VMware vCloud

VMware is a powerful tool that facilitates virtualization benefits such as elasticity, ease of use, and scalability. However, implementation can be complex and time consuming.

Our VMware vCloud Private Cloud is delivered completely ready-to-use, allowing you to scale or customize your infrastructure quickly and easily with resource pools. Leaseweb takes care of all underlying hardware and software components of the platform 24x7, including all of the platform patching and updating processes. Thanks to our flat fee payment model, you can will always have total control of your costs.

Contents

Resource Pools

Computing resources

When choosing the size of your resource pool (eg: #vCPU, GB RAM, SSD/SATA, etc) you also have to take into consideration that not all your workloads require the same computing performance. To give you the most efficient solution, Leaseweb has designed two high performing resource pools:

• VMware vCloud Premium Resource Pool: The best possible performance with non-overbook resources. Recommended for the most demanding heavy and critical applications.
• VMware vCloud Resource Pool: This resource pool is slightly overbooked. You receive high performing computing resources at the best price. Recommended for the vast majority of your productive workloads and applications, including small and medium size databases.

Leaseweb does not overbook on RAM.

You can consume these two resource pools within your vCloud account at the same time, using the same credentials and management console. Additionally, through the management console it is possible to create internal vLANs to cross connect all of your virtual machines for complex deployments. This provides you with the flexibility and performance your business demands.

Storage

Leaseweb can provide high speed SSD and cost-efficient SATA storage for your resource pools. Sold per GB, you decide the size of required storage to be allocated for your resource pools. By default, all storage components include redundancy technologies to ensure extreme data resiliency.

Backup

Leaseweb has Backup as a Service, powered by Veeam Technologies. This solution gives you the option to backup only those virtual machines which require extra protection and continuity. For the virtual machines you chose, you can define your own policy retentions, execute restores, and execute many management tasks. Leaseweb takes care of the platform and keeps it updated and patched at software and hardware levels. The backup platform is completely hosted by Leaseweb to increase data security. For specifics and details, please see this article.

Locations

Leaseweb can provide VMware vCloud resource pools in several locations:

• Amsterdam-01
• Amsterdam-02
• Frankfurt-10
• London-01
• WDC-02

If your desired location is not in this list, please contact us. We are continuously expanding our services in different regions.

Software

Operating systems/templates

Leaseweb supplies several templates and ISOs based on commonly used main distributions (Linux and Windows) to get you started. These templates are updated periodically and can be found within the VMware vCloud public catalog/library. It enables you to upload and create your own templates and ISOs. You also have the flexibility to create your own catalog, giving you full flexibility with your OS of choice or specific detailed tuning / patching.

Windows Server

Leaseweb does not supply (pre-licensed) windows OS templates. 
We do supply prepared Windows ISOs so you can start installing Windows yourself. The licenses for Windows can be acquired through us (please contact Sales) and are not included in default pricing.

VMware licensing

VMware licensing is included from Leaseweb.

Network & IPs

Public Network

Firewall and Load Balancer

Powered by NSX Edge, a dedicated Firewall and load balancer appliance in high availability is delivered for each tenant. You handle the administration and configuration, giving you complete flexibility, agility, and control of your resource pools and virtual machines. Leaseweb ensures the appliances are updated and working. Additional functionalities are included in this software and are also fully managed by you: NAT, Routing, VPN, DHCP and statics.

Network options

Leaseweb offers two network choices for your server—Volume and Premium. The Volume network offers one or more default Tier1 transit providers and selected peering connections, and is engineered to provide a cost-efficient solution to high bandwidth needs. The Premium network offers full redundancy on all routers, and uses multiple quality Tier1 transit providers, as well as private and public peering. For more information on the network types and the network type availability matrix, refer to this article on network types.This network can be included into your resource pools in two ways:

1) Direct presence: This means the external vLAN, with public IPs, is directly presented into your resource pool. Therefore, your virtual machines interfaces (virtual NICs) can have public connectivity with Public IPs. In this case, if connected to the Internet, we strongly recommend you to protect the access using firewalling appliances or secured connections.

2) Through NSX Edge: This means the external vLAN, with your public IPs, is connected to your highly available and dedicated Firewall/Load Balancer appliance. Your virtual machines can connect to that appliance using internal IPs and NAT rules.

You need to acquire these ranges per network model you require.

IPs

For Private Cloud, it is possible to buy ranges of public IPv4 addresses starting with a /29. These IP addresses are charged per IP address. Please keep in mind that due to the nature of subnets, the effectively usable IP addresses are less than the total number bought. Regular procedures for obtaining these addresses apply. If more than a /28 range is required, it is possible to get them but regular procedure for obtaining those IP addresses apply. Sales can help with this request.  

Bandwidth

Leaseweb offers you the choice between three different forms of bandwidth billing, each suitable for different kinds of bandwidth usage. All three options are available on both our Volume and Premium networks. For more information on our billing options, refer to this article on bandwidth billing.

Internal Network

You can define your own internal networks within your organizations through the vCloud Director management console. These internal networks, with private addresses, have no presence on the Internet, and allow you to connect your workloads within each resource pool and cross-connect different virtual machines hosted in the different resource pools. This flexibility gives many options to setup and deploy layered-based solutions, eg: Backend and Frontend, with your own internal IP addresses. Additional Firewalling options can be configured in this context to increase security between layers.

Service Level Agreements

We do provide, by default and for all contracts, competitive Service Level Agreements to ensure computing availability and support services.

Upgrades and Downgrades

You can upgrade the amount of resources in your vCloud tenant by simply contacting Leaseweb Support. Depending on the required resources, most upgrade requests can be fulfilled in hours. For downgrade request on allocated resources, this may be possible depending on the agreed contract.

VMware vCloud APIs

Leaseweb gives the ability to consume and manage your resource through the vCloud API. API calls are free of charge.

Management tasks for VMware

• Getting started with vCloud
• Managing vCloud resources
• Managing vCloud Administration details
• Disaster Recovery as a Service

Frequently Asked Questions for VMware

FAQ: How can I upload an *.ISO file?

You can upload an *.ISO file by performing the following actions. Since the HTML5 client is introduced in the vCloud Director, the VMware Client integration plug-in is no longer needed to upload files.

1. On the Libraries tab, under the Content Libraries section, switch to Media & Other tab and click the Add button.

2. A popup will appear. Select the ISO file by clicking the icon. 
Note: Make sure the name ends with the extension .iso, else the file may not show up in your catalog.

3. Once the upload is completed, you will be able to see your ISO.

FAQ: What are templates and how can I create one?

You can create templates of base images of virtual machines or vApps. This allows you to deploy future instances of similar characteristics in a couple of clicks. It can also be useful to clone specific machines or groups of machines that are needed at a future point.  

Requirements

To be able to create a template from a virtual machine it is necessary to have one vApp with exactly one virtual machine (the one you want to create the template from). The virtual machine must have VMWare tools installed. Creating a template is currently only possible using the legacy flash client, hence you need to make sure that you're logged into this client instead of the new HTML5 client.

Creating a template

1. Under the My Cloud tab, select the vApps section and locate the vApp you want to build the template from.

2. Right click on it and select Add to Catalog… option.

3. A popup will appear. Enter a name and a description for the template and click OK.

4. Browse to Catalogs and then select your organization on the left panel to view your templates. Select the template and click on Add to my cloud... to deploy a new vApp. 

FAQ: How can I deploy a new vApp?

Step 1: Create a new vApp

1. From the Datacenters view, select the vApps section and click New vApp.

2. A new pop-up window will appear. Enter a name for your new vApp and optionally add a description. We will add virtual machines to the vApp in a later step, so click Finish to continue.

Step 2: Add a virtual machine to the vApp

1. On the Datacenters view, select the vApps section and click on the Actions button of the newly created vApp, and select Add VM.

2. A new pop-up window will open, click Add Virtual Machines.

3. A new pop-up window will appear on screen, which will give you the option to deploy a new virtual machine from a template or from a new custom virtual machine configuration. 

3a. To deploy a new virtual machine configuration, we select type New and give it a name, select an operating system, size, network and click OK.

3b. If you (also) want to deploy a new virtual machine by using a pre-installed template, click New Virtual Machine. Enter a name and hostname for the virtual machine. Select the template you want to use for this deployment and click OK to continue. 

4. When you are finished adding virtual machines, click the Add button.

5. Once the VMs have been deployed, you want to review the virtual machine configuration if you deployed any VMs from a template. Do this by selecting the Virtual Machines section and click Details of the newly created VM.

6. On the Details page, navigate to the Hardware section. Adjust the amount of resources assigned to the virtual machine according to your needs, and ensure that a network and IP mode are selected and the NIC is connected. Then click Save to continue.

7. Once done, you can start the virtual machines by clicking Power On, under the Actions menu of the virtual machine.

FAQ: How can I adjust the resources of a virtual machine?

1. On the Datacenters view, select the Virtual Machines section and click on the Details button

2. You can only change the resources once a virtual machine is powered off (or when the Hot-add options are enabled on the VM). Open the Hardware section to review and adjust the configuration and click Save on the bottom right of the page. 

3. Once done, you can start the virtual machines by clicking Power On, under the Actions menu of the virtual machine. 

FAQ: How can I create/revert/delete snapshots?

You can create a snapshot of a virtual machine and revert back to that snapshot at a later point in time. This can be useful when you are about to perform configuration changes. You can revert the changes if needed, by reverting to a previously created snapshot. You can create a snapshot of a virtual machine either while it is running or stopped.

Create a snapshot

On the Datacenters view, select the Virtual Machines section and click on the Create Snapshot button under the Actions menu of the virtual machine you want to create a snapshot on.

Revert a snapshot

On the Datacenters view, select the Virtual Machines section and click on the Revert Snapshot button under the Actions menu of the virtual machine you want to revert to latest snapshot.

Delete a snapshot

On the Datacenters view, select the Virtual Machines section and click on the Remove Snapshot button under the Actions menu of the virtual machine you want to revert to latest snapshot.

FAQ: How can I reset the local administrator password?

In the event of losing the local administrator password of the OS running in the virtual machine, vCloud provides a way to reset the password. This will only work when VMware Tools is installed in the OS. Please note that open-vm-tools does not support this.

1. On the Datacenters view. Select Virtual Machines on the left pane and click Details of the virtual machine for which the password needs to be reset.

2. Power off the virtual machine by clicking on the Shut Down Guest OS and wait for the virtual machine to power off. Next click Details.

3. Select the Guest OS Customization section. Tick the Enable guest customization option in the General section. Next tick the Allow local administrator password option in the Password Reset section. Either select to auto generate a password or specify your own password. Click Save to save your settings.

4. Click on the Actions button, making sure to have the same virtual machine selected as in step 2. Click on Power On and Force Recustomization to start the procedure.

5. Once the virtual machine has started, you should be able to log in using the password set. If you chose the auto generate password option in step 3, re-open the Properties dialog using the Actions button. On the Guest OS Customization tab you will be able to view the password set.

FAQ: How can I deploy a VM from the templates provided by Leaseweb?

Leaseweb provides several different templates of popular OS types in vCloud. The templates are available for general use by every customer using vCloud. By using these templates, you can quickly deploy new VMs of a certain operation system type.

1. On the Datacenters view, select the Virtual Machines section, click New VM.

2. Enter a name and hostname for the virtual machine. Select the template you want to use for this deployment and click OK to deploy. 

3 Once the VM has been deployed, you want to review the virtual machine configuration. Do this by selecting the Virtual Machines section and click on Details of the newly created VM.

6. On the Details page, navigate to the Hardware section. Adjust the amount of resources assigned to the virtual machine according to your needs, and ensure that a network and IP mode are selected and the NIC is connected. Then click Save to continue.

7. Once done, you can start the virtual machines by clicking the Power On button, under the Actions menu of the virtual machine.