App Launchpad is distributed as RPM and DEB installation files, accomodating different OS types.

The name and format of the installaton file differs for the various OS types. All file names include v.v.v, which is the product version and nnnnnnnn, which is the build number. For example, vmware-vcd-alp-2.1.1-36472856.x86_64.rpm
OS Installation File Name and Format
CentOS Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux vmware-vcd-alp-v.v.v-nnnnnnnn.x86_64.rpm
Photon OS vmware-vcd-alp-v.v.v-nnnnnnnn.ph3.x86_64.rpm
Ubuntu, Debian vmware-vcd-alp-v.v.v-nnnnnnnn_amd64.deb

Prerequisites

  • Verify that your target environment meets the deployment requirements of App Launchpad. For more information, see Before You Begin.
  • Verify that you have the credentials of a VMware Cloud Director system administrator account. You need the credentials of a system administrator to create the App-Launchpad-Service account.
  • Verify that the installation package is uploaded to the /tmp directory of the target machine.

Procedure

  1. Open an SSH connection to the installation target Linux virtual machine, log in and use su to obtain root privileges.
  2. Install the RPM or DEB package by running the installation command.

    For RPM:

    rpm -ivh  vmware-vcd-alp-v.v.v-nnnnnnnn.el7.x86_64.rpm
    If Java SE JDK 11 is installed on the deployment target machine, to avoid installation issues, append the --nodeps argument. 
    rpm -ivh --nodeps vmware-vcd-alp-v.v.v-nnnnnnnn.el7.x86_64.rpm

    For DEB:

    sudo apt-get install ./vmware-alp_$v.v.v-$nnnnnnnn_amd64.deb
  3. Configure App Launchpad with VMware Cloud Director.
    To configure App Launchpad with VMware Cloud Director, use the alp connect script. By using this script, you establish a connection between App Launchpad and VMware Cloud Director, define or create the App-Launchpad-Service account, and install the App Launchpad user interface plug-in for VMware Cloud Director. The alp connect script also configures App Launchpad with your AMQP broker.
    1. Configure the connection between App Launchpad and VMware Cloud Director.
      If you are connecting to VMware Cloud Director 10.2 or later, run the following command:

      For CentOS Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Photon OS:

      alp connect --sa-user account-to-become-alp-service-account --sa-pass 'service-account-pass' --url Cloud-Director-URL --admin-user Cloud-Director-system-administrator@system --admin-pass 'Cloud-Director-system-administrator-pass' --mqtt

      For Ubuntu and Debian:

      sudo alp connect --sa-user account-to-become-alp-service-account --sa-pass 'service-account-pass' --url Cloud-Director-URL --admin-user Cloud-Director-system-administrator@system --admin-pass 'Cloud-Director-system-administrator-pass' --mqtt

      If you are connecting to a version of VMware Cloud Director that is earlier than 10.2, run the following command:

      For CentOS Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Photon OS: 
      alp connect --sa-user account-to-become-alp-service-account --sa-pass 'service-account-pass' --url Cloud-Director-URL --admin-user Cloud-Director-system-administrator@system --admin-pass 'Cloud-Director-system-administrator-pass' --amqp-exchange dedicated-exchange-name --amqp-user dedicated-amqp-user --amqp-pass 'dedicated-amqp-user-password' --amqp-queue dedicated-amqp-queue --amqp-routingkey dedicated-amqp-routing-key

      For Ubuntu and Debian:

      sudo alp connect --sa-user account-to-become-alp-service-account --sa-pass 'service-account-pass' --url Cloud-Director-URL --admin-user Cloud-Director-system-administrator@system --admin-pass 'Cloud-Director-system-administrator-pass' --amqp-exchange dedicated-exchange-name --amqp-user dedicated-amqp-user --amqp-pass 'dedicated-amqp-user-password' --amqp-queue dedicated-amqp-queue --amqp-routingkey dedicated-amqp-routing-key
      The following table describes the argument values that you must enter.
      Argument Description
      --sa-user The user name of the VMware Cloud Director user account that becomes the App-Launchpad-Service account. Later, during the initial configuration of the App Launchpad services, App Launchpad assigns the App-Launchpad-Service role to it.

      This account is dedicated to App Launchpad and cannot be the same as the --admin-user account.

      Enter the user name using only lowercase and do not add the VMware Cloud Director organization suffix.

      If a user account for the user name that you enter does not exist in VMware Cloud Director, the alp connect script creates it.
      --sa-password The password for the VMware Cloud Director user account that becomes the App-Launchpad-Service account.
      --url The public endpoint of VMware Cloud Director.

      Make sure that you do not enter a trailing slash at the end of the URL. For example, enter https://cloud.example.com instead of https://cloud.example.com/.

      --admin-user The user name of a VMware Cloud Director system administrator.
      --admin-pass The password for the VMware Cloud Director system administrator user account.
      --amqp-user The user name of the dedicated AMQP broker user account that you created for App Launchpad. Add the @system organization suffix to the user name.
      --amqp-pass The password for the dedicated AMQP broker user account that you created for App Launchpad.
      --amqp-exchange The name of the dedicated AMQP broker direct exchange that is reserved for App Launchpad. Make sure that:
      • you use a direct type of AMQP exchange.
      • VMware Cloud Director and App Launchpad use the same virtual host of the AMQP broker.
      --amqp-queue If multiple instances of VMware Cloud Director use a single RabbitMQ virtual host, to prevent failures of App Launchpad services, specify the dedicated AMQP queue for the current instance of App Launchpad. To make sure that the requests are routed to the correct queue, use this argument together with the --amqp-routingkey argument.

      By default, the argument value is alp, so if you do not require specific routing of requests, you can skip this argument.

      --amqp-routingkey The routing key for your requests. To make sure that requests are correctly routed, use this argument together with the --amqp-queue argument.

      By default, the argument value is alpkey, so if you do not require specific routing of requests, you can skip this argument.

      --mqtt If you configure App Launchpad with VMware Cloud Director 10.2 or later, you can use the MQTT protocol for the communication between App Launchpad and VMware Cloud Director.

      When you use the MQTT protocol, all configuration details that App Launchpad requires are automatically extracted from VMware Cloud Director.

      When running the alp connect script, if you provide both the --mqtt and the --amqp-exchange arguments, the MQTT configuration takes precedence. If VMware Cloud Director is configured to use MQTT, App Launchpad ignores the AMQP configuration.
      For VMware Cloud Director 10.2 and later: 
      alp connect --sa-user alpadmin --sa-pass 'Change!7' --url https://cloud.example.com --admin-user administrator@system --admin-pass 'Change!7' --mqtt
      sudo alp connect --sa-user alpadmin --sa-pass 'Change!7' --url https://cloud.example.com --admin-user administrator@system --admin-pass 'Change!7' --mqtt
      For VMware Cloud Director earlier than 10.2: 
      alp connect --sa-user alpadmin --sa-pass 'Change!7' --url https://cloud.example.com --admin-user administrator@system --admin-pass 'Change!7' --amqp-exchange alpext --amqp-user alp-user --amqp-pass 'Change!7'
      sudo alp connect --sa-user alpadmin --sa-pass 'Change!7' --url https://cloud.example.com --admin-user administrator@system --admin-pass 'Change!7' --amqp-exchange alpext --amqp-user alp-user --amqp-pass 'Change!7'
      To get help about the script, you can run the alp connect -h or sudo alp connect -h command.
      The system returns information about the VMware Cloud Director certificate and the End User License Agreement (EULA) for App Launchpad.
    2. Accept the EULA.
    3. Accept the certificate of VMware Cloud Director.
  4. Verify that the configurations of VMware Cloud Director and the AMQP broker are successful by running the alp show command.
    The system returns all VMware Cloud Director and AMQP broker configuration details.
  5. (Optional) To retrieve the password for the service account, append the --show-password argument to the alp show command.
  6. Start the App Launchpad service by running the systemctl start alp command.
  7. Verify the status of the App Launchpad service by running the systemctl status alp command.
    If the system does not return errors, proceed to configuring App Launchpad. See Configure App Launchpad. If the system returns an error, proceed to Step 8.
  8. Diagnose deployment errors by running the /opt/vmware/alp/bin/diagnose executable file.
    The diagnose tool verifies that the services are up and running and that all configuration requirements are met. The list of diagnostics includes:
    • Initialization of the App Launchpad service
    • Assignment of the App-Launchpad-Service account
    • AMQP or MQTT broker configuration
    • App Launchpad API endpoint configuration
    • App Launchpad service listening port
    • Testing VMware Marketplace connection from App Launchpad server
    • Testing Amazon S3 connection from VMware Cloud Director cells
    If there are no deployment errors, the system returns the following message: 
    [root@alp103 bin]# ./diagnose 
Step 1: System diagnose
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- App Launchpad service is initialized.

Step 2: Cloud Director diagnose
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- Service Account for App Launchpad is good.
- App Launchpad's extension is ready.

Step 3: MQTT diagnose
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- Cloud Director MQTT for extensibility is ready.

Step 4: Integration diagnose
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- App Launchpad API is up, and version is 2.1.1-19199857.

Step 5: App Launchpad diagnose
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- App Launchpad service has started successfully and is listening on port 8086.

Step 6: App Launchpad to Marketplace connection diagnose
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- App Launchpad to Marketplace connection succeeds.

Step 7: Cloud Director to AWS S3 connection diagnose
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- Cloud Director to AWS S3 connection succeeds.