TABLE OF CONTENTS
Summary
This knowledge base describes the steps to be performed in order to link portals from different organizations or different sites (vDCs) under the same portal into a single view. Only the portals are linked, not the networks.
Two (2) scenarios are presented below:
Link two (2) different Performance Cloud VMware organizations (tenants)
(Example: two (2) virtual Data Centers (vDC) in two (2) different locations)
Link a master organization with multiple Performance Cloud VMware organizations
(Example: A partner who has centralized access to all their customers.)
Prerequisites
Not a requirement but recommended: Have a dedicated management organization without any resources to ensure no child organization can’t access the parent resources.
There is currently no service (SKU) to enable in the account management portal Cumulus for this purpose. Please contact the Cloud Support team to get this feature.
The same username and proper Performance Cloud VMware organization role must exist in each linked organization to view and access the other resources in all linked Virtual Data Centers (vDC).
Note: At this stage, it can quickly become complex to manage access security to various organizations. It is therefore strongly recommended to use an external identity manager. If necessary, here is the link to the procedure to set up a SAML identity provider to access to the Performance Cloud VMware portal. Since each organization has its own hyperlink and only one SAML configuration is possible, you will need a separate enterprise application in Microsoft Entra ID for each organization where you want to authenticate.
Procedure
Scenario 1 - Link two (2) different Performance Cloud VMware organizations
Log in to the Performance Cloud VMware portal using an Organization Administrator for the first tenant (ORG-A in this example).
Go to the Administration tab.
From the left panel, click on Multisite, and click on DOWNLOAD LOCAL DATA and download the XML file containing the organization information.
Log in to the Performance Cloud VMware portal using an Organization Administrator for the second tenant (ORG-B in this example).
Go to the Administration tab.
From the left panel, click on Multisite, and click on NEW ORGANIZATION ASSOCIATION.
Click on the UPLOAD button and select the XML file previously downloaded from the first organization.
Then, click on CREATE and finally click on Create and Close.
After you click Create and Close, the association will be created, and remains in status Partially Connected until the process is executed in the opposite direction.
Click on DOWNLOAD LOCAL DATA and download the XML file containing the organization information (for ORG-B in this example).
Repeat steps 4 to 8 for the first tenant (ORG-A in this example).
Please wait a few seconds for the association status to change to Connected.
Both organizations and sites will now appear together in a single view by login to any linked tenant.
Filters are available if needed.
Scenario 2 - Link a master organization with multiple Performance Cloud VMware organizations (with a management organization)
Repeat the steps above (Scenario 1) by linking the master organization and its management organization (ORG-C & MGMT-ORG-C in this example).
Now the virtual Data Center (vDC) for ORG-C will be shown in MGMT-ORG-C portal.
Repeat the steps above (Scenario 1) by linking all child organizations and the management organization (ORG-A & MGMT-ORG-C + ORG-B & MGMT-ORG-C in this example).
Now ORG-A, ORG-B & ORG-C will be shown in MGMT-ORG-C portal.
Important Notes
By entering in a virtual Data Center (vDC), the organization URL will be used and only the chosen organization will be displayed.
This is an expected behavior as child organizations are not linked together. Example below with ORG-C.
By clicking All Virtual data centers, the active organization will continue to show as the active organization URL is still in use.
To return to the management organization, please use the BACK arrow in your browser until you get back to the management URL or type the management URL in the navigation bar.
Create an exception for external users
Please note that the scenarios described above also work with external users, allowing any third-party organization (consultants, vendors, or customers) to log in to the Performance Cloud VMware portal.
If the user is created in only one organization (intentionally bypassing the requirements mentioned above), the user will only have access to that organization, even if organization association is in place.
This allows for a hybrid configuration with linked organizations when needed (for internal users, for example) and access to a single organization when needed (for external users, for example), all within the same configuration.
Please note that this hybrid configuration also works when using an external identity manager (such as Microsoft Entra ID) with organization association. If needed, here is the link for the procedure to set up a SAML identity provider to access to the Performance Cloud VMware portal.
You can also combine local authentication and SAML authentication to achieve this.