Learning VMware vRealize Automation: Learn the fundamentals of vRealize Automation to accelerate the delivery of your IT services

Table of Contents

Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Instant updates on new Packt books

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. vRealize Automation and the Deconstruction of Components

What is vRealize Automation?

Key capabilities

A single solution of abstracted service models

Model once – deploy anywhere

Personalization through policies (governance)

Common use cases of vRealize Automation

vRealize Automation – a conceptual diagram

Identity management appliance or SSO or PSC

Identity management appliance

vSphere 5.5 SSO

vSphere 6.0 PSC

vRealize Automation or CAFÉ appliance

vPostgres

RabbitMQ

vCAC server

tcServer (Tomcat)

Telemetry

IaaS – architecture and component deep dive

Model Manager

Model Manager Data

Model Manager Web a.k.a. repository

MSSQL database

Manager Service

Distributed Execution Manager

DEM Orchestrator (DEO)

DEM Worker

Infrastructure agent

Management agent

Startup order

Shutdown order

Summary

2. Distributed Installation Using Custom Certificates

Getting started

Simple deployment architecture

Distributed deployment architecture

Planning and preparation

Infrastructure details

Distributed architecture

Bill of materials

Overview of the installation flow

Certificates

The certificate generation process

Creating vRA certificate templates

Adding a new template to certificate templates

Creating certificates

Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components

The identity (ID) appliance

vSphere 5.5 U1/U2 SSO

vSphere 6.0 PSC

Identity appliance configuration

Prerequisites

Configuration

NSX load balancer configuration

Prerequisite

Configuring the external vPostgres DB in HA for the vRealize Automation CAFÉ appliance

Prerequisites

Setup Details

vPostgres NSX load balancer configurations

Application Profile configuration

Service Monitoring configuration

Pool configuration

Virtual Server configuration

vPostgres configuration

Testing Replication

Postgres Monitor scripts

Configuration

Testing Monitor scripts

Updating the NSX load balancer configuration for vPostgres

Service monitoring configuration

Pool configuration

Configuring the CAFÉ appliance in HA

Prerequisites

Setup Details

CAFÉ NSX load balancer configurations

Application Profile configuration

Service Monitoring configuration

Pool configuration

Virtual servers configuration

CAFÉ configuration

Updating the NSX load balancer configuration for CAFÉ

Service Monitoring configuration

Pools configuration

IaaS installation

IaaS components HA modes and failover options

IaaS prerequisites and virtual machine preparation

Overview of the IaaS installation flow (only the first nodes)

Installing PFX certificate to IIS Web Server

Installation of the First Web node

Prerequisites

Setup Details

NSX load balancer configurations for IaaS web

Application Profile configuration

Service Monitoring configuration

Pool configuration

Virtual Server configuration

Checkpoint

IaaS WEB installation

Checkpoint

Installation of the first Manager Service and DEM Orchestrator node

Prerequisites

Setup Details

NSX load balancer configurations for IaaS MGR

Application Profile configuration

Service Monitoring configuration

Pool configuration

Virtual Server configuration

IaaS MGR and Orchestrator Installation (first/active node)

Checkpoint

Installation of the First DEM Worker and Proxy Agent

Prerequisites

Setup Details

Worker installation

Proxy Agent installation

Updating the NSX load balancer configuration for WEB and MGR

Service monitoring configuration for WEB

Service monitoring configuration for MGR

Summary

3. Functional Validation – Phase 1 and Installing Secondary Nodes

Validation test

Installing the second active web node

Prerequisites

NSX load balancer configurations for IaaS web

Pool configuration

Pools statistics after adding the second node

IaaS WEB installation (second node)

Installing the standby Manager Service and the DEM Orchestrator node

Prerequisites

NSX load balancer configurations for IaaS MGR

Pool configuration

Pools statistics after adding the second node

IaaS MGR and Orchestrator installation – (second/standby node)

Installing the second DEM Worker and proxy agent

Prerequisites

Worker installation

Installing the proxy agent

Health monitor URL

Summary

4. Configuring a Guest OS for vRealize Automation vSphere Blueprints

Guest agents

Preparing the vSphere guest OS template

Scope

GOS – Windows

Guest agent uninstall steps

GOS – Linux

Converting the VM to a template

Summary

5. Functional Validation – Phase 2 and Zero to VM Provisioning

An overview of creating a service catalog

Providing the required permissions in the vSphere Endpoint

Creating and configuring credentials

Configuring the vSphere Endpoint

Login validation

Configuring fabric groups

Configuring the machine prefix

Creating business groups

Configuring reservation policies

Configuring VM template and VM customization specifications in vCenter

Creating a vSphere blueprint

Creating a service

Configuring a catalog item

Creating an entitlement

Requesting a service catalog

Monitoring deployment status

Monitoring deployment by a user

Monitoring deployment by fabric administrator

Things to remember

Summary

6. Testing Failover Scenarios for vRealize Automation Components

vRealize Automation components and HA modes

Active-Active configuration

Active-Passive configuration

Failover of the identity management appliance

Failover of vPostgres

Choice 1 – identify active node via NSX load balancer

Choice 2 – identify master node via health monitor URL

Failover of CAFÉ appliance

The CAFÉ health monitor URL

Which CAFÉ node is active?

Failover test – state 1 (one active node failed)

Failover test – state 2 (failure of all the active nodes)

Failover of Model Manager Web

Failover of Manager Service

Finding the active node

Failover test

Symptoms

Effect and failover step

Failover of DEM Orchestrator

Which DEM Orchestrator is online and active?

Failover of DEM Worker and proxy agent

DEM Worker

Proxy agents

Summary

7. vRealize Orchestrator in High Availability via the NSX Load Balancer

Types of Orchestrator configuration

Active-Active

Active-Standby

Planning and preparing

Infrastructure details

Bill of materials

Generating Orchestrator certificates

Configuring the vRealize Orchestrator cluster

Configuring the setup

Prerequisites

Creating NSX load balancer configurations for CAFÉ

How to do it

Preparing the database

Configuring the first Orchestrator server

The Orchestrator configuration page

Configuring the database

Configuring certificates

Orchestrator server configuration continues

Installing the Orchestrator client

Installing plugins

Configuring the cluster

Export configuration

Configuring the second Orchestrator server

Configuring the NSX load balancer

Orchestrator NSX load balancer configurations

Configuring an application profile

Configuring service monitors

Configuring pools

Configuring virtual servers

vRealize Orchestrator high availability mechanism

Configuring vRO at CAFÉ or IaaS makes a difference!

Summary

8. The Power of Advanced Service Designer (ASD)

Advanced Service Designer overview

Enabling the ASD tab in vRA

Granting the service architect role

Assigning to a specific user

Creating a custom group and assigning the role

Configuring the advanced service endpoints (vRealize Orchestrator)

Service blueprint

Prerequisites

Service blueprint provisioning and post-provisioning operation

Creating a custom resource

Create a service blueprint

Creating a resource action

No actions required after provisioning a service blueprint

Summary

Index

Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: January 2016

Production reference: 1280116

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-583-9

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Sriram Rajendran

Reviewers

Sriram Balasubramanian

Kumaran Kamala Kannan

Sreekumar Nair

Aravind Sivaraman

Acquisition Editor

Rahul Nair

Content Development Editor

Samantha Gonsalves

Technical Editor

Tanmayee Patil

Copy Editor

Kausambhi Majumdar

Project Coordinator

Sanchita Mandal

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Tejal Daruwale Soni

Graphics

Jason Monteiro

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

Cover Work

Aparna Bhagat

About the Author

Sriram Rajendran is a member of the CTO Ambassador program at VMware. He has been a veteran of the IT industry, for more than 12 years, and a focused technologist with expertise in cloud computing, networking, storage, and server virtualization technologies.

Sriram wears multiple hats at VMware. As a solution architect, he provides technical leadership and expertise to design, deploy, and scale the VMware SDDC stack for its Fortune 500 customers. His primary focus for VMware SSDC are automation, operations, and third-party integration.

As a senior escalations manager, he is the go-to person for handling critical executive escalations that have out blown traditional GSS escalation processes. His focus here is not just managing escalations through various internal VMware organizations but also external partner organizations and their processes and extranet multivendor support processes like TSANET.

As a CTO Ambassador, he is responsible for connecting the research and development team with customers, partners, and field as the global VMware evangelist. His focus is on defining and communicating VMware's vision and strategy, and acting as an advisor for VMware's vRealize Automation solutions, product roadmap, and portfolio.

Previously, as a staff escalation engineer, he worked on customer escalations and prioritizing the requests for the team. He was also the lead on recruitment and talent management for the support and escalations team. He also worked closely with various engineering teams within VMware to help provide early feedback on the design and architecture of products based on escalations and his other field interactions.

Prior to joining VMware, he worked at Slash Support and HP in their support organizations in technical leadership roles.

Sriram has devoted much of his professional career to the design, implementation, and maintenance of large physical and virtual networks, storage and servers, and cloud architectures based on VMware, Microsoft, and other leading enterprise technologies.

I would like to dedicate this book to my incredible parents, my wife, my siblings, and my friend—S.V. Rajendran, R. Mahalakshmi, Shwetha, Manju, Vani, Priya, Arunraj. Without your encouragement and support over so many years, this book would not have been possible.

About the Reviewers

Sriram Balasubramanian has over 17 years of experience in the IT field. He is currently working as a senior engineering manager for the VMware management business unit. In the last 6 years in VMware, he designed and developed various features for quite a few products such as vRealize Configuration Manager, vRealize Operations Management pack for vCloud Director, vRealize Orchestrator, and IT Financial Management. In his current capacity, he handles Fortune 500 critical customer escalations for management products.

Kumaran Kamala Kannan has over 5 years of experience in the IT field and holds a masters degree in network security. He is currently working as a senior member of the technical staff in VMware. He has worked on the development of multiple products including vRealize Configuration Manager, vRealize Orchestrator, and vRealize Automation. His research interests include computer and information security, cloud computing and data mining.

Sreekumar Nair has more than 10 years of experience in the IT industry with 6 years in VMware. He is currently working as a VMware technical account manager in Singapore, where he handles multiple critical customer accounts. Prior to this role, he was working as an escalation engineer with Global Support Services, where he handled escalations related to vRealize automation. Also, he has expertise in design and implementation of VMware infrastructure including automation solutions. He holds certifications from VMware, Microsoft, and, Citrix.

Aravind Sivaraman has over 9 years of experience in the IT field. He is currently working as a solution architect, providing the consultation, design, and delivery of complex IT