Learn about the different sections of the Public VCF as-a-Service interface.
Requirements
- A working knowledge of Linux, vSphere, Windows, and IP networks is required to configure and manage Public VCF as-a-Service
- A Public VCF as-a-Service administrator account
If you are unsure how to log in to your organization’s web portal, read this guide first.
Instructions
VMware vCloud Director (VCD) is a cloud computing management platform. Public VCF as-a-Service enables the creation, management, and deployment of virtualized computing resources on a large scale and offers an agile and scalable infrastructure. With an easy-to-use user interface and advanced features such as resource management, automated billing, and enhanced security, vCloud Director simplifies the management of complex cloud environments.
This solution enables you to provision and efficiently manage virtual machines, virtual networks, and other resources, providing increased operational agility and flexibility to meet changing business needs.
Once you have logged in to your web interface, you will be greeted by a dashboard displaying your vDC, as well as a detailed summary of your resource usage. On the left-hand side of the screen, you will also find a navigation bar with the different settings options available for VMware Cloud Director (VCD).
The following are the different sections available:
- Data Centers
- Applications
- Networking
- Content Hub
- Libraries
- Administration
- Monitor
- More
- Interface controls
- Recent tasks
Data Centers
In the Data Centers section, you will find all of your virtual data centers (vDCs) ordered in different data center locations, a brief overview of your resource usage, and the number of vApps/VMs currently running.
Clicking the name of a data center gives you access to five other areas and further sub-sections within each: Compute, Networking, Storage, Policies, and Settings.
Applications
The Applications section contains a comprehensive overview of all your vApps and virtual machines on your virtual data centers (vDC). Here you can create, access, and delete vApps or virtual machines with ease.
Using vApps is a unique feature of vCloud Director (VCD). This allows you to create and group a set of virtual machines and containers within the same Virtual Application (vApp), but also to go granularly to create affinity/anti-affinity rules within these vApps (network, firewall, templating, etc.). As settings for these vApps, we find the same vSphere/NSX features for the network and storage that can be applied to this centralized web console (an orchestrator).
For example, you can copy a vApp from one vDC to another or migrate an application from one site to another.
Below is the global view of the Applications area, with three sub-sections: Virtual Applications, Virtual Machines, and Container Applications.
Networking
Public VCF as-a-Service networking allows the organization’s provider and customer to create and consume networking resources from a vSphere or NSX environment. In the Networking section, clients can create network segments, configure services with or without DHCP, perform NAT firewall, and use load balancing integrations, for example.
NOTE: At this time, Public VCF as-a-Service Advanced is not available in the US, which means that you cannot create Edge Gateways via the VCD user interface.
Below is the global view of the Networking area, with five sub-sections: Networks, Edge Gateways, IP Spaces, Data Center Groups, and Security Tags.
Public VCF as-a-Service supports three types of networks: external, organization of vDC, and vApp.
Content Hub
In the Content Hub section, you can manage your catalogs. Create, delete, or download ISO files or OVA templates, or simply use the preconfigured templates available in the OVHcloud catalog.
The left navigation bar gives you access to four additional areas: Welcome to the Content Hub, Content, Catalogs, and Kubernetes Resources (e.g., Kubernetes Clusters, Registry Credentials).
Libraries
The Libraries section gives you access to the Content Libraries and Services areas.
Administration
In the Administration section, you can manage users in your organization, create roles and groups, and configure an identification provider (OIDC/SAML). You can also set up email alerts and expiration policies for your applications.
The left-side navigation menu includes: Access Control, Certificate Management, and Settings.
Monitor
In the Monitor section, you can access the complete history of all tasks and events that have occurred in your organization.
Below is the global view of the Monitor area, with two sub-sections: Tasks and Events.
More
In this section, you can access the essential plugins: Veeam for data protection to back up your infrastructure and the Operations Manager for an exhaustive breakdown of your usage.
Interface controls
Magnifier
Click the magnifying glass 🔍 icon to search for components within your organization.
Dark/Light mode
Toggle between ☾ Dark and ☀ Light mode.
Help
Click the question mark ? icon for more information about using the interface.
User actions
Click your name in the upper-right corner to edit your preferences, change your password, or log out.
Recent tasks
Look here for all recent actions in your organization.
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public VCF as-a-Service support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.
If you need training or technical assistance to implement our solutions, contact your sales representative or click on this link to get a quote and ask our Professional Services experts for a custom analysis of your project.