Installation, Upgrade, and Administration of VMware Cloud Director on Linux

You create a VMware Cloud Director server group by installing the VMware Cloud Director software on one or more Linux servers, or by deploying one or more instances of the VMware Cloud Director appliance. During the installation process, you perform the initial VMware Cloud Director configuration, which includes establishing network and database connections.

The VMware Cloud Director software for Linux requires an external database, whereas the VMware Cloud Director appliance uses an embedded PostgreSQL database.

After you create the VMware Cloud Director server group, you integrate the VMware Cloud Director installation with your vSphere resources. For network resources, VMware Cloud Director can use NSX Data Center for vSphere, NSX, or both.

When you upgrade an existing VMware Cloud Director installation, you update the VMware Cloud Director software and the database schema, leaving the existing relationships between servers, the database, and vSphere in place.

When you migrate an existing VMware Cloud Director installation on Linux to the VMware Cloud Director appliance, you update the VMware Cloud Director software and migrate the database to the embedded database in the appliance.