VMware Cloud Director: What It Is and How to Use It

VMware Cloud Director (formerly vCloud Director, or “vCD”) is a modern solution for cloud providers, mainly designed for building virtual data centers on top of physical infrastructure. The platform allows combining all of a data center’s physical resources into virtual pools, which are then offered to end users on a rental basis.

It integrates tightly with VMware’s own technologies: vCenter and vSphere. vCenter is a set of tools for managing virtual infrastructure, and vSphere is the virtualization platform for cloud computing.

Key Capabilities of VMware Cloud Director

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• Creation of virtual data centers (vDCs) with full isolation of virtual services and resources.
• Migration of virtual machines (VMs) between clouds, and self-deployment of OVF templates.
• Snapshots and rollback of VM changes.
• Creation of isolated and routable networks with external access.
• Integrated, tiered storage with load balancing between virtual machines.
• Network security: perimeter protection and firewalling.
• Encryption of access to cloud resources to secure the virtual infrastructure.
• Unified authentication across all VMware services (single sign-on) so users don’t need to re-authenticate.
• Deployment of multi‑tier applications as ready-made virtual appliances, with VMs and OS images.
• Allocation of isolated resources for different departments within a single virtual structure.

How VMware Cloud Director Works

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VMware Cloud Director uses a multi-tenant model. Rather than building a dedicated environment for every customer, it creates a shared virtual environment. This reduces infrastructure maintenance costs massively: for large cloud providers, savings can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per year, which in turn lowers the rental cost for end users.

Resource consumption model:

1. Using vCenter and vSphere, the provider aggregates physical resources into a shared pool called a “virtual data center” (vDC).
2. From that pool, resources are allocated into Org vDCs (Organizational Virtual Data Centers), which are the fundamental compute units consumed by customers.
3. VMware Cloud Director syncs with the vSphere database to request and allocate the required amount of resources.

Org vDCs are containers of VMs and can be configured independently. Customers can order different numbers of Org vDCs for different purposes, e.g., one Org vDC for marketing, another for finance, a third for HR. At the same time, interconnectivity can be established between these Org vDCs, forming a large, virtual private data center.

It’s also possible to combine Org vDCs into multiple networks. Additionally, within those networks, one can create vApps (virtual applications) made up of VMs, each with their own gateways to connect to Org vDCs. This setup allows building virtual networks of any architecture, isolated or routable, to match various business needs.

When such a network is created, the provider assigns a user from the customer organization to the role of network administrator. A unique URL is also assigned to each organization. The administrator is responsible for adding or removing users, assigning roles and resources, creating network services, and more. They also manage connections to services provided by the cloud provider. For instance, VM templates or OVF/OVA modules, which simplify backup and VM migration.

Resource Allocation Models in VMware Cloud Director

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VMware Cloud Director supports several models for allocating resources, depending on how you want to manage usage:

1. Allocation Pool: You set resource limits and also define a guaranteed percentage of the shared pool for a user. This  model is good when you want predictable costs but don’t need full reservation.
2. Pay-As-You-Go: No guaranteed resources, only consumption-based; ideal if usage is variable. The model is flexible and fits users who want to grow gradually.
3. Reservation Pool: You reserve all available resources; user requests are limited only by what the provider’s data center can supply. Reservation Pool is suited for organizations that need fixed performance and large infrastructure.

Useful Features of VMware Cloud Director

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Here are several powerful features that optimize resource usage, routing, and tenant isolation:

Delegation of Privileges

You can assign network administrators from the users of each organization. These admins get broad rights: they can create and manage VMs, deploy OVF/OVA templates, manage VM migration, set up isolated/routable networks, balance VM workloads, and more.

Monitoring and Analytics

Cloud Director includes a unified system for monitoring and analyzing VM infrastructure: VMs, storage, networks, memory. All data is logged and visualized in a dedicated dashboard, making it easier to detect and resolve problems proactively.

Networking Features

Networking in vCloud Director supports dynamic routing, distributed firewalls, hybrid cloud integration, and flexible traffic distribution. Many of these features are now standard in the newer versions of Cloud Director. If you don’t already have some of them, you may need to upgrade your NSX Edge and convert it to an Advanced Gateway in the UI.

Dynamic routing improves reliability by eliminating manual route configuration. You can also define custom routing rules based on IP/MAC addresses or groups of servers. With NSX Edge load balancing, incoming traffic can be distributed evenly across pools of VMs selected by IP, improving scalability and performance.

Access Control and More

• You can create custom user roles in the Cloud Director UI to control access tailored to organizational needs.
• VMs can be pinned to specific ESXi host groups (affinity rules), which helps with licensing or performance. If Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is supported, Cloud Director can automatically balance VMs across hosts based on load.
• Additional useful features include automatic VM discovery and import, batch updating of server cluster cells, and network migration tools.

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