Configuring VCF Operations Frontend Plugin

This guide covers how to configure and customize the VCF Operations Frontend plugin for your organization's needs.

Basic Configuration

The frontend plugin automatically inherits configuration from the backend plugin, but you can customize the user experience through various options.

Permission Configuration

Basic Permission Control

Configure permissions in your app-config.yaml:

permission:
  enabled: true
  rules:
    - allow: [vcf-operations.metrics.view]
      resourceType: entity
      conditions:
        anyOf:
          - rule: HAS_TAG
            params:
              tag: 'vcf-monitored'

Role-Based Access Control

Configure different access levels:

permission:
  enabled: true
  rules:
    # Infrastructure team - full access
    - allow: [vcf-operations.metrics.view]
      resourceType: entity
      conditions:
        allOf:
          - rule: HAS_ANNOTATION
            params:
              annotation: 'backstage.io/managed-by-location'
          - rule: IS_ENTITY_OWNER
            params:
              claims: ['group:infrastructure']

    # Developers - limited access to their resources
    - allow: [vcf-operations.metrics.view]
      resourceType: entity
      conditions:
        anyOf:
          - rule: IS_ENTITY_OWNER
          - rule: HAS_SPEC
            params:
              key: 'owner'
              value: 'user:$user'

Environment-Based Permissions

Different permissions for different environments:

permission:
  enabled: true
  rules:
    # Production - restricted access
    - allow: [vcf-operations.metrics.view]
      resourceType: entity
      conditions:
        allOf:
          - rule: HAS_TAG
            params:
              tag: 'environment:production'
          - rule: IS_ENTITY_OWNER
            params:
              claims: ['group:platform-team']

    # Development - open access
    - allow: [vcf-operations.metrics.view]
      resourceType: entity
      conditions:
        anyOf:
          - rule: HAS_TAG
            params:
              tag: 'environment:development'

Entity Configuration

Virtual Machine Configuration

Configure entity metadata for VM monitoring:

# catalog-info.yaml
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: web-server-vm
  title: Web Server (Standalone)
  tags:
    - kind:virtualmachine
    - standalone-resource
    - vcf-monitored
  annotations:
    backstage.io/managed-by-location: 'url:https://github.com/company/infrastructure'
  links:
    - url: https://vcfa.company.com/automation/#/machines/remote-console/vra/cluster/web-server
      title: Open Remote Console
spec:
  type: virtual-machine
  owner: team:infrastructure
  lifecycle: production

Non-Standalone VM Configuration

For VMs managed through VCF Automation:

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: app-server
  title: Application Server
  tags:
    - kind:virtualmachine
    - vcf-monitored
  links:
    - url: https://vcfa.company.com/automation/#/build-and-deploy/all-resources/deployments/abc123
      title: Open in VCF Automation
    - url: https://vcfa.company.com/automation/#/machines/remote-console/vra/cluster-01/app-server-vm
      title: Open Remote Console  # This link is used for resource discovery
spec:
  type: virtual-machine
  owner: team:development

Supervisor Namespace Configuration

For CCI namespace monitoring:

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: k8s-namespace
  title: Kubernetes Namespace
  tags:
    - vcf-monitored
  annotations:
    terasky.backstage.io/vcf-automation-cci-namespace-endpoint: 'https://vcfa.company.com/proxy/k8s/namespaces/urn:vcloud:namespace:abc123-def456'
spec:
  type: namespace
  owner: team:platform

VCF Automation Project Configuration

For project-level monitoring:

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Domain
metadata:
  name: web-services-project
  title: Web Services Project
  tags:
    - vcf-monitored
spec:
  type: vcf-automation-project
  owner: team:web-services

The VCF Operations Frontend plugin provides extensive configuration options to adapt to your organization's monitoring needs and user experience requirements.