VMware vCloud Director Connector

This section of the documentation contains the technical specifications of the ASM Core - VMware vCloud Director connector, which allows you to perform Cloud Provisioning and IT Service Management.

This section of the documentation contains the technical specifications of the ASM Core - VMware vCloud Director connector, which allows you to perform Cloud Provisioning and IT Service Management functions against business services deployed on cloud based infrastructure managed by VMware vCloud Director.

The documentation describes the details of the VMware vCloud Director connector including:

  • The supported versions of VMware vCloud Director

  • The name of the .NET assembly file

  • The connection methodology

  • The resource and link types that can be discovered and the attributes of each resource and link type

  • The events that are generated and the attributes passed with those events.

  • The actions that can be called from ASM Core to be implemented into VMware vCloud Director.

For compatibility and version support details, refer to the ASM Connector Matrix.

You should familiarize yourself with the information in Installing Connectors before installing any connectors, and read the Integration topics for more information on how to configure them.

Functionality

The vCloud Director connector allows organizations to:

  • Drive actions on cloud based resources and applications as part of a Service Request or Change Management process, or Release Management process.

  • Discover cloud based resources into the ASM Core Federated CMDB, including:

    • Organizations

    • Catalogs

    • vApp Templates

    • vApps

Use Case Scenario

The connector can be used to support following use cases:

  • Cloud Provisioning

  • Incident Classification

  • Asset Management.

  • Change/Release Management

  • Request Fulfilment

Possible use cases and recommendations are provided further in this document.

Connector Description

The table below provides a description of the VCloud Director Connector.

Information fields
Description

Connector

VMware vCloud Director <-> ASM Core

ASM database version

SQL (See Prerequisites document for details)

Third-party application

VMware vCloud Director

VMware vCloud Director supported DB

Any DB format as detailed in VMware vCloud Director Prerequisites

Assembly

Infra.Connector.vCloud.dll

Connector class

vCloudConnector

Configuration file

Infra.Connector.vCloud.icnf

Connection methodology

Web Services

The table below provides compatibility for ASM and VCD Versions

VSM/ASM Versions Supported

VMware vCloud Director Versions Supported

10

1.5 / 1.5.1 / 5.1

10

1.5 / 1.5.1 / 5.1 / 5.5

The connector uses vCloud 1.5 API when liaising with VMware vCloud Director 5.1 / 5.5 systems. As a consequence, version 5.1 / 5.5 vCloud specific resources and functionalities are not exposed to ASM Systems.

Connector Install Process

The connector install process is part of the main application installation process.

Connection Parameters

When creating a new VMware vCloud Director source from the Source option of the Integration Platform, some specific parameters have to be entered. The screenshot below illustrates an example of connection details to a VMware vCloud Director source.

Only one set of credentials is required; from a vCD system administrator.

URL

This represents the path to the vCloud Director application, not the API as such. The path provided should make use of https tag.

This patch must not contain any references to virtual directories. An example of proper path is

https://vcd2rhl5vcd.model.infra.com.au/

In comparison,

https://vcd2rhl5vcd.model.infra.com.au/Cloud/

and

https://vcd2rhl5vcd.model.infra.com.au/api/ 

are two examples of erroneous paths.

Login ID and Password

For vCD system admin, the Login ID needs to be of the following format:

<user-id>@system

Federated CMDB Population

Federated CMDB population is performed by setting up scans using the Integration Platform functionality of ASM Core. These scans allow for VMware vCloud Director resources and links to be reflected in the ASM Core CMDB. This section provides details on the resource types and attributes, as well as on the link types and their attributes.

Resource Types

This section lists the resource types and their attributes that the connector is able to discover and eventually import on VMware vCloud Director systems.

Network Pool

Field ID
Display
Data Type

name

Name

string

href

API URL

string

Description

Description

text

This resource is a mandatory input when using the new outbound action: Create Organization Network – Routed.

Provider vDC

A provider vDC resource is a collection of all the resources available in a vCloud. A Provider vDC is created by the vCloud service provider using tools that are specific to the host platform. In this release, a Provider vDC is created by a vSphere administrator using vSphere tools. The attributes of this resource type are listed in the table below:

Field ID
Display
Data Type

name

Name

string

href

API URL

string

description

Description

string

status

Status

profile

CpuAllocation

CPU Allocation (MHz)

long

CpuCapacity

CPU Capacity (MHz)

long

CpuFree

CPU Free (MHz)

long

MemoryAllocation

Memory Allocation (MB)

long

MemoryCapacity

Memory Capacity (MB)

long

MemoryFree

Memory Free (MB)

long

RootComputeCapacityIsElastic

Elastic CPU/Memory

Bool

RootComputeCapacityIsHA

Highly Available CPU/Memory

Bool

StorageAllocation

Storage Allocation (MB)

long

StorageCapacity

Storage Capacity (MB)

long

StorageFree

Storage Free (MB)

long

VCpuRatingMHz

Virtual CPU Rating (MHz)

int

isEnabled

Enabled

bool

Provider Network

This element is created by the server and is read-only at the client. The attributes of this resource type are listed in the table below:

Field ID
Display
Data Type

name

Name

string

href

API URL

string

ProviderInfo

Provider Info

string

Description

Description

text

NetworkPoolName

Network Pool Name

string

NetworkPoolHref

Network Pool Href

string

IpScopeIsInherited

IP Scope Is Inherited

bool

IpScopeGateway

IP Scope Gateway

string

IpScopeNetmask

IP Scope Netmask

string

IpScopeDns1

IP Scope DNS 1

string

IpScopeDns2

IP Scope DNS 2

string

IpScopeDnsSuffix

IP Scope DNS Suffix

string

IpScopeIpRanges

IP Scope IP Ranges

string

FenceMode

Fence Mode

profile

DHCPServiceEnabled

DHCP Service Enabled

bool

DHCPDefaultLeaseTime

DHCP Default Lease Time

int

DHCPMaxLeaseTime

DHCP Max Lease Time

int

DHCPIpRange

DHCP IP Range

string

FireWallIsEnabled

Firewall Enabled

bool

FireWallRuleIsEnabled

Firewall Rule Enabled