Managing Defined Entities in VMware Cloud Director

Service providers can use the VMware Cloud Director API to create extensions that provide additional VMware Cloud Director capabilities to the tenants. If a service provider granted you access, you can manage defined entities and share them with other tenants.

Service providers can create runtime defined entity types enabling extensions to store and manipulate the extension-specific information in VMware Cloud Director. For example, a Kubernetes extension can store information about the Kubernetes clusters it manages in runtime defined entities. The extension can then provide extension APIs for managing those clusters using the information from the runtime defined entities. If the service provider shares with you the rights bundle for the runtime defined entity type, you can create instances of the type.

When you create a defined entity in one tenant organization, you cannot share the defined entity with tenants in another organization. You cannot change the owner of a defined entity to a user in another organization.

Access to Defined Entities

Two complementary mechanisms control the access to runtime defined entities.

Rights - When a service provider creates an runtime defined entity type, they create a rights bundle for the type. A service provider must assign you one or more of the five type-specific rights: View: TYPE, Edit: TYPE, Full Control: TYPE, Administrator View: TYPE, and Administrator Full Control: TYPE.

The View: TYPE, Edit: TYPE, and Full Control: TYPE rights work only in combination with an ACL entry.
Access Control List (ACL) - The ACL table contains entries defining the access users have to specific entities in the system. It provides an extra level of control over the entities. For example, while an Edit: TYPE right specifies that a user can modify entities to which they have access, the ACL table defines which entities the user has access to.

Table 1. Rights and ACL Entries for RDE Operations
Entity Operation	Option	Description
Read	Administrator View: TYPE right	Users with this right can see all runtime defined entities of this type within an organization.
Read	View: TYPE right and ACL entry >= View	Users with this right and a read-level ACL can view runtime defined entities of this type.
Modify	Administrator Full Control: TYPE right	Users with this right can create, view, modify, and delete runtime defined entities of this type in all organizations.
Modify	Edit: TYPE right and ACL entry >= Change	Users with this right and modify-level ACL can create, view, and modify runtime defined entities of this type.
Delete	Administrator Full Control: TYPE right	Users with this right can create, view, modify, and delete runtime defined entities of this type in all organizations.
Delete	Full Control: TYPE right and ACL entry = Full Control	Users with this right and full control-level ACL can create, view, modify, and delete runtime defined entities of this type.

Sharing Defined Еntities with Another User

If a system administrator published the rights bundle for a defined entity type and granted you ReadWrite or FullControl access or you are the defined entity owner, you can share the access to those entities with other users.

Assign the View: TYPE, Edit: TYPE, or Full Control: TYPE right from the bundle to the user roles you want to have the specific level of access to the defined entity.

Note: You must be logged in as a system administrator or organization administrator to assign rights.

For example, if you want the users with the tkg_viewer role to view Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within the organization, you must add the View: Tanzu Kubernetes Guest Cluster right to the role. If you want the users with the tkg_author role to create, view, and modify Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within this organization, add the Edit: Tanzu Kubernetes Guest Cluster to that role. If you want the users with the tkg_admin role to create, view, modify, and delete Tanzu Kubernetes clusters within this organization, add the Full Control: Tanzu Kubernetes Guest Cluster right to the role.
Grant the specific user an Access Control List (ACL) by making the following REST API call.
```
POST https://[address]/cloudapi/1.0.0/entities/urn:vcloud:entity:[vendor]:[type name]:[version]:[UUID]/accessControls
 {
   "grantType" : "MembershipAccessControlGrant",
   "accessLevelId" : "urn:vcloud:accessLevel:[Access_level]",
   "memberId" : "urn:vcloud:user:[User_ID]"
 }
```
Access_level must be ReadOnly, ReadWrite, or FullControl. User_ID must be the ID of the user to which you want to grant the access to the defined entity.

You must have ReadWrite or FullControl access to an entity to grant ACL access to that entity.

Users with the tkg_viewer role, described in the example, cannot grant ACL access. Users with the tkg_author or tkg_admin role can share access to a VMWARE:TKGCLUSTER entity with users who have the tkg_viewer, tkg_author, or tkg_admin role by granting them ACL access using the API request.

Users with the Administrator Full Control: Tanzu Kubernetes Guest Cluster right can grant ACL access to any VMWARE:TKGCLUSTER entity.

You can also use REST API calls to revoke the access or to view who has access to the entity. See the VMware Cloud Director REST API documentation.

Changing the Owner of a Defined Entity

The owner of a defined entity or a user with the Administrator Full Control: TYPE right can transfer the ownership to another user by updating the defined entity model and changing the owner field with the ID of the new owner.

Working with Custom Entity Definitions

The custom entity definitions in VMware Cloud Director are object types that are bound to VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator object types. Users within a VMware Cloud Director organization can own, manage, and change these types according to their needs. By executing services, organization users can instantiate the custom entities and apply actions over the instances of the objects.