How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 - Part 2 - vCAC Appliance

At this point, you should have gone through Step 1: Deploy and Configure the Identity Appliance.

This post will go through the second stage of the vCloud Automation Center install process. We are going to Deploy and Configure the vCAC Appliance.

There are multiple steps to a successful vCAC deployment:

Part 1: Deploy and Configure the Identity Appliance

Part 2: Deploy and Configure the vCloud Automation Center Appliance

Part 3: Installing IaaS Components

Part 4: Tenant Configuration

Part 5: Agent, Endpoint, and Group Configuration

Part 6: Create and Publish Blueprints

Part 7 - Setup vCO, Endpoints, and Advanced Services

Deploy the vCAC Appliance:

1. Choose the source OVA file. Click Next

2. View the details of the OVA. Click Next

3. Scroll to the Bottom. Click Accept the EULA. Click Next.

4. Feel free to change the name of the appliance or accept the defaults. I placed mine in a vCAC6 folder.

5. Select a cluster

6. Select the storage. Choose any storage profile as well.

7. Select the portgroup for networking

8. Enter in a root password, as well as a hostname. The hostname must be FQDN if you plan on using a static IP. Leave the IP address space blank if you want to use DHCP. I chose to enter static IP information. *make sure the hostname is all lowercase*.

9. Select to Power On the OVA after deployment and click finish

10. Go to your DNS server and create a static IP address entry for this Appliance. in my case, the DNS entry will be vcac-appliance.kendrickcoleman.c0m

Enable NTP on the vCAC Appliance:

1. Go to the management console at https://identity-hostname.domain.name:5480/. In my case https://vcac-appliance.kendrickcoleman.c0m:5480 and login with username 'root' and the password that was configured during deployment.

2. Go to the Admin Tab, then go to Time Settings. Change the Time Sync mode to 'Use Time Server'.

3.Go to the System Tab, then go to Time Zone and select your time zone.

4.Verify the time is correct on your box. This can be seen on the Time Settings box under the Admin Tab. The Time was not correct on my box in this user interface. To make certain, I opened up a console session and logged in as the root user.

a. run 'date' to verify the correct day and time

b. run 'cat /etc/ntp.conf' and verify your NTP servers are entered at the bottom of the file

Configure the vCAC Appliance:

1. Go to the management console at https://vcac-appliance-hostname.domain.name:5480/ and navigate to vCAC Settings -> Host Settings, and click on Resolve Hostname. *make sure the hostname is all lowercase*.

2. Click on Save Settings on the same screen.

3. Click on the SSL tab and you can choose to import a certificate, but we will do a self-signed certificate here. Choose the Generate Self-Signed Certificate dropdown.

a. Type a common name for the certificate in the Common Name text box. You can use the fully qualified domain name of the virtual appliance. Make sure the FQDN is EXACTLY the same as the CAFE Host Settings in the previous step. *make sure the hostname is all lowercase* this image is incorrect.

b. Type in a company name or organization name

c. Type in your organizational unit

d. Type in your country code

e. Click on Replace Certificate

4. Click on the SSO tab and configure SSO

a. Type the FQDN of the Identity Appliance (identity-va-hostname.domain.name:7444) in the SSO Host and Port text box without the https:// prefix.

b. Type the default administrator name This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in SSO Admin User

c. Type the SSO administrator password in the SSO Admin Password text box.

d. Click Save

5. By default, and internal PostgreSQL database is used. If you want to use an external database, these settings need to be changed. We are going to continue using the internal database for this appliance. It is an appliance after all.

6. Go to the Licensing tab and enter in your license key

7. Confirm that you can log into vCloud Automation Center console by going to https://vcac-appliance-hostname.domain.name/shell-ui-app .in my case https://vcac-appliance.kendrickcoleman.c0m/shell-ui-app. After accepting 2 SSL certs if you use self-signed certifiates you will see this screen

8. enter the vCAC SSO username 'This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.' and the password that was configured to verify we can log in. if successful, we will see the vCAC home page