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Unattended Deployment of vCloud Connector Server/Node Virtual Appliance

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VMware just released vCloud Connector 1.5 Server and Node which is distributed as a virtual appliance. Just like in previous post Unattended Deployment of vCenter Orchestrator Virtual Appliance here is how you can automate the deployment of vCloud Connector Server and vCloud Connector Node.

Here are the four ovf properties that are used to configure the network for vCloud Connector 1.5

  • vami.gateway.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server
  • vami.DNS.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server
  • vami.ip0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server
  • vami.netmask0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server

Here are the four ovf properties that are used to configure the network for vCloud Connector 1.5

  • vami.gateway.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node
  • vami.DNS.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node
  • vami.ip0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node
  • vami.netmask0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node

To see these properties before deploying, you can query using the ovftool which can help you identify the name of the ovf variables using the following command:

ovftool --hideEula vCCServer-1.5.0.0-515166_OVF10.ovf

Here is an example of the ovftool command to deploy vCC Server:

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --skipManifestCheck '--net:Network 1=VM_Network' --datastore=vesxi50-1-local-storage-1 --diskMode=thin --name=vcc-server --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server=172.30.0.100 --prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server=172.30.0.1 --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server=172.30.0.143 --prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Server=255.255.255.0 vCCServer-1.5.0.0-515166_OVF10.ovf 'vi://root:*protected email*/?dns=vesxi50-1.primp-industries.com'

Here is an example of the ovftool command to deploy vCC Node:

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --skipManifestCheck '--net:Network 1=VM_Network' --datastore=vesxi50-1-local-storage-1 --diskMode=thin --name=vcc-node --prop:vami.DNS.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node=172.30.0.100 --prop:vami.gateway.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node=172.30.0.1 --prop:vami.ip0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node=172.30.0.144 --prop:vami.netmask0.VMware_vCloud_Connector_Node=255.255.255.0 vCCNode-1.5.0.0-515165_OVF10.ovf 'vi://root:*protected email*/?dns=vesxi50-1.primp-industries.com'

Of course, I wrote a simple shell script deployvCC.sh to help with the deployment. The script assumes you have ovftool installed and the OVF files located in the same directory as the script. You will need to edit the following variables if you wish to deploy vCC Server and/or Node:

Note: There are many ways of using the ovftool to deploy an OVF. In this simple example, it requires you to specify an ESX(i) host, but you can modify the locator to deploy to a VM folder or datacenter path. For more examples and options, please take a look at the ovftool documentation.

Here is an example of the script in action:

Once the vCC virtual appliance has been deployed, you can also have it automatically power on by specifying the following parameter --powerOn.

If everything was successful, you should now be able to point your browser to the hostname of your vCC Server/Node and you should taken to the vCC splash screen.

Happy vConnecting 🙂