Quickstart

Getting started with VDC

If you have deployed a Virtual Data Centre (VDC) service, you can log in to your unique vCloud Director environment to manage your resources.

To get started, go to the mysau.com.au portal, login and select your Virtual Data Centre product in the Services tab. 

Press the Log in to vCloud Director button to begin managing your environment. If you have not yet set a password, you will be prompted to do so. If you are unsure of the password, click Reset Password. This will reset the password for your vCloud Director account. 

The vCloud Director page is the brains of your VDC operation. Login with your unique username and password you set up in the MySAU portal. 

Select your VDC which should appear in the primary selection:

You are now in the “home” of your VDC. From here you can configure a variety of resources and settings to best meet your needs.

vApps

A vApp is the logical association of one or more VMs, networks and applicable resources that make up a function. vApps can commonly contain multiple VMs which all operate to provide an application. A common example is: 

• A Web Server VM
• An Application Server VM
• A Database VM

These three VMs can operate within a single vApp, allowing for easier administration and management of the application. 

We cover further vApp concepts in Creating vApps in VDC. 

Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines (VMs) are virtualised instances of an operating system, using logically provided CPU, RAM, Disk and Memory. In VDC, VMs run inside vAPPs. You can run one or many VMs inside a single vAPP.

You can technically create a VM without manually creating a vApp, however, to function correctly vCloud director requires all VMs to be inside vAapps, and will create invisible vApps in the backend for any VM which is not created inside a vApp by the user. 

This can cause strange issues when trying to delete VMs or change networking configuration on them. As such we strongly recommend you create a vApp as part of your deployment.

Networks

VDC networks are logical representations of a ‘normal’ network. VDC allows you to utilise multiple networks so that you can deploy multiple networks. This provides you with the flexibility for separate networks between applications or customer partitions.

We provide a “built-in” network upon deployment which has the name SAU-XXXXX-VD-network, matching your service’s “Order ID”. By default, this is on the 192.168.0.0/24 network. It connects to the NSX Edge Gateway which has an IP of 192.168.0.1. 

We cover advanced concepts of VDC Networking in Creating and Managing Networks in VDC. 

Edges

Edges represent an NSX Edge Gateway, which is the built-in router and firewall appliance included with your VDC. We provide you with a single edge appliance, which can manage multiple separate networks.

We look at the NSX Edge Gateway in Managing your Edge Gateway in VDC.

Storage Policies

Storage Policies are pre-defined when you order your service with Servers Australia. The “Tiers” are divided between storage types and IOPS limits.