VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager - 1.1.0 Administrator’s Guide
Lifecycle Manager Administration Guide
vCenter Lifecycle Manager 1.1.0
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EN-000336-00
Lifecycle Manager Administration Guide
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Contents
About This Book 5
Understanding LCM 7
1
Lifecycle Manager Process 7
Lifecycle Manager Terminology 9
Role-Based User Interface 9
LCM Administrator 10
Lifecycle Manager Architecture 10
Setting Up the Virtual Machine Environment 13
2
Configuring the Infrastructure for Requested Virtual Machines 13
Configuring the Criteria for Requested Virtual Machines 19
Using LCM 21
3
Request a Virtual Machine 21
Display Requested Virtual Machines 23
Modify Request Options 25
Check the Power State of a Virtual Machine 26
Power a Virtual Machine On or Off 26
Suspend a Virtual Machine 26
Connecting to a Virtual Machine 26
Create a Snapshot 27
Revert to a Snapshot 28
Generate Reports 28
Registering Virtual Machines with LCM 28
Activate Web View Debug Mode 30
Relink Tokens to Virtual Machines 30
Check Licensing Status 31
Export Logs and Application Settings 31
Troubleshooting LCM 31
Customizing LCM 33
4
Customizing the User Interface 33
Callback Workflows 36
Index 39
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About This Book
This book, the Lifecycle Manager Administration Guide, provides information about managing VMware® vCenter
Lifecycle Manager (LCM).
Intended Audience
This book is intended for administrators who are managing LCM. The information in this guide is written for
experienced system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology.
Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your
feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com.
Technical Support and Education Resources
The following technical support resources are available to you. To access the current version of this book and
other books, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
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Understanding LCM 1
VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager (LCM) automates the process of creating virtual machines and removing
them from service at the appropriate time.
Using LCM, you can perform the following tasks:
n
Handle and process virtual machine requests in a Web user interface.
n
Automatically place servers based on their location, organization, environment, service level, or
performance levels. When a solution is found for a set of criteria, the machine is automatically deployed.
n
Enforce automatic deployment and configuration to reduce errors and speed up provisioning processes.
n
Track lifecycle information for requested machines. Tracking helps maintain on-time archiving and
deletion of end-of-life servers and avoids server sprawl.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“Lifecycle Manager Process,” on page 7
n
“Lifecycle Manager Terminology,” on page 9
n
“Role-Based User Interface,” on page 9
n
“LCM Administrator,” on page 10
n
“Lifecycle Manager Architecture,” on page 10
Lifecycle Manager Process
LCM automates the process of creating virtual machines and removing them from service at the appropriate
time.
Figure 1-1 provides an overview of the process and the tasks completed by each role.
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request
virtual machine
approve
create
virtual machine
set up
approval
required
placement exception
or conflict manual placement
no approval placement
exception
or conflict
no approval automatic
placement
user decided to
decommission
manually
archive or
delete
configuration
dependent
no approval
use
virtual machine
approve
life extension
or VM
customization
end of life
archive
decommission
delete
best practice path
other possible path
other possible path with approval deactivated
Lifecycle Manager Administration Guide
Figure 1-1. Stages in the Lifecycle of a Virtual Machine under LCM
The way that LCM handles requests to create virtual machines depends on how the LCM Administrator has
configured the approval process. If approval is required, an email notification is sent to the LCM Approver.
If approval is not required, and there is no conflict with the request, the virtual machine is created. If there is
a conflict, an LCM IT Staff user receives an email notification that a virtual machine is waiting to be created.
After a virtual machine is created, it can be used until the decommissioning date. Five days before the
decommissioning date, an email notice is sent to the user who requested the virtual machine if email
notifications are enabled. The requester can do one of the following:
n
n
The LCM Administrator can choose to delete the virtual machine request. The LCM Administrator is the only
role that can remove information about a virtual machine. When a request is deleted, no information about
the virtual machine appears in reports, but the virtual machine is not deleted. If a virtual machine request is
accidentally deleted, the LCM Administrator can recover the associated virtual machine.
Request to extend the life of the machine.
If the extension is not approved, the virtual machine is decommissioned and is archived or deleted.
The LCM Administrator determines whether decommissioned virtual machines are archived.
Manually decommission the virtual machine.
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Lifecycle Manager Terminology
LCM uses specific terminology to describe lifecycle events and attributes.
Chapter 1 Understanding LCM
Commission
Decommission
Extension
Infrastructure
Criteria
Template Profile
Customization Template
Placing
The creation of a requested virtual machine. The commission time is submitted
during the request process.
The requested machine reaches the end of its life. A decommission date is
submitted during the request process. The decommissioned machine can be
archived or deleted.
Extending the life of a virtual machine that is to be decommissioned. If approval
is required, the request for extension must be approved before the owner of the
virtual machine can continue to use it.
Attributes such as the network, domain, and datastore affect where the
requested virtual machine is placed in VMware Infrastructure.
Attributes attached to a requested virtual machine that are selected during the
request process, such as location, organization, server environment, service
level, and performance. The LCM Administrator maps this information to the
infrastructure.
The profile that is used when a requested virtual machine is cloned.
The template that determines the resources that the requested virtual machine
uses, such as memory reservation, memory limit, CPU shares, and disk shares.
Only the LCM IT Staff, LCM Tech Requester, and LCM Administrator can
modify the customization template.
The requested virtual machine is created or moved into the infrastructure,
based on the selected criteria and infrastructure.
Role-Based User Interface
LCM has a role-based interface. Users are presented only the options that are relevant to their specific role.
All roles can request a virtual machine.
LCM users can be assigned the following roles:
LCM Administrator
LCM Requester
LCM Tech Requester
LCM Approver
LCM IT Staff
For more information on the tasks that users can perform, see the Lifecycle Manager User's Guide.
Establishes the criteria used for machine placement and determines how the
criteria convert to sizing or placement values. The LCM Administrator
configures LCM and establishes the placement of virtual machines.
Can request to extend the life of a created virtual machine. Requesters can
power virtual machines on and off, as well as delegate this control to other
users.
In addition to doing everything that the requester role can do, the LCM Tech
Requester can customize the settings for the CPU, memory, and shares of the
virtual machine.
Approves virtual machine deployment and extension requests.
Completes manual placement of approved virtual machines. If a machine
cannot be placed based on the provided criteria, a user with the LCM IT Staff
role must manually choose the sizing and placement of the new machine.
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LCM Administrator
The LCM Administrator sets up the LCM environment, and can perform all tasks that other user roles can
perform.
The LCM Administrator is responsible for the following tasks.
n
Configuring LCM
n
Determining the infrastructure, such as the server environment
n
Setting up email notifications, the look and feel of the user interface, and style sheets
n
Specifying who can access elements such as resource pools or datastores
Lifecycle Manager Architecture
LCM is powered by VMware vCenter Orchestrator 4.0.1. Orchestrator is a development and processautomation platform that provides a library of extensible workflows for creating and running automated,
configurable processes to manage the VMware vCenter infrastructure. You can use Orchestrator to create
custom workflows that you can run from LCM.
Orchestrator exposes every operation in the vCenter Server API, allowing users to integrate all these operations
into their automated processes. Orchestrator also allows integration with other management and
administration solutions through its open plug-in architecture.
LCM Compatibility with vCenter
LCM works with vCenter 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 Update 1 through an automatic compatibility mode. Only
VirtualCenter 2.5 features are available in this mode. LCM is also compatible with VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 4
and VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 5.
Before you install LCM, make sure that you have vCenter 4.0 or a compatible version of VirtualCenter 2.5
installed.
Lifecycle Manager Components
You must configure the required components for LCM to function properly.
Service directory
Database
VMware Infrastructure
The components shown in Figure 1-2 must be configured in the Orchestrator configuration interface.
Defines which users can connect to LCM, and also defines their permission
levels. Only users who are members of a directory group can log in.
Stores all information that is related to LCM, such as virtual machine names,
control groups, view groups, commission and decommission dates,
infrastructure elements linked with the virtual machine request (such as
template profile, datastore, resource pool, and so on). The information
necessary to map criteria and the infrastructure is also stored in the database.
Responsible for all communication with VMware vCenter. A Web Service API
is used to connect to VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or vCenter 4.
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Figure 1-2. Architecture of LCM and Orchestrator
VMware
Infrastructure
3.5
Lifecycle
Manager
database
networking
database
plug-ins
VMware vCenter Orchestrator
Lifecycle
Manager
config
config
email
browser
browser
vCO
database
service
directory
Orchestrator Plug-Ins
Chapter 1 Understanding LCM
After you install LCM, you must configure the following Orchestrator plug-ins:
n
VMware Infrastructure 3.5
For adding VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or vCenter 4 instances.
NOTE Because LCM supports vCenter 4.0 only in compatibility mode, you must configure the VMware
Infrastructure 3.5 plug-in, and add your vCenter 4.0 server to it. LCM can operate only with the vCenter
instances added and configured in the VMware Infrastructure 3.5 plug-in in the Orchestrator configuration
interface.
n
VMware Lifecycle Manager
For configuring the Lifecycle Manager database.
n
Networking
For configuring the networking database.
n
Mail
For configuring email notifications.
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