AWS Management Portal for vCenter Setup Enhancements

Posted on: Oct 2, 2014

If you are not familiar with the AWS Management Portal for vCenter, you can install it as a plug-in within VMware vCenter and use it to manage AWS infrastructure using vCenter. The AWS Management Portal for vCenter includes support for Amazon EC2 and VM Import. Using the portal, you can migrate your existing VMware VMs to Amazon EC2, launch new EC2 instances, create VPCs and Subnets, and manage your EC2 instances. The portal interface is simple to use and is designed to make it easy for users with VMware experience to get started with AWS. There is no cost to use the portal, aside from the cost of the underlying AWS services consumed.

The AWS Management Portal for vCenter now includes improvements that make it easier to get started with the portal. You no longer need to configure SAML federation as part of the setup process. You can now grant AWS permission to set this up on your behalf. When you do so, the portal will provide your end-users with single sign-on access to your AWS resources, right from vCenter. This provides a natural login experience for your end-users and is significantly easier to setup that SAML federation. If you would like to manage your own identity provider, that is still available as an advanced configuration option.

Additionally, the AWS Management Portal for vCenter now lets you manage all of your EC2 Instances through the portal, including existing EC2 instances that you have created prior to setting up the portal. You have the same control over your existing instances that you have over instances created through the AWS Management Portal for vCenter. This includes the ability to start, stop, or terminate the instances or view monitoring information. You can also manage permissions for these instances using the portal.

Learn more here.