You can use VMware Cloud Director endpoints to access the underlying vSphere environment. When endpoints are connected to proxies, VMware Cloud Director acts as an HTTP proxy server.

Endpoints

A VMware Cloud Director endpoint is an access point to a data center component, for example, a vCenter instance, an ESXi host, or an NSX-V Manager instance. Users can log in to the UI or API of proxied or non-proxied components by using their VMware Cloud Director accounts.

Creating a dedicated vCenter instance also creates a default endpoint for it. While attaching the vCenter instance, you can also create a proxy. However, the default endpoint is not connected to any proxy by default. You must edit the default endpoint or create a new one to connect it to a proxy.

You can create, edit, and delete endpoints from the Endpoints tab of a dedicated vCenter instance. See Create an Endpoint in VMware Cloud Director.

Proxies

The VMware Cloud Director provided proxies are different from the proxy configurations within VMware Cloud Director. Unlike VMware Cloud Director provided proxies that are scoped to a tenant, proxy configurations within VMware Cloud Director are on the provider level and there is no tenancy.

By activating and deactivating a VMware Cloud Director provided proxy, you can allow and stop the tenant access through that proxy.

You can create a proxy either when you attach a vCenter instance to VMware Cloud Director or later. If you create a proxy while attaching a vCenter and activating the tenant access, you must manually connect the proxy to the default endpoint.

If the vCenter instance uses an external Platform Services Controller, VMware Cloud Director creates a proxy for the Platform Services Controller as well. With parent and child proxies, you can hide certain proxies from the tenants or you can activate and deactivate groups of child proxies through their parent proxies. For information on creating a proxy after you add a vCenter instance to VMware Cloud Director, see Add a VMware Cloud Director Proxy for Accessing the Underlying vCenter Resources.

You can edit, activate, deactivate, and delete proxies from the Proxies tab under Infrastructure Resources.
Note: When you add a proxy to a vCenter instance, you must upload the certificate and the thumbprint, so that tenants can retrieve the certificate and the thumbprint if the proxied component uses self-signed certificates.

To view and manage certificates and certificate revocation lists (CRLs), see Manage the Proxy Certificates and CRLs in VMware Cloud Director.