Managing

There are two aspects of managing a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a Service (VMwaaS) multitenant instances. At a high level, these are the management of the "on IBM Cloud" aspects of a VCF as a Service instance and managing the virtual data center (VDC) with VMware vCloud Director (vCloud Director).

This chapter focuses on using the IBM Cloud portal to manage aspects of the Virtual Data Center (VDC) like:

Adding and deleting instances
Modifying the vCPU and RAM limits of the instance
Accessing the VMware vCloud Director web console
Accessing add-on services
Managing interconnectivity

About the IBM Technology Zone (ITZ) environment

The steps that follow are specific to the ITZ environment reserved as part of the IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions for Technical Sales Level 3 learning plan. If you don't already have an active reservation, refer to Reserve the IBM Technology Zone environment.

Remember, in the ITZ environment you will NOT have permission to create, delete, or modify resources. You will be utilizing pre-provisioned and pre-configured resources that are shared by all users of the learning plan.

The steps outlined go up to the point of creating, deleting, or modifying a resource and then instruct you to cancel the pending action. This approach is common for client demonstrations as some events take longer than you would want to wait during a live demonstration. Explain to the client what would occur if the action had been completed (for example, "the resource would then be deleted.").

If an attempt is made to complete the action in the ITZ environment an error message would be shown like:

Click the following link to open a browser to the IBM Cloud portal.

IBM Cloud portal
If not already in the 2326338 - ITZ-VMWARE account, switch to the 2326338 - ITZ-VMWARE IBM Cloud account.

Depending on the size of the browser window, the switch account menu varies as seen in these two animated images.
Click the VMware () icon.
Click VCF as a Service in the left menu.

Notice the 2 tabs: Virtual data centers and Cloud Director sites. For this demonstration, use only the vdc-mt-se-l3 virtual data center (VDC)! As you are accessing the live IBM Cloud portal, the number of data centers you see may vary. The vdc-mt-se-l3 VCD is part of the IBM VCFaaS Multitenant - DAL VMware Cloud Director (VDC) site. This site is managed by IBM and other tenants that selected the Dallas location. This module focuses on the VDC and not the site.
Click vdc-mt-se-l3.

VDC instance summary

Examine the information shown on the VDC instance summary page.

a. The vCPU and RAM limit shows the consumption limits that were specified when the instance was provisioned.

b. The pricing plan selected for the instance.

c. The VDC site where the VCD is located.

d. The location of the VCD.

e. The VCD instance ID. This is required when accessing the instance through the IBM Cloud application programming interfaces (APIs) and command-line interfaces (CLIs).

f. The network edge type.

g. The type of connections supported.

h. The fast provisioning setting.

i. The public IPs assigned to the VCD instance.
Click Modify limit.
Examine the consumption limit options.

Recall that the vCPU and RAM charges for on-demand virtual data centers are based on the amount that is used for running workloads. To control cost, clients can use limits to restrict the maximum amount of vCPU and RAM usage in the virtual data center. Consumption limits can also be turned off.

a. Toggle to enable or disable consumption limits.

b. Increase or decrease the maximum number of vCPUs between 1 and 2000.

c. Increase or decrease the maximum amount of memory (RAM) between 1 gigabyte (GB) and 40960 GB.
Click Cancel.

VDC Add-on services

Click the Add-on services tab.
Examine the included Add-on services for the VDC instance.

Access to the Add-on services not provided in the ITZ environment

At this time, administrative access to the Add-on services for this instance is not provided. The IBM Cloud Identity Access Management (IAM) controls do not provide sufficient isolation control for these services in a shared environment like the one used by this learning plan.

Several videos of how to use VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) are included in the product documentation, including this one that illustrates migration from the VCF as a Service multitenant instance to a VCF as a Service single-tenant instance

There are two Add-on services included in this VDC instance:
- VMware Cloud Director Availability
  
  VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) delivers simple, secure, and cost-effective migration and disaster recovery protection of workloads. The VCDA service is included by default in all multitenant VDCs and optionally included in single-tenant VCF as a Service Cloud Director sites at no charge. Learn more about VCDA here.
- Veeam Backup and Replication
  
  Veeam Backup and Replication Always-On Enterprise provides data centers with high-speed recovery and data loss avoidance. This service seamlessly integrates as a managed solution to help enterprises achieve high availability and provides recovery points for applications and data. By using this service, enterprises control the backup of all virtual machines (VMs) for their infrastructure directly from the Veeam console. For multitenant instances, Veeam is installed on the site where the VDC is provisioned. Learn more about Veeam and the installation process here.

Interconnectivity

Click the Interconnectivity tab.
Click Learn more.
Examine the Learn more about VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service and Transit Gateway guide.

IBM Cloud Transit Gateway can be used to securely interconnect IBM Cloud VCF as a Service, Classic Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and IBM Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) infrastructures worldwide, keeping traffic within the IBM Cloud network. Learn more about using Transit Gateway to interconnect VCF as a Service with IBM Cloud services here.

As illustrated, creating and configuring a Transit Gateway connection is a 3-step process. Read the high-level descriptions of the steps in the dialog.

The Transit Gateway connection in the ITZ environment

A Transit Gateway connection has already been created in the ITZ environment for this learning plan. Users of the shared environment do not have permission to modify or add new connections.

Watch this video to see how this Transit Gateway connection was created. Note, there is no audio for this video and during longer running provisioning and configuration steps, the elapsed time has been shortened.
Click the Architecture diagram tab in the Learn more about VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service and Transit Gateway dialog.
Examine the Architecture diagram.

The IBM Cloud for VCF as a Service interconnect architecture uses the VDC edge to support inbound and outbound network traffic from VDC networks to other transit gateway endpoints including IBM Virtual Private Cloud and classic infrastructure as well as direct link connections to on-premises resources. The VDC edge uses a set of six connections to the transit gateway forming a highly available network path supporting traffic flow by using all three zones in the region.
Click the x to close the architecture diagram.
If not already expanded, expand the provisioned transit gateway 0136372c-2832-4706-8690-82164d6006a7.
Expand one of the Unbound GRE Tunnel entries in the table.
Examine the tunnel information displayed.

That concludes the overview of managing a VCF as a Service multitenant instance using the IBM Cloud portal. In later chapters, you will:

Explore accessing the VMware Cloud Director web console to create data center groups, networks, and virtual machines (VMs).
Explore the integration between a VCF as a Service multitenant instance and IBM Cloud monitoring.

In the next chapter, by using the IBM Cloud portal, briefly examine the VCF as a Service multitenant site where the VCF as a Service multitenant instance is running.