vCloud Director version 9.1 has been released. It has been just 6 months since the previous release (9.0) so VMware is delivering on its promise of multiple yearly releases in 6 months cadence.
In this whitepaper you can find high level overview of some of the new features. Let me summarize them and also provide additional ones here below.
H5 UI Enhancements
In iterative process the HTML 5 UI is slowly replacing legacy Flex UI. The tenant portion now includes vApp, Catalog and Networking management functionality, OVF/ISO download/uploads without the need for Client Integration Plugin (hooray!) and support for standalone VMware Remote Console.
Associated organizations from multiple or single (new in 9.1) vCloud Director instances now have aggregated view of all Org VDCs with seamless UI redirections between instances.
SDK for UI Extensibility has been released which means the service provider can extend the UI with additional sections to provide access to new services. The SDK includes very simple example of a static page extension (e.g. terms of service, links to other services or price lists) and upcoming vCAT-SP whitepaper will show how to do more complex ones.
The H5 UI is now also used in provider context but only for new features related to vRealize Orchestrator extensibility configuration.
Both legacy UIs (provider and tenants) are still available until the full feature parity is achieved.
vRealize Orchestrator Integration
Updated vRealize Orchestrator plugin has been released. This means both providers and tenants can automate and orchestrate repeating tasks in vCloud Director.
What is completely new is the ability to integrate any vRealize Orchestrator workflows into vCloud Director UI and essential provide XaaS (anything as a service). Similar to vRealize Automation XaaS.
External Tools
Not specifically tied with vCloud Director 9.1 but fully supported now are:
- vcd-cli Linux command line tool to easily trigger or script common vCloud Director tasks (both for provider and tenant).
- Container Service Extension Ability to extend vCloud Director to be target for deployment of Kubernetes clusters for tenants and simple management through CLI.
- Object Extensibility SDK
- Security Hardening Guide (long overdue update): PDF HTML
Other Features and Changes
- Org VDC network disconnection and connection from Org VDC Edge Gateway. This allows movements of network between Edges without impact on the connected VMs.
- NFV features (SR-IOV, Large Page VMs, and guaranteed sensitivity support).
- FIPS mode can be enabled on Org VDC Edge Gateways
- vCloud Director 9.1 maximums now include support for 150 ms RTT latency between management components (vCloud cells, vSphere, NSX) and 2000 Edges in single vCloud Director instance
- VM monitoring metrics now via API provide also roll up metrics for vApp, Org VDC and Org objects.
- Multisite enhancements: associations of orgs within the same vCloud Director instance, multisited API queries and rollup calls
- Removed support for old vCloud API versions (1.5, 5.1): make sure you update your scripts or applications to use at least version 5.5 APIs (e.g. Usage Meter).
- vCloud Director no longer registers itself as an extension to resource vCenter Servers (upgraded instances will not delete the extension registration).
Tom Fojta's Blog 
What is the URL of the Provider Portal? /provider has only some ORG creation features…
Yes it is /provider. Currently it provides access only to the new services feature and simple org management.
interesting I have tried the /provider for the new portal but I just get a blank screen… thoughts ?
Probably misconfigured Public Addresses section.
Getting this error “No Datacenters are available” when I log in the tenant portal as Org Admin et SysAdmin role, the default roles. Any ideas?
Make sure your VCD certificates are properly created (matching the CN/SAN) and configured on cells, LB and in the public addresses.
My Certs and Public URL are matching CN/SAN, I have 2 certs 1 for vcloud.fqdn and 1 for vcloud-console.fqdn
And is the configuration in Public Addresses section in VCD correct?
Public URL are correct, everything works on the flex portal
And the certs are there as well? If it still does not work open a ticket.
Did open a SR, had to put the certs chain in the Public URL in the API section, now its fixed!
About the VMRC do you know if you can connect remote devices, like usb, floppies (yeah I know dont ask, its for loading drivers the old fastion way) and ISO’s from catalog or local drive? I see the option grayed out.
Will run more tests and probably go live soon(tm)
I have the same issue, I have tried upload certs chain to Public URL and Load balancer(NSX edge), no result. Every time I have “No Datacenters are available”
You have to allow cells to access to your public vCloud Director url. So you will have to probably configure your load balancer firewall to allow it.
From each cell, test curl -k -v https://your-vcd-url/api/versions to check it.
It’s a new pre-requisite for VCD 9.1
Do you have a doco reference pointer for this please?
Hi Mark,
Unfortunately, I have never seen any doc about it. I have just been faced to the same problem, and had to open a SR, which informed me about this new requirement.
Hello,
we’re getting two different problems w/ vCloud 9.1:
1) Provider/tenant portal shows empty blank page after the login (URL: https://fqdn/tenant/org or https://fqdn/provider).
2) We have two cells with four private ip.
Now, I have natted the two cells primary IP to two different public ip … and pasted the public certificate (root ca + intermediate + wildcard domain certificate in this order) in the VCD administrative section, public ip, but it continues to show the old certificates of the private part. It therefore seems to ignore what I paste into the three sections. What’s wrong? I Would prefer use private management IP for VCD and public IP for tenants.
Thank you.
You must also upload the certificate to cell keystore or to the load balancer (if you use SSL termination): https://fojta.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/vcloud-director-and-ssl-certificates/