Modeling environments for VMware vCenter

To model a VMware vCenter environment, log in with a VCenter cloud project and specify the VCenter-specific information in a blueprint.

Login to the Blueprint Designer.
For Heat blueprints only:
- Connect the blueprint design server to a cloud system. See Connecting to clouds through the blueprint designer
- Make sure that your user account is authenticated to a cloud system. See Setting up access to clouds in the blueprint designer.
- Connect the blueprint design server to the server. See Connecting the blueprint design server to the server.
- At the top of the page, select the cloud project and region to use.

Create the blueprint.
See Creating files.
Add resources from the palette to the blueprint, such as virtual images.
The palette shows resources from the currently connected cloud, which is shown in the upper-right corner of the page. For more information on working with the blueprint designer, see Editing Terraform blueprint diagram and Editing blueprint source code.
Specify the property for the customization specification.
VMware Tools must be installed on the image to specify the customization spec. In the OS::Nova::Server resource for the image, add and define the customization_spec extended property, as shown in the following code:
```
linux_image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    vmware_properties:
      customization_spec: your-customization-spec-name
      use_cloudinit: False
      init_password: password
      init_username: user_name
```
In the vmware_properties property, specify the following properties:

customization_spec

The name of an existing vCenter customization specification.

use_cloudinit

Whether to use cloud-init. In most cases, the value of this property is False. Set this value to True only if you apply Chef roles to images.

init_password

The password for the user name. For Linux™ images, you must provide a value. For Windows™ images, you do not provide a value.

init_username

The user name for the virtual image. For Linux images, provide a value if you are not using root. For Windows images, you do not provide a value.
Optional: To provision the images in a specific folder on the cloud, add a destination_folder extended property to each image, as in the following example code.
The target folder must already exist on the vCenter system.
```
linux_image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    vmware_properties:
      destination_folder: "/MyImageFolder/MyNewImages"
```
Specify whether to provision the images on a cluster or on a resource pool.
- To provision the images on a cluster, the cluster must have enabled support for DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler). Then, on each image, specify the cluster extended property on the image, as in the following example. You can specify a literal value or you can make this property a parameter and specify it at provisioning time.
```
linux_image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    vmware_properties:
      cluster: { get_param: cluster }
```
- To provision the images on a resource pool, specify the resource_pool extended property, as in the following example. You can specify a literal value or you can make this property a parameter and specify it at provisioning time.
```
linux_image_A:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    name: "My image A"
    image: "MyImage123"
  metadata:
    vmware_properties:
      resource pool: { get_param: resourcePool }
```
Note: Do not specify both the cluster and resource_pool extended properties. If you do, the environment fails to provision.
Optional: To provision Linux images to a static network in a cloud, specify the properties for the network.
In the OS::Neutron::Port resource for the image, add and define the fixed_ips property and the vmware_properties extended properties, as shown in the following code:
```
linux_image_A__to__myNetwork__port:
      type: OS::Neutron::Port 
      properties:
          fixed_ips:
               - ip_address: 10.10.10.212
          network_id: { get_param: network-id__for__myNetwork }
          replacement_policy: AUTO
      metadata:
          vmware_properties:
          gateway: 10.10.10.1
          dns: ['11.110.135.31', '11.110.135.52']
          subnet_mask: 255.255.255.0
          hostname: your-host-name
          domain_name: your-domain-name.com
```
In the fixed_ips property, specify the following properties:

ip_address

The IP address that is wanted in the subnet for this port.

In the vmware_properties metadata, specify the following properties:

gateway

The IP address of the gateway.

dns

A list of DNS name servers to be used.

subnet_mask

The subnet mask defines a range of IP addresses available within a network and limits the number of valid IPs for a specific network.

hostname

The hostname of the instance.

domain_name

The domain name of the DHCP pool.
Optional: If you configured your provisioned virtual image for SSH, to access to the virtual image through SSH, you must add resources to the blueprint source code.
- If your virtual image does not contain a component, add the OS::Heat::MultipartMime and OS::Heat::CloudConfig resources:
```
  multipart:
    type: OS::Heat::MultipartMime
    properties:
      parts:
        - config: {get_resource: cloud_config}
        subtype: cloud-config

  cloud_config:
    type: OS::Heat::CloudConfig
    properties:
      cloud_config:
        users:
          - default
          - name: "user_ID"
            lock-passwd: true
            sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
            ssh-authorized-keys:
              - { get_param: key_name }
```
  - For the user_ID, specify the login ID for the virtual image.
  - Ensure that the resource name of the OS::Heat::CloudConfig resource is specified in the - config: {get_resource: cloud_config} property in the OS::Heat::MultipartMime resource.
  - The key_name parameter must be in the following form:
```
parameters:
  key_name: "ssh-rsa s1AAB3Nza45yc2EA27AADAQADDABAQC jsmith@example.com"
```
  Additionally, the OS::Nova::Server resource must contain the user_data_format and user_data properties. For example, if your virtual image name is linux_image_B, the OS::Nova::Server resource contains the following code:
```
linux_image_B:
  type: OS::Nova::Server
  properties:
    user_data_format: SOFTWARE_CONFIG
    user_data: {get_resource: multipart}
```
  Ensure that the resource name of the OS::Heat::MultipartMime resource is specified in the user_data: {get_resource: multipart} property in the OS::Nova::Server resource.
- If your virtual image does contain a component, add the OS::Heat::CloudConfig resource:
```
  cloud_config:
    type: OS::Heat::CloudConfig
    properties:
      cloud_config:
        users:
          - default
          - name: "user_ID"
            lock-passwd: true
            sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
            ssh-authorized-keys:
              - { get_param: key_name }
            
```
  - For the user_ID, specify the login ID for the virtual machine.
  - The key_name parameter must be in the following form:
```
parameters:
  key_name: "ssh-rsa s1AAB3Nza45yc2EA27AADAQADDABAQC jsmith@example.com"
```
  Additionally, the OS::Heat::MultipartMime must contain the - config: {get_resource: cloud_config} resource. For example, if your virtual image name is linux_image_B, the OS::Heat::MultipartMime resource resembles the following code:
```
  linux_image_B_cloudinit_mime:
    type: OS::Heat::MultipartMime
    properties:
      parts:
        - config: {get_resource: ucd_agent_install_linux }
        - config: {get_resource: cloud_config}
        subtype: cloud-config
```
- If you configured a virtual image for SSH and later added a component to it, you must add the following property to the OS::Heat::MultipartMime resource: - config: {get_resource: ucd_agent_install_linux }
  The OS::Heat::MultipartMime resource resembles the following code:
```
  multipart:
    type: OS::Heat::MultipartMime
    properties:
      parts:
        - config: {get_resource: cloud_config}
        subtype: cloud-config
        - config: {get_resource: ucd_agent_install_linux }
```
Create a configuration file and externalize properties to the file.
See Editing configuration files.
In the configuration file, ensure that the core OpenStack types are mapped to VMware vCenter types.
The configuration file must have mapping similar to the following code:
```
resource_registry:
  OS::Nova::Server : IBM::VCenter::Server
  OS::Neutron::Port : IBM::VCenter::Port
  OS::Neutron::Net : IBM::VCenter::Network
```

Add the components of your application to the blueprint. See Deploying components with blueprints.