Quick Hit: What is Supported in vCloud Director 1.5?

This is a follow up to my previous post on what is supported in version 1.0.1 and is updated for version 1.5.  You can find most of this in the vCloud Installation Guides and release notes.  I have grabbed most of the key pre-requisites, and I may have missed some so please don’t use this as gospel.  Again, I am sorry for just cutting and pasting from the manuals, but really I am trying to drive the simple point home that we all need to read the manuals with any application install.  For reference here is where you can find all the vCloud Director Documentation including release notes.

Supported VMware Cloud Director Server Host Platform for 1.5:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (64 bit), Update 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (64 bit), Update 5
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (64 bit), Update 6

Required Linux Packages for 1.5:

alsa-lib, libICE, module-init-tools, bash, libSM, net-tools, chkconfig, libstdc, pciutils, coreutils, libX11, procps, findutils, libXau, redhat-lsb, glibc, libXdmcp, sed, grep, libXext, tar, initscripts, libXi, which, krb5-libs, libXt, libgcc, libXtst

Supported VMware vSphere vCenter Version For 1.5:

4.0 Update 2
4.0 Update 3
4.1
4.1 Update 1
5.0 Required for Fast Provisioning, Hardware version 8, VPN Support

Supported VMware vSphere ESX/ESXi Version for 1.5:

4.0 Update 2
4.0 Update 3
4.1
4.1 Update 1
5.0 Required for Fast Provisioning, Hardware version 8, VPN Support

Supported VMware vShield Manager Versions for 1.5:

1.0
1.0 Update 1
5.0 Required for Fast Provisioning, Hardware version 8, VPN Support

Supported Database Versions for 1.5:

Oracle 10g Standard Edition Release 2 Patch Level 10.2.0.x
Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition Release 2 Patch Level 10.2.0.x
Oracle 11g Standard Edition Patch Level 11.1.0.x
Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition Patch Level 11.1.0.x
Oracle 11g R2 Patch Level 11.2.0.x
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard SP4
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise SP4
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express (64 bit) SP2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard (64 bit) Cumulative Update 2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise (64 bit) Cumulative Update 2

Note on Clustering Support – Oracle RAC with active/active ONS clustering as well as Microsoft SQL Clustering does NOT appear to be supported based on the documentation.  I am personally trying to get some level of clarification on this topic.

Supported Browser and Guest OS Versions:

This is definitely found in the Installation Guide starting on Page 11

Well Then, What is NOT Supported?

Well it is safe to say as before if it is not listed in the installation guides or a KB then it is not supported.  There has been a lot of guest operating systems added for support and new browsers, but there is still some things unsupported like other Linux distributions for the director Cells.  There are features of vSphere 5 like Storage DRS which is also currently not supported and should in fact be disabled for now with 1.5.  Also previously mentioned was clustering of the vCloud Director Databases.  As always it may work, but if it is not supported just don’t do it.

About Chris Colotti

Chris is active on the VMUG and event speaking circuit and is available for many events if you want to reach out and ask. Previously to this he spent close to a decade working for VMware as a Principal Architect. Previous to his nine plus years at VMware, Chris was a System Administrator that evolved his career into a data center architect. Chris spends a lot of time mentoring co-workers and friends on the benefits of personal growth and professional development. Chris is also amongst the first VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDX#37), and author of multiple white papers. In his spare time he helps his wife Julie run her promotional products as the accountant, book keeper, and IT Support. Chris also believes in both a healthy body and healthy mind, and has become heavily involved with fitness as a Diamond Team Beachbody Coach using P90X and other Beachbody Programs. Although Technology is his day job, Chris is passionate about fitness after losing 60 pounds himself in the last few years.

2 comments

  1. hi,

    what is the difference between IT as a services and software as a services and where does VCloud director belongs to.

    Thanks in Advance
    Ashok

    • VMware vCloud Director really falls into ITaaS from the VMware point of view. ITaaS, IMHO, is about providing infrastructure. I also think it gets a little blurred as you DO run software on that infrastructure so does that then mean there is SaaS? I don’t know there are more specific definitions, but I see something like QuickBooks Online as SaaS, but is GoDaddy hosting WordPress also SaasS? Is getting just a Linux Machine from GoDaddy just ITaaS then I use it for what I want? Very philosophical.

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