App Launchpad Service is Generally Available for customers’ consumption through the Cloud Partner Navigator platform. The earlier blog post provides some of the abilities of the App Launchpad Service for Cloud Providers. In addition to these, App Launchpad Service provides many additional capabilities such as:
- Support On-premise VMware Cloud Director as a Cloud Endpoint to manage Catalog and allow customers to use App Launchpad as an extension.
- Create and Manage Tenant Admin role to self-manage Content Catalog, Helm Chart repo, Deployment settings, Featured Application, Customize App Launchpad User Interface.
- Offer Multiple versions(up to five) of the Same application in the Catalog.
- App Launchpad Service API Interface for Providers to automate Catalog management, and other operations
This blog post shows how to onboard an existing On-premise VMware Cloud Director to App Launchpad Service to offer application as a Service.
For Cloud Provider Administrators:
Onboard on-premise VMware Cloud Director to App Launchpad Services
Providing administrator Credentials initiates the App Launchpad Service UI plugin installation and Catalog Content Synchronization on VMware Cloud Director.
After successfully activating the VCD on App Launchpad Service, the tenant organization’s admin roles and users can view the App Launchpad Service as an extension and browse the Application marketplace to launch container or VM Applications through the on-premise VCD Tenant portal.
Onboard Proxied VMware Cloud Director using Transporter OVA
App Launchpad Service generates a proxy client to connect proxied VCD using the API token(Figure 3). The cloud provider can install this OVA on Infrastructure vCenter Server, as shown in Figure 4.
The Provider requires OVF TOOL to install the transporter OVA. Below is an example command to install the transporter OVA using the OVF TOOL. This document describes the complete steps to create Transporter OVA.
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ovftool --datastore=DATASTORE_NAME --noSSLVerify --acceptAllEulas --diskMode=thin --powerOn --X:waitForIp --X:injectOvfEnv --X:enableHiddenProperties --network=TARGET_NETWORK --name=TRANSPORTER_VM_NAME ./transporter_alp.ovf 'vi://VSPHERE_USER:VSPHERE_PASSWORD@VCENTER_SERVER/DC2/host/C2' |
Activate the onboarded VCD instance after testing the connection, as shown in Figure 5. Activation creates a proxy user account, App Launchpad Service Organization, Organization VDC, and a shared catalog on VCD.
Figure 6 shows a tenant admin’s view of App Launchpad Service on VCD’s tenant portal. This portal allows all tenant users to continue using the VCD tenant portal to launch applications on multiple VCD sites and available cloud endpoints through App Launchpad Service.
Summary
The providers can now support on-premise VCD as a cloud endpoint for App Launchpad Service. This includes Global catalog management, customer management, and all features App Launchpad service offers. The customers or tenant users can continue using on-premise VCD as a launching place to launch applications through the app launchpad service.
References
App Launchpad Service Documentation
