In continuation of my last post on the same topic, in this post we will deploy and configure Cloud Director App Launchpad.
With App Launchpad VMware cloud providers can now deliver their own catalog based applications or VMware Cloud Marketplace certified 3rd party Cloud Applications, and Bitnami catalog applications directly to customers through a simple catalog interface from a VMware Cloud Director plugin. This capability allows Cloud Providers to deliver application Platform as a Service to customers who needn’t know anything about the supporting infrastructure for the catalog applications they deploy.
NOTE – In this release Tenant using App Launchpad 1.0, can launch single-VM applications.
Prerequisites for App Launchpad Installation
Before we install and configure App Launchpad, it requires few external components and supports specific versions that you must deploy and configure.
- Create a new Virtual Machine with below requirement
- Ensure Rabbit MQ is installed and configured under Cloud Director extensibility before deploying App Launchpad.
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Inside same Rabbit MQ Server create a new Exchange with type as “direct” and a dedicated AMQP user that has full permissions to the virtual host of the AMQP broker.
Install Cloud Director App Launchpad
Deployment of App Launchpad can be done by installing an RPM package on a dedicated Linux virtual machine.Download Application Launchpad from here and transfer the file to ALP server and installation is very simple process:
- Install the RPM package by running the installation command.
Connect App Launchpad with Cloud Director
To configure App Launchpad with Cloud Director, we will use the alp command line utility. By using this utility:
- We will establish a connection between App Launchpad and VMware Cloud Director
- Define or create the App-Launchpad-Service account
- and install the App Launchpad user interface plug-in for VMware Cloud Director.
- The alp connect command also configures App Launchpad with your AMQP broker.
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#alp connect --sa-user alpadmin --sa-pass <PASSWORD> --url https://10.96.98.50 --admin-user admin@system --admin-pass <PASSWORD> --amqp-user alp --amqp-pass <PASSWORD> force --amqp-exchange alpext - Accept “EULA” and “certificate”
- if you have put correct information then it should show successfully configured
- Restart ALP service using
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#systemctl restart alp
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- You can run #alp show to verify the connection
Configure App Launchpad
- Now you can go to Cloud Director and check installed ALP plugin in Cloud Director.
- Click on “LAUNCH SETUP” to configure it to offer Applications as a Service
- If you want to configure the infrastructure for App Launchpad automatically, select Yes and software will setup everything automatically.
- In case you chosen “No i will set it up on my own”, pre-requisite you need to setup manually.
- App Launchpad supports the use of applications from the Bitnami applications catalog that is available in the VMware Cloud Marketplace.
You can also create catalogs of your custom, in-house applications and configure App Launchpad to work with these catalogs.
- If everything is goes fine and have enough resources in Cloud Director , you will see “App Launchpad Setup Complete”
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Onboarding Bitnami Applications
VMware Cloud providers can import applications from the Bitnami applications catalog that is available in the VMware Cloud Marketplace. To begin, provider must log in to the VMware Cloud Marketplace and subscribe to the Bitnami application you wish to deploy. Follow these steps:
- Log in to the VMware Cloud Marketplace.
- From the “Catalog” page, find the Bitnami application you wish to deploy (With App Launchpad 1.0, tenant users can only run single-VM applications) and select it to subscribe.
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On the “Settings” page, choose “VCD” as the platform and select the correct version. Set the subscription type to “BYOL”. Click “Next” to proceed.
- The subscription will now be added to your Cloud Director App Launchpad organization , which tenants can use it.
- Make sure the “App Launchpad” organization has right permission.
Onboarding In-house Applications
Cloud Provider can also add your own in-house applications to the content library of the “AppLaunchpad" provider organization and upload your applications manually , to do so
- Provider admin need to Navigate to the “Content Libraries -> vApp Templates” page and click on “NEW”..
- By default, in-house applications neither has logo nor has summary.
To give these apps better user experience, service provider can set metadata on vApp templates by GUI or vCloud API , here is GUI Way to do so:
- Go to Content Library and click on application which you have recently updated and go to metadata and click on “Edit” and add following items:
- title – Title of Application
- summary – Summary of Application which will be displayed on Application tile.
- Description – Description of Application
- version – Displays version number of Application.
- logo – Provider can choose a logo using Internal/External web location like S3.
- screenshot – Provider can choose default snapshot using Internal HTTP/HTTPs server or External web location like S3
This completes the installation and configuration of Cloud Director App Launchpad and as i said in my last post – App Launchpad is a free component for VMware Cloud Director, and doesn’t necessitate the use of Bitnami catalogs, providers can use their own appliances, so go ahead and give it a try, start delivering a PAAS like solutions to your Tenants.
VMTECHIE 