You can add servers to your VMware Cloud Director server group at any time. Because all servers in a server group must be configured with the same database connection details, you must use the response file created when you configured the first member of the group.

Important: Mixed VMware Cloud Director installations on Linux and VMware Cloud Director appliance deployments in one server group are unsupported.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you can access the response file that was created when you configured the first member of this server group. See Configure the VMware Cloud Director Network and Database Connections.
  • Verify that you mounted the shared transfer storage on the first member of the VMware Cloud Director server group at /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the target server as root.
  2. Download the installation file to the target server.
    If you purchased the software on media, copy the installation file to a location that is accessible to the target server.
  3. Ensure that the installation file is executable.
    The installation file requires execute permission. To be sure that it has this permission, open a console, shell, or terminal window and run the following Linux command, where installation-file is the full pathname to the VMware Cloud Director installation file. 
    [root@cell1 /tmp]# chmod u+x installation-file
  4. Run the installation file.
    To run the installation file, enter the full pathname, for example: 
    [root@cell1 /tmp]# ./installation-file
    The file includes an installation script and an embedded RPM package.
    Note: You cannot run the installation file from a directory whose pathname includes any embedded space characters.
    If you did not install the VMware public key on the target server, the installer prints a warning of the following form: 
    warning:installation-file.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA1 signature: NOKEY, key ID 66fd4949

    The installer performs the following actions.

    1. Verifies that the host meets all requirements.
    2. Verifies the digital signature on the installation file.
    3. Creates the vcloud user and group.
    4. Unpacks the VMware Cloud Director RPM package.
    5. Installs the software.
    When the installation finishes, the installer prompts you to run the configuration script, which configures the network and database connections.
  5. Enter n and press Enter to reject running the configuration script.
    You run the configuration script later by providing the response file as input.
  6. Mount the shared transfer storage at /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer.
    All VMware Cloud Director servers in the server group must mount this volume at the same mountpoint.
  7. Copy the response file to a location accessible to this server.
    All directories in the pathname to the response file must be readable by root.
  8. Run the configuration script.
    1. Run the configure command by providing the response file pathname. 
      /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/configure -r /responses.properties
      The script copies the response file to a location readable by vcloud.vcloud and runs the configuration script using the response file as input.
    2. On the prompts, provide the IP addresses for the HTTP service.

      Starting with VMware Cloud Director 10.4, the console proxy uses the same IP address and port as the REST API. VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 and later do not support the legacy implementation of the console proxy feature and you must not use console proxy parameters with the configure command.

    3. If the configuration script does not find valid certificates in the pathname saved in the response file, when prompted, provide the pathname to the certificates and the passwords.

    The script validates the information, connects the server to the database, and offers to start the VMware Cloud Director cell.

  9. (Optional) Enter y to start the VMware Cloud Director service.
    You can decide to start the service later by running the service vmware-vcd start command.

What to do next

Repeat this procedure to add more servers to this server group.

When the VMware Cloud Director services are running on all servers, you must initialize the VMware Cloud Director database with a license key, system administrator account, and related information. You can initialize the database by using the cell management tool with the system-setup subcommand. See Configure Your VMware Cloud Director Installation.