VMware Cloud Director Availability Documentation

VMware Cloud Director Availability introduces a unified architecture for the disaster recovery protection and migration of VMware vSphere ^® workloads. With VMware Cloud Director Availability in both the sites, the providers and their tenants can protect and migrate vApps and virtual machines:

Between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director™.
Between multi-tenant provider cloud sites that are backed by VMware Cloud Director.

vSphere DR and migration, introduced with VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.4 uses a new deployment topology in both the sites and the providers and their tenants can protect and migrate vSphere workloads:

Between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider cloud vCenter Server site.
Between providers cloud vCenter Server sites.

Cloud site:

In a multi-tenant provider cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, one VMware Cloud Director Availability instance consists of the following number of cloud appliances:
- one Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance,
- one, or more Replicator Appliance instances,
- and one Tunnel Appliance.
Multiple Availability cloud sites can coexist in one VMware Cloud Director instance. In a site, all the cloud appliances operate together, supporting the replications management, secure SSL communication, and storage of the replicated data. The provider can support recovery for multiple tenants environments that can scale for handling the increasing workloads.

In a provider cloud vCenter Server site, one instance of VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 or later consists of one vCenter Replication Management Appliance and, optionally, one or more Replicator Appliance instances. VMware Cloud Director is not required.

On-premises site:

In an on-premises disaster recovery environment, tenants manage the replications by using the VMware Cloud Director Availability vSphere Client Plug-In, supported by a VMware Cloud Director Availability On-Premises Appliance. In the on-premises vCenter Server instance, depending on the provider cloud site, deploy the on-premises appliance:

as either an On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance,
or as an On-Premises to Cloud vCenter Replication Appliance.

What's new

For information about the latest updates, see the VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Release Notes.
For information about vSphere DR and migration and the new deployment topology architecture for replications between an on-premises vCenter Server site and a provider vCenter Server site by using an optional, one or more Replicator Appliance instances, see the Installation and Configuration Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site and the following architecture diagram:

Documentation phases map

Day 0 operations:

Represents the design phase, when requirements and security are specified and the architecture is completed.

For each VMware Cloud Director Availability version, in the following table see the Release Notes and the Security Guide.

Day 1 operations:

Contains the prerequisites for deploying the virtual appliances and their installation and configuration as designed in the Day 0 phase. Also in this phase, the infrastructure, network, and external services are initially configured. The initial design is deployed and the infrastructure is configured, based on the designed specifications.

For each VMware Cloud Director Availability version, in the following table see the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site, the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in the Cloud Director Site, and the Migration to VMware Cloud Director service Guide.

Day 2 operations:: Focuses on the daily routine operations like authentication, using replications, and maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Configuring the settings of the network interface cards (NIC), replacing the SSL certificates of the appliances, stretching L2 networks, configuring provider and tenants events, bandwidth throttling, evacuating datastore, and others.; For each VMware Cloud Director Availability version, in the following table see the User Guide and the Administration Guide.


Stage of the Lifecycle	Prerequisites Documentation for Each Version	Operations	Additional Documentation
Day 0 phase: Design Architect Network Privileges Security	Before deployment, see the latest major version 4.5 Release Notes.	What's new in version 4.5 Upgrade to version 4.5 Resolved issues in version 4.5 Known issues in version 4.5	Security Guide Services ports Network connectivity Users roles and rights Logs Architecting Cloud Director Availability Replication Flow
Day 1 phase: Deploy Install Configure Upgrade	In a cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, for the deployment prerequisites and to install and configure, or to upgrade, see the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in the Cloud Director Site.	Cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director: Architecture for Cloud Director site Appliances services Prerequisites Interoperability Network Requirements Appliances deployment Configuration Upgrade the Cloud Director site	Migration to Cloud Director service Guide contains the architecture, the SDDC configuration, deployment, and pairing necessary for migration to VMware Cloud Director service from on-premises and from cloud sites.
	In the on-premises vCenter Server site and in a provider cloud vCenter Server site, for the deployment prerequisites and to install, configure, or to upgrade, see the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site. For the interoperability and the required vSphere licensing, see Interoperability and vSphere Product Edition. For vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites deployment, see the Installing and Configuring a vCenter Replication Management Appliance and an On-Premises to Cloud vCenter Replication Appliance chapter. Alternatively, for replications with Cloud Director sites deployment, see the Installing and Configuring On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance chapter.	vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites: Deployment architecture and requirements Deploy both appliances Configure and pair both appliances
		On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance : Architecture Network requirements Deployment Configuration Upgrade
Day 2 phase: Daily Use Manage Administer Maintain	To access, authenticate, and replicate workloads for disaster recovery protection or migration, see the User Guide procedures that are common for replications with any site. For replication-specific settings with Cloud Director sites, see the Replicating with Cloud Director Site chapter.	Accessing Authenticating Replications Migrations Monitoring Tenant events	In VMware Cloud on AWS, day 2 preparation of the SDDC: Post-configure the SDDC Networking in VMware Cloud on AWS for example, for services certificate replacement.
	To manage paired cloud sites, replace SSL certificates, configure NIC settings, stretch networks, notify and monitor, and maintain, see the Administration Guide. For common administrative procedures for any site, for example scheduling backup archives, see the Monitoring and Troubleshooting chapter. For administering both vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites and On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance, see the Administration in On-Premises and Provider Site chapter. For administering a cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director, see the Administration in the Cloud Director Site chapter.	Both On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance and vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites: Back up the appliance Restore the appliance Repair sites Replace the appliance SSL certificate Change the IP address of the appliance
		Cloud site backed by VMware Cloud Director: NIC settings SSL certificates Pairing Cloud Director sites Stretching L2 networks Provider and tenant events and notifications Maintenance

Other resources

vCloud Usage Meter integration

VMware vCloud^® Usage Meter must meter the configured for protection or migration virtual machines using VMware Cloud Director Availability.

Metering instances:

As a provider, you must meter the consumption data of VMware Cloud Director Availability and generate monthly usage reports for protections and for migrations, by adding each cloud VMware Cloud Director Availability instance in vCloud Usage Meter, depending on the network access:

When vCloud Usage Meter is internal to the network of VMware Cloud Director Availability, you must meter each VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site in vCloud Usage Meter by adding:
- Each instance of Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, or
- Each instance of vCenter Replication Management Appliance.
Enter each appliance-IP-address-or-hostname, port 443, and the root user credentials of all replication management appliances.
Alternatively, when vCloud Usage Meter is external to the network of VMware Cloud Director Availability, you must meter the entire VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site in vCloud Usage Meter by adding the Service Endpoint:443, and the root user credentials of all replication management appliances. For cloud sites backed by VMware Cloud Director, also activate Allow admin access from anywhere on the Settings page in the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance.

For more information, see Add a VMware Cloud Director Availability Instance for Metering in the vCloud Usage Meter documentation.

Supported versions

Use VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5, 4.4.1, or version 4.4 for vSphere DR and migration between vCenter Server sites. Pairing sites requires the same version in both sites. Do not pair version 4.5 with version 4.4. For more information, see Upgrade in the VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Release Notes.
Use VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5, 4.4.1, 4.4, or versions 4.3.x, or 4.2.x for replications with Cloud Director sites. Pairing sites requires using the latest maintenance patch release for VMware Cloud Director Availability. For information about the pairing interoperability and the latest release, see Managing Pairing with Cloud Director Sites.

Attention: Since June 2022, VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.1.x, 4.0.x, all of its earlier versions, and vRealize Operations Management Pack for Cloud Director Availability 1.0 all reached End of General Support (EOGS) and are no longer available for download from VMware. For information about the life cycle policy and the products life cycle matrix, see Enterprise application support.

Looking for vCloud Availability documentation?: Since June 2020, VMware Cloud Director Availability replaces the previous product names.