Using VMware Marketplace, you can select and deploy solutions in VMware Cloud Director (VCD) virtual data centers (VDCs).

VCD enables users to build secure, multi-tenant clouds by pooling virtual infrastructure resources into virtual data centers, and exposing them to tenants and end users. By subscribing to a solution in VMware Marketplace and then configuring deployment to VCD, it becomes available as a vApp in the target virtual data center in your organization.

As an example, this section explains how to subscribe to the Bitnami WordPress Virtual Appliance on VMware Marketplace and deploy the Bitnami WordPress OVA template as a virtual appliance (vApp) using VCD.

Prerequisites:
  • VMware Marketplace account.
  • A Virtual Datacenter (VDC) for your Organization in VCD.
  • VMware Cloud Director account.

Subscribe to a solution and set deployment configuration to VMware Cloud Director

As a VMware Marketplace consumer, you can subscribe to a solution listed in the VMware Marketplace catalog and set up the deployment configuration for your target VMware endpoint. In this task, you subscribe to WordPress Virtual Appliance and configure it for deployment to VCD.

  1. Log into VMware Marketplace.
  2. Search and locate the WordPress Virtual Appliance by Bitnami and click its tile to open the application page.
  3. On the Summary page, click SUBSCRIBE.

    This initiates the subscription and configuration process for the WordPress Virtual Appliance by Bitnami and the Subscribe wizard appears.

  4. On the SETTINGS tab, enter the WordPress Virtual Appliance settings:
    1. Select vCD as the target deployment platform for the WordPress Virtual Appliance.
    2. Select the version, and click NEXT.
  5. On the VCD DETAILS tab, enter the configuration details of your target VDC.
  6. On the SUMMARY tab, review the configuration settings that you entered, and click NEXT.
  7. Read and accept the EULA and click FINISH.

    A message appears confirming that your request for adding the product to vCD has been accepted.

  8. Click Check Subscription.

    The application page appears. Verify if the status is subscribed. You can also verify the WordPress Virtual Appliance by Bitnami subscription status anytime by clicking Manage > Subscription on the VMware Marketplace homepage.

You have now subscribed to the WordPress Virtual Appliance by Bitnami solution and configured it for deployment in a VMware Cloud Director VDC. The subscribed application is now added as a vApp to the Content Library in the VMware Cloud Director organization VDC.

Deploy a vApp from the subscribed template

You subscribed to the WordPress Virtual Appliance solution and configured it for deployment in your VCD environment. The subscribed content now becomes available in your target cloud platform as a vApp. As a VMware Cloud Director user, you access and manage subscribed content for your organization VDC by using the VMware Cloud Director tenant portal. The solutions you have subscribed in VMware Marketplace are stored as vApp templates. In this task, you provision a WordPress virtual machine from the subscribed vApp template.

  1. Log into your VMware Cloud Director tenant portal.
  2. From the main menu, select Libraries > vApp Templates.

    A list of templates appears.

  3. Locate the WordPress vApp template in the list, click the list bar on the left of the vApp template, and then click Create vApp for Template.

    Create vApp from Template wizard appears.

  4. Follow on-screen instructions to define the configuration options for the new vApp.
  5. In the Ready to Complete tab, review the vApp settings that you configured, and then click FINISH.

You provisioned a new vApp containing the WordPress virtual machine in your VDC. You can view the new vAPP in the Compute > vApps section of your VMware Cloud Director tenant portal.

The new virtual machine is powered OFF by default. You must power it ON before proceeding with the final step of this scenario.

Start using WordPress virtual machine

To start using the WordPress virtual machine provisioned in your VMware Cloud Director organization VDC, you must obtain the WordPress credentials and get the virtual machine IP address.

Verify that the WordPress virtual machine that you provisioned from the subscribed template is powered on.

  1. In the VMware Cloud Director portal, navigate to the Compute > Virtual Machines menu, and select the WordPress virtual machine.
  2. From the Actions menu of the virtual machine console, select Start Web Console.

    The WordPress virtual machine web console displays the current IP address and login credentials for the virtual machine.

  3. Note down the login credentials and the IP address.
  4. Open a web browser and enter the IP address of the WordPress virtual machine.
  5. Login using the WordPress credentials that you have noted down.

    The front page of your WordPress blog displays in the web browser window. You are now ready to blog.

Optimize application deployment for tenants through VMware Cloud Director App Launchpad plug-in

As a VMware Cloud Director service provider, you use the VMware Marketplace catalog of deployment-ready applications and use the App Launchpad plug-in on VMware Cloud Director to provide optimized application deployment to VMware Cloud Director tenants.

App Launchpad is a VMware Cloud Director service extension that service providers can use to create and publish catalogs of deployment-ready applications. Tenant users can then deploy the applications with a single click.

App Launchpad supports the use of applications from the Bitnami applications catalog available in VMware Marketplace.

As a service provider, you install App Launchpad in your data center and configure it to use the Bitnami applications catalog from VMware Marketplace. For App Launchpad installation and configuration information, see the VMware Cloud Director App Launchpad product documentation.

When you subscribe to catalog items in VMware Marketplace, you configure the target VMware Cloud Director catalog by providing the public URL of the VMware Cloud Director organization, the login credentials, and the Organization and Catalog names. Upon completing the subscription process, the subscribed content is synchronized with the target catalog in VMware Cloud Director. The synchronized catalog can be used in App Launchpad to enable the single-click application deployment to VMware Cloud Director tenants. You can share the catalog items with different tenant organizations, and tenant users can deploy new instances of the applications into their organization VDCs.