How to Upload and Use Public Media in VMware vCloud

Public media in VMware vCloud is organized in catalogs. Administrators can create and organize files in catalogs for public users. In vCloud Director, media can be virtual machine and vApp templates or ISO images used as boot and installation disks. Media images stored in catalogs can be attached to vApps and mounted by virtual machines. This blog post will take a look at how to upload and use public media.

After logging into your IaaS organization, you will see several tabs at the top of the page. Click on the Catalogs tab. Before we can make use of any templates or media, we need to create a container to house them. This can be done a couple of ways. If you are using a Windows machine, you can simply right-click in the media list and select “Add Catalog” from the context menu that appears. If you are using a Mac or Linux operating system, click the “Add Catalog” button just above the media list indicated by the green plus sign. You’ll see the New Catalog Wizard appear. Give the catalog a name, a brief description if you want one, and click “Next.” On this screen you will be able to choose the members of your organization that should be able to use this catalog and their permission level. The final screen displays the configuration. Review these settings and click “Finish” when ready.

The catalog is now available for the organization, but it is currently empty. Using the upload button immediately above the item list, we can choose to upload existing VMs that are in OVF format, and from the Media tab, we can upload ISO or FLP media files simply by browsing our file system.

In the left hand menu pane, select Public Catalogs. Here you will see the Master Catalog, which contains a variety of preconfigured virtual machine templates and existing media.

If you select a pre-existing template, there are a couple of options available. Windows users will again be able to right-click on the item and get a context menu. Mac and Linux users can utilize the cloud button and the blue gear button just above the item menu. Clicking the “Add to My Cloud” button indicated by the small cloud immediately above the media list will launch a wizard that will deploy the template as a new vApp in the organization. To make a template available, copy the template to the catalog. Give the template a name, a brief description, the catalog in which this template should exist, the Org VDC where this catalog exists, and click “OK.”

Copying may take some time. After it finishes, choose how to deploy the template. Select the template and click “Add to My Cloud.” We need to give the vApp a name. Name the virtual machine as it will appear in vCloud, select the appropriate storage profile, and configure the network that this virtual machine will be attached to. Review the settings that you configured throughout the wizard and click “Finish” when ready.

You can now click on the My Cloud tab at the top of the page and watch the progress as the new vApp template deploys.

If you want to deploy a virtual machine from the catalog without actually deploying an entirely new vApp, enter the vApp in which you want the virtual machine to be placed and click the “Add VM” button immediately above the virtual machine view. It will launch a wizard where you can select which catalog you would like to deploy the virtual machine from. In this case, select the public catalog. Choose the virtual machine that you would like to deploy. Click “Add” and “Next.” The wizard will walk you through the rest of the steps. Choose a name as you would like it to appear in vCloud, click “Next,” select the network configuration, any other network settings that you would like to configure in the wizard, review the settings you’ve configured, and click “Finish.”

This may take some time, depending on the size of the virtual machine. However, it shouldn’t take too long. Once the virtual machine has finished deploying from the template, you will see that it has been added right next to the virtual machine that was deployed from the previous template deployment in the same vApp. At this point, you are now ready to interact with the virtual machines and configure them for your production workload.

For more information about Green House Data frequently asked questions, please visit  the gBlock Cloud FAQs.

Posted by: Systems Administrator Tim Cook