THECRYSTALCLOUDS: VMware vCloud Service

Another very nicely detailed post by yoyoclouds.com

In previous post of this series we saw how to create an account for VMware vCloud Service Evaluation using a Promo Code.

[...]Assuming that you have received your Username and Password for vCloud service evaluation via e-mail, we can now start by creating our first vApp !!

Once you logged in, Select the "My Cloud Tab". This tab will display the VMs and vApps that you will create from now onwards.

Since there wont be any existing VMs/ vApps running initially, select the "ADD A NEW SERVER" Option as shown below:

A small dialog will pop as shown below. You need to fill out the details here to start your vApp.

The first section is pretty straight forward. You will need to provide a Server Label (The name for your Virtual Machine), select the type of vApp you want (Whether you want to create a new vApp or Import one from your in-house VMware Environment using vCloud Connector) and then finally the Name of your vApp (New vApp).

Once you are done with these basic settings, the next section deals with what Template you want to use for your new Server (Virtual Machine)

vCloud Service Evaluation is providing three types of Templates:

Operating Systems ("CentOS", "Windows Servers", "Ubuntu", etc)
Applications (Pre-configured and ready to use Applications like "Wordpress")
VMware Utilities (Includes "vCloud Connector Node" and "Server")

We are going to create a simple CentOS VM here. So for that, we will select the Operating Systems template

On selecting the template as Operating Systems, you will now have to choose what type of Operating System you want for your VM.

In this tutorial, I have selected CentOS 6.2 64 BIT.

VMware vCloud Service Evaluation currently supports the following Operating Systems:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
CentOS 5.5
CentOS 6.2
Debian 6.04
Fedora 16
JeOS 8.04
Ubuntu Server 10.10
Ubuntu Server 12.04

The next section deals with how much resource (RAM and CPU) you can provide to your VM. You can change the values of your RAM and CPU by adjusting the slider.

NOTE: The cost of your VM will change as per your settings of the Resources. You will be able to see the approximate costs that will be incurred by your VM over the period of 1 month (730 Hrs) at the bottom of the "Add a new Virtual Machine" Dialog

If you adjust your Resource Slider to its maximum, you are provided with an additional option to "Customize the Resources" for your Server as you see fit.

NOTE: You cannot select CPU cores here.

The next section will help you add external drives to your VM.

By default, your VM is provided with a 50 GB Hard Drive attached to it (Standard Drive). You can add more drives as required, minimum size for additional drives starts at 10 GB.

NOTE: Although you will be provided a Hard Drive, its your duty to format it and mount it once your VM powers ON.

The final section is actually more like an Optional settings, but I recommend that you still walk through it.

The first checkbox provides you an Option to add an External IP Address to this VM. Adding an External IP makes the VM accessible on the Internet (External World).

The second checkbox sets the basic Firewall rules and enables inbound traffic on certain ports.

NOTE: Its always a good practice to enable your Firewall for your vApps and VMs. We will look into the Firewall section a little later during this tutorial

Once you are ready to deploy, verify the cost of your VM and then select the "Add New" button as shown:

Your VM will now be created. This takes couple of minutes to get started

Once done, your VM is now ready to be Powered ON. But before that, we need to do one setting in our Firewall Rules to allow Port 22 (SSH) inbound and outbound access.

To add new Firewall Rules, click on the "View my Virtual Networks" Tab. You will see a section "Configure your Firewall". This section has the default IP Rules for your VM.

Select "Create new rule" Option to add SSH Rule for our VM.

Add a Rule for SSH on Port 22 as shown below

Once done, you will need to note down couple of important things from your VM.

First is the Admin Password. This is an automated password generated for your VM.

Second, the External IP. we will remote login to our CentOS VM using this External IP on port 22.

When done, Power ON your VM

Your VM will take some time to power ON

I am using WinSCP to login to my VM. You can use any other tool so long as it serves the purpose..

Provide the External IP Address, Username (You are provided Root access by default) and Admin Password that you recorded earlier.

A security warning is displayed. Click Yes to proceed

You will be shown WinSCP's Interface as shown below. You can use this interface to basically drag drop items from your local Windows Machine to your Linux Machine.

To launch a Putty Session, there is a Putty icon in the Menu Bar.