This short manual guide is designed to help HI GIO users navigate
How to install vCDA On-Premises
How to complete the vCDA Configuration Wizard
Procedure
Before installing the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance, verify that the on-premises site meets the deployment requirements. Also, allow the network communication within the on-premises site and to the cloud site
vCenter Requirements. 6.5U3, 6.7U3, 7.0 (GA-U3), 8.0 (GA, U1). (We also support vCenter 6.0U3, 5.5U3 only for migration purpose)
Network Requirements. To get a list of the required firewall ports to be opened, see VMware Cloud Director Availability Network Ports.
Hardware Requirements. From a hosting perspective, the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance is a virtual machine with the following hardware requirements
4 vCPUs
4 GB RAM
10 GB Storage
Deployment Requirements. In ESXi hosts, a VMkernel interface can be dedicated for the replication traffic. By default, ESXi handles the replication traffic through its management VMkernel interface. As a best practice, you can separate the management traffic from the replication traffic by creating a dedicated VMkernel interface. Use following tags when creating a VMkernel interface for the replication traffic
Use the vSphere Replication tag to configure the ESXi host for the Outgoing Replication Traffic
Use the vSphere Replication NFC tag to configure the ESXi host for the Incoming Replication Traffic
Configure the replication VMkernel interface in its own IP subnet and connect the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance to the same virtual port group. Using this configuration, the replication traffic between the ESXi hosts and the VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance stays in the same broadcast domain. As a result, uncompressed replication traffic avoids crossing a router and saves the network bandwidth
The tenant deployment process is similar to all typical VMware OVF deployments. The tenant must install the vCloud Availability On-Premises Appliance OVA into the vCenter.
Please download OVA file from this link
Once downloaded, log into your vSphere Client and Deploy OVF Template
Select an OVF template. Install from a local file. Browse to the location of the previously downloaded OVA. Select the vCDA OVA file and click Next
Select a name and folder. Type in your desired virtual machine (appliance) name. Next, select a location for your virtual machine
Select a compute resource. Choose a host or a cluster for the appliance. Click Next
Review details. This is a chance for you to evaluate and verify the template
License agreement. Check the I accept all license agreements checkbox and click Next
Select storage. Configure optional storage options for the deployment and click Next
Select networks. Choose a destination network for every individual source network
Customize template. During this step of the wizard, customize the deployment
Root Password. Defining a root password is mandatory. However, you will need to change it when you log in to vCDA for the first time. So, you don’t need to define a very strong password at this point
Enable SSH. Select the Enable SSH checkbox
NTP Server. Enter the NTP server address the vCDA appliance will use. vCenter Server, ESXi, vCloud Director, Platform Services Controller, and the vCloud Availability appliance MUST all use the same NTP server
Hostname. The hostname of VM
IP. IP address ( e.g. 192.168.1.186/24 )
Gateway. Gateway address
MTU. MTU ( e.g. 1500 )
DNS Server. IP DNS Server. It needs to resolvable the domain name of vCenter Server and Service Endpoint
Search Domains. List of search Domains ( e.g. abc.local )
Ready to complete. Review the settings. You can also select Power on after deployment. Click Finish to deploy the Appliance
Log in to your vCDA appliance at https://your-appliance-IP/ui/admin. Use the root/password defined during OVA deployment
Change the root password. Set and confirm a new password. Create a strong password with at least eight (8) characters. Make sure to use lowercase, uppercase, numeric, and special characters.
To get started, you will need to configure a Lookup Service Endpoint. To do so, select Run Initial Setup Wizard
Lookup Service. Enter your connection details to set up the lookup service along with SSO admin credentials
Lookup service address. Type in the following URL, adding the IP address of your vCenter: https://Ip-of-your-vcenter:443/lookupservice/sdk
Enter SSO admin account credentials in the Username and Password field
Site Details. In it, type your Site Name and optionally, a short Description about the site. Click Next
Proceed to the configure Cloud Details by pairing up your vCloud and vCDA sites
Service Endpoint Address, Organization Admin and Organization Password is provided by HI GIO Support
Configure your organization’s credentials for logging in to the cloud site. Type in Organization Admin (user@org) and Organization Password
Optional: Select Allow Access from Cloud. If you select this feature, the cloud provider and organization administrators can access and perform certain operations through the vCloud Availability Port
If you leave this feature deselected, configuring new replications will only be accessible to users authenticated to the on-premises vCloud Availability Portal. Additionally, no existing replications will be reversed from the Portal
Service Endpoint Address, Organization Admin and Organization Password is provided by HI GIO Support
Click Next and accept the SSL certificate of the vCenter Server Lookup to continue
Move on to Ready to Complete. It shows the details you have provided in the previous steps. Verify that everything is accurate
Check Configure local placementnow to enable cloud to datacenter replications. Leaving the box unchecked requires additional set up to configure the replications
