Installing the vCloud Availability On-Premises Client

This guide walks through deploying and configuring the vCloud Availability (vCAV) client appliance in your on-premises vSphere environment.

Before you begin, ensure you have:

Subscribed to the DRaaS Service: Contact your manager to activate the service and obtain the necessary attachment point address.
Network Prepared: Verify your Edge Gateway is correctly configured with the required networks and SNAT rules.
Downloaded the Appliance: Download the OVA file from the VMware Customer Connect portal (requires registration):
Download VMware vCloud Availability Appliance

Deploy the downloaded OVA file into your on-premises vCenter using the standard deployment workflow.

During OVA deployment, you will be prompted to configure the initial template settings:

Root Password: Set a strong temporary password for the root user. (You will be forced to change this upon first login).
NTP Server: Enter the address of your organization's NTP server for time synchronization.
Network Settings: Configure the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS for the appliance.

Complete the deployment and power on the virtual machine.

Note the IP address assigned to the VM from the vSphere console.
Open a web browser and navigate to the admin portal: https:///ui/admin
Log in with the username root and the temporary password you set during deployment. You will be prompted to set a new password.
Click Run initial setup wizard to begin configuration.

In the setup wizard, provide the following information:

Lookup Service Connection:
- Address: The URL of your local vCenter Server SSO (Lookup Service).
- Credentials: The username and password for a vCenter Single Sign-On administrator account.
- Certificate: Accept the vCenter SSL certificate when prompted.

2. Public API Endpoint:

3. Organization Credentials:

Admin: user_name@name_tenant (Your vCloud Director organization administrator account)
Password: The password for the above account.

4. Cloud Access:

Enable Allow Access from Cloud. This permits vCloud Director administrators to access your on-premises vCenter for migration tasks. This can be enabled or disabled as needed for security.

5. Local Placement (Optional):

If you enable Configure local placement now, you can pre-define where VMs migrated from the cloud to your on-premises vCenter will be placed.

6. Click Finish to complete the initial client installation.

Once configured, you can start migrations from within your vCloud Director portal.

In vCloud Director, navigate to More > vCloud Availability (M14).
Choose Migration Direction:
- From On-Prem: To migrate from your local vCenter to the public vCloud.
- To On-Prem: To migrate from the public vCloud back to your local vCenter.