5.5

Table Of Contents
Object Taxonomy
The vCloud API defines a set of objects common to cloud computing environments. An understanding of
these objects, their properties, and their relationships is essential to using the vCloud API.
Figure 11. vCloud API Object Taxonomy
Catalog 2
Catalogitem
em
em
em
Catalog 1
Catalog 3
vDC2
Catalogitem
Catalogitem
Catalogitem
Catalogitem
users
Media
vApp
template
Media
vApp
TasksList
Organization
vDC1
Media
vApp
template
Media
vApp
Catalogitem
em
em
em
groups
Network
Network
Publish
External
catalog
External
catalog
Subscribe
vCloud API objects have the following high-level properties:
Organizations
A cloud can contain one or more organizations. Each organization is a unit of
administration for a collection of users, groups, and computing resources.
Users authenticate at the organization level, supplying credentials
established when the user was created or imported. User credentials are
authenticated by the organization's identity provider, which can be either the
integrated identity provider included in vCloud Director or an external
SAML-based identity provider.
Users and Groups
An organization can contain an arbitrary number of users and groups. Users
can be created by the organization administrator or imported from an LDAP
directory service or SAML-based identity provider. Groups must be
imported. Permissions within an organization are controlled through the
assignment of rights and roles to users and groups.
Catalogs
Catalogs contain references to vApp templates and media images. You can
configure a catalog in several different ways:
n
as a repository for local content that can remain private to the catalog
owner or can be shared with other users, groups, or organizations in
your cloud
n
as a source of published content, to which other clouds can subscribe.
vCloud API Programming Guide
10 VMware, Inc.