The services of VMware Cloud Director Availability can coexist on one virtual appliance or on dedicated appliances.

VMware Cloud Director Availability services provide dedicated management interfaces for configuration and administration.

The operation of VMware Cloud Director Availability depends on the following services that run on the listed VMware Cloud Director Availability virtual appliances.

Table 1. VMware Cloud Director Availability Services
Service Name Service Description
Replicator Service One or more service instances manage the vSphere Replication Server and LWD Proxy services and expose the low-level HBR primitives as a REST API. Operate with vCenter Server-level concepts like VMs, folders, datastores. Replicator Service operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:
  • Cloud Replicator Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
  • VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance
Manager Service A service that operates with vCenter Server-level concepts for managing the replication workflow and manages the Replicator Service instances by using REST API calls. Manager Service operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:
  • Cloud Replication Management Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
Cloud Service with an embedded VMware Cloud Director Availability Tenant Portal Provides the main interface for replication operations. Operates with VMware Cloud Director-level concepts, with vApps and virtual machines. Manages the Manager Service by using REST API calls.

The embedded VMware Cloud Director Availability Tenant Portal provides the tenants and the service providers of the VMware Cloud Director Availability Provider Portal with a graphic user interface to operate with VMware Cloud Director Availability.

Cloud Service operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:

  • Cloud Replication Management Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
Tunnel Service Orchestrates a secure tunnel creation and as a single point channels the incoming and outgoing site traffic, both management and replication data (LWD) traffic. Tunnel Service operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:
  • Cloud Tunnel Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
  • VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance
Table 2. Replication Services
Service Name Service Description
vSphere Replication Server with vSphere Replication Filter Manages low-level replication operations, creates replication instances, and others. Receives and records the delta information for each replicated workload. During a replication, only the delta information is sent from the source site ESXi host to the destination site ESXi host. vSphere Replication Server operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:
  • Cloud Tunnel Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
  • VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance
Lightweight Delta Protocol Service (LWD Proxy) A proprietary replication protocol service that manages the encryption, compression, and traffic monitoring of the replication traffic. Verifies that each incoming replication data stream comes only from the authorized source LWD Proxy instance. Also verifies that each outgoing replication data stream goes only to an authorized destination LWD Proxy instance. LWD Proxy operates in the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances:
  • Cloud Tunnel Appliance
  • Combined Appliance
  • VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance
The following additional services run on all the VMware Cloud Director Availability virtual appliances.
Table 3. Additional Services
Service Name Service Description
sshd A standard Linux service that provides Secure Shell (SSH) access on port 22 to the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances. By default, this service is disabled. After explicitly enabling SSH during deployment or in the vCAv portal, this service is enabled and started. Only the root user is allowed to authenticate. After 3 unsuccessful login attempts, the root user account is locked for 15 minutes.
systemd-timesyncd A standard Linux service that provides the NTP time management. Use the vCAv Portal to configure the NTP server. This service is always running.
vaos A VMware service for guest OS initialization, operating VMware infrastructure settings. For example, network settings, hostname settings, creating ssh keys, running boot scripts, accepting EULA, and others. This service runs when the appliance boots.
h4postgresql An embedded PostgreSQL server, that only listens on the local loopback device. You cannot use an external database and you cannot expose the embedded database externally. This service is always running.