Using CentOS 6.4 x64 for VMware vCloud Director 5.5

Completed a complete installation of VMware vCloud Director 5.5 for a client. This was not a lab setup but the for a real cloud service.

CentOS 6.x for VMware vCloud Director

If your just starting out installing or planning your vCloud Director installation and are trying to decide whether to purchase a licensed Linux or use CentOS, I can certainly attest to the fact the CentOS operates just fine. The installation has been completed for several months now and vCloud Director has not had a single issue. I have installed two for fail-over. I do not have them in a load balance configuration. There are no caveats to using CentOS except of course it is free and thus has no profession or direct product support.

 CentOS Basic Installation for vCloud Director 5.5 

 My suggestion is to not use the basic installation option. Install CentOS with the server option and include both desktops in the installation. Or install them using YUM afterwards.

The one problem I found with CentOS 6.4 for VMware vCloud Director 5.5 was the NIC assignment. vCloud Director 5.5 requires two network interfaces. That is easy and simple enough to add. The problem comes in when there is a need to change addresses. Also, on one of the CentOS for vCloud Director installations , one of the NICs was replying for both ip addresses assigned to it.

VMware Boot From ISO Image

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One of the nice features, and VMWare has many great features, of VMWare Workstation is the ability to select an ISO image to boot from. If the ISO is the installation media for a guest operating system then the installation for the operating system begins.

In the case of Vista fo example, it comes often on DVD. If the user of VMWare worksation doesn't own a DVD player on their computer and their budget is tight, they are left with trying to borrow one or have the DVD image converted to an ISo. Once they have the ISO image, the file can be compied to a network drive or stored on the local hard-drive. Throuhg VM's interface, the ISO image can be selected to boot from and the installation begins.