In this article by Yohan Rohinton Wadia the author of Learning VMware vCloud Air, we are going to walk through setting up and accessing virtual machines.

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

What is a virtual machine?

Most of you reading this article must be aware of what a virtual machine is, but for the sake of simplicity, let's have a quick look at what it really is.

A virtual machine is basically an emulation of a real or physical computer which runs on an operating system and can host your favorite applications as well. Each virtual machine consists of a set of files that govern the way the virtual machine is configured and run. The most important of these files would be a virtual drive, that acts just as a physical drive storing all your data, applications and operating system; and a configuration file that basically tells the virtual machine how much resources are dedicated to it, which networks or storage adapters to use, and so on. The beauty of these files is that you can port them from one virtualization platform to another and manage them more effectively and securely as compared to a physical server. The following diagram shows an overview of how a virtual machine works over a host:

Virtual machine creation in vCloud Air is a very simple and straight forward process. vCloud Air provides you with three mechanisms using which you can create your own virtual machines briefly summarized as follows:

• Wizard driven: vCloud Air provides a simple wizard using which you can deploy virtual machines from pre-configured templates. This option is provided via the vCloud Air web interface itself.
• Using vCloud Director: vCloud Air provides an advanced option as well for users who want to create their virtual machines from scratch. This is done via the vCloud Director interface and is a bit more complex as compared to the wizard driven option.
• Bring your own media: Because vCloud Air natively runs on VMware vSphere and vCloud Director platforms, its relatively easy for you to migrate your own media, templates and vApps into vCloud Air using a special tool called as VMware vCloud Connector.

Create a virtual machine using template

As we saw earlier, VMware vCloud Air provides us with a default template using which you can deploy virtual machines in your public cloud in a matter of seconds. The process is a wizard driven activity where you can select and configure the virtual machine's resources such as CPU, memory, hard disk space all with a few simple clicks.

The following steps will you create a virtual machine using a template:

1. Login to your vCloud Air (https://vchs.vmware.com/login) using the username and password that we set during the sign in process.
2. From the Home page, select the VPC on Demand tab. Once there, from the drop-down menu above the tabs, select your region and the corresponding VDC where you would like to deploy your first virtual machine.
3. In this case, I have selected the UK-Slough-6 as the region and MyFirstVDC as the default VDC where I will deploy my virtual machines:
   If you have selected more than one VDC, you will be prompted to select a specific virtual data center before you start the wizard as a virtual machine cannot span across regions or VDCs.
4. From the Virtual Machines tab, select the Create your first virtual machine option. This will bring up the VM launch wizard as shown here:
   

   As you can see here, there are two tabs provided by default: a VMware Catalog and another section called as My Catalog. This is an empty catalog by default but this is the place where all your custom templates and vApps will be shown if you have added them from the vCloud Director portal or purchased them from the Solutions Exchange site as well.

5. Select any particular template to get started with. You can choose your virtual machine to be either powered by a 32 bit or a 64 bit operating system. In my case, I have selected a CentOS 6.4 64 bit template for this exercise. Click Continue once done.
   

   Templates provided by vCloud Air are either free or paid. The paid ones generally have a $ sign marked next to the OS architecture, indicating that you will be charged once you start using the virtual machine. You can track all your purchases using the vCloud Air billing statement.

6. The next step is to define the basic configuration for your virtual machine. Provide a suitable name for your virtual machine. You can add an optional description to it as well.
7. Next, select the CPU, memory and storage for the virtual machine. The CPU and memory resources are linked with each other so changing the CPU will automatically set the default vRAM for the virtual machine as well; however you can always increase the vRAM as per your needs. In this case, the virtual machine has 2 CPUs and 4 GB vRAM allocated to it.
8. Select the amount of storage you want to provide to your virtual machine. VMware can allocate a maximum of 2 TB of storage as a single drive to a virtual machine. However as a best practice; it is always good to add more storage by adding multiple drives rather than storing it all on one single drive.
   

   You can optionally select your disks to be either standard or SSD-accelerated; both features we will discuss shortly.

   
   Virtual machine configuration

9. Click on Create Virtual Machine once you are satisfied with your changes. Your virtual machine will now be provisioned within few minutes.
10. By default, the virtual machine is not powered on after it is created. You can power it on by selecting the virtual machine and clicking on the Power On icon in the tool bar above the virtual machine:

    
    Status of the virtual machine created

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There you have it. Your very first virtual machine is now ready for use! Once powered on, you can select the virtual machine name to view its details along with a default password that is auto-generated by vCloud Air.

Accessing virtual machines using the VMRC

Once your virtual machines are created and powered on, you can access and view them easily using the virtual machine remote console (VMRC). There are two ways to invoke the VMRC, one is by selecting your virtual machine from the vCloud Air dashboard, selecting the Actions tab and select the option Open in Console as shown:

The other way to do so is by selecting the virtual machine name. This will display the Settings page for that particular virtual machine. To launch the console select the Open Virtual Machine option as shown:

Make a note of the Guest OS Password from the Guest OS section. This is the default password that will be used to log in to your virtual machine.

To log in to the virtual machine, use the following credentials:

• Username: root
• Password: <Guest_OS_Password>

This is shown in the following screenshot:

You will be prompted to change this password on your first login. Provide a strong new password that contains at least one special character and contains an alphanumeric pattern as well.

Summary

There you have it! Your very own Linux virtual machine on the cloud!

Resources for Article:

Further resources on this subject:

• vCloud Networks [Article]
• Creating your first VM using vCloud technology [Article]
• Securing vCloud Using the vCloud Networking and Security App Firewall [Article]