Creating a Virtual Lab Policy for VMware

To set up Virtual Machine (VM) Lifecycle Management for Virtual Labs, you must create a template, or Virtual Lab Policy, so that users can create their own virtual labs. A virtual lab is a collection of virtual machines.

Before You Begin

The following conditions must be met to use VM Lifecycle Management:

To verify the version of VMware software that is required to support this feature, see System Requirements.
A version of VMware Tools that is supported by the host must be installed on virtual machine templates (preferably the latest supported version)
Your CommCell user account requires a role with the Network Configuration permission. Refer to Host - Configuration Permissions.
Supported operating systems:
- Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2022
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Linux RHEL 7 and 8, Oracle, and Ubuntu (all LTS releases until 22.04)

You must install the following components to set up VM Lifecycle Management:

Virtual Server Agent. For installation instructions, see Deployment - Virtual Server Agent for VMware.
Web Server and Web Console. For installation instructions see Installing the Web Console.
Virtual Machines used as templates must have VMware Tools installed.
Create a VMware Client.

For the VMware client, only include VSA proxies running on Windows. You cannot use a Linux proxy for virtual lab configuration using a gateway template.
If you want to create a gateway computer that allows communication with computers outside of the virtual lab, you must download the V11 CV VLab Gateway Template - VMware that is compatible with your service pack from the Commvault Store, import it into vCenter, and convert it into a template.

For download instructions, see Downloading Items from Commvault Store.

Important: You must name all virtual machine templates using this format: CV_VLAB_GATEWAY_*. Only templates that begin with this prefix are displayed.
For a Virtual Lab Policy configured with an external network, the vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) feature is not supported. With an external network configuration, you must disable DRS on the cluster. If DRS is enabled, the lab configuration for the virtual lab might fail because the gateway VM can migrate to a different host and not add the required network.

Procedure

In the CommCell Browser, expand Policies, right-click Virtual Machine Policies and then click Create New Policy.
In the Virtual Machine Policy Options dialog box, select the vendor and policy options:
1. From the Virtualization Vendor list, select VMware.
2. From the Policy Type list, select Clone from Template.
3. Select Enable Virtual Lab.
4. Click Next.
The Virtual Lab Policy dialog box appears.
On the Enter the Policy Name and Description page, name the policy and configure advanced settings:
1. In the Policy Name box, enter a name for the policy
  
  Note: Make a note of the Policy name. This is needed later for users to create virtual machines.
2. In the Quota box, type or select the virtual lab limit per user.
3. Optional: Configure the period of time before a VM is decommissioned and then deleted. Select Enable Decommission, and then configure the time period:
  - In the Decommission VM after list, select or type a number of days.
  - In the Deletion grace period list, select or type a number of days.
  All the decommissioned machines are automatically turned off, and when you perform a backup for these machines, they are archived.
4. In the Description box, enter a description for the policy.
5. Click Next.
On the Select the vCenter and Datacenter page, specify the vCenter and Datacenter to use.
1. In the vCenter list, select the name of a vCenter.
2. In the Datacenter list, select the name of a datacenter.
3. Optional: If you want to refresh Datacenters for the Virtualization Client, click Update vCenter and Datacenter Information.
  
  We recommend that you perform this step before you create the VM Lifecycle Policy, at the instance level when you create the vCenter client, so that the vCenter and Datacenter lists contain all of the vCenters and Datacenters that you want to use.
  
  This step can take some time if there are many ESX servers.
4. Optional: Click Advanced Policy Features, and configure any of the options in the Advanced Policy Features dialog box:
  - To specify the client group that can use this policy, select Associated Client Group, and then select a client group name from the list.
  - To configure email addresses for the people who will be notified about VM operations, in the E-mail addresses to notify box, enter email addresses separated by commas.
  - To configure the email sender's address, in the Sender's email address box, type an email address.
  - If you don't want to notify users about VM operations that succeeded, select Disable e-mail notifications for successful VM operations.
  - To configure ESX Server threshold limits, select Enable ESX Threshold Limits, and then in Memory Freespace Required and Datastore Freespace Required, select the applicable percentages.
    
    Virtual Machine Provision will be skipped if its hosting server memory or Datastore has less than the required freespace.
  Click OK to close the Advanced Policy Features dialog box.
5. Click Next.
On the Select ESX Servers page, specify the ESX servers that you want to make available to virtual lab users.
1. From the Available list, select the ESX Servers, and then click Add to add them to the Selected list.
2. Click Next.
On the Select Datastores page, specify the data stores that you want to make available to virtual lab users.
1. From the Available list, select the data stores, then click Add to add them to the Selected list.
2. Click Next.
On the Select Templates page, specify the templates that you want to make available to virtual lab users.
1. From the Available list, select the templates, and then click Add to add them to the Selected list.
2. To configure a gateway computer that allows communication with computers outside of the virtual lab, next to Gateway Template, click Browse, select a template name, and then click OK.
3. From the Gateway Network list, select a network where the virtual lab VMs can be hosted.
4. Click Next.
  
  If a template is not visible, verify that the most current version of VMware Tools is installed on the virtual machine template, and then refresh datacenters again.
On the Enter Resources page, enter the minimum and maximum values allowed for each virtual machine, and then specify the network names that can be used:
1. Next to # of CPUs, set the minimum and maximum number of CPUs for each virtual machine, and the cost per core.
2. Next to Memory (GB), set the minimum and maximum amount of memory for each virtual machine, and the cost per GB.
3. Next to # of NICs, set the minimum and maximum number of NICs for each virtual machine.
4. Next to Network Names, from the Available list, select one or more networks, and then click Add.
5. Click Next.
On the Enter Storage Information page, specify the disk type, disk number, amount of disk space, and the maximum number of allowed snapshots for users.
1. Next to Disk Type, select the type of disk that you want to make available.
2. Next to Number of Disks, set the maximum number of allowed disks.
3. Next to Disk Space, enter the minimum and maximum amount of disk space allowed for each disk, and the cost per GB.
  
  Note: The minimum disk size that is available to users is determined by the hard disk size that is configured in the template. Therefore, when you set the minimum disk size on this page, it might be different than the minimum disk size that is available to users when they create virtual machines.
4. Next to Number of Snapshots, enter the maximum number of snapshot backups allowed for the virtual machine.
5. To specify a resource pool and VM Folder to use, select Enable Resource Pool and Folder Selection, click Add, and then specify the resource pool and folder:
  1. In the ISO Mount Paths dialog box, from the Selected ESX Servers list, select a server.
  2. Next to Resource Pool, click the ellipse button, select a resource pool from the list, and then click OK.
  3. Next to VM Folder, click the ellipse button, select a folder from the list, and then click OK.
  4. Click OK to close the ISO Mount Paths dialog box.
6. Click Next.
On the Select User Membership page, select the user groups that will have access to Virtual Labs.
1. From the Available list, select the user groups, and then click Add to add them to the Selected list.
2. Click Next.
On the Summary page, click Finish.

To begin creating virtual labs, see Creating a Virtual Lab for VMware VM Lifecycle Management.