Create Multi-Cloud Service Catalogs from Existing Services

To make it easier to add multi-cloud functionality to your existing service catalog, you can:

You may want to create a single-cloud service for testing purposes, and then convert it into a multi-cloud service using the procedure in this topic.

When you create a multi-cloud service from existing services, you have a few options for handling the existing services: keep them as-is, unpublish them, or remove them.

If your single-cloud services contain multiple components, see Prepare multi-component services for migration below.

Create new multi-cloud services from existing services

Access:

Configuration > Self-Service

Available to:

Commander Roles of Superuser and Enterprise Admin

  1. Click the Catalog tab.
  2. On the Catalog page, click Multi-Cloud > Copy services to new multi-cloud service.
  3. On the Base Service page, select the service to use as the base service and click Next.

    4. The properties of the base service, such as the completion workflow, are used as default properties for the new multi-cloud service, although it's possible to edit these settings later.

  4. On the Additional Services page, select one or more additional services to add to the multi-cloud service and click Next.

    5. If any of the selected services can't be merged, the Compatibility Validation dialog appears, displaying an explanation of the issues. The following rules apply:

    • You can add only one VM template from each VMware datacenter.
    • You can add only one VM template from each public cloud region.
    • You can add only one Amazon Marketplace AMI.
    • You can add only one VM template from each SCVMM cloud account.
    • All VMware and SCVMM templates must have the same number of disks and network adapters.
  5. Click Close to close the Compatibility Validation dialog, select a different service, and click Next.

    6. Once all selected services pass compatibility validation, any important differences among the selected services, such as customization spec, assigned service completion workflows and visibility settings, are displayed on the Service Validation page. You can address these differences when you define the service catalog entry in the next section.

  6. Review the differences and click Next.
  7. On the Single-Cloud Visibility page, select one of the following options for handling the originating services:
    • Leave untouched: Users will still be able to request the originating services.
    • Unpublish: Users won't be able to request the originating services, but the services will still be visible to Commander administrators.
    • Remove (cannot be undone): Originating services will be completely removed from the service catalog.
  8. On the Multi-Cloud Templates page, specify a name for each multi-cloud template in the multi-cloud service.

    9. All multi-cloud services are based on one or more multi-cloud templates. For example, if the originating services contain two VM template components each, two multi-cloud templates will be added to the multi-cloud service.

    • To add more VM templates to an existing multi-cloud template, select an existing multi-cloud template from the drop-down list.
    • To create a new multi-cloud template, either accept the default name or provide your own name by typing in the text box.
    • The Status column indicates whether the specified multi-cloud template is New (a new multi-cloud template will be created with this name) or Existing (new VM templates will be added to the selected multi-cloud template).
  9. Click Finish.

    10. The new multi-cloud template is automatically added to a new service catalog definition, and the Add Service wizard opens.

  10. Complete the wizard to save both the new multi-cloud template and the new multi-cloud service definition.

    11. If you chose to remove the existing service in Step 6, the new multi-cloud service is given the same name as the base service you selected. If you chose Leave untouched or Unpublish, the new multi-cloud service has the name of the base service, with the suffix "Multi-Cloud". You can edit the default service name.

    For more information, see Add Multi-Cloud Services to the Catalog, or click the help buttons on each page of the wizard.

Add services to existing multi-cloud services

Access:

Configuration > Self-Service

Available to:

Commander Roles of Superuser and Enterprise Admin

  1. Click the Catalog tab.
  2. On the Catalog page, click Multi-Cloud > Copy services to existing multi-cloud service.
  3. On the Multi-Cloud Service page, select an existing multi-cloud service from the list and click Next.
  4. On the Additional Services page, select one or more single-cloud services to add to the multi-cloud service and click Next.

    5. Only compatible services are listed. For example, only services containing the same number of components as the multi-cloud service appear in the list.

    If one or more of the selected services can't be merged, the Compatibility Validation dialog appears, displaying an explanation of the issues. The following rules apply:

    • You can add only one VM template from each VMware datacenter.
    • You can add only one VM template from each public cloud region.
    • You can add only one VM template from each SCVMM cloud account.
    • All VMware and SCVMM templates must have the same number of disks and network adapters.
  5. Click Close to close the Compatibility Validation dialog, select a different service, and click Next.

    6. Once all selected services pass compatibility validation, if there are important differences among the selected services, such as customization spec, assigned service completion workflows and visibility settings, they are displayed on the Service Validation page. Validation issues don't prevent you from continuing, but you should address them to ensure that service deployment will be successful. For example, if the customization spec is different for the VMware services in the multi-cloud service, this will be noted. You can address these differences when you define the service catalog entry in the next section.

  6. Review the differences and click Next.
  7. On the Single-Cloud Visibility page, choose one of the following options for handling the originating services:
    • Leave untouched: Users will still be able to request the originating services.
    • Unpublish: Users won't be able to request the originating services, but the services will still be visible to Commander administrators.
    • Remove (cannot be undone): Originating services will be completely removed from the service catalog.
  8. Click Finish.

    9. The selected services are automatically added as templates to the multi-cloud template referenced by the selected multi-cloud service, and the Edit Service wizard opens.

  9. Complete the wizard to save both the edited multi-cloud template(s) and the edited multi-cloud service definition.

    For more information, see Add Multi-Cloud Services to the Catalog, or click the help buttons on each page of the wizard.

Prepare multi-component services for migration

If the services you will use to create a multi-cloud service have multiple VM components, you must edit the component names first, so that Commander can match the components properly.

For example, let's say you want to create a new multi-cloud service from two existing services named "HR Application VMware" and "HR Application AWS".

HR Application VMware contains the following VM components:

  • Windows 2012R2 VMware
  • Windows Server VMware

HR Application AWS contains the following VM components:

  • Windows 2012R2 Amazon
  • Windows Server Amazon

Before you use these two services to create a multi-cloud service, you must rename the VM components to match. For example:

HR Application VMware:

  • Windows 2012R2
  • Windows Server

HR Application AWS:

  • Windows 2012R2
  • Windows Server

Troubleshooting multi-cloud services

To merge single-cloud services into a multi-cloud service, the single-cloud services must adhere to the following rules:

  • A multi-cloud service can contain only one VM template from each VMware datacenter.
  • A multi-cloud service can contain only one VM template from each SCVMM cloud account.
  • A multi-cloud service can contain only one VM template from each public cloud region.
  • All VM templates of the same cloud account type must have the same number of disks and network adapters. For example, all VMware VM templates in a multi-cloud service must have the same number of disks and templates.

If a service doesn't adhere to these rules, after selecting a service on the Additional Services page and clicking Next, you will see the Compatibility Validation dialog.