Yes, I know a VMware guy showing how to add Microsoft into our management domain. How mad is that? But you will notice that not only do we have vCAC supporting System Center Virtual Machine Manager and Windows 2012 HyperV. But we have also release the Multi-Hypervisor Manager (MHM) – so I will be looking at both in due course. One thing I know I need to do for my own development is be more knowledge about our competitors products if I’m to grow. But I’m also firm believer that any cloud or SDDC project is only as good as its underlying virtual layer – and of course, as a long time user, consultant, trainer and now employee of VMware – I think that’s still VMware vSphere!

In previous versions of vCAC an Agent was used to connect to HyperV, and indeed you will see that listed when ever you install the agent itself. This now regarded as a mainly legacy functionality now – if you have the Windows 2012 HyperV instanced managed by SCVMM then it can be added into vCAC directly.

One thing to mention though is you will need to install the SCVMM Console to the vCAC instance – and I would recommend after doing so reboot the vCAC host. If you don’t have the SCVMM console installed you won’t have the SCVMM Powershell plug-ins that it uses to connect to the SCVMM. In vCAC “WorkFlow History” you will see references to:

“Failed with the following exception: The term “Get-VMMServer” is not recognised as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or the path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again”

To install the SCVMM 2012 Sp1 you will need Windows PowerShell version 3.0 installed the vCAC host as well. Both of these are downloadable from Microsoft website – as we know PowerShell is for free, and SCVMM is available as evaluation download:

Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1

Windows Management Framework 3.0

Once you have these badboys installed, your ready for the vCAC configuration. In fact the hardest part of the vCAC setup is getting the software from Microsoft installed – the vCAC part is very simple. These are following (hopefully now familiar from previous post) steps.

Step One: Add Credentials

As with the other provisioning endpoints I’ve configured we need provide credentials to vCAC that can be used to connect to the management layer. vCAC Credentials for my Microsoft SCVMM instance can be added like so under vCAC Administrator and Credentials – and click +New Credentials.

Step Two: Add HyperV (SCVMM) Endpoint

1. Under vCAC Administrator, select Endpoints

2. Select +New Endpoint

3. From the pull-down list select HyperV (SCVMM)

4. Complete the fields as fits your environment, and select the credentials configured at step one

Once you click OK, vCAC Data Collection should start – you should look for status in the Workflow History for successes/failures:

Step Three: Add an Enterprize Group

As with all other provisioning types we need an Enterprize Group to map to the compute resources.

1.  This appears in the vCAC Administrator pane, under Enterprize Groups – where you can click the +New Enterprize Groups.

2.  Set a name for the Enterprize Group, and allocate the people who can manage it.

3. Next select the Windows 2012 HyperV Cluster(s) that will be include. The vCAC should enumerate stand-alone HyperV hosts as well as those in a cluster

Step Four: Allocate Resources to Provisioning Group

The next step allocation computer resource to the provisioning group…

1. Reservations can be defined under Enterprize Administrator and Reservations, and select Virtual

2.  The first page of the Reservation – allows you to set the compute resource (gathered from the Enterprize Group created earlier) – it populates the “Name” field with this text, but you can change it as you wish. Additionally, this reservation is then assigned to the Provisioning Groups – as well as quota of VMs they are allowed to create.

Step Five: Create a New BluePrint

The plug-in to SCVMM support both a create and clone – cloning seems the logical option given the fact you may have existing templates from which you can base your provisioning on.

1. Under Enterprize Administrator and Global BluePrints, you can select the link to create a New BluePrintfor Virtual

2. This should open the BluePrints form like so – here I called the Blueprint “Windows 2012 Datacenter – Non HA” and allocated it to the “CorpHQ Production”

Under “Build Information” you should be able to select an image from the SCVMM Library from which to clone:

 

and you should be able to adjust the virtual machine resources:

Step Six: Test Deploy

If you have setup the self-service portal – you should find that the SCCVMM manager HyperV image appears in the list like so: