Creating Virtual Datacenters in OpenNebula

Name: Creating Virtual Datacenters in OpenNebula
Uploaded: 2026-09-05T07:36:15-04:00
Duration: 3 min 48 s
Description: In this screencast, we’ll guide you through creating and managing Virtual Datacenters (VDCs) in OpenNebula. You’ll learn how to: ✅ Create a new Virtual Datacenter ✅ Add and allocate resources ✅ Verify resource usage and monitor your VDC Explore OpenNeb...

Open Nebula

09/05/2026

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Transcript

In this screencast, we are going to guide you through creating the virtual datacenter, adding the resources, and verifying that it is effective. Virtual datacenters define an assignment of one or several user groups to a pool of resources. Virtual datacenters can be used for different purposes, for example, to enable a user group to use only specific hosts and virtual networks. Resources can be added based on their cluster membership or individually. Resources within the virtual datacenter might be located in the different OpenAvila Managed Zones. It's worth mentioning that every new user group, once added, is a member of the default virtual datacenter. All resources are members of the virtual datacenter as well. For successful virtual datacenter assignment and usage, the user group must be removed from the default virtual datacenter. For the purpose of this demonstration, the environment contains three hosts, two of them are members of the prod cluster and one is a member of the dev cluster. Virtual datacenter management is located under the System tab, VDC. For the purpose of this demonstration, there is an additional user group named sysops that currently is a member of the default virtual datacenter. I'm going to remove the group from the default VDC first. To start the default virtual datacenter, press the update button and navigate to the user groups page. Deselect the sysops user group and proceed with saving these changes. To start the virtual datacenter creation wizard, press the create button. Give it a name and proceed to the user group selection page. Select sysops user group and proceed to the resource tab. To simplify the selection, I'm going to add the resources based on their cluster membership by selecting the prod cluster. Proceed to the next page and press the finish button. Now let's verify that the virtual datacenter settings are effective. To verify that the virtual datacenter settings and limits are effective, I'm going to log in as the member of the sysops group. Navigate to the instances, VMs page and press the create button to start the instantiation wizard. Give this batch a name. To verify that the virtual machines are not going to be deployed on a third host that is not part of this virtual datacenter, I'm going to start three virtual machines. Thus, three VMs should occupy only two hosts that are part of this virtual datacenter. Press the next button and then finish leaving all of the settings on their respective defaults. As we can see, the virtual machines were only deployed on the hosts that are part of the newly created virtual datacenter and the third host remained untouched. VDCs can be used for various purposes from simple creation of the resources to being a crucial part in the multi-tenancy scenarios. Thank you for watching and see you in the next screencast.

TL;DR

Virtual Datacenters in OpenNebula assign user groups to specific resource pools, enabling administrators to control which hosts and networks different teams can access.
Resources can be added to VDCs either individually or by cluster membership, and can span multiple OpenNebula-managed zones for flexible infrastructure organization.
User groups must be removed from the default VDC before custom VDC assignments become effective, ensuring proper resource isolation and access control.

Summary

This screencast demonstrates the complete workflow for creating and managing Virtual Datacenters (VDCs) in OpenNebula, a critical capability for resource allocation and multi-tenancy scenarios. The tutorial walks through the process of defining a VDC by assigning user groups to specific resource pools, including hosts and virtual networks based on cluster membership. The demonstration uses a practical example with three hosts across production and development clusters, showing how to remove a user group from the default VDC, create a new VDC with cluster-based resource allocation, and verify that deployment restrictions are properly enforced. The screencast emphasizes that VDCs enable administrators to control which resources specific user groups can access, making them essential for implementing resource isolation and multi-tenant cloud environments. The verification process confirms that virtual machines are only deployed to hosts within the assigned VDC, demonstrating effective resource governance and access control in OpenNebula environments.

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction to VDCs
0:52 - Environment Setup
1:16 - Removing Default VDC Access
1:32 - Creating New VDC
2:27 - Verification Testing

Key Quotes

0:12 "Virtual datacenters define an assignment of one or several user groups to a pool of resources."
0:45 "For successful virtual datacenter assignment and usage, the user group must be removed from the default virtual datacenter."
3:41 "VDCs can be used for various purposes from simple creation of the resources to being a crucial part in the multi-tenancy scenarios."

FAQ

Why must user groups be removed from the default VDC?

Every new user group is automatically added to the default VDC, which grants access to all resources. To enforce custom resource restrictions through a new VDC, the user group must first be removed from the default VDC, otherwise the default permissions will override the custom VDC settings.

Can VDC resources span multiple physical locations?

Yes, resources within a Virtual Datacenter can be located in different OpenNebula-managed zones, allowing for geographically distributed resource pools within a single VDC configuration.

Categories:

» Cybersecurity » Identity & Access Management (IAM)
» Cybersecurity » Cloud Security
» Data Protection

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