vCD Installation Guide – Part 1 – Preparation

As part of my push to prepare for the VCAP-CID/CIA exams, I have been spending a lot of time with vCloud Director 5.1 in my lab.  I know it is not vCAC with NSX, but if you want to pass the VCAPs for Cloud, you will have to work with this configuration.

This is the first post of a five part series describing the steps to install and configure the various components of vCloud Director 5.1:

• vCD Installation Guide – Part 1 – Preparation
• vCD Installation Guide – Part 2 – vCNS
• vCD Installation Guide – Part 3 – SQL Server 2012
• vCD Installation Guide – Part 4 – RHELS 6.3
• vCD Installation Guide – Part 5 – Application

The vCloud Infrastructure layer has the following components (vApp, Org vDC, Provider vDC, Network types/pools, Extensibility, Management NOT shown):

Overview of the process

• Preparation & Planning
• Install vCNS Manager (aka “vShield Manager”) and integrate it with vCenter Server
• Build a Windows Server 2012 R2 server that will serve as the vCloud Director Database server
• Install SQL Server 2012 on the designated vCD Database server
• Build a RHELS 6.3 server that will server as the vCloud Director cell
• Customise the RHELS OS and then install the vCD 5.1 binaries which will then connect to the vCD database

Preparation & Planning

1. The build process takes approximately 4 hours.
2. Download the Binaries for Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012, RHELS 6.3, VMware vCloud Director 5.1.3, vCNS 5.1.4 and libXdmcp-1.1.1 (free).
3. Copy the ISO images to a repository that is accessible to the ESXi Hosts where you will build vCD 5.1.
4. Also download and familiarise yourself with WinSCP, it will be used to copy the vCD bin file and libXdmcp RPM package to RHELS.
5. Source the associated licence keys for the downloaded software, which is normally provided if you register and download the evaluation versions of the software above.

Assumptions

• You know what you are doing and have the ability to make changes to vCenter, Active Directory, DNS, etc. (directly or indirectly).
• You have a fully functioning vSphere environment that has resources for vCD.
• You want to install the full version of vCloud Director on RHELS with an SQL Server 2012 database.  You are not interested in using the vCD “Evaluation” Virtual Appliance.
• You are building this configuration for a lab environment and are content to use the “minimum” configuration methodology described here (eg. single vDisk for OS, App & DB, no AV agent, etc.).

You are now ready to begin the build with Part 2.

Other Resources

• Pluralsight courses “vCloud Director 5.1 – Install and Configure” and “vCloud Director 5.1 – Manage & Monitor” by Chris Wahl
• vCloud Director 101 series by David Hill
• vCloud Director Journey series by Mike Laverick
• vCloud Director Installation Guide by Brian Smith