VMware VM Provisioning

This chapter contains the following sections:

About VMware VM Provisioning

In Cisco UCS Director you can provision new VMs in several ways, such as clone from template, clone from VM, using content library templates, and using ISO images.

See VMware Templates and About Virtual Machine Provisioning Using ISO Images.

Cisco UCS Director also provides you with a predefined orchestration workflow called Provision VMware VM that you can execute to provision VMware VMs.

Creating Catalogs for Content Library-Based VM Provisioning

Catalog based VM deployments using the content libraries will list only the ovf type VM templates which can be used to deploy virtual machines across VMware vCenter servers. The linked clone functionality is not supported with VM provisioning from content library VM templates. When the option to provision the new VM using a content library is selected, the Use Linked Clone option is disabled.


Note

VMware content library discovery is only supported for VMware vCenter version 6.0 or later. To deploy VMs using VM Templates available in Content Libraries, you must un-check  the Provision new VM using Content Library VM Template check-box.

See About VMware Content Libraries.

Cisco UCS Director supports VM provisioning using content library VM templates when a datastore or datastore cluster is selected as the target according to the following options selected in the VMware storage policy:

  • Storage DRS is disabled on the datastore cluster—The datastore cluster will not be available for selection in the VMware Storage Policy and to use its datastore, you can select it as an independent datastore in the VMware Storage Policy.

  • Storage DRS is enabled on the datastore cluster with the automation level set to Manual

  • Storage DRS is enabled on the datastore cluster with the automation level set to Fully Automated


Note

If Storage DRS is enabled on a datastore cluster with the automation level set to Fully Automated, and the allocated datastore is part of the datastore cluster, Cisco UCS Director skips the independent datastore selection during VM provisioning using the content library VM template. Instead the VM is provisioned on the datastore cluster and the following message displays in the SR log file:

Skipping selection of datastore for VM Provisioning using Content Library template as given Target Datastore :{datastoreName} is attached to DRS Enabled Datastore Cluster :{datstoreClusterName}

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Catalogs.

Step 2

Click Add.

Step 3

On the Add Catalog screen, choose Standard from the Catalog Type drop-down list.

Step 4

Click Submit.

Step 5

On the Basic Information screen, complete the required fields, and check Provision new VM using Content Library VM Template.

Step 6

Click Content Library VM Template (This will load the ovf type VM templates present in content libraries).

Step 7

Click the row with the ovf VM template that you want to apply to the catalog.

Step 8

Complete the remaining screens in the Add Catalog wizard and click Next.

Step 9

At the final wizard screen, review the summary information and click Submit.

Provisioning VMs Using Orchestration Workflows

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Orchestration.

Step 2

On the Orchestration page, click Workflows.

Step 3

Click the row with VMware > Provision VMware VM.

Step 4

Click Execute Now.

Step 5

On the Executing Workflow screen, complete the fields including the following:

  1. From the VM Deployment Options drop-down list, choose one of the following deployment options:

    • Clone from Template

    • Clone from VM

    • Move VM to VDC

    Note

     

    You can provision a VM on one datacenter by using a template available on a different datacenter under the same cloud. Likewise, you can clone a VM from one datacenter to another datacenter under the same cloud.

  2. From the Select VDC drop-down list, choose the VDC on which the VM will be provisioned.

Step 6

Click Submit.