vCenter

What is vCenter?

VMware Management manipulates VMware vCenter via VMware public APIs and seamlessly integrates some features of VMware vCenter Server to achieve a unified management of multiple virtualization platforms on ZStack Cloud. If you deployed a VMware vCenter Server, you can use VMware Management of ZStack Cloud to take over the VMware vCenter Server. Then you can view vSphere servers and virtual machines managed by the VMware vCenter Server, use VMware vSphere resources in the virtual data center, and perform operations on virtual machines in the VMware vCenter clusters.

The VMware Management feature is provided in a separate module. Before you can use this feature, you need to purchase the Plus License of VMware Management, in addition to the Base License.
ZStack Cloud supports multiple vCenter versions, including 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, and 7.0.

Concepts

vSphere: an enterprise-class virtualization platform provided by VMware. It can convert a data center into an integrated computing infrastructure that includes compute, storage, and network resources. VMware vSphere consists of a batch of software applications, with ESXi and Center being the two core components.
ESXi: type 1 hypersivor (bemetal hypervisor) that is installed directly on a baremetal server. It allows the creation and management of multiple virtual machines on an ESXi host.
vCenter Server: a centralized management platform of physical and virual resources on a VMware vCenter. It allows one-click access and management of ESXi hosts, virtual machines, datastores, networks, and other resources.

External Access Fundamentals

ZStack Cloud sends cloud resource control requests to a vCenter by using the asynchronous event listening methods and receives the returned event contents. In addition, ZStack Cloud can also receive contents that are intuitively pushed by vCenters. This way, ZStack Cloud achieves bidirectional data synchronization.

Figure 1. ZStack Cloud Managing vCenter Diagram

vCenter Basic Resource

Add a vCenter Basic Resource

On the main menu of ZStack Cloud, choose Resource Center > vCenter > Basic Resource. On the Basic Resource page, click Add vCenter. Then, the Add vCenter page is displayed.

On the displayed page, set the following parameters:

Name: Enter a name for the vCenter.
Description: Optional. Enter a description for the vCenter.
Domain: Enter a domain for the vCenter.
The Domain here is a domain name or an IP address used to access the vCenter, for example, 172.20.1.166.
Port: Enter an available port number of the vCenter.
User: Enter a user name for the vCenter. The name should include an intact domain.
Password: Enter the password corresponding to the vCenter user name. The password should match the practical environment and is case-sensitive.
HTTPS/HTTP: Select a transfer protocol for vCenter synchronization. You can choose either HTTP or HTTPS. Default option: HTTPS.

Consideration

The vCenter basic resource is used by ZStack Cloud for a unified management of vCenter virtualized resources, such as adding a vCenter, synchronizing vCenter data, and deleting a vCenter.

When you add a vCenter to ZStack Cloud for the first time, the vCenter resources are automatically synchronized to local, such as the clusters, hosts, VM instances, images, storage, and networks. After you put the vCenter into use, you can manually synchronize its resources to local. All synchronized resources are displayed on corresponding resource pages.

You can add multiple vCenters to ZStack Cloud for local managements.
You can filter out undesired resources when importing vCenter resources to ZStack Cloud.

vCenter

What is vCenter?

Concepts

External Access Fundamentals

vCenter Basic Resource

Add a vCenter Basic Resource

Consideration

Products

Solutions

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