Virtual Resources

Virtual Resources

The Virtual Resources menu option displays a summary of your virtual resources with customizable reports. The Summary page displays an overview of all VDCs and VMs, reports for new VMs and deleted VMs, and trending reports for network usage, CPU usage, memory usage, disk usage.

You can manage the following virtual resources:

  • VDCs

  • Application Containers

  • VMs

  • VM Action Requests

  • Images

  • Port Groups

  • DV Port Groups

  • Resource Pools

  • Datastores

  • Datastore Clusters

VDCs

During VM provisioning, you can associate a VM with a virtual data center (VDC). When you create a service request, you can choose the VDC on which the VM is provisioned. You can view a list of VDCs available for a group and choose the required VDC when provisioning the VM.

You can view available VDCs and their details by choosing vDCs under Virtual Resources.

The VDCs report displays all available VDCs, as well as the following information:

  • Cloud

  • vDC

  • Type

  • Lock State

  • Total VMs

  • Active VMs

  • Custom Categories

  • Status

  • Tag

You can view additional details about a VDC by clicking on the row with the VDC and clicking View Details.

Application Containers

Application containers are a templatized approach to provisioning applications for end users. Each application container is a collection of VMware virtual machines (VMs) and/or bare metal servers (BMs) with an internal private network that is based on rules specified by the administrator. An application container can have one or more VMs and BMs and can be secured by a fencing gateway (for example, a Virtual Secure Gateway) to the external or public cloud.

Administrators can create one or more application container templates with the appropriate policies, workflows, and templates. The application container template determines how the application is provisioned for the end user.

You can view all available application containers and all associated VMs, bare metal servers, network tier mappings, L4-L7 services, and contracts. You can view additional details about an application container by clicking the row with the application container and clicking View Details.

Viewing Application Container Reports

For each application container, you can generate summary reports, a detailed report with credentials, and a detailed report without credentials. If you choose to generate a report with credentials, the passwords appear in plain text. The report header displays the service request ID used to create the container.


Note

Generating a report without credentials hides the passwords in the report.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the row with application container for which you want to view reports.

Step 4

Click View Reports.

Step 5

On the View Container Reports screen, choose the type of report to generate from the Select Report Type drop-down list.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Managing an Application Container's Power

You can enable and disable power for an application container.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container that you want to power on or power off.

Step 4

Click Power On Container or Power Off Container.

Step 5

On the Power On Container or the Power Off Container screen, select the provisioned VMs to power on or power off.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Decommissioning an Application Container

You can decommission an application container that you no longer require. When you decommission an application container, the provisioned VMs are powered off but not deleted.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container that you want to decommission.

Step 4

Click Decommission Container.

Step 5

On the Decommission Container screen, select the provisioned VMs to power off.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Cloning an Application Container

You can clone an existing application container. Cloning an application container retains all of the settings and configuration data with the VMs that are contained in the original application container.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container that you want to clone.

Step 4

Click Clone Container.

Step 5

On the Clone Container screen, specify the new container name and new container label.

The container label must be unique.

Step 6

Click Submit.

The cloned container appears in the Application Container table.

Adding a VM to an Application Container

You can add a VM exclusively to any of the deployed application containers available for you or your group.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container to which you want to add one or more VMs.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Add VMs.

Step 5

On the Manage VMs screen, choose a row and click the pencil icon.

Step 6

On the Edit Virtual Machines Entry screen, enter the number of additional VM instances to provision, and click Submit.

Note

 

Your administrator defines the maximum number of VM instances that you can provision. An error message appears if you enter a value higher than the maximum instances allowed.

Step 7

On the Manage VMs screen, click Submit.

Adding a Bare Metal Server to a Deployed APIC Application Container

Bare metal servers are supported only in APIC containers. You can add a bare metal server to a deployed APIC application container.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container to which you want to add one or more bare metal servers.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Add BMs.

Step 5

On the Add BMs screen, click Add to add a new bare metal server.

Step 6

On the Add Entry to Bare Metal Application Components screen, complete the required fields.

Step 7

Click Submit.

The newly added bare metal server is added to the Bare Metal Application Components list.

Step 8

On the Add BMs screen, you can add more bare metal servers or click Submit.

Deleting an Application Container

You can delete an application container that you no longer require. When you delete an application container, you also delete the resources that are provisioned for that application container. When the Delete Container action is initiated, the application container setup is rolled back, and a service request is created.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container that you want to delete.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Delete Container.

Step 5

On the Delete Container screen, click Submit.

Note

 
If you choose to delete an application container with associated L4-L7 services, the L4-L7 services are also deleted.

Accessing a VM Console

You can view the VM console of a VM associated with an application container.

Before you begin

VNC must be configured on the VM you want to access.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container for which you want to view the VM console.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Open Console.

Step 5

On the Access VM Console screen, choose a VM from the Select VM drop-down list.

Step 6

Click Submit.

The console for the selected VM opens in a new browser window.

Editing Resource Limits

You can edit the resource limits for an application container. You can specify the number of vCPUs, the amount of memory, the limit for maximum storage, and the maximum number of half-width and full-width servers for the container.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container for which you want to edit the resource limits.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Edit Resource Limits.

Step 5

On the Container Limits screen, check Configure Resource Limit.

Step 6

Complete the required fields and click Submit.

Editing a Cost Model

A cost model is used to define the unit level costs of virtual resources such as CPU, RAM, and storage. These costs are used for chargeback calculations of VMs within the virtual infrastructure. Your administrator can map a cost model to an application container template. You can edit the cost model for an application container.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container for which you want to edit the cost model.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Edit Cost Model.

Step 5

On the Container Cost Model screen, choose a cost model from the Cost Model drop-down list.

The drop-down list displays the available cost models mapped to the application container.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Adding an Application Container Contract

Contracts are policies that enable inter-End Point Group (inter-EPG) communication. These policies are the rules that specify communication between application tiers.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click Application Containers.

Step 3

Click the application container to which you want to add a contract.

Step 4

Click View Details.

Step 5

On the detail page for the application container, click Contracts.

Step 6

Click Add Contract.

Step 7

On the Add Contract screen, complete the required fields, including the following:

  1. Choose the source network and destination network to which you want to apply the contract rule.

    If the contract is between the tiers of the same container, you can choose the tiers that belong to the same container, otherwise, you can choose the tiers from different containers.

  2. Check Create Rule to create a filter rule.

    If Create Rule is not checked, only an empty contract is created.

  3. Choose the protocol to use for communication.

    If you choose TCP or UDP, additional fields for the starting and ending range for the source port and destination port appear.

  4. Check Apply Both Directions to apply the contract to the traffic from the source to the destination, and the traffic from the destination to the source.

  5. From the Action drop-down list, choose the action to be taken for the traffic that matches the contract.

Step 8

Click Submit.

VMs

You can perform post-provisioning lifecycle management actions that are permitted by your administrator. You can view the entire list of VMs provisioned using service requests under a user group. You can view the VMs report by choosing VMs under Virtual Resources.

The VMs report lists all available VMs, as well as the following information:

  • Cloud

  • VM-ID

  • VM Label

  • VM Name

  • Host Name

  • IP Address

  • Image ID

  • Power State

  • VM Protected

  • Group Name

  • VDC

  • Category

  • Provisioned Time

  • Scheduled Termination Time

  • Last Status Update

  • Guest OS Type

  • VM Annotation

  • Custom Attributes

  • Assigned To User

  • Users Can Access

  • Users Can Manage

  • Tags

  • VMM Cloud

You can view additional details about a VM by clicking the row with the VM and clicking View Details.


Note

The VMs report no longer displays the vCenter VM ID and the vCenter IP fields in End User Portal versions 6.5 and later.

Viewing VM Details

The VM details page displays related reports and trending data for the selected VM. You can also view associated VM action requests, events, VM snapshots, and vNICs on the VMs details page.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click VMs.

Step 3

Click the row with the VM that you want to view.

Step 4

Click View Details to view the following information about the VM:

  • Summary—Displays trending reports for CPU usage, memory usage, network usage, and disk I/O. Also displays reports for overview, ownership, resources, storage, network, guest information, and catalog details.

  • VM Action Requests—Displays all of the available action IDs and related information.

  • Events—Displays the current events associated with the VM

  • VM Snapshots—Displays all of the available VM snapshots and related information.

  • vNICs—Displays all of the vNICs associated with the VM.

  • Disks—Displays all of the Datastores associated with the VM.

Requesting Inventory Collection on a VM

You can request on-demand inventory collection for a VM.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Resources.

Step 2

On the Virtual Resources page, click VMs.

Step 3

Click the row with the VM for which you want to collect inventory.

Step 4

From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Inventory Collection Request for VM.

Step 5

On the Request VM Inventory Collection screen, click Submit.

The VMs report and the VM's detail page are refreshed with updated information from the inventory collection request.

VM Action Requests

You can view all available VM action requests and their details by choosing VM Action Requests under Virtual Resources.

You can also view VM action requests associated with a specific VM by choosing VM Action Requests on the VM's details page.

The VM Action Requests report displays all available VM action requests, as well as the following information:

  • VM ID

  • Action ID

  • User Name

  • Comment

  • Schedule Time

  • Status

Images

An image is a template that can be used to create and provision virtual machines (VMs). An image typically includes a specified operating system and a configuration that provides virtual counterparts to hardware components. Images offer a secure way of preserving a VM's configuration that you want to deploy multiple times.

You can view all available VM images and their details by choosing Images under Virtual Resources. The image IDs in the Images report have been assigned to you or your group. You can use an image ID to provision a new VM. Additionally you can select and delete any image IDs that you do not require.

The Images report displays all available images, as well as the following information:

  • ID

  • Cloud

  • Image ID

  • Parent Node

  • Datacenter

  • Guest OS

  • VMware Tools Installed

  • VMware Tools Version

  • VM Version

  • Platform

  • Architechture

  • Number of CPUs

  • Memory (MB)

  • Provisioned Disk (GB)

  • Image Location

  • CPU Reservation (MHz)

  • CPU Limit (MHz)

  • CPU Shares

  • Memory Reservation (MHz)

  • Memory Limit (MHz)

  • Memory Shares

  • Uncommitted Storage (GB)

  • Group/User

Resource Pools

You can view available clouds and related configuration information. The resource details are at the host node level. You can view the Resource Pools report by choosing Resource Pools under Virtual Resources.

The Resource Pools report displays all available resource pools, as well as the following information:

  • ID

  • Cloud

  • Datacenter Name

  • Owner

  • Resource Pool Name

  • Parent

  • Status

  • CPU Configured Reservation (MHz)

  • CPU Limit (MHz)

  • CPU Used Reservation (MHz)

  • CPU Expandable Reservation

  • Memory Configured Reservation

  • Memory Limit (MHz)

  • Memory Used Reservation (MHz)

  • Memory Expandable Reservation

  • Group/User

  • Tag