VMware – Start your hybrid cloud with VMware vCloud Connector 1.5

When you’re reading this, you most likely have already a vSphere environment up and running. Moving some workloads to a vCloud Director powered public cloud – and thus building your own hybrid cloud – is very easy to do.

The best of all is that the software you need will not cost you anything. The only cost involved will of course be the price you have to pay to the public cloud provider to run your workloads over there.

vCloud Connector is an enterprise product that provides a single user interface for overseeing multiple public and private clouds and for transferring cloud content from one cloud to another. It allows you to connect multiple clouds, both internal and external, in a single user interface.

Using vCloud Connector, you can stop and start virtual machines, check their performance, and transfer virtual machines, vApps, and templates from one cloud to another.

 

vCloud Connector Components

vCloud Connector consists of three distinct components:the vCloud Connector UI, the vCloud Connector Server, and vCloud Connector Nodes.

Component overview
vCloud Connector UI

vCloud Connector UI is the user interface that vCloud Connector Server produces. It can be surfaced in vSphere Client or at vcloud.vmware.com. If you decide to display your UI via vcloud.vmware.com, and your vCC Server is behind a firewall, only browsers also behind the firewall can see the UI. You decide where to display the UI during the configuration process.

 

vCloud Connector Server

vCloud Connnector Server is a virtual appliance that coordinates the activity of vCloud Connector, controls vCloud Connector Nodes, and produces the vCloud Connector UI. Only one vCloud Connector Server is needed.

 

vCloud Connector Nodes

vCloud Connector Nodes are virtual appliances that handle transferring content from one cloud to another. Transfers between clouds that are interrupted, for example because of network problems, can be resumed at the point that they were interrupted. A vCloud Connector Node must be installed in every vSphere or vCloud cloud that vCloud Connector oversees.

Go to http://vcloud.vmware.com/ for your free download of VMware vCloud Connector 1.5.

The full documentation about the product can be found online in the VMware Hybrid Cloud Documentation Center

 

Interesting articles on Chris Colotti’s blog:

http://www.chriscolotti.us/vmware/how-to-get-started-with-vcloud-connector-1-5-part-1/

http://www.chriscolotti.us/vmware/how-to-get-started-with-vcloud-connector-1-5-part-2/