vCloud Suite Architecture-2

In this Blog we will discuss vCloud Logical design& Architecture and Management Architecture.

vCloud Infrastructure Logical Design

VMware Cloud Team have taken a building block approach to deploying vCloud Infrastructure. The following top-level logical building blocks are used to segregate resources that are allocated for management functions from resources dedicated to user-requested workloads:

·         vSphere virtual management cluster – Contains the core and optional components and services needed to run the vCloud instance. This includes core vCloud components such as VMware vCenter Server, vCloud Director, vCenter Chargeback Manager, vCenter Orchestrator, and optional components such as the vCenter Operations Management Suite and vFabric Application Director.

·         Resource group – Represents vCloud-dedicated resources for end-user consumption. Each resource group consists of vSphere clusters (vSphere hosts managed by a vCenter Server) and is under the control of vCloud Director. vCloud Director can manage the resources of multiple resource groups.

One important topic to discuss is the placement and use of vCenter when it comes to vCloud Director. It's a recommended practice to have 2 vCenter servers in a vCloud environment. Use 1 vCenter server for hosting Datacenters/Clusters/VMs that are relevant to vSphere and vCloud Infrastructure Components. Use another vCenter server for hosting vCloud Resources.

vCloud Management Architecture

The management cluster hosts the necessary vCloud infrastructure components. Separating infrastructure components from resources used for end-user workloads improves manageability of the vCloud infrastructure.

Core management cluster components include the following:

·         vCenter Server or VMware vCenter Server Appliance.

·         vCenter Server database.

·         vCloud Director cells.

·         vCloud Director database.

·         vCloud Networking and Security Manager (one per resource group vCenter Server).

·         vCenter Chargeback Manager.

·         vCenter Chargeback database.

·         VMware vCenter Update Manager.

·         vCenter Orchestrator.

·          VMware vCloud Networking and Security Edge gateway appliances deployed by vCloud Director through vCloud Networking and Security Manager as needed, residing in the resource groups, not in the management cluster. 

vCloud Director Constructs:

We need to understand these constructs and terminologies as they are core to how the vCloud Director works:

Organization : The unit of multitenancy that represents a single logical security boundary. An organization contains users, virtual datacenters, and networks. So in Short it is either a Division of an enterprise or enterprise itself

Provider virtual datacenter : A grouping of compute and storage resources from a single vCenter Server. A provider virtual datacenter consists of a single resource pool and one or more datastores. Multiple organizations can share provider virtual datacenter resources.

So in Short it’s a datacenter which provides service to many enterprises or organization

Organization virtual datacenter : A sub-grouping of compute and storage resources allocated from a provider virtual datacenter and assigned to a single organization. A virtual datacenter is a deployment environment where vApps can be instantiated, deployed, and powered on.

An organization virtual datacenter allocates resources using one of the following models:

·         Pay As You Go.

·         Reservation Pool.

·         Allocation Pool. 

Catalog : A repository of vApp templates and media available to users for deployment. Catalogs can be published to all organizations in the same vCloud environment

vApp: A container for a software solution in the vCloud, and the standard unit of deployment for workloads in vCloud Director. vApps contain one or more virtual machines, have power-on operations, and can be imported or exported as an OVF.

 a vApp is just a logical container for 1 or more virtual machines. This vApp could for instance contain a three tiered app which has an internal network and a firewalled outbound connection for a single VM, which would look something like this:

External network : External networks provide external connectivity to organization virtual datacenter networks and are backed by port groups configured for Internet accessibility. 

vApp network : A network that connects virtual machines within a vApp, deployed by a consumer from a network pool. vApp networks can be directly connected or routed to an organization virtual datacenter network.

 Network pool : A network pool is a collection of isolated Layer 2 virtual networks available to vCloud Director for the automated deployment of private and NAT-routed networks.

Network Pools