vRA 7.2 DIG – 08, IaaS Fabric Configuration

Automation, Install Guide, Tech200, Tech300, VMware, vRA, vRA DIG

The IaaS Fabric is made up of all the infrastructure components that are configured to provide aggregate resources to provisioned machines and applications. This is represented by several logical constructs that are configured to identify and collect private and public cloud resources (Endpoints), aggregate those resources into manageable segments (Fabric Groups), and sub-allocate hybrid resources (Reservations) to the consumers (Business Groups).

In this chapter, we’ll walk through the end-to-end details of building out the IaaS Fabric — on vSphere — to support machine provisioning.

Configuration Checklist

  • Configure Roles and Permissions
  • Add (vSphere) IaaS Endpoint
  • Add vRO IaaS Endpoint
  • Create a Fabric Group
  • Create a Custom Group
  • Create Machine Prefixes
  • Create (2x) Business Groups
  • Create External Network Profiles
  • Create (2x) resource Reservations

Video

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vRA7.2 DIG – Microsoft Azure Integration

Automation, Tech200, Tech300, Technical, VMware, vRA, vRA DIG1 Comment

vRealize Automation 7.2 added native support for Microsoft Azure as a cloud Endpoint. This allows customers to quickly add their subscribed Azure resources to vRA for management and consumption. Azure is the latest addition to the list of native IaaS Endpoints, but the integration takes a different approach from the traditional IaaS Endpoints. For starters, Azure integration is built entirely on vRA’s native extensibility platform vs. the traditional [.net] engine. Likewise, the Azure endpoint is added to vRA as an extensibility endpoint, unlike most other native endpoints that are configured in the Infrastructure section.

Behind the scenes, vRA heavily leverages vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) and a set of OOTB workflows to orchestrate various Azure functions. The included workflows are provided to deliver core Azure functionality and a handful of Day2 operations, but can also be copied and customized to provide additional functionality and XaaS services as needed. This can help fill any gaps in native functionality and, more importantly, deliver unique integrations that would otherwise be quite complex.

But don’t let any of this scare you. Building, provisioning, and managing Azure workloads is accomplished using all the familiar user interfaces in vRA. From a consumption perspective, vRO is tucked in the background and is invoked by vRA based on the task at hand.

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vRA 7.2 Detailed Implementation VIDEO Guide

Automation, Cloud, Install Guide, NSX, SDDC, Tech200, Tech300, VMware, vRA, vRA DIG13 Comments

Welcome to the vRealize Automation 7.2 Detailed Implementation VIDEO Guide. This is a collection of all the videos making up the full vRealize Automation 7.2 Detailed Implementation Guide.

The guide (and these videos) was put together to help you deploy and configure a highly-available, production-worthy vRealize Automation 7.2 distributed environment, complete with SDDC integration (e.g. VSAN, NSX), extensibility examples and ecosystem integrations. The design assumes VMware NSX will provide the load balancing capabilities and includes details on deploying and configuring NSX from from scratch to deliver these capabilities.

Be sure to refer back to the full guide for detailed configuration steps or more info on any given topic.

 

01, Introduction

High-Level Overview

  • Production deployments of vRealize Automation (vRA) should be configured for high availability (HA)
  • The vRA Deployment Wizard supports Minimal (staging / POC) and Enterprise (distributed / HA) for production-ready deployments, per the Reference Architecture
  • Enterprise deployments require external load balancing services to support high availability and load distribution for several vRA services
  • VMware validates (and documents) distributed deployments with F5 and NSX load balancers
  • This document provides a sample configuration of a vRealize Automation 7.2 Distributed HA Deployment Architecture using VMware NSX for load balancing

Implementation Overview

To set the stage, here’s a high-level view of the vRA nodes that will be deployed in this exercise.…

vRA 7.2 Detailed Implementation Guide

Automation, Cloud, Install Guide, NSX, Tech200, Tech300, Technical, VMware, vRA, vRA DIG, VSAN14 Comments

Welcome to the vRealize Automation 7.2 Detailed Implementation Guide (DIG). This series of posts — made up of detailed how-to, end-to-end videos, plenty of commentary, and other related content — was put together to help you deploy and configure a highly-available, production-worthy vRealize Automation 7.2 distributed environment, complete with SDDC integration (e.g. VSAN, NSX), extensibility examples and ecosystem integrations. The design assumes VMware NSX will provide the load balancing capabilities and includes details on deploying and configuring NSX from from scratch to deliver these capabilities.

This little project has been in the works for quite some time and will continue to expand as I include additional how-to’s for a variety of use cases (e.g. IPAM and ITSM integration).

Target Audience

This guide was created for anyone looking to install and/or configure vRealize Automation 7.2 in any environment. And, as were my intentions in previous POC guides, the content here can be used as a form of training and education or simply a reference document for existing or new vRA environments.

As for skill level, this guide assumes you have a general idea of vRealize Automation and VMware’s broader Cloud Management products. However there is no expectation that you’ve previously deployed and configured vRA.…

The Scoop – vRealize Automation 7.2

Automation, Cloud, Management, VMware, vRA7 Comments

Today VMware announced vRealize Automation 7.2, the third incremental release since the revamped 7.0 platform was first introduced. With each release comes new features and functionality with an almost obsessive focus on driving time-to-value and improving the overall user experience. vRA 7.2 is no exception to that rule.

vRealize Automation 7.2

vra7-585

Accelerating Time to Value:

  • New API’s for programmatically Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading vRA 7.2+
  • Leverage the API’s to validate installation, deploy monolithic or distributed environments, generate certs and install licensing
  • Enhanced Upgrade API’s enable programatic system-wide upgrade functionality
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Storage Over-Provisioning in vRealize Automation

Automation, Cloud, Tech200, VMware1 Comment

A driving factor of virtualization in the old days was the immediate efficiencies that were realized with each P2V. It was money in the bank each time consolidation ratios increased and fewer physical boxes were required. In the physical world, we tried to ensure each OS and associated app(s) had plenty of excess CPU, memory, and storage resources available to it…just in case they were needed at some point in the future. The target utilization rate was typically under 20% (often less than half that) and a sustained rate above that was a cause for concern. In contrast, virtualization aspired resource utilization rates of 60-80% per host and a little below that cluster-wide. While high utilization became the new norm, over-provisioning of resources was typically avoided (at least in production).

Fast forward to the cloud era (private / public, doesn’t matter), where over-provisioning of machines consuming shared resources is a necessary evil for driving efficiencies at every level of infrastructure and scale. This is especially true for infrastructure-as-a-service. This evil is also one of the benefits…it’s what helps deliver the perception of unlimited resources to the consumer without actually making that kind of investment. While the cost of spare capacity has become less of an issue over time, over-provisioning of resources remains a common practice for many small shops, enterprises, and service providers alike.…

The Scoop: vRealize Automation 7.1

Automation, VMware, vRA9 Comments

vRealize Automation 7.1 in now Generally Available for download. This release brings several features and enhancements, but primarily sticks to the themes of Time to Value, Quality and Stability. Another focus point for this release is to provide customers currently on vRA 6.x an upgrade path to all the benefits of the 7.x platform.

vRealize Automation 7.1

I’ll be posting some details around a few of the new capabilities in the next several weeks, but for now here’s a summary list of what vRA 7.1 delivers…

Time To Value

  • Streamlined deployment and prereq installation process
  • Silent installer leveraging new vra-command CLI tool
  • Install management agents, prereqs, and core for VA and IaaS nodes
  • Use wizard-generated unattended properties file for subsequent silent installations
  • Leverages new VA public API (https://<vrava_ip>:5480/config/):

    vra7-176

  • UI-based (VAMI) Migration wizard
  • Migrate from vRealize Automation 6.2.x environment to a new vRealize Automation 7.1 instance
  • Complete DB migration (vPostgres and SQL)
  • Migrate IDVA/SSO Directories to vIDM
  • Preserves the source 6.2.x environment
  • Supports migrating from 6.2.x Simple to 7.1 HA/Distributed (as well as HA to HA):

    vra7-226

  • vSphere Endpoint Improvements
  • Data collection performance increased by ~60%
  • Support for vSphere infrastructure changes (e.g.
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vRA and NSX – Intro to Network and Security Automation

Automation, NSX, Tech200, VMware4 Comments

Network and security automation — and specifically the use of on-demand services — will continue to play a more significant role as NSX (and network virtualization in general) continues to become more and more prominent. Customers are still trying to understand the impacts of app-centric networking and whether or not they’re ready to hand these critical services to automation tools. There’s a perception that automation reduces control and/or visibility into networking and security services that traditionally involve a ton of ownership, red tape, and several siloed personalities that love to hear their own voice (I used to be one!). Plus, there are personal domains and certifications to protect!

Once these folks realize vRA + NSX will provide greater control, more governance, and better visibility than they’ve ever had before, heads tend to deflate a bit. NSX adoption is on a rocketship and its benefits are resonating with traditional network silos and modern shops alike. As adoption (and resulting trust) continues to grow within an enterprise, the second part of the equation — automation — become the obvious next step for streamlining network and security services, often getting kicked off with two wonderful words: now what? Enter vRealize Automation.

For its part, vRA is designed to bridge the gap between a pure consumption model and on-demand everything.…