5.5

Getting Started with vCloud Director 1
When you log in to the vCloud Director Web console, the Home tab provides access to your resources and
links to common tasks.
You can also set your user preferences and view the product help.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Understanding VMware vCloud Director,” on page 11
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“Log In to the Web Console,” on page 12
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“Using vCloud Director,” on page 12
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“Set Mozilla Firefox Options,” on page 13
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“Set Microsoft Internet Explorer Options,” on page 14
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“Set User Preferences,” on page 15
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“Change Your Password,” on page 16
Understanding VMware vCloud Director
VMware
®
vCloud Director provides role-based access to a Web console that allows the members of an
organization to interact with the organization's resources to create and work with vApps and virtual
machines.
Before you can access your organization, a vCloud Director system administrator must create the
organization, assign it resources, and provide the URL to access the Web console. Each organization
includes one or more organization administrators, who finishes setting up the organization by adding
members and setting policies and preferences. After the organization is set up, non-administrator users can
log in to create, use, and manage virtual machines and vApps.
Organizations
An organization is a unit of administration for a collection of users, groups, and computing resources. Users
authenticate at the organization level, supplying credentials established by an organization administrator
when the user was created or imported. System administrators create and provision organizations, while
organization administrators manage organization users, groups, and catalogs.
Users and Groups
An organization can contain an arbitrary number of users and groups. Users can be created locally by the
organization administrator or imported from a directory service such as LDAP. Groups must be imported
from the directory service. Permissions within an organization are controlled through the assignment of
rights and roles to users and groups.
VMware, Inc.
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