VMware terminology related to cloud computing

Each new technology comes with a completely different terminology, and VMware's Vcloud director is the best example of a new technology that brings terminology and concepts. Some of the terms are not specified by VMware, but I try to incorporate them into the company's terminology library.

Virtual Data Center

For now, I have used the term "virtual datacenter" for some time. As a certified instructor for VMware, I use it to describe the ability to remotely connect vcenter and ESX instructional environments. Of course, the word now has more meaning.

There are two types of virtual data centers (VDC) in VMware Vcloud Director, namely vendor VDC and organization VDC. Vendor VDC allows you to logically allocate physical resources. In a way, you can see them as another level on the cluster and resource pool.

One of the most critical misconceptions is that they think it is related to objects in the datacenter in vcenter. Although the names are similar, they are actually quite different. You can think of a vendor VDC as a container for a cluster or resource pool where users can run their own virtual machines (VMS). These VDC introduced another layer of abstraction for the vsphere model, because cloud consumers could not reach the cluster and resource pool.

Supplier VDC is also the 1th place where you can start classifying Vcloud director and providing different quality of service (QoS). You can create a vendor VDC with a level of gold, silver, and copper with different performance or availability levels.

What the end user really sees is the organization VDC. These allow the cloud to be partitioned, but users prefer to partition without physical resources, which is the work of the vendor VDC. In the public cloud use of Vcloud Director, each organization VDC will represent each hosted business through the vendor. In a large company, each organization VDC can represent each business of the group or holding company.

In addition, there is no way to prevent vcloud administrators from creating organizational VDC based on business functions such as research, distribution, or finance. An organization VDC can be mapped to a single vendor VDC or multiple; This allows users in the organization's VDC to choose the QoS they need for their actual virtual unit or Vapps.

Once the end user logs in to Vcloud Director, they can see their organization. If they are not specifically authorized, they cannot see or access other organizations or see the cluster or resource pool used by the specified virtual machine to run. As shown in the screenshot above, you can control "organization and Resources", "content" and "Users and Groups" in VDC, and each organization VDC includes a set of other key terms and concepts, such as Vapps, catalogs, and so on. The best way to view your organization's VDC is to set up a security boundary to ensure that each unit is detached from each other.

Once this isolation is set, users can decide how to use the resources delivered in the Organization's VDC. This relationship allows the "on-pay" pattern without having to guarantee the allocation of resources beforehand in the first instance. However, there are restrictions to stop the use of unchecked. Organizational VDC can be configured with a "retention pool" to provide the resources that the end user who is about to run out of resources to ensure that the amount is set. Finally, the allocate pool mode allows a certain amount of resources to be ensured and a "burst" option is arranged on the required allocation pool settings.

Vapps

The terminology used in Vcloud director and vsphere is in fact two different things. If you are creating a vapp in vsphere, don't expect it to magically appear in Vcloud director. But they are very similar.

Vapps is a collection of virtual machines that make up a single IT service. If configured correctly, virtual machines in Vapp can communicate as if they were in the outside world. They can also be packaged using the Development virtualization Format (OVF).

You may wonder: "Since the Vapp in Vsphere and Vcloud director are so similar, why would VMware allow them to exist separately?" The main reason is that the people who manage "cloud" and manage the "vsphere layer" are completely different-and they want to implement this separate measure for security reasons, so cloud administrators can provide pre-packaged virtual machines that do not require high-level access to the vsphere layer.

Catalogs (catalogue)

The term "directory" is also used in VMware. If you have any knowledge of other cloud computing software vendors, you will find that they are more or less in use of the term and are called "service catalogs" in most cases.

The catalog contains the common content that end users need in their daily work. They typically include templates for individual virtual machines or vapp templates, and, if necessary, include other media files, such as the ISO image of a CD/DVD, and disk mirroring in FLP format. These can be used to manually create virtual machines or add additional application software to existing virtual machine templates.

Catalogs can be shared and published. If you share a directory, you can do it in the end user's organization, and if it is published, it can be done in different organizations. If you have a generic vapp (or more likely ISO) that needs to be accessed by a whole group of VDC, it's easier to publish standardized catalogs.

Although VMware has always wanted to keep the distinction between Vcloud Director and Vshphere, it is still possible to import ISO and FLP files from existing vsphere data stores into Vcloud Director. Of course, you can import (or replicate) an existing virtual machine from vsphere, making it a template or Vapp in Vcloud director. So you don't need to start building from scratch, but your existing virtual resources will not appear in Vcloud Director.

User clouds (Users cloud)

You can view the term "user cloud" as a subset of the organization's VDC, and I see it as an organization's application owner. For example, virtual machines and Vapp can view content that is relevant to their work tasks when the financial organization's VDC DBA administrator logs on.

As you can see, Vcloud director is a very layered product with different mandates and rights at each level. As a result, the content that end users can view is very limited, especially when compared to vcloud administrators who have the ability to create and define VDC tasks. The vision of a virtual machine administrator who only focuses on virtual machines is different from the view of Vcenter administrators who have the entire system's administrative authority.

Supply Strategy terminology

A system without a policy system is incomplete, and the system will control who is able to do what, when and where. Of course, they are tightly coupled with the Vcloud director built-in roles that assign those permissions.

The provisioning strategy is designed to prevent end users from creating more and more virtual machines and Vapps without having to consider costs or physical resources to run virtual machines. If virtualization is not free, then cloud computing is not free.

There are three types of supply controls: leases, quotas and limits. The leasing provisioning strategy controls the time that virtual machines or vapp run, and they can also request Vapp and Vapp templates to store the available time. For example, a development based environment may allow only one virtual machine or Vapp to live for 14 days. After that, you must reapply for a quota lease extension, on the other hand, an unlimited number of virtual machines or vapp that end users can use. These can include virtual machines that are started and running, or virtual machines that do not start but still consume storage.

Quotas control the operation of resource-intensive virtual machines, which can be used for each user or per-organization VDC. They can also be used to limit the number of simultaneous inbound connections allowed per virtual machine.

Vcloud Director roles (vcloud Director role)

There are six main predefined roles in Vcloud Director:

The system administrator, or what I sometimes call the Vcloud administrator, is able to create and manage the vendor and organization VDC, network, and directory.

The organization administrator has the right to manage the organization's VDC and access to directories and Vapp.

The directory author is a role that is purely for managing the directory, while the Vapp author manages Vapp.

For end users, two roles apply to them: Vapp users and only access to the console. Vapp users can use the created Vapp, but they cannot modify their CPU memory or disk resources. Similarly, the "Access console only" role allows an end user to open a form on a virtual machine or a vapp and interact with the operating system.

While these terms seem a bit daunting, users should understand and appreciate these concepts before they begin to start with the initial configuration of the Vcloud director.

Author Introduction:

Mike Laverick (VCP) has been involved in the VMware community since 2003. Laverick is a moderator of the VMware Forum and a member of the London VMware User Group Steering Committee. Laverick is the owner and editor-in-chief of the virtualization site and hosts the RTFM Education blog, based on which he publishes free usage guides for VMware Esx/virtualcenter users and recently joined Searchvmware.com as an editor. In 2009, Laverick received Vexpert awards from VMware and helped build the Irish and Scottish VMware user base. Laverick has published a number of books on VMware Virtual infrastructure 3, VMware vsphere 4, and VMware Site Recovery Manager.