Mappings
The templates that are available for vCloud execution servers correspond to vApp templates in local (non public) catalogs
in vCloud. They are displayed as
<catalog name> - <vApp template name>.
Deploying a virtual environment for a test run creates a new vApp in vCloud Director, with its name based on the template
name and the suffix
- for
Silk Central <timestamp>.
Guest Operating System Customization Requirements
To enable the
Silk Central execution server to start up properly, the Guest Operating System Customization must be activated and configured in the vApp
template virtual machine properties in vCloud Director as outlined below. As the execution server is started in a user session,
a Windows login must only occur once after the VM reboot is initiated by the Guest Operating System Customization.
- Enable
Allow Local Administrator Password and
Login as Administrator automatically
- Specify the password or let vCloud generate a new one
- Disable
Administrator must change password on first login
- Make sure that in Windows itself, no
Auto login is activated, as this would cause a duplicate login and execution server startup due to the customization reboot
Limitations
- The
Silk Central vCloud integration only allows the usage of vApp templates in local (non public) catalogs. Public catalogs can still be used
to copy or move templates across organizations, but the contained templates will not be available in
Silk Central. The reason for this limitation is that there are potential problems to create vApps from templates in a public catalog if
the template originates from another organization. This happens because the vDC and the network associated with the template
are not valid in another organization.
- No fencing support.
Silk Central does not support that multiple VMs within a vApp communicate with each other with a known IP address, because each deployed
VM dynamically receives a new IP.
- vApp templates with the setting
Create Identical Copy are not supported. When creating a vApp template to be usable in
Silk Central, make sure that in the properties of the vApp template the option
Customize VM settings is enabled. Setting this option to
Identical Copy will raise an error when
Silk Central attempts to deploy vApps from this template. Note that this option can only be set when creating the vApp template.
- Accessing commercial service providers that expose a vCloud REST API has not been tested, but may work. The integration has
been tested with
VMware vCloud Director 5.5 installed as private cloud.
- To prevent IP assignment conflicts, store vApp templates with DHCP IP mode configured for the network adapter. If this is
not configured, booting a VM for the first time after deployment can cause vApp machines to have an old static IP from the
time the template was stored. The correct IP gets updated when VMware does a guest operating system customization, which adjusts
the IP configuration and initiates a reboot.
Silk Central always configures static IP pool mode (applied after guest operating system customization), no matter what is configured
in the template.
- If using more than one network in the virtual data center (vDC), configure the network to be used in the stored vApp template.
Silk Central matches the name of the network that is set in the template VM network adapter with the vDC network names to choose the right
vDC network when deploying a new vApp.
- If an execution server older than version 15.0 is installed within the template VM, it must run in
As Process mode