Thursday, November 17, 2011

Cloud Management with System Center - Connecting your private cloud to System Center App Controller 2012

In this part of my 'Cloud Management with System Center' series I will explain how to connect your newly created private cloud within System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 (SCVMM 2012) to the newest member of Microsoft's System Center Suite - System Center App Controller 2012 (SCAC 2012).

If you want to know how to install System Center App Controller 2012, see my previous post:  Installing System Center App Controller 2012

See below for the links to the other posts in this series:

Cloud Management with System Center - Building a Private Cloud with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

Cloud Management with System Center - Creating a Virtual Machine Template with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

Cloud Management with System Center - Creating a Service Template with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012

This series coincides with the new Microsoft Private Cloud Community Evaluation Program starting up and you can sign up at any time to the CEP by clicking on the link below (you will need a Microsoft Live ID to sign in):

https://connect.microsoft.com/site799/program7383


Once you have SCAC 2012 and SCVMM 2012 installed, you should also have your private cloud configured, your virtual machine templates built and your new service template deployed to the private cloud. All that you need to do now is to connect your private cloud to App Controller to allow for central management of all private clouds in your environment with inegration and visibility between any public clouds you have deployed within Azure.

To begin, double click on the App Controller shortcut on your desktop to open up the logon page seen below


Enter your Active Directory credentials and then click 'Sign In'. This should then open up the App Controller overview screen



Now click on the 'Clouds' link from the left hand side of the screen and then click on the 'Connect' button to access a drop down menu that you then need to select 'VMM Server' from


In the 'Add a new VMM connection' box, enter a name for this connection. This name is displayed in the Name column of Clouds page.

Add an optional description in the Description text box.

In the Server name text box, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the VMM management server.

In the Port field, enter a port number that matches the port used by the VMM management server (default: 8100).


Select 'Automatically import SSL certificates' if you plan to copy files and templates to and from VMM cloud libraries.

Note: SSL certificates must be imported to the App Controller server in order to copy files or templates to and from VMM cloud libraries. In order for the import to succeed, users need to be part of all of the following roles: the local administrator of the App Controller server, local administrator of the VMM server, and VMM administrator

Once you have entered all of you information,click 'OK' to create the connection between SCAC 2012 and your SCVMM 2012 servers.

You may then be asked to select which SCVMM user role to use from the new SCVMM server connection for the current session.

Once the link between the two applications has been configured, you should then see your private cloud from SCVMM 2012 available to manage within the 'Clouds' window of System Center App Controller as below


If you click on the 'Services' link on the left hand side, App Controller will show you all of the available services from your private clouds


Clicking on the 'Virtual Machines' link on the left hand side will reveal all of the virtual machines on your private cloud


The 'Library' link on the left hand side will show you a central library location that consolidates all of the templates across your cloud estate in one screen


And finally, to get a feel for the 'WOW' factor of App Controller, go back to the 'Services' link on the left hand side to view your deployed service applications again.
Now click on the 'Open Diagram' button above the list of deployed services

This opens up a nice quick Silverlight view of your deployed service application and allows for easy customization and zoom views at the click of a mouse

If you want to learn more about Cloud Management with System Center, click the link below for my next post:
 

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