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Quick Start Workflow

ZCenter Management Platform is a management platform for enterprise IT. It brings scattered virtualization environments (ZStack ZSphere and VMware) into a unified portal for resource inventory viewing, content library management, platform monitoring and alarming, license management, and system configuration.

The platform adopts a microservice architecture: each feature module is developed, deployed, and run independently, without changing the portal framework itself.

For first-time use, complete the following steps in order to enter daily management:

1. Quick Start

1.1 Unified Deployment (Obtaining ZCenter Management Platform)

In the ZVF solution, ZCenter Management Platform is delivered together with ZStack ZSphere and is deployed on ZSphere through Unified Deployment, with no separate server or environment preparation required.

Prerequisite: ZStack ZSphere has been deployed.

Deployment steps:

• Log in to ZStack ZSphere and go to Platform Services > Service List
• Find ZCenter Service and upload the ZCenter installation package
• Follow the prompts to complete the deployment and obtain a ZCenter Management Platform

After the deployment is complete, log in through the access URL of the ZCenter Management Platform (see 1.2 System Login and Account Security).

1.2 System Login and Account Security

For the first login to ZCenter Management Platform:

• Default username: admin
• Initial password: password

After logging in, change the initial password promptly: click the avatar in the upper-right corner > Account Security, and follow the prompts to change the password.

1.3 Adding a Management Node

A management node is a virtualization environment managed by ZCenter (one ZSphere or VMware environment is one management node). After a management node is added, the resources in that environment are synchronized into the platform for unified viewing and operations.

On the System Configuration > Management Nodes page, click Add Management Node and fill in:

After completing the form, confirm the creation. Once the environment is connected and its data is synchronized, its resources can be viewed in the Inventory.

1.4 Viewing the Inventory

After the management node synchronization is complete, go to the Inventory and view virtual machines and other resources by management node, data center, type, and other dimensions to start daily management.

2. Features

The first-level menus in the left sidebar of ZCenter Management Platform are as follows, and this chapter describes them one by one:

2.1 Home

The Home page is the platform overview dashboard. It presents core data such as the resource overview and alarm overview in charts, helping you intuitively grasp the current running status of the platform from multiple dimensions and quickly locate items that need attention.

2.2 Inventory

The Inventory is organized by management node and centrally displays the resources in each virtualization environment.

• ZStack ZSphere: resource overview of ZSphere-type management nodes
• VMware: resource overview of VMware-type management nodes
• Dynamic entries: the platform automatically generates an entry for each connected management node

The pages support filtering virtual machines and other resources by data center, type, and other dimensions.

Creating a Virtual Machine

In the Inventory, you can start the Create Virtual Machine wizard and follow the prompts to select the target data center, specifications, image, and so on to complete the creation.

Passwordless Redirect to ZSphere

After a ZSphere environment is connected to ZCenter (as a management node), unified passwordless redirect is supported: click the entry of that ZSphere environment in the Inventory to go directly from ZCenter to the corresponding native ZSphere console, without entering the username and password again.

Conditions and notes:

• One-way redirect: only the ZCenter → ZSphere direction is supported.
• Matching condition: passwordless redirect is available to a user only when a user with the same username and the same authentication source exists on both ZCenter and ZSphere. "Same authentication source" means the accounts on both sides come from the same authentication system — for example, both are local users, or both come from the same third-party identity source. The local admin matches only the local admin on ZSphere, not a same-named account from a third-party source.
• Unmatched users: if the current user has no corresponding account with the same username and source on ZSphere, passwordless redirect is not available, and the user needs to log in to ZSphere manually.

2.3 Content Libraries

Content Libraries centrally manage images, templates, and image storage, providing a unified source of materials for creating virtual machines and other resources. It contains three second-level menus:

2.3.1 Image Files

The Image Files page manages the image resources managed by the platform and contains two tabs:

• Image: displays the image list under each management node, supports filtering by management node, data center, and type, and supports uploading/creating, editing, and deleting images. When creating an image, the source is specified with a single management node field.
• Export Records: displays the history and status of image export tasks.

Images are used as the operating system source when creating virtual machines.

2.3.2 Template Files

The Template Files page manages virtual machine templates. A template solidifies a configured virtual machine (including specifications, image, disks, and so on) into a reusable template for fast, batch creation of virtual machines with the same specifications. It supports filtering by management node, and templates can be edited and deleted.

2.3.3 Image Storage

The Image Storage page manages the storage locations of images (image servers). It displays the image storage under each management node along with capacity, status, and other information, and is where image files are physically stored. It supports filtering by management node.

2.4 Platform O&M

Platform O&M covers monitoring, operations, and information display for virtual machine resources, and is divided into System Alarms and System O&M.

2.4.1 System Alarms

System Alarms is organized into three groups in the internal sidebar — Resource Monitoring, Alarm Messages, and Alarm Configuration — covering the complete closed loop of "view monitoring → define rules → receive alarms → take action".

Resource Monitoring · VM Monitoring

Provides visual queries of virtual machine resource usage for operations. You can filter by tag, type, resource, time range, and other dimensions to view the CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization of virtual machines on the platform in real time, quickly locate high-load / low-load virtual machines in a given environment, and export the resource table. Select the filters and click Query to display the monitoring information.

Resource Monitoring · Optimization Suggestions

Set utilization thresholds for virtual machines; virtual machines exceeding the thresholds are automatically identified and listed, providing data for resource optimization and cleanup decisions. The system has three built-in rule categories: high-load virtual machines, low-load virtual machines, and idle virtual machines:

• Each rule can define its own monitoring time range;
• Optimization metrics cover CPU average/maximum utilization, memory average/maximum utilization, disk average/maximum utilization, outbound bandwidth, and inbound bandwidth, with customizable thresholds.

Operations: view the configured optimization rules on the Optimization Suggestions > Rule Settings page; click Create Rule to customize a rule and select the management node and optimization metrics; open the rule detail page to view the virtual machine data matching the metrics.

Alarm Messages · Resource Alarms

Displays the alarm records triggered/resolved by the platform's alarm rules. The list records every triggered and resolved alarm; click a record to view the alarm notification details. Through Actions, a message can be marked as Handled, Ignored, or used to notify the relevant people.

Alarm Messages · Platform Alarms

Displays the alarm messages generated by each connected management node (as opposed to resource alarms triggered by ZCenter's own rules). They are presented as a list; click a record to expand its details, and filter by resource category to quickly classify and troubleshoot by source.

Alarm Configuration · Alarm Rules

Configure alarm rules and alarm levels for monitored objects. The platform provides common built-in alarm rules, and administrators can add, modify, and delete rules as needed. Each rule can specify the virtual machines to monitor and be associated with trigger and recovery message templates to deliver the alarm content to recipients.

Alarm Configuration · Message Templates

Manage the message templates used when an alarm is triggered or resolved. When an alarm occurs or recovers, the system sends notifications to recipients in the format and content of the selected template. Email and SMS notification methods are supported, ensuring that compliant alarm messages are received in time.

2.4.2 System O&M

System O&M is organized into three groups in the internal sidebar: Report Management, Tag Management, and Message Log.

Report Management

Consolidates resource and performance data into reports for capacity planning and operations analysis. Filtering is uniformly by management node, and reports can be exported.

Tag Management · Tags

Manage platform tags. You can create tags and bind/unbind them to various resources to classify and label resources, making it easy to filter and group by tag in lists.

Message Log · Operation Logs

Records platform operation traces and contains two tabs:

• Platform Operation Logs: displays each operation's login IP, result, description, resource name, start/finish time, request data, and response data, and can be exported by time.
• Background Task Logs: displays the execution records and status of background tasks.

2.5 Licensing

Licensing is used to view the platform license status and manage license pools.

2.5.1 Current License

After ZCenter Management Platform is deployed from ZSphere through Unified Deployment, it comes with a permanent ZCenter Standard Edition license — no separate installation, upload, or purchase is required, and all Standard Edition features are available for long-term use once the deployment is complete. This page is used to view the current status of this built-in license.

2.5.2 License Pool

A license pool is a shared quota pool. After an administrator uploads a consolidated license package to activate the license pool, the licensing method of ZSphere Enterprise environments can be switched from Local License to Shared License. The environments then consume quota from the pool on demand, allowing quota to be reallocated across environments.

• Local License: each environment uses its own independent license, and quotas are not shared.
• Shared License: the environment joins the license pool and consumes quota from the shared pool.
• Scope: only ZStack ZSphere (ZSV) Enterprise environments; the only supported license type is CPU Socket.

Join conditions (validated on submission; if any is not met, the join fails with a message): ① the environment is ZSphere and in a normal state; ② the main license type matches the license pool, and the pool's available quota is greater than or equal to the environment's used quota; ③ the license pool currently supports only environments whose local license type is CPU Socket.

The quota overview displays the total quota, platform-wide usage, shared pool remaining (0 is displayed when negative), a usage progress bar (blue below 60%, orange at 60% or above, red at 85% or above), issue date, and expiration date. A license pool consists of multiple stacked licenses; when one of them expires, its quota is frozen and the available quota decreases accordingly.

Disconnected environments: when an environment loses contact with the license server (a disconnected state caused by network interruption, shutdown, destruction, and similar situations), its quota is frozen. The page proactively indicates this in the top banner, the status column of the list, and below the overview progress bar. Administrators can force-remove a disconnected environment directly at any time (a confirmation dialog explains that the quota will be reclaimed and the environment must rejoin after recovery). After removal, the quota is reclaimed into the pool and the associated accounts can be cleaned up normally.

2.6 System Configuration

System Configuration consists of Account Management, Management Nodes, and Platform Settings.

2.6.1 Account Management

ZCenter has a complete account system that is managed by binding users to roles with different permissions. Account Management contains three third-level menus: User, Role, and AccessKey Management.

User

The User page displays the list of created users and their basic information, and supports both single creation and batch import.

Creating a user: in System Configuration > Account Management > User, click Create User, and choose Add Manually or Batch Import (for batch import, download the template, fill in the required CSV fields, and import). For manual creation, fill in: username, password (or click Auto-generate), Require Password Change, Require Periodic Password Changes, phone number, and email, then confirm the creation.

Role

Roles embody permissions and limit the operation scope of users. Features that are not selected cannot be viewed or used by the user.

Creating a role: in System Configuration > Account Management > Role, click Create Role, enter the role name, keep the type as Platform Role, select the feature menus available to this role in the permission tree, and confirm the creation. The permission tree is arranged in the current menu order.

AccessKey Management

Generate an AccessKey (AK/SK) for a user with one click, to be used as identity credentials for integration with other platforms or online API debugging.

2.6.2 Management Nodes

Management Nodes are used to connect and manage virtualization environments (for the adding procedure, see 1.3 Adding a Management Node).

• Entry: System Configuration > Management Nodes, click Add Management Node.
• Form: Name / Type (VMware | ZStack ZSphere) / Access IP / Username / Password.
• The Type column in the list identifies the platform type of each environment; editing, deleting, and other operations are supported.

2.6.3 Platform Settings

Platform Settings is organized into three groups in the internal sidebar — System Settings, Feature Settings, and Account Settings — with eight third-level menus in total.

System Settings · Custom UI

Customize UI styles of ZCenter Management Platform such as the platform name, web logo, and theme color as needed, so that the portal matches your corporate brand.

System Settings · Alarm Synchronization

Alarm Synchronization periodically synchronizes monitoring alarm data from the managed environments. Currently there is only one task, "Monitoring Alarm Synchronization"; you can view its running status, start/stop it, and open its details to configure the synchronization schedule as needed.

System Settings · Global Settings

Configure platform-level policies, divided into platform policy and time policy:

• Platform Policy
• Login Verification Code: enable verification code checking on the login page.
• Concurrent Sessions per User: allow multiple people to log in and operate with the same account at the same time.
• Third-Party User Login: enable third-party login methods.
• Enable HTTPS: enable HTTPS protection for the web portal.
• Password Complexity Configuration: require passwords to match the configured complexity policy.
• Time Policy
• Recycle Bin Retention Period: how long resources are kept in the recycle bin; the number of days is customizable.
• Message Notification Retention Period: the display time range of platform messages.
• Token Timeout: the timeout duration of the login session token.

Feature Settings · Notification Settings

Manage the platform's notification server configuration for sending alarms and other messages. Two modes are supported:

• Email Servers: configure the name, description, email type (SMTP), server address and port, username, password, and so on.
• SMS: configure the type (such as Alibaba Cloud), name, description, AccessKey ID / Secret, and so on.

Feature Settings · HTTPS Configuration

Upload a custom certificate (cert file) to enable HTTPS for the portal, and restore the default certificate when needed.

Feature Settings · Third-Party Authentication

Configure IDP (identity provider) authentication servers for unified identity authentication and single sign-on (SSO). The OIDC, OAuth2, CAS, and LDAP / AD protocols are currently supported (LDAP/AD is built in).

Operations: click Add Third-Party Authentication Server, select the protocol type, and configure the parameters. After the configuration is complete, a third-party login entry appears below the login button on the login page, and users can select the corresponding protocol to sign in to the system via SSO.

Account Settings · Account Information

View and maintain the basic information of the currently logged-in account (such as phone number and email). To make sure you receive email/SMS alarm notifications, fill in and save the correct contact information here.

Account Settings · Account Security

Security settings of the current account, including changing the login password. It is recommended to change the initial password here immediately after the first login.

2.7 User Panel

Click the avatar in the upper-right corner to expand the user panel:

3. FAQ

Appendix: Glossary