As most people who work with VMware will know vCloud Automation Center version 6 was released last week and with the plans for vCAC to become the route for non VSPP partners for cloud plus the added features and functionality of 6.0 the twitterverse is alive with people looking to learn more. I am one of those people and was even fortunate enough to be part of the beta for 6.o but there is loads to learn so I decided to start a list of really great resources around the product that I could use to skill up with and thought it would probably help other people as well and so this is what this blog posting is about. I am hoping to continually add more resources to this list and welcome any recommendations on good resources.

Product Landing Page:

• http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-automation-center

Product Documentation:

• https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcac-pubs.html
•  https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/appdirector-pubs.html

Release Notes:

•  https://www.vmware.com/support/vcac/doc/vcloud-automation-center-60-release-notes.html
•  https://www.vmware.com/support/appdirector/doc/releasenotes_appdirector60.html

Compatibility Matrix:

• https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vcloud-automation-center-60-support-matrix.pdf

Installation and configuration blogs:

• http://grantorchard.com/the-little-black-book-of-vcac/ <- This is brilliant!! I hope this becomes an unofficial guide at some point
•  http://grantorchard.com/vcac/implementation/vcac-6-0-iaas-installation/
• http://grantorchard.com/vcac/implementation/vcac-6-0-virtual-appliance-installation/
• http://grantorchard.com/vcac/implementation/vcac-6-0-virtual-appliance-configuration/
• http://grantorchard.com/vcac/implementation/vcac-6-0-common-installation-issues/
• http://grantorchard.com/vcac/concepts/vcac-custom-properties-order-precedence/
• http://cloudyautomation.com/2013/10/22/custom-properties-explained/
• http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/12/vmware-vcloud-automation-center-6-pre-req-automation-script.html
• http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2013/09/automating-the-pre-requisites-for-vcac-5-2.html
• http://grantorchard.com/vcac-world-series-1/
• http://www.virtualjad.com/2013/10/vcac-60-implementation-part-1-deploying.html
• http://www.virtualjad.com/2013/10/vcac-60-implementation-part-2.html
• http://www.virtualjad.com/2013/11/vcac-60-implementation-part-3.html
• http://www.virtualjad.com/2013/11/vcac-60-implementation-part-4.html
• How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 – Part 1 – Identity Appliance
• How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 – Part 2 – vCAC Appliance
• How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 – Part 3 – IaaS Components
• How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 – Part 4 – Tenant Configuration
• How To Install vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) 6.0 – Part 5 – Agent, Endpoint, and Group Configuration
• http://professionalvmware.com/2013/12/automate-all-the-things-vbrownbag-follow-up-vcac-6-0-install-with-jon-harris-thevcacguy/
• http://www.virtual-blog.com/2013/09/vcloud-director-map-vcloud-automation-center/?sf17848904=1

Distributed Installation

Sam McGeown has done a series around the distributed installation of vCAC 6.0 which isn’t as simple as you would hope.

1. VCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 1: Certificates
2. vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 2: vPostgres
3. vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 3.1: Configure Load Balancing with vCNS
4. vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 3.2: Configure load balancing with NSX
5. vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 4: Deploying and clustering a secondary vCAC Appliance

Training

• vCloud Automation Center Application Services: Fundamentals [V6] <- Self Paced
• VMware vCloud Automation Center: Install, Configure, Manage [V6.0]

Automation of the Installation

• http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2013/12/automating-vcac-vcloud-automation.html
• http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2013/12/automating-vcac-vcloud-automation_23.html

Day 2 Automation

Jonathan Medd as created a brilliant series of postings around vCAC tenant creation

Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 1 AD SSL
Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 2 AD Users, Groups and OUs
Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 3 Install the vCAC plugin for vCO
Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 4 Creating a Tenant
Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 5 Creating an Identity Store
Automating vCAC Tenant Creation with vCO: Part 6 Adding Administrators

 

Top orchestration blogs

http://vcoteam.info/

http://elasticskies.com/

http://cloudyautomation.com/

http://v-reality.info/

http://www.vcacteam.info/

http://www.vcoportal.de/

http://d-fens.ch/category/technology/

Orchestrator Videos

Intro to vCenter Orchestrator

vCenter Orchestrator Install and Configure

Using vCO to manage Active Directory and Exchange

Advanced vCO

Converting vCO Workflows to versionable code

FREE VMware vCenter Orchestrator Instructional Videos [Updated]

VMware Hands On Labs

• http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/#lab/699

Videos:

VMwareTV have now posted 30 videos covering vCAC features http://www.youtube.com/user/vmwaretv?feature=watch

#vBrownBag Automate ALL the things – vCAC 6.0 Installation with Jon Harris (@ThevCACGuy) from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

#vBrownBag Automate ALL the things – vCAC 6.0 Getting Started with Jon Harris (@ThevCACGuy) from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

Reference Architecture Guide:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-vcloud-automation-center-60-reference-architecture.pdf

Helpful vCAC 5.2 Resources

Just because some people will still be asked to do vCAC 5.2 . Also the installation notes only cover installing all the components on one server whereas Arnim has detailed how to do it when you have separated the components like you would in a production environment. I’ve used these notes on a 5.2 engagement and assure you these are correct compared to the actual VMware instillation notes

http://www.van-lieshout.com/2013/08/vcloud-automation-center-part-1-vcac-components-overview/

http://www.van-lieshout.com/2013/08/vcloud-automation-center-part-2-installation-preparation/