Working with cloud organizations

If you have opted out from the VMware Lab Platform cloud and opted for Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) subscription, you must create a cloud organization and connect your virtual cloud director instance to VMware Lab Platform.

Port and proxy requirements

VMware Lab Platform requires API access to the virtual cloud director URL running your HTTP service. This is configured to run on port 443. Console access is directed through the console proxy, which runs on port 8443 on the same IP as the HTTP service.

The IP address configured as the console proxy endpoint must not be located behind an SSL-terminating load balancer or reverse proxy. All console proxy requests must be relayed directly to the console proxy IP address. For an installation with a single IP address, you can customize the console proxy address from the Service Provider Admin Portal. For example, for the VMware Cloud Director service, you must customize the console proxy address to vcloud.example.com:8443.

Understanding the definitions of VMware Lab Platform actions

When setting up and managing cloud organizations, it is important to understand the definitions of VMware Lab Platform actions and how these actions interact with the cloud.

Deployment

In VMware Lab Platform, deployment means creating a new vApp in the cloud, either as a prepopulated vApp or as an on-demand creation.

Assignment

Assignment is the action of assigning an existing prepopulated vApp to an entitlement that is starting for the first time or that has its vApp reset. These settings specify a baseline for determining whether VMware Lab Platform can use the cloud for the action. If an action is deactivated for the cloud org, then the organization is not used for this action regardless of any other settings. If the action is activated for this cloud, then the settings on the VMware Cloud Director and/or template are used to determine if the action can proceed.

Action Enablement

VMware Lab Platform determines whether a cloud is activated for a specific action by following a series of steps, in a specific order, where each step checks one setting. If the setting for the cloud is deactivated for the action, then the cloud is deactivated for that action. Only if all the steps are completed, with no step indicating that the action is deactivated, does VMware Lab Platform consider the action activated. So, if an early step in the process indicates that an action is deactivated, then no subsequent step in the process can make the action activated.