Getting started with the Veeam v11 Native Plug-in for vCloud Director

With the upcoming release of Veeam Backup & Replication v11 comes the new version of the Veeam Native vCloud Director Plugin. This addition has been a big hit with Service Providers as it allows them to integrate the Veeam Self-Service Portal directly into the vCloud Director interface. One new addition to the plugin that everyone will be happy to hear is available is single sign on using the tenants vCloud Director Credentials.

Let’s go over a few things that you need to have in place first prior to installing the new plugin.

First step is to have Veeam Backup & Replication v11 and Veeam Enterprise Manager v11 installed. Then add your vCloud Director instance to Veeam Backup & Replication. You can do this by opening the VBR console and selecting Inventory, Add Server, VMware vSphere and then select vCloud Director. Then follow the prompts to add your vCD instance in.

Note – I am currently running Cloud Director 10.2 but I have also tested the plugin on 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.1.1 and 10.1.2. Now technically I should be referring to it as Cloud Director throughout this post but I just can’t bring myself to drop the “v” yet, it’s too soon.

The next thing you will need is a Tenant Organization setup in your vCloud Director instance with a couple of VMs running. For this example we will use TENANT01 that I have setup below.

Now let’s go through to the process to configure the Enterprise Manager Self-Service portal for use with vCloud Director and then we will setup the new Veeam v11 Plugin.

Double click on the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager icon on your desktop and login.

While we are here you will also notice the new drop-down option to change the default language.

I thought I may as well test out my German,

As you can see once you have logged in the interface is also updated.

Ok back to the Enterprise Manager configuration. Once logged in click on Configuration.

From the Backup Server menu select Add to add in your Veeam Backup & Replication Server.

Enter your Veeam Backup & Replication server details and click Ok.

Once the collection has completed the Self-Service option will display on the left-hand menu.

Click on Self-Service then select vCloud and click Add

Note – If you do not have the Self-Service option available then check that you have your Service Provider Enterprise Plus license installed and try again.

Then complete the following fields,

Organization – Select the Cloud Director Tenant.

Repository – Select the Backup Repository you would like to use for this tenant’s backups.

Friendly Name – Set a friendly name for this customer. This friendly name will also be used as the repository name the tenant can see when creating a new job.

Quota – Set a backup storage quota limit for this tenant.

Job Scheduling – Select the permissions for job scheduling from the drop-down menu.

Job Priority – Select between Normal and High. Default option is set to Normal.

The newly created Tenants account will now be displayed.

The self-service backup portal is now accessible to the customer using a dedicated URL and their existing vCloud Director login details. Here is an example of the self-service backup portal for TENANT01 – https://backup.stevenonofaro.net:9443/vCloud/TENANT01

Having a separate portal to log into for the customers backups can be helpful but why not integrate it into the main vCloud Director interface?

With that said let’s look at getting the new Veeam v11 Plugin for vCloud Director up and running. To get started mount the Veeam Backup & Replication v11 ISO to your management server, the plugin is located in the following directory – “Plugins\vCloud Director\plugin.zip”

Then login to the vCloud Director provider portal, select the More drop-down menu and click on Customize Portal.

Select the Upload button

Then click on Select Plugin File

Browse to the plugin location on the Veeam Backup & Replication ISO – “Plugins\vCloud Director\plugin.zip”

Then click Open

Once the plugin file has been selected click Next

Set the Scope and select which Tenants you would like to publish the plugin too and click on Next

Then select Finish

The plugin will now be displayed below,

Then you can either refresh the browser or log out of vCloud Director and then log back in. Next select the More drop-down menu and select Veeam Data Protection.

Enter the URL for your Enterprise Manager Server and click Save.

Note – For this to work correctly you will need to have installed an SSL Certificate on your Enterprise Manager Server. If you haven’t already done so install the certificate on the Enterprise Manager Server now. Then Open IIS and expand out your sites and select VeeamBackup. Then select Bindings on the right-hand menu and click on https and select Edit. On the SSL Certificate drop down menu select your SSL Cert and click Ok. Under Manage Website on the right-hand menu click on Restart.

Next log out of the vCloud Director Provider Portal and log in as the Tenant. Below is an example of the Tenant URL – https://vcloud.stevenonofaro.net/tenant/TENANT01

Select the More drop-down menu and click on Veeam Data Protection

You will now be logged directly into the Self-Service Backup Portal from within the vCloud Director interface. You will also notice that the top section of the Self-Service Portal has been removed and the colour theme has been updated to match the default vCloud Director theme. The interface blends perfectly now and looks like a natural extension of vCloud Director.

Once you have created a backup job for your tenant there is also one other bonus feature Veeam have added in with v11. If you select the Actions button next to one of your VMs you will also notice Add to Backup has been inserted into the vCloud Director VM menu system.

Note – For Cloud Director 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.1.1 and 10.1.2 you will first see Veeam Data Protection in the menu, then Add to Backup

After selecting Add to Backup you will then be prompted to select the backup job to add the VM too. Click Add to Job. The VM has now been added into the backup job without you even having to switch over to the Self-Service Portal.