VMware App Launchpad Release Notes

VMware App Launchpad | 06 JUL 2022 Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

About VMware App Launchpad

VMware App Launchpad is an application platform as-a-service, hosted on VMware Cloud Partner Navigator, that offers a self-service portfolio of pre-configured, out-of-box applications appealing to developer personas. VMware App Launchpad brings in seamless integration with VMware Marketplace, enabling developers to deploy full-stack Bitnami and ISV applications with a single click, without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. VMware App Launchpad accelerates AI developments through the NVIDIA NGC catalog, so developers can deploy HPC workloads onto vGPU enabled Kubernetes clusters. 

Service Providers can configure App Launchpad service for their tenants to deploy workloads onto VMware Cloud Director, Cloud Director Service and VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. 

What's New July 2022

• NVIDIA AI VM application support
  • Service providers can configure a default vGPU policy for tenant locations.
  • Tenant users can filter applications by categories.
  • Tenant users can deploy AI VM applications to vGPU-enabled locations.
• Customer data removal

  Service providers can remove customers' VMware App Launchpad data for customer purging.

• Marketplace API token rotation
  • When service providers set an API token for VMware Marketplace connection, the expiration time is validated.
  • When the API token is approaching the expiration date, service providers will receive notifications on the portal.

What's New May 2022

• Multi-VM Application Deployment

  Tenant users can deploy and manage the lifecycle of vApps with multiple VMs in default/advanced settings.

• Multiple storage profile support to synchronize VM catalog(s)

  Service providers can select multiple storage profiles across private virtual data centers (PVDC) / datastores while onboarding their Cloud Director endpoint or VMC SDDC.

What's New

Global Availability for VMware App Launchpad

• Multi-Cloud Endpoint Expansion – Support for on-premise VMware Cloud Director instance

  Unifies application deployment to VMware based clouds by supporting:

  • VMware Cloud Director 
  • VMware Cloud Director Service
  • VMware Cloud on AWS
• ​NVIDIA NGC AI Development catalog offering
  • Service providers can import NVIDIA NGC catalog as a Helm Chart and publish it to their tenants 
  • Tenant users can deploy AI applications to vGPU-enabled Tanzu Kubernetes Grid multi-cloud clusters 
• Container support for Kubernetes clusters running anywhere

  Tenant admins can attach Kubernetes clusters running on public networks, access restricted networks or isolated networks, enabling tenant users to deploy Helm Chart applications to any available Kubernetes cluster. 

• Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (Multi-Cloud) Clusters support

  In addition to native Container Service Extension (CSE) clusters, tenant users can provision Tanzu Kubernetes Grid multi-cloud clusters from CSE. 

• Automated Gateway provisioning to onboard a Customer Software Defined Data Center (SDDC)

  Service providers can onboard a customer SDDC through automated gateway provisioning. This creates management group and management gateway resources for VMware App Launchpad to access the SDDC, without any manual intervention. 

• Publicly available App Launchpad Service APIs

  VMware App Launchpad micro service APIs are open to service providers, with documentation available for:

  • Management APIs 
  • Catalog APIs 
  • Workload APIs 
  • Authorization APIs  

    For information about the VMware App Launchpad public APIs, see the App Launchpad API Documentation.

VMware App Launchpad Features

• Support for multi-version application available on a single tile
  • Service Provider/Tenant administrators can import and publish multiple versions of VM and container applications, combined under a single app tile 
  • New versions of applications can be detected as well as older versions can be removed 
  • Tenant users can deploy multi-version applications
• Centralized Catalog Management

  Cloud catalog management that enables service providers to maintain catalogs in the cloud and synchronize across multiple cloud endpoints - VMware Cloud Director, Cloud Director Service and VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC instances

• Web console for VM workloads on VMWare Cloud Director instances

  Tenant users can open VM web console on App Launchpad tenant portal, once VM workloads are deployed onto Cloud Director instances

• OVF application synchronization to VMC SDDC instances

  Provider administrators can publish VM catalogs containing custom OVF applications to customers owning VMC SDDC instances. OVF applications can be synchronized to VMC SDDC instances and made available for tenant users to deploy 

• Brand your App Launchpad User Dashboard

  Tenant administrators can customize image and welcome message on their Applications Marketplace tab of the user interface dashboard

• In-app workload status notification

  Tenant users receive in-app notifications for workload management when launching and deleting VM and Container workloads 

• Custom field visibility

  Provider administrators can add custom information to imported applications and choose the visibility on application launch page or detail page 

Product Documentation

In addition to the current release notes, you can use the VMware App Launchpad Documentation set. 

For information about the VMware App Launchpad public APIs, see the App Launchpad API Documentation.

Caveats and Limitations

Startup scripts are not supported when deploying Bitnami VM applications to VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs. For custom VM applications, you must turn on the custom scripts feature. See KB 74880.