v mware architecting-v-cloud-wp

Architecting a vCloudVersion 1.0

T E C H N I C A L W H I T E P A P E R

Architecting a vCloud

T E C H N I C A L W H I T E P A P E R / 2

Table of Contents

1. What is a VMware vCloud? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

1.1 Document Purpose and Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

1.2 Cloud Computing and vCloud Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

1.3 vCloud Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

2. Assembling a vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 vCloud Logical Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.2 vCloud Management Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

2.3 vCloud Resource Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

3. Creating Services with vCloud Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.1 vCloud Director Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.2 Establish Provider Virtual Datacenters (Prov vDCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

3.3 Establish Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

3.4 Establish Networking Options – Public vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

3.5 Establish Networking Options – Private vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.6 Establish Organization Virtual Datacenters (Org vDCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.7 Create vApp Templates and Media Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.8 Establish Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.9 Accessing your vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

4. Managing the vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

4.1 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

4.2 Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

4.3 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

4.4 Workload Availability Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5. Sizing the vCloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.1 Sizing Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.2 Sizing the management cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.3 Sizing the workload resource group clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29



List of Figures

Figure 1 – vCloud Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Figure 2 – vCloud Logical Architecture Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Figure 3 – vCloud Resource Group Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Figure 4 – vCloud Director Construct to vSphere Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Figure 5 – Example Diagram of Provider Networking for a Public vCloud . . . . . . . . . .16

Figure 6 – Configure External IPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Figure 7 – Example Diagram of Provider Networking for a Private vCloud . . . . . . . . . 17

Figure 8 – Configure Firewall Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Figure 9 - vShield Manager’s Administrator UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Figure 10 - vCloud Director Manage and Monitor UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Figure 11 - Configure Firewall Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27



1. What is a VMware vCloud?1.1 Document Purpose and AssumptionsArchitecting a vCloud is intended to serve as a reference for cloud architects. The target audience is VMware Certified Professionals (VCP) familiar with VMware products, particularly VMware vSphere (vCenter Server, ESXi, vShield Manager), vCenter Chargeback, and vCloud Director.

Before proceeding with the rest of this document you should have read the vCloud service definition for the type of cloud you are building (private or public). This document is not intended as a substitute for detailed product documentation, nor is it a step-by-step guide for installing a vCloud. Also, you should have access to the following documentation referred to throughout this document for step-by-step instructions on installing and configuring various components.

CATEGORY REFERENCED DOCUMENT

Service Definitions Service Definition for Public CloudService Definition for Private Cloud

vCloud vCloud Installation GuideVMware vCloud Director Security Hardening Guide

vCloud Director VMware vCloud Director Administration GuidevCloud Director Administrator’s Guide

vSphere vSphere Administrator GuidevSphere Resource Management Guide

vShield vShield Manager Administrator Guide

Chargeback VMware vCenter Chargeback User’s GuidevCloud Chargeback Models Implementation Guide

For further information, refer to the set of documentation for the appropriate product. For additional guidance and best practices, refer to the Knowledge Base on vmware.com.



This document is organized into these sections:

SECTION DESCRIPTION

What is a VMware vCloud? Components and definitions comprising the cloud solution:• Document Purpose and Assumptions• vCloud Components

Assembling a vCloud Logical architecture of VMware product components:• vCloud Logical Architecture• vCloud Management Cluster• vCloud Resource Groups

Creating Services with vCloud Director Resource abstraction and the consumption model:• vCloud Director Constructs• Establish Provider Virtual Datacenters (Prov vDCs)• Establish Organizations • Establish Networking Options – Public vCloud• Establish Networking Options – Private vCloud• Create vApp Templates and Media Catalogs• Establish Policies• Accessing your vCloud

Managing the vCloud Administrative tasks and considerations:• Monitoring• Logging• Security Considerations• Workload Availability Considerations

Sizing the vCloud Sizing your vCloud environment:• Sizing Considerations• Sizing the Management Cluster



1.2 Cloud Computing and vCloud IntroductionVMware’s vCloud leverages VMware technologies and solutions to deliver cloud computing. Cloud computing is a new approach to computing that leverages the efficient pooling of on-demand, self-managed virtual infrastructure to provide resources consumable as a service.

Cloud computing can be delivered as three layers of service delivery:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

This iteration of a vCloud focuses strictly on the IaaS layer.

The vCloud will build upon VMware vSphere by extending the robust virtual infrastructure capabilities to facilitate delivery of infrastructure service via cloud computing.

1.3 vCloud ComponentsThe VMware vCloud is comprised of the following components:

vCloud API

VMware vCloud DirectorvShield Edge

VMware Sphere

vCenter Chargeback

Figure 1 – vCloud Overview



VCLOUD COMPONENT DESCRIPTION

VMware vCloud Director (vCD) Cloud Coordinator and UI. Abstracts vSphere resources.Includes:• vCloud Director Server(s) (also known as “cell”)• Cloud Director Database• vCloud API, used to manage cloud objects

VMware vSphere Underlying foundation of virtualized resources.The vSphere family of products includes:• vCenter Server and vCenter Server Database• ESXi hosts, clustered by vCenter Server• Management Assistant

VMware vShield Provides network security servicesIncludes:• vShield Manager (VSM) virtual appliance• vShield Edge virtual appliances, automatically

deployed by vCloud Director

VMware vCenter Chargeback Optional component that provides resource metering and reporting to facilitate resource showback/chargebackIncludes:• vCenter Chargeback Server• Chargeback Data Collector• vCloud Data Collector• VSM Data Collector

Other VMware or third-party products or solutions such as orchestration are not addressed in this iteration of a vCloud.

2. Assembling a vCloud2.1 vCloud Logical ArchitectureIn building a vCloud, assume that all management components such as vCenter Server and vCenter Chargeback Server will run as virtual machines.

As a best practice of separating resources allocated for management functions from pure user-requested workloads, the underlying vSphere clusters will be split into two logical groups,

• A single management cluster running all core components and services needed to run the cloud.

• One or more vCloud resource groups that represent dedicated resources for cloud consumption. Each resource group is a cluster of ESXi hosts managed by a vCenter Server, and is under the control of VMware vCloud Director. Multiple resource groups can be managed by the same vCenter Server.

Reasons for organizing and separating vSphere resources along these lines are:

• Facilitating quicker troubleshooting and problem resolution. Management components are strictly contained in a relatively small and manageable management cluster. They do not run on a large set of host clusters; this could lead to situations where it is time-consuming to track down and manage such workloads.



• Management components are separate from the resources they are managing.

• Resources allocated for cloud use have little overhead reserved. For example, cloud resource groups would not host vCenter VMs.

• Resource groups can be consistently and transparently managed and carved up, and scaled horizontally.

The logical architecture with vSphere resource separation is depicted as follows.

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Figure 2 – vCloud Logical Architecture Overview

The management cluster resides in a single physical site. vCloud resource groups also reside within the same physical site. This ensures a consistent level of service. Otherwise, latency issues might arise if workloads need to be moved from one site to another, over a slower or less reliable network.

Neither secondary nor disaster recovery (DR) sites are in the scope of this document. Certain limitations apply when using VMware and 3rd party tools for disaster recovery and secondary or federated sites. Consult your local VMware representative for assistance in understanding these limitations and possible alternatives. You can also consult the Knowledge Base on vmware.com for additional information.

2.2 vCloud Management ClusterTo enable VMware High Availability (HA), a cluster of 3 VMware ESXi hosts will be used. While additional hosts can be added, 3 hosts supporting just vCloud management components should be sufficient for typical vCloud environments. For detailed sizing of the management cluster see Sizing the vCloud in this document.

A VMware HA percentage-based policy and a N+1 host architecture will be used instead of dedicating a single host for host failures. This will allow the management workloads to run evenly across the hosts in the cluster without the need to dedicate a host strictly for host failure situations. Additional hosts can be added to the management cluster for N+2 or more redundancy but this is not required by the current vCloud service definitions.



Host networking in the management cluster will be configured per vSphere best practices, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Separation of network traffic for security and load considerations by type (management, VM, vMotion/Fault Tolerance (FT), storage.

• Network path redundancy.

• Use of vNetwork Distributed Switches where possible for network management simplification. The architecture calls for the use of vNetwork Distributed Switches in the user workload resource group, so it is a best practice to use the vNetwork Distributed Switch across all of your clusters, including the management cluster.

• Increasing the MTU size of the physical switches as well as the vNetwork Distributed Switches to at least 1524 to accommodate the additional MAC header information used by vCloud Director Network Isolation links. vCD-NI is called for by the service definition and the architecture found later in this document. Failure to increase the MTU size could adversely affect performance of the network throughput to VMs hosted on the vCloud infrastructure.

Shared storage in the management cluster will be configured per vSphere best practices, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Storage paths will be redundant at the host (connector), switch, and storage array levels.

• All hosts in a cluster will have access to the same datastores.

• The use of RDMs in the vCloud Director infrastructure is currently not supported and should be avoided.

Management components running as VMs in the management cluster include the following:

• vCenter Server(s) and vCenter Database

• vCloud Director Cell(s) and vCloud Director Database

• vCenter Chargeback Server(s)

• vShield Manager (one per vCenter Server)

Optional management functions, deployed as VMs include:

• vCenter Update Manager

• VMware Data Recovery

• VMware Management Assistant (vMA)

For more information on the resources needed by the VMs in the management cluster refer to Sizing the vCloud in this document.

The optional management VMs are not required by the service definition but they are highly recommended to increase the operational efficiency of the solution.

All of the management VMs can be protected by VMware HA and FT, unless the vCenter Server VM has 2 vCPUs, in which case it cannot use FT and a solution such as vCenter Heartbeat should be considered. vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) can be used to protect some components of the management cluster. At this time, vCenter Site Recovery Manager will not be used to protect vCloud Director cells because a secondary (DR) site is out of scope of the vCloud, and changes to IP addresses and schemas in recovered vCloud Director cells can result in problems.

Unlike a traditional vSphere environment where vCenter Server is used by administrators to provision VMs, vCenter Server plays an integral role in end-user self-service provisioning by handling all VM deployment requests by vCloud Director. Therefore, ensuring the availability of vCenter Servers with a solution such as vCenter Heartbeat is highly recommended.

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vShield Edge appliances are deployed automatically by vCloud Director as needed and will reside in the vCloud resource groups, not in the management cluster. They will be placed in a separate resource pool by vCloud Director and vCenter. For additional information on the vShield Edge appliance and its functions, refer to the vShield Manager Administrator guides.

2.3 vCloud Resource GroupsEach resource group represents a cluster of VMware ESXi hosts under the management of a vCenter Server and associated with a single vSphere Cluster.

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Figure 3 – vCloud Resource Group Mapping

While it is possible to create multiple vCenter resource pools per host cluster, it is best to dedicate the cluster for use by vCloud Director. vCloud Director will automatically allocate resources to cloud organizations by creating resource pools with appropriate reservations and limits within the cluster. Since vCloud Director manages vSphere resources by proxy through a vCenter Server and automatically creates resource pools within vCenter as needed, using vCenter Server to create resource pools or nested pools can go against the efficient allocation of resources by vCloud Director. Multiple parent-level resource pools can also add unnecessary complexity and lead to unpredictable results or inefficient use of resources, if the reservations are not set appropriately.

To summarize, it is a best practice to use a 1-to-1mapping with vCloud Resource Group to vCenter host cluster. Resource pools will be automatically created by vCloud Director.

Compute ResourcesAll hosts in the vCloud resource groups will be configured per vSphere best practices, similar to the management cluster. VMware HA will also be used to protect against host and VM failures.

Resource groups can be of different compute capacity sizes (number of hosts, number of cores, performance of hosts) to support differentiation of compute resources by capacity or performance for service level tiering purposes.

For a detailed look at how to size the vCloud resource groups, refer to Sizing the vCloud in this document.

StorageShared storage in the vCloud resource groups will be configured per vSphere best practices, similar to the management cluster. Storage types supported by vSphere will be used. The use of RDMs in the vCloud Director infrastructure is currently not supported and should be avoided.

Creation of datastores will need to take into consideration Service Definition requirements and workload use cases, which will affect the number and size of datastores to be created. vCloud Director will assign datastores for use through provider virtual datacenters ( provider vDCs), and only existing vSphere datastores can be assigned.



Datastores in the vCloud resource groups will be used for vCloud workloads, known as vApps. vSphere best practices apply for datastore sizing in terms of number and size. Vary datastore size or shared storage characteristic if providing differentiated or tiered levels of service. Sizing considerations include:

• Datastore size:

– What is the average vApp size x number of vApps x spare capacity? For example: Avg VM size * # VMs * (1+ % headroom)

– What is the average VM disk size?

– How many VMs are in a vApp?

– How many VMs are to be expected?

– How much spare capacity do you want to allocate for room for growth (express in a percentage)?

• Datastore use:

– Will expected workloads be transient or static?

– Will expected workloads be disk-intensive?

The public cloud service definition calls for a capacity of 1,500 VMs initially and specifies 60 GB of storage per VM. You should consider these numbers when sizing your datastores.

Additionally, an NFS share must be set up and made visible to all cells for use by vCloud Director for transferring files in a vCloud Director multi-cell environment. NFS is the required protocol for the transfer volume. Refer to the vCloud Installation Guide for more information on where to mount this volume.

NetworkingHost networking for hosts within a vCloud resource group will be configured per vSphere best practices in the same manner as the vCloud management cluster. In addition, the value of the number of vNetwork Distributed Switch ports per host should be increased from the default value of 128 to the maximum of 4096. Increasing the ports will allow for vCloud Director to dynamically create port groups as necessary for the private organization networks created later in this document. Refer to the vSphere Administrator Guide for more information on increasing this value.

Networking requirements specific to the vCloud resource groups that facilitate cloud networking include:

• Increasing the MTU size of the physical switches as well as the vNetwork Distributed Switches to at least 1524 to accommodate the additional MAC header information used by vCloud Director Network Isolation links. vCD-NI is called for by the service definition and the architecture found later in this document. Failure to increase the MTU size could adversely affect performance of the network throughput to VMs hosted on the vCloud infrastructure.

• Pre-configured vSphere port groups for use in connecting to external networks:

– These can be using standard vSwitch port groups, vNetwork Distributed Switch port groups, or the Cisco Nexus 1000V.

– In a vCloud for service providers, these pre-configured port groups will provide access to the internet.

– Make sure to have sufficient vSphere port groups created and made available for VM access in the vCloud.

• VLANs to support private networks:

– Private networks are private with respect to an organization.

– Hosts must be connected to VLAN trunk ports.

– Private networks are backed by VLAN IDs or network pools, which use fewer VLAN IDs.

– vNetwork Distributed Switches are required.

– MTU size should be increased to a minimum of 1524 bytes, # of vCD-NI networks per VLAN.

– Note that vCloud Director creates port groups automatically as needed.



3. Creating Services with vCloud Director3.1 vCloud Director ConstructsVMware vCloud Director introduces logical constructs, such as provider virtual datacenters (vDCs), and security boundaries, such as organizations, to facilitate multi-tenancy consumption of resources.

The following diagram depicts the logical constructs within vCloud Director that abstract underlying vSphere resources.

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Figure 4 – vCloud Director Construct to vSphere Mapping

VCLOUD DIRECTOR CONSTRUCT DESCRIPTION

Provider Virtual Datacenter (vDC) Logical grouping of vSphere compute resources (backed by a vCenter resource pool automatically created by vCloud Director when attaching a vSphere cluster) and assigned datastores for the purposes of providing cloud resources to consumers.

Organization A unit of administration that represents a logical collection of users, groups, and computing resources, and also serves as a security boundary from which only users of a particular organization can deploy workloads and have visibility into such workloads in the cloud.

In the simplest term, an organization = an association of related end consumers.



VCLOUD DIRECTOR CONSTRUCT DESCRIPTION

Organization Virtual Datacenter (vDC) Subset allocation of a provider vDC resources assigned to an organization. An organization vDC allocates resources using one of three models:• Pay as you go• Reservation• Allocation

vApp Templates and Media Catalogs A collection of available services for consumption. Catalogs contain vApp templates (preconfigured containers of one or more virtual machines) and/or media (ISO images of operating systems).

External Network A network that connects to the outside using an existing vSphere network port group.

Organization Network A network visible within an organization. It can be an external organization network with connectivity to an external network, and use a direct or routed connection, or it can be an internal network visible only to vApps within the organization.

vApp Network A network visible within a vApp. It can be connected to other vApp networks within an organization and use a direct or routed connection, or it can be an internal network visible only to VMs within the vApp.

3.2 Establish Provider Virtual Datacenters (Prov vDCs)A provider vDC is backed by a vCenter resource pool that is automatically created by vCloud Director when attaching a vSphere cluster that will back the provider vDC. When creating a provider vDC, take the following rules and guidelines into consideration:

• At least one provider vDC is required for a vCloud.

• A provider vDC can map to one and only one cluster. Once a cluster is attached to a provider vDC, it is no longer available for attachment to another provider vDC.

• While it is possible to back a provider vDC with a resource pool instead of a cluster, the best practice is to use a cluster. This will allow preservation of resource allocations should additional hosts be added to the cluster.

• It is not possible to attach a second cluster to a provider vDC at this time. If additional compute capacity is required, add more hosts in the vCenter cluster on the vSphere end.

• One or more datastores can be attached to a provider vDC. A datastore can be assigned to multiple provider vDCs. As a best practice in segmenting storage, datastores should not be shared by multiple provider vDCs.

• Create multiple provider vDCs to differentiate different levels or characteristics of a service offering. Segment by capacity or performance type. For example, provider vDC01 = fast storage, provider vDC02 = medium storage. Or Provider vDC_A = high-end hosts, provider vDC_B = mid-tier hosts.

• As the level of expected consumption increases for a given provider vDC, add additional hosts to the cluster from vCenter and attach more datastores.

• If the cluster backing a provider vDC has reached the maximum number of hosts per vSphere design guidelines, create a new provider vDC backed by a new resource pool associated with a new cluster. A provider vDC cannot span multiple host clusters.



Refer to the service definition for guidance on the size of vSphere clusters and datastores to attach when creating a provider vDC.

Consider:

• Expected number of VMs

• Size of VMs (CPU, RAM, disk)

Service Provider ConsiderationsConsiderations for a service provider (public) vCloud include creating multiple provider virtual datacenters (Prov vDCs) based on tiers of service that will be provided.

Because Prov vDCs contain only CPU, memory, and storage resources and those are common across all of the requirements in the public cloud service definition, you should create one large Prov vDC attached to a vSphere cluster that has sufficient capacity to run 1,500 VMs. You should also leave overhead to grow the cluster with more resources up to the maximum of 32 hosts, should organizations need to grow in the future.

If you determine that your hosts do not have sufficient capacity to run the maximum number of VMs called out by the public cloud service definition, you should separate the Pay-As-You-Go service tier from the Resource Pool service tier by creating two separate Prov vDCs.

Private Cloud ConsiderationsGiven that a provider virtual datacenter (Prov vDC) represents a vSphere cluster and resource pool, it’s commonly accepted that a single Prov vDC be established. Refer to the service definition for private cloud for details on the Service Tier(s) called for.

Because Prov vDCs contain only CPU, memory, and storage resources, and those are common across all of the requirements in the private cloud service definition, you should create one large Prov vDC attached to a cluster that has sufficient capacity to run 400 VMs.

Should it be determined that existing host capacity can’t meet the requirement, or there’s a desire to segment capacity along the lines of equipment type (for example, CPU types in different Prov vDCs), then establish a Prov vDC for Pay-As-You-Go use cases and a separate Prov vDC for the resource-reserved use cases.

3.3 Establish OrganizationsA vCloud contains one or more organizations. Each organization represents a collection of end consumers, groups, and computing resources. Users authenticate at the organization level, using credentials established by an organization administrator within vCloud Director or LDAP.

Users in an organization consume resources by selecting vApps from a predefined catalog.

When creating organizations the name of the organization will be used in the URL to access the GUI for that organization. As an example, ACME would be accessed at https://<hostname>/cloud/org/ACME. You should take care to avoid special characters or spaces in the organization name since that will affect the URL in undesirable ways.

The service definition does not specifically call out the use of LDAP for organizations, so each organization will be set up to not use LDAP, and instead use local users. See Security Considerations in this document for more information on LDAP authentication.

You can use the system defaults for most of the other organization settings. The one exception is leases, quotas, and limits. There are no specific requirements called out by the service definition for leases, quotas, and limits. The provider should set these values to whatever works best in their cloud.

Administrative OrganizationA vCloud requires at least one organization. As a best practice, the first organization to be created will be an administrative organization. This organization will own a master catalog of vApp templates that are published and shared with all other (standard) organizations.



Administrators assigned to the administrative organization will also be responsible for creating official template VMs for placement in the master catalog for other organizations to use. VMs in development should be stored in a separate development catalog that is not shared with other organizations.

As a note of reference, there is already a default System organization in the vCloud Director environment. The administrative organization being created here is different from the built-in System organization since it can actually create vApps and catalogs and share them.

Make sure that when you create the administrative organization you set it up to allow publishing of catalogs.

Standard OrganizationsCreate an organization for each tenant of the vCloud as necessary. Each of the standard organizations will be created with the following considerations:

• Do not use LDAP

• Cannot publish catalogs

• Use system defaults for SMTP

• Use system defaults for notification settings

• Use Leases, Quotas, and Limits meeting the provider’s requirements

3.4 Establish Networking Options – Public vCloudExternal NetworksReferencing the service definition for a public cloud, all service tiers use a shared public Internet connection. To fulfill this, create a single external provider network. Make sure to give the network a descriptive name such as Provider-Internet for the case here. You will connect this External network to a vSphere port group which is actually connected to the Internet. Make sure you have the IP information for the physical network you have attached to, including the network mask, default gateway, and DNS information. Lastly, you will create a pool of static IP addresses that will be consumed by vShield Edge appliances (which facilitate a routed connection) each time you connect an organization network to this external network.

For sizing purposes, you should create a large enough IP address pool so that each of your organizations can have access to an external network. Per the service definition, the estimated number of organizations for 1,500 VMs is 25 organizations, so make sure you have at least 25 IP addresses in your static IP pool.

Network PoolsIn addition to access to external networks, each organization in a public vCloud will have organization-specific private networks. vCloud Director instantiates Isolated L2 networks through the use of network pools.

Create a single large network pool for all organizations to share, and limit the use of this network pool when you create each individual organization. The network pool created will use vCloud Network Isolation for separating the traffic. This will use an existing vNetwork Distributed Switch previously created for connecting hosts. You can optionally use a VLAN to further segregate all of the vCD-NI traffic.

Because the network pools will be used by both the external organization network and private vApp networks, you will need at least 11 networks in the network pool per organization. Ten of the networks in the pool will be for the private vApp networks according to the public cloud service definition. One of the networks will be used for the protected external organization network. Given the estimate of 25 organizations, you need at least 275 networks in the pool. There is a limitation of a maximum of 4096 networks in a network pool due to the port limitation on the vNetwork Distributed Switch. When connecting the network pool to a vNetwork Distributed Switch, make sure you have enough free ports left on the switch (at least 275).



Organization “ACME Corp.”

Org Net:“ACME-Private”

Private Internal

Org Net: “ACME-Internet”Private Routed

“Provider Internet”

Network Pool

vCloud Datacenter

Figure 5 – Example Diagram of Provider Networking for a Public vCloud

Organization Networks

Create 2 different organization networks for each organization, one external organization network and one private internal organization network. You can do this as one step in the vCloud Director UI wizard by selecting the default (recommended) option when creating a new organization network. When naming a organization network, it is a best practice to start with the organization name and a hyphen, for example, ACME-Internet.

Per the Service Definition for Public Cloud, the external network will be connected as a routed connection that will leverage vShield Edge for firewalling and NAT to keep traffic separated from other organizations on the same external provider network. Both the external organization network and the internal organization networks will leverage the same vCD-NI network pool previously established. For both the internal network and the external network, you will need to provide a range of IP addresses and associated network information. Since both of the networks will be private networks behind a vShield Edge, you can use RFC 1918 addresses for both static IP address pools.

The Service Definition for Public Cloud defines a limit of external connections with a maximum of 8 IP addresses, so you should provide a range of 8 IP addresses only when creating the static IP address pool for the external network. For the private network, you can make the static IP address pool as large as desired. Typically, a full RFC 1918 class C is used for the private network IP pool.

The last step is to add external public IP addresses to the vShield Edge configuration on the external organization network. By selecting Configure Services on the external organization network, you can add 8 public IP addresses that can be used by that particular organization. These IP addresses should come from the same subnet as the network that you assigned to the system’s external network static IP pool.



Figure 6 – Configure External IPs

3.5 Establish Networking Options – Private vCloud

External NetworksIn general, for a private vCloud, the networking needs are simplified and direct compared to a Public vCloud. As such, direct connections from inside the organization to the networking backbone provided by the enterprise are all that’s necessary. This is analogous to “extending a wire” from the network switch that contains the network or VLAN to be used all the way through the cloud layers to the organization and into the vApp. One of these direct networks must be established for each network or VLAN to be used in the private vCloud.

Organization “Software Design”

Org Net:“Internal Network”

Private Internal (optional)

Org Net: “External Access”Private Direct

“Corporate Backbone”

Network Pool

Enterprise vCloud

Figure 7 – Example Diagram of Provider Networking for a Private vCloud



An important differentiation to keep an eye on is an “External Network”, a function of the vCloud foundational layer under all the private vClouds that may get established, and “Organization External Networks”, a component of each organization that gets established at its creation time. This section is focused on the first external network mentioned, the foundational object.

At least one external network is required to enable organization networking to connect to. The external provider network in a private vCloud is a network outside of the scope of the cloud, i.e., it is not managed by either the vCloud layer or the vSphere layer. It is a network that already exists within the address space used by the enterprise.

To establish this network, follow the wizard, filling in the network mask, default gateway and other specifications of the LAN segment as required. When building this, specify enough address space for use as static assignments, as this is where vCloud Director draws “Public IP Pool” addresses from. A good starting range is 30 addresses that do not conflict with existing addresses in use, or ranges already committed for DHCP.

Note: Static IP Pool address space is not used for DHCP, but the function is similar to that. This pool will be used to provision NAT-type connectivity between the Organizations and the cloud services below it.

Network PoolsA network pool is a collection of virtual machine networks that are available to be consumed by organizations to create organization networks and vApp networks. Network traffic on each network in a pool is isolated at layer 2 from all other networks.

You will need a network in the network pool for every private organization network and external organization network in the vCloud environment. The private cloud service definition calls for one external organization network and the ability for the organization to create private vApp networks. Because there is no minimum called out in the service definition for the number of vApp networks, a good number of networks to start out with is 10 per organization. Make your network pool as large as the number of organizations times 10.

Organization NetworksAt least one organization external network is required to connect vApps created within the Organization to other vApps and/or the networking layers beyond the Private vCloud.

To accomplish this, create an external network in the Cloud Resources section (under Manage & Monitor of the System Administration section of the vCloud Director UI). In the wizard, be sure to select a direct connection. This external network maps to an existing vSphere network for VM use as defined in the External Networks section (above).

Other networking options are available, like a routed organization external network, and could be used, but add complexity to the design that is normally not needed. For the purpose of this design there are no additional network requirements. For more information on adding additional network options please refer to the vCloud Director Administrator’s Guide.

3.6 Establish Organization Virtual Datacenters (Org vDCs)An organization virtual datacenter (Org vDC) allocates resources from a Prov vDC and makes it available for use for a given organization. Multiple Org vDCs can take from the same Prov vDC. An organization can have multiple Org vDCs.

Resources are taken from a Provider vDC and allocated to an Organization vDC using one of three resource allocation models:

• Pay as you go. Resources are only reserved and committed for vApps as vApps are created. There is no upfront reservation of resources.

• Allocation. A baseline amount (“guarantee”) of resources from the provider vDC is reserved for the organization vDC’s exclusive use. An additional percentage of resources is available to oversubscribe CPU and memory, but this taps into compute resources that are shared by other organization vDCs drawing from the provider vDC.



• Reservation. All resources assigned to the organization vDC are reserved exclusively for the organization vDC’s use.

With all of the above models the organization can be limited to deploy a certain number of VMs. Or, this can also be set to unlimited.

The first organization vDC to be created should be an administration organization vDC for use by the administration organization. The allocation model is set to “Pay as you go” so as not to take resources from other organization vDCs until they are needed.

Subsequent organization vDCs should be created to serve the organizations previously established. In selecting the appropriate allocation model, the service definition and organization’s use cases of workloads should be taken into consideration.

Service Provider ConsiderationsThe organization virtual datacenter allocation model maps directly to a corresponding vCenter Chargeback billing model:

• Pay as you go. Pricing can be set per VM, and a corresponding speed of a vCPU equivalent can be specified. Billing is unpredictable as it is tied directly to actual usage.

• Allocation. Consumers are allocated a baseline set of resources but have the ability to burst by tapping into additional resources as needed, but are typically charged at higher rates for exceeding baseline usage. This model will result in more variable billing but allows for the possibility of more closely aligning variable workloads to their cost.

• Reservation. Consumers are allocated and billed for a fixed container of resources, regardless of usage. This model allows for predictable billing and level of service, but consumers may pay for a premium if they do not consume all their allocated resources.

These allocation models also map directly to the service tiers found in the public cloud service definition. The Basic VDC model will use the Pay-as-you-go allocation model since instances are only charged for the resources they consume and there is no commitment required from the consumer. The Committed VDC model will use the Allocation Pool model since the consumer is required to commit to a certain level of usage but is also allowed to exceed that usage. The Dedicated VDC model will use the Reservation Pool model since this service tier requires dedicated and guaranteed resources for the consumer.

The Service Definition for Public Cloud provides detailed and descriptive guidance on how much a provider should charge for each service tier. Chargeback functionality is provided by VMware vCenter Chargeback, which is integrated with VMware vCloud Director. You should follow the steps in the vCloud Chargeback Models to set up the appropriate charging profiles for each of your service tiers. You can further reference the VMware vCenter Chargeback User’s Guide for information on how to customize the individual reports generated.

For further information, refer to the vCloud Chargeback Models Implementation Guide, which details how to set up vCloud Director and vCenter Chargeback to accommodate instance-based pricing (pay as you go), reservation-based pricing, and allocation-based pricing.

Private Cloud ConsiderationsThe organization vDC allocation model used depends on the type of workloads to be expected.

• Pay as you go. A transient environment where workloads are repeatedly deployed and undeployed, such as a demonstration or training environment, would be suited for this model.

• Allocation. Elastic workloads that have a steady state but during certain periods of time surge due to special processing needs would be suited for this model.

• Reservation. Since a fixed set of resources are guaranteed, infrastructure-type workloads that demand a predictable level of service would run well using this model.

When an organization vDC is created in vCloud Director, vCenter Server automatically creates child resource pools with the appropriate resource reservations and limits, under the resource pool representing the provider vDC.



As part of creating an organization vDC, a storage limit can be set on the amount of storage to draw from the provider vDC backing the organization vDC. By default, this setting is left to unlimited. For the purpose of this architecture there will be no limit on storage consumed by the vApps since we are providing static values for the individual VM storage and we are also limiting the number of VMs in an organization.

An option to “enable thin provision” allows provisioning VMs using thin disks to conserve disk usage. vSphere best practices apply in the use of thin-provisioned virtual disks. This feature can save substantial amounts of storage and have very little performance impact on workloads in the vCloud infrastructure. It is recommended to enable this feature when creating each organization. For more information about this feature please refer to the vCloud Director Administrator’s Guide or the VMware knowledge base.

3.7 Create vApp Templates and Media CatalogsThe way to consume services in a cloud environment is from a catalog. Catalogs are stored in an organization vDC.

The administrative organization vDC will have two catalogs:

• Internal. Used for developing and staging new vApps and media.

• Master. Published and shared to all other organization vDCs.

Organizations will use the master catalog that has been published from the administrative organization vDC with the default cloud templates. In addition, organizations will have a private catalog created by the organization administrator and used for uploading new vApps or media to the individual organization.

There are no other configuration requirements for the catalogs or templates in this cloud architecture. Please refer to the service definition for a full listing of recommended templates.

3.8 Establish PoliciesDuring the creation of an organization, you can set policies around the number of deployed and stored VMs:

• Deployed VMs refers to the number of running VMs.

• Stored VMs refers to the total number of VMs including VMs that are not powered on.

You can also specify runtime policies to control vApps and vApp templates in an organization vDC. Specify the maximum length of time vApps and vApp templates can run and be stored in the organization vDCs:

• The runtime lease can be set to allow vApps or vApp templates to run for a defined period of time after which time vApps will be powered off, or set to “never expire”.

• The storage lease can be specified, allowing vApps or vApp templates to be stored for a defined period of time, after which time vApps or vApp templates will be automatically cleaned up, or set to “never expire”.

When any option for storage lease (with the exception of “never expire”) is selected, the storage will be automatically cleaned up. Additional options include:

• Permanently deleted. After the specified period of time, the vApps or vApp templates will automatically be deleted.

• Moved to expired items. This flags the vApps or vApp templates for deletion, which hides them from users so that they can no longer be used, allowing an Administrator to remove them.

The public cloud service definition has specific requirements for the maximum number of VMs each organization can have based on size. Refer to the public cloud service definition for the maximum VM count for each of the three tiers of reservation pools.



3.9 Accessing your vCloudThe vCloud is now ready for self-service use. Each organization should have a public URL configured to access the organization’s cloud portal using vCloud Director. These URLs will have the format of https://<vCD-cell-hostname>/cloud/org/<org-Name>. Each time a user of an organization logs in they should point their browser to the organization-specific URL.

4. Managing the vCloud4.1 MonitoringTo ensure the vCloud operates with minimal downtime, monitor all vCloud components. At the vSphere level, typical procedures for monitoring physical and vSphere components apply. This document will not detail specifics on setting up a monitoring solution since every provider has very different monitoring solutions in place to be integrated.

A centralized monitoring tool such as Hyperic can be used to monitor some of the servers (Oracle Server, SQL Server, Active Directory Server, DNS Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server, Windows Server) that are needed to run a vCloud Director environment. SNMP and SMASH are not supported for monitoring vCloud Director cells. Alternatively, cells can be monitored through integration with a third party monitoring platform via JMX Beans.

Each vCloud Director cell is dependent on the following to be operational:

• vCloud Director Database

• vCenter Server (which depends on vCenter Database)

• vShield Manager (to deploy vShield Edge virtual appliances)

• VMware ESXi hosts (via vCenter Server)

vCenter Chargeback Server is needed to generate reports and is dependent on the vCenter Chargeback Database. vCenter Chargeback is also dependent on data collectors to collect usage information. Downtime of data collectors can impact reporting but does not affect the ability to generate reports.

To ensure that vCloud Director and vCloud Director-related components are running, here are the vCloud dependent processes to monitor for each vCloud component.

vCloud DirectorWithin Red Hat Enterprise Linux where vCloud Director is installed, executing the following commands will provide the status of the cell and the watchdog process that monitors the cell.

# service vmware-vcd statusvmware-vcd-watchdog is running

vmware-vcd-cell is running

vCloud Director is basically a java process. One can search for java processes with the process status (ps) command to make sure that the cells are running. If you see java process listed then the cell should be running, otherwise you will get no output from the command below.

# ps -ef | grep java

vcloud 27721 1 0 Aug20 ? 00:16:01 /opt/vmware/cloud-director/jre/

bin/java -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

-XX:HeapDumpPath=/opt/vmware/cloud-director/logs -Dservicemix.home=/opt/vmware/cloud-

director -Dservicemix.base=/opt/vmware/cloud-director -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/

opt/vmware/cloud-director/etc/java.util.logging.properties -Dorg.apache.servicemix.

filemonitor.configDir=/opt/vmware/cloud-director/etc -Dorg.apache.servicemix.filemonitor.



monitorDir=/opt/vmware/cloud-director/deploy -Dorg.apache.servicemix.filemonitor.

generatedJarDir=/opt/vmware/cloud-director/data/generated-bundles -Dorg.apache.

servicemix.filemonitor.scanInterval=86400000 -Dservicemix.startLocalConsole=false

-Dservicemix.startRemoteShell=false -Dorg.ops4j.pax.logging.DefaultServiceLog.level=ERROR

-Dservicemix.name=root -Djava.awt.headless=true -DVCLOUD_HOME=/opt/vmware/cloud-director

-Djava.io.tmpdir=/opt/vmware/cloud-director/tmp -Djava.library.path=/opt/vmware/cloud-

director -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Doracle.jdbc.defaultNChar=true -Dlog4j.

configuration=file:/opt/vmware/cloud-director/etc/log4j.properties -jar /opt/vmware/

cloud-director/system/org.eclipse.osgi-3.4.3.R34x_v20081215-1030.jar -configuration /opt/

vmware/cloud-director/etc

Running a tail command on the vCloud Director’s log files (cell.log, vcloud-container-debug.log, and vcloud-container-info.log) located in /opt/vmware/cloud-director/logs, contains a lot of information related to understanding the execution and health of each individual cell.

For example, the following error message could appear in the vcloud-container-debug.log file:

2010-08-23 15:33:34,407 | ERROR | pool-jetty-6 | LdapProviderImpl | LDAP search error.

com.vmware.ssdc.backend.ldap.LdapSearchException: “Problem encountered search searching

LDAP or retrieving object from LDAP.”

at com.vmware.ssdc.backend.ldap.LdapProviderImpl.getUsersByName(LdapProviderImpl.java:818)

at com.vmware.ssdc.backend.ldap.LdapProviderImpl.getUserByUsername(LdapProviderImpl.java:844)

at com.vmware.ssdc.backend.ldap.LdapProviderImpl.testLdapSettings(LdapProviderImpl.java:212)

This entry reveals that there is a problem with LDAP. This would give some information in narrowing down the problem to a specific component in place (LDAP in this case). Searching for a string “ERROR” in the log files such as vcloud-container-debug.log and vcloud-container-info.log will show all the errors that happened to an individual cell at execution time.

In a multi-cell environment, this could be more challenging because one has to log into different servers to monitor the health of all of the cells. For multi-cell environments you should enable syslog collection to a centralized logging server. Please refer to the vCloud Director Administrator’s Guide for instructions on how to setup syslog redirection.

Analyzing errors from the log files is also possible from the vCloud Director’s Administrator portal. For detailed instructions on how to access the log files in the Administrator portal please refer to the vCloud Director Administrator’s Guide.



Figure 8 – vCloud Director Administrator Portal

vSphere: ESXi hosts

Follow vSphere best practices to ensure hosts are running. In addition, ensure that vCloud dependencies are monitored. “Vslad” is the vCloud agent and “vpxa” and “hostd” are the vSphere agents that run on ESX/ESXi hosts. All of the agents run as services.

To do a sanity check, one can run a process status (ps) command and make sure that these processes are up and running.

# ps aux | grep vslad45832 5659 worker /opt/vmware/vslad/vslad

5659 5659 worker /opt/vmware/vslad/vslad

5670 5659 poll /opt/vmware/vslad/vslad

5671 5659 worker /opt/vmware/vslad/vslad

For more information on monitoring the vSphere components refer to the vSphere Resource Management Guide.



vShield Manager and vShield EdgeOnce the vShield Manager is installed and configured successfully to work with vCloud Director, there are two ways to manage and leverage the monitoring aspect that vShield Manager provides. You can log in directly to vShield Manager’s administrator portal (UI) or the vShield Manager itself with a vSphere Client plug-in (vShield Manager will show up in the vSphere Client under “Solutions and Applications”).

By navigating through the administrator UI, and checking the System Events and Audit Logs (under Setting & Reports), you can see the necessary details to monitor the functionalities of vShield Edge devices.

You can also directly log in to the vShield Manager virtual appliance from its console. A console shell will be provided after successful login with which limited monitoring is possible with the restricted set of command line options.

vShield Edge devices are under the control of vShield Manager. There is no console access for a vShield Edge device. The recommended way to monitor them is though the vShield Manager’s Administrator UI.

Figure 9 – vShield Manager’s Administrator UI

Apart from the Administrator UI or vShield Manager vSphere Client plugin, there is currently no external mechanism to do health monitoring of vShield Manager or vShield Edge devices.

For more detailed information on the monitoring aspects of vShield Manager and vShield Edge refer to the vShield Manager Administrator Guide.

vCloud Resource Consumption MonitoringWithin vCloud Director, the following items should be proactively monitored to ensure sufficient resources will be available for consumption.

SCOPE ITEM

vCloud Director System Organizations LeasesQuotasLimits

vSphere Resources CPUMemoryNetwork static IP address poolStorage free space



Once logged in as Administrator to vCloud Director, the UI shows the availability and current status of both virtual and pure virtual resources (where virtual resources are vCenters, resource pools, hosts, datastores, switches, and ports; and pure virtual resources are vCloud cells, provider virtual datacenters [Prov vDCs], organization virtual datacenters [Org vDCs], external networks, organization networks, and network pools).

Figure 10 – vCloud Director Manage and Monitor UI

4.2 LoggingLogs of vCloud components can be analyzed for troubleshooting, auditing, and additional monitoring purposes. As with vSphere, the use of a centralized logging server is recommended. The primary methods for remote event notification include syslog, SNMP, and MOM (Windows). Refer to the Administrator’s Guide for each respective VMware product.

vCloud Director cells can be configured to send logs to a centralized server. The following settings will need to be modified:

• /opt/vmware/cloud-director/etc/global.properties

• /opt/vmware/cloud-director/etc/responses.properties

and these lines should be changed:

• audit.syslog.host = ip.or.hostname.of.your.syslog.server

• audit.syslog.port = 514

Replace “ip.or.hostname.of.your.syslog.server” with the appropriate IP address or hostname, and, if needed, change port 514 to the port for your syslog server.

vShield Manager does not support remote transmission of logs. Connect to the vShield Manager and use “show log” commands to view vShield Manager logs.

It is possible to configure the vShield Edge devices to redirect their syslog messages to a centralized syslog server (example vMA – vManagement Appliance). This is done through the vShield Manager’s Administrator UI.



The following table shows the primary log files for each vCloud component, and whether remote logging is supported.

COMPONENT LOG LOCATION REMOTE LOGGING?

vCloud Director %VCLOUD%/logs/*

/var/log/messages

/var/log/secure

Yes

vSphere ESXi /var/log/vmware/vslad/installer.log

/var/log/vmware/vslad/vslad.log

/var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log

/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log

/var/log/vmkernel

/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log

/var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log

vCenter Server Windows Logs No

vCenter Chargeback Server Windows Logs

%ProgramFiles%VMware\VMware vCenter Chargeback\apache-tomcat-6.0.18\logs

%ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware vCenter Chargeback\Apache2.2\logs

%ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware vCenter Chargeback\DataCollector-Embedded\logs

No

vShield Manager View from UI or console: “show log” or “show manager log” on console

No

vShield Edge View from vShield Manager Yes

4.3 Security ConsiderationsSecurity in a vCloud can be considered at three levels—the overall vCloud environment, user access, and workloads.

Securing the vCloud EnvironmentWhile vCloud Director is designed for secure multi-tenancy so that multiple organizations do not impact each other, there are additional steps that can be taken to harden the environment. This is especially important for a service provider environment where multiple organizations coexist and most are connected to the Internet.

For detailed information on hardening your VMware vCloud Director environment, refer to the VMware vCloud Director Security Hardening Guide.

Securing User AccessSecurity for the consumers of vCloud resources is done through authentication and authorization mechanisms built into VMware vCloud Director. Integration with LDAP or Active Directory can be configured for user authentication. For more information on how to set up LDAP or Active Directory integration, refer to the VMware vCloud Director Administration Guide.



The current public cloud service definition does not call out a requirement for setting up LDAP or Active Directory integration, so it is up to the individual provider. This is also the case for an enterprise running a private vCloud.

User access and privileges within vCloud Director is controlled through role-based access control (RBAC). For additional information on permissions, roles, and default settings, refer to the VMware vCloud Director Administration Guide.

Securing WorkloadsWorkloads in the vCloud environment are protected from a networking perspective through network visibility (external or internal to an organization or vApp) and connection types (direct or NAT routed).

vShield Edge devices are deployed automatically by vCloud Director to facilitate routed network connections. vShield Edge uses MAC encapsulation for NAT routing. This prevents any Layer 2 network information from being seen by other organizations in the environment. vShield also provides firewall services which can be configured to not allow any inbound traffic to any virtual machines connected to a public access organization network.

For service providers, the Service Definition for Public Cloud specifies how the networking options should be set up, which in turn takes into consideration network security requirements. Each of the organization networks are connected to the shared public network through a routed connection.

In order to meet the requirements of the service definition, allow up to 8 public IP addresses inbound access to virtual machines in the organization. The organization administrator is the actual user that will be responsible for making this configuration change. Once a vApp is created and VMs are added to it and connected to the public access organization network, the vApp will obtain a private IP address from the static IP pool previously established. The organization administrator can then configure the firewall and the NAT external IP mapping for the newly created VM and private IP address using the network configure services wizard as shown below.

Figure 11 – Configure Firewall Services



For a private vCloud, network routing and firewall requirements will depend on the security policies of the enterprise as they apply to the specific workloads, organizations, and the enterprise itself.

4.4 Workload Availability ConsiderationsvCloud Director provisions VMs by transparently working with vCenter Server to deploy VMs on hosts. Provisioned VMs can be protected by VMware HA. VMs can also be protected using backup tools within the Guest OS.

At this time, VMs provisioned by vCloud Director cannot be protected by VMware FT, vCenter Site Recovery Manager, or VMware Data Recovery. While these VMs are accessible from vCenter Server and can be set up for protection irrespective of vCloud Director, this approach can lead to problems in the recovery of VMs because vCloud Director adds additional logical constructs and management information not visible to vCenter. VMs protected and recovered using processes that are not integrated with vCloud Director can lead to VMs that will not work properly with vCloud Director.

5. Sizing the vCloud5.1 Sizing ConsiderationsWhen sizing your vCloud environment there are 4 main resources you should consider:

• CPU

• Memory

• Storage

• Networking

These core resources are divided into 2 types of resource clusters:

• The management cluster

• The workload resource group clusters

Sizing for each of these environments is slightly different. The management cluster has a fairly predictable workload with very prescriptive guidance from the service definitions, and this architecture document, on what should run there. The workload resource group has very unpredictable usage, although some guidance can be given based on the assumptions from the service definitions. The rest of this section will guide you through sizing your vCloud environment appropriately.

5.2 Sizing the Management ClusterThe following table lists out the requirements for each of the components that will run in the vCloud Director management cluster. For the number of VMs and organizations listed in the service definitions you will not need to worry about scaling too far beyond the provided numbers.

ITEM VCPU MEMORY STORAGE NETWORKING

vCenter Server 2 8 GB 20 GB 100 MB

Oracle Database 4 16 GB 100 GB 1 GigE

vCloud Director Cells (2 – stats for each)

2 4 GB 10 GB 1 GigE

vCenter Chargeback 2 8 GB 30 GB 1 GigE



ITEM VCPU MEMORY STORAGE NETWORKING

vShield Manager 1 4 GB 512 MB 100 MB

TOTAL 11 40 GB 161 GB* 3 GigE*

* Numbers rounded up or down will not impact overall sizing

For the table above, the Oracle Database will be shared between the vCenter Server, the vCloud Director cells, and the vCenter Chargeback Server. Different users and instances should be used for each database instance in-line with VMware best practices.

In addition to the storage requirements above, a NFS volume is required to be mounted and shared by each vCloud Director cell to facilitate uploading of vApps from cloud consumers. The size for this volume will vary depending on how many concurrent uploads are in progress. Once an upload completes the vApp is moved to permanent storage on the datastores backing the catalogs for each organization and the data no longer resides on the NFS volume. The recommended starting size for the NFS transfer volume is 250 GB. You should monitor this volume and increase the size should you experience more concurrent or larger uploads in your environment.

5.3 Sizing the Workload Resource Group ClustersSizing for the workload resource group clusters can be difficult to predict since the provider is not in charge of what the consumer may run. The provider is also not aware of existing usage statistics for VMs that are run in the cloud. The information below should assist in initial sizing of the vCloud environment and is based on information from the service definition. This information is being provided as examples. It is highly recommended that you engage you local VMware representative for detailed sizing of your environment.

The service definition states that 50% of the total number of VMs will be run in the reservation pool model and 50% will be run in the Pay-As-You-Go model. Furthermore, the reservation pool is split into small, medium, and large pools with a respective split of 75%, 20%, and 5%. Using the 50% above this means that small represents 37.5% of the total, medium represents 10% of the total, and large represents 2.5% of the total number of VMs in the environment.

The definition for these resource pools and the split with the VMs is listed below. The total number of VMs of 1,500 from the public cloud service definition is used in the example below. You can change this total to reflect your own target VM count.

TYPE OF RESOURCE POOL TOTAL PERCENTAGE TOTAL VMS

Pay-As-You-Go 50% 750

Small Reservation Pool 37.5% 563*

Medium Reservation Pool 10% 150

Large Reservation Pool 2.5% 37*

TOTAL 100% 1,500

* Note that some total VMs are rounded up or down due to percentages


The service definition also calls out the distribution for VMs in the environment with 45% small, 35% medium, 15% large, and 5% extra large. Below is a chart that shows the total amount of memory, CPU, storage, and networking based on the service definition assumptions and the total VM count from the public cloud service definition.

ITEM PERCENT VCPUS MEMORY STORAGE NETWORKING

Small 45% 675 675 GB 40.5 TB 400 GB

Medium 35% 1,050 1,050 GB 31.5 TB 300 GB

Large 15% 900 900 GB 54 TB 400 GB

Extra Large 5% 600 600 GB 4.5 TB 200 GB

TOTAL (1,500) 100% 3,225 3,225 GB 130.5 1,300 GB

The above numbers may shock you. Before you determine your final sizings you should refer to VMware best practices for common consolidation ratios on the above resources. An example table has been provided below to show you what final numbers could look like using typical consolidation ratios seen in field deployments.

RESOURCE BEFORE RATIO AFTER

CPU 3,225 8:1 403 vCPUs

Memory 3,225 GB 1.6:1 2,016 GB

Storage 130.5 TB 2.5:1 52 TB

Network 1,300 GB 6:1 217 GB

The above calculations could be served by 16 of the following hosts.

Socket count: 4

Core count: 6

Hyper threading: Yes

Memory: 128 GB

Networking: Dual 10 GigE

The above calculations do not take into account the storage consumed by consumer’s or provider’s templates.

The above calculations also do not take into account the resources consumed by the vShield Edge appliances that are deployed for each organization. There will be a vShield Edge for each private organization network and external organization network. Given the current service definition target of 25 organization a maximum of 275 vShield Edge appliances will be created.

The specifications for each vShield Edge appliance are listed below.

CPU: 1 vCPU

Memory: 64 MB

Storage: 16 MB

Network: 1 GigE (this is already calculated in the throughput of the workloads and should not be added again)

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