk to.
• vmware_disk_type: the provisioning type for the disk.

VM customization

By default, CMP uses the guest customization tools in a vCenter template to set the host name, IP address, DNS servers, WINS servers, domain membership, and similar values on a new virtual machine.

For finer control over Windows, add the Sysprep Answer File parameter to a vCenter-backed environment and set its value to the contents of an unattend.xml file. CMP treats the file as a template, so values such as {{ server.hostname }} resolve at build time. See Using Windows Sysprep with resource handlers.

Tags

CMP treats every VMware tag as having single cardinality: one tag value per category per virtual machine. If a VMware category allows several tags, only one of their values appears in CMP. Changing the value of a parameter linked to a tag in CMP removes the other values from the virtual machine.

Tags are synchronized only with vCenter 6.5 or later.

Snapshots

vCenter servers support snapshots. See Snapshots.

Virtual folder path

CMP places provisioned virtual machines in a folder on the vSphere client, and gives each group a subfolder of the same name. The default path is CloudBoltVMs/{{ group }}.

Change it with the same template syntax used for hostname templates.

Virtual folder path options

CloudBolt VM directory

CloudBoltVMs/{{ group }}

CloudBoltVMs/ is the root directory for virtual machines, and {{ group }} is the current group’s name. It produces paths such as CloudBoltVMs/Development and CloudBoltVMs/Production.

Check for parent groups

{% if group.parent %}/{{ group.parent }}/{{ group }}{% else %}/{% endif %}

This builds the path from the group hierarchy: a group with a parent gets both names, so “Subfolder” under “Parent” becomes /Parent/Subfolder, while a group with no parent becomes /Group.

Specify a virtual folder path

1. Go to Admin > Resource Handlers and select your vCenter handler.
2. On the Overview tab, select Edit Settings.
3. Enter the path in Virtual folder path, then select Save.