VMware recommends that any services that support the vCloud Director instance and infrastructure be hosted externally to the vCloud Director managed environment. Specifically, directory services should be hosted external to the vCloud and can be configured using standard procedures for virtualizing the service. Follow design guidelines for virtualizing Active Directory and other directory platforms. Using vCloud does not change these practices.

In a private vCloud architecture, directory services can be hosted external to the vCloud environment if there is no geographical separation between host platforms.