5.1

Table Of Contents
Getting Started with vCloud Director 1
The first time you log in to the vCloud Director Web console, the Home tab guides you through the steps to
configure your installation.
You can also set your user preferences and create a Microsoft Sysprep deployment package to support guest
customization in vCloud Director virtual machines.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Overview of vCloud Director Administration,” on page 11
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“Log In to the Web Console,” on page 13
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“Preparing the System,” on page 14
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“Create a Microsoft Sysprep Deployment Package,” on page 14
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“Replace a Microsoft Sysprep Deployment Package,” on page 15
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“Replace SSL Certificates,” on page 16
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“Set User Preferences,” on page 17
Overview of vCloud Director Administration
VMware vCloud Director is a software product that provides the ability to build secure, multi-tenant clouds
by pooling virtual infrastructure resources into virtual datacenters and exposing them to users through Web-
based portals and programmatic interfaces as a fully-automated, catalog-based service.
The VMware vCloud Director Administrator's Guide provides information about adding resources to the system,
creating and provisioning organizations, managing resources and organizations, and monitoring the system.
vSphere Resources
vCloud Director relies on vSphere resources to provide CPU and memory to run virtual machines. In addition,
vSphere datastores provide storage for virtual machine files and other files necessary for virtual machine
operations. vCloud Director also utilizes vSphere distributed switches and vSphere port groups to support
virtual machine networking.
You can use these underlying vSphere resources to create cloud resources.
Cloud Resources
Cloud resources are an abstraction of their underlying vSphere resources. They provide the compute and
memory resources for vCloud Director virtual machines and vApps. A vApp is a virtual system that contains
one or more individual virtual machines, along with parameters that define operational details. Cloud
resources also provide access to storage and network connectivity.
VMware, Inc.
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