Skip to content

NCD – Navisite Cloud Director Quick Start Guide


This article is intended for use by new Navisite Cloud Director® (NCD) users, and provides an exercise serving as an introduction to NCD functionality, including:
  • Activating your account and setting your password
  • Logging in
  • Viewing vDataCenter (vDC) details
  • Creating a virtual application (vApp)
  • Adding a Windows Server 2008 virtual machine (VM) to your new vApp
  • Configuring VM network behavior to allow Remote Desktop access to your new VM
  • Connecting to your VM using Windows Remote Desktop Connection
Note: Successful completion of this exercise results in the addition of a Windows Server 2008 VM to your environment, which incurs a licensing cost impacting your bill. Instructions for removing the VM are provided at the end of this article.

Activating Your Account

New Navisite Cloud Director customers receive an email from Navisite entitled "Activate your new account," which provides your Navisite Cloud Director username.

Alternatively, customers may receive NCD usernames via their system administrator.


  • Click Create Account to agree to the terms of service and create your account as directed in this email.

  • After clicking Create Account, the Activate account pop-up window appears.



  • After activating your account, you are automatically logged into Navisite Cloud Director.
Note: The username supplied in your email is not an email address. When logging into Navisite Cloud Director, enter the username exactly as specified in the email, or by your system administrator.

Logging In

To log into Navisite Cloud Director:
  1. Using a web browser, navigate to https://director.navisite.com. The Login page appears.



  2. Enter your username and password values at the login page, and click Sign In.

    Upon successful login, the NCD Dashboard page appears.


Viewing vDataCenter Details

A vDataCenter (virtual datacenter or vDC) is a software-defined logical container which provides computing and infrastructure resources to your NCD networks, virtual applications (vApps), and their contents, including virtual machines (VMs).

New Navisite Cloud Director customers have four pre-configured vDCs available:
  • Andover01 Default vDC
  • Redhill01 Default vDC
  • SantaClara01 Default vDC
  • Woking01 Default vDC
To view vDataCenter details:
  1. At the Dashboard page, click vDataCenters in the navigation bar on the left side of the page to display the vDataCenters page.


  2. The vDataCenters page displays a summary table of your vDCs in Navisite Cloud Director.

  3. Click Andover01 Default vDC in the list. The vDataCenter detail page appears.



  4. The vDataCenter detail page provides the following information:

    • Current Status – vDataCenter network diagram, memory/CPU/storage policy limits, task history, and billing.

    • Children – networks, vApps, templates, and media.

    • Network Services – firewall and network address translation (NAT) rules, load balancers, virtual private networks (VPNs), static routes, and Edge Gateway configuration.

    • Configuration – defined Public IPs and vCloud/Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) properties.

  5. Scroll down to the "Configuration" section, click Public IPs, and note the listed IP address. This is the public IP address of your vDC's Edge Gateway device, which will be used later in this exercise.


Creating a New vApp and Adding a Windows Server 2008 VM

A vApp (or virtual application) is a logical container for virtual resources. A vApp can contain virtual machines (VMs), networks, and networking rules.
  1. At the vDataCenter detail page, scroll down to the "Children" section and click vApps.



  2. Click +Create vApp. The Create vApp page appears.



  3. Enter a name for your new vApp in the "vApp Name" field. This name must be unique among all vApps within the vCloud instance displayed in the "vCloud" field.

  4. Note: The "vCloud" and "vDataCenter" fields are pre-populated with values determined by your vDataCenter settings, and cannot be edited.

  5. Click Next-> to display the Choose a Template page. The Choose a Template page allows you to select a virtual machine (VM) template for the VM that will populate your new vApp.

  6. Note: A VM (or virtual machine) is a software implementation of a physical computer. A VM has an installed operating system, may have installed applications, and otherwise performs as a physical computer.



  7. In the template list, scroll down to display the "Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 64 Bit" template, and click Select.

  8. Click Next-> to display the Customize Networks page.



    • By default, Navisite Cloud Director creates a new vApp network named "VM Network."

    • The fields on the Customize Networks page display the vApp network's default gateway address, as well as the vDC network to which it will connect.

    • The gateway address is the IP address serving as the vApp network's point of contact to other networks, such as the vDC network or the internet.

  9. Click Next-> to display the Customize VMs page.


    • Several fields on the Customize VMs page are pre-populated with settings specified by the VM template selected in Step 5.

    • The VM's Network Interface Controller (NIC) is configured to connect to the vApp network specified in Step 6.

  10. Select Specify password from the "Admin password" drop-down list. A text entry field appears below the drop-down list.

  11. Enter the desired administrator password for the VM in the password text entry field. Record this password for later use in this exercise

  12. Click Finish to create the vApp and VM. When you click Finish, Navisite Cloud Director…

    • creates a vApp using the name specified in Step 3.

    • populates the new vApp with a new VM created according to the template selected in Step 5.

    • creates the vApp network and gateway device specified in Step 6, which connects the new VM to the vApp's parent vDC network.

    The vApp detail page appears while your new vApp is being created.

    Note: You can monitor the progress of the vApp creation by clicking the Recent Tasks icon in the upper right corner of the page.

     



  13. When the vApp creation process is completed, power on your new VM by clicking the Start button at the top of the vApp detail page.



  14. Note: Clicking the Start button at the vApp detail page powers on its VMs and deploys its network gateways. If your vApp contains multiple VMs, clicking the Start button at the vApp detail page powers on all VMs within the vApp.

  15. Return to the vDataCenter detail page by clicking Andover01 Default vDC in the breadcrumb path at the top of the vApp detail page.



  16. Click Diagram in the "Current Status" section of the vDataCenter detail page.



  17. Review the vDC diagram to verify proper configuration, as illustrated above.

    To view a larger network overview diagram, click Network Overview in the "Views" section of the navigation bar on the left side of the page.

Configuring VM Network Behavior to Allow Remote Desktop Access

Navisite Cloud Director provides the ability to quickly configure common network behaviors (e.g., FTP, SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS) for VMs, including the automatic creation of necessary firewall and NAT rules.

Note: A VM must be in a powered on state in order to successfully configure network behaviors for it, or a configuration error occurs.
  1. At the vDataCenter detail page, scroll down to the "Children" section and click vApps.

  2. In the vApps page list, locate and click on the name of the vApp containing the VM to be configured. The vApp detail page appears.

  3. In the "Children" section of the vApp detail page, click VMs to display a list of VMs for the vApp.

  4. In the "Name" column, click the name of the VM to be configured. The VM detail page appears.

  5. Scroll down to the "Configuration" section of the VM detail page, and click Behaviors.



  6. Click +Add Behavior. The Behaviors page appears.



  7. Click +Add Behavior in the "Public Service" section of the Behaviors page. The Public Service page appears.



  8. Select VM Network: NIC 0 from the "VM NIC" drop-down menu.

  9. Select the IP address of your vDC's Edge Gateway device (as noted previously in this exercise) from the "Public IP" drop-down menu.

  10. Select TCP from the "Protocol" drop-down menu.

  11. Enter 3389 in the "Port" field.

  12. Click Add Behavior to configure the behavior. When the new behavior is successfully created, it is added to the "Behaviors" list at the VM detail page.

  13. Note: You can monitor the progress of the behavior creation by clicking the Recent Tasks icon in the upper right corner of the page.

     

Connecting to Your VM Using Windows Remote Desktop Connection

  1. Using a local Windows PC with internet access, click the Windows Start button, enter mstsc in the "Search programs and files" field, and press Enter. The Remote Desktop Connection window appears.



  2. In the "Computer" field, enter the IP address of your vDC's Edge Gateway device, as noted previously in this exercise.

  3. Click Connect.

  4. Log into your Windows Server 2008 VM using the following credentials:

    • Username: administrator

    • Password: Enter the administrator password specified at the Customize VMs page during vApp creation, earlier in this exercise.

  5. Accept any security certificates that are presented upon login.

  6. To log out of the VM, select Log off from the Windows Start menu within your Remote Desktop Connection session.

Removing the vApp and VM From Your Environment

Successful completion of this exercise results in the addition of a Windows Server 2008 VM to your environment, which incurs a licensing cost impacting your bill. To remove the VM and its vApp from your environment:
  1. Return to your Navisite Cloud Director environment in your browser.

  2. Click vDataCenters in the navigation bar on the left side of the page to display the vDataCenters page.

  3. Click Andover01 Default vDC in the vDataCenters list. The Andover01 Default vDC detail page appears.

  4. At the Andover01 Default vDC detail page, scroll down to the "Children" section and click vApps.

  5. In the vApps page list, locate and click on the name of the vApp added during this exercise. The vApp detail page appears.

  6. Click the Stop button at the top of the vApp detail page.

  7. When the vApp is completely stopped, click the Delete button at the top of the vApp detail page. The vApp and VM will be removed from your environment.

Related Reading

Below are links to Navisite Cloud Director knowledge base articles related to the functionality detailed in this exercise:


Feedback and Knowledge Base