vRA Live!, Session 2 – Extensibility

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** Update 12/31/14: Videos have been posted! – https://www.virtualjad.com/2015/05/vra-live-extensibility-videos-published.html

As a much overdue follow-up to vRA Live! – Install and Configure, I will be hosting the next session on April 17th @ 1:00PM EST.  vRA Live! – Extensibility will focus on extending vRealize Automation through vRA’s extensibility tools.

Extensibility is used to unlock the power of vRA’s integration and automation of the cloud ecosystem, deliver custom services, and help bridge the gap between what is available “out of the box” vs. the reality that is an enterprise’s high-customized and often complex environment. While vRA can deliver basic IaaS services with relatively little effort, the real value for enterprises and those leveraging vRA for managing a software-defined datacenter is delivered by the ability for it to integrate, automate, and orchestrate the surrounding environment.…

vRealize Automation End-to-End Install in 4 Minutes

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I have installed VMware vRealize Automation MANY times…

I’ve done it in private, I’ve done it in public, I have installed vRA for many a POC, I’ve installed vRA for training and enablement. I’ve done it remotely, I’ve done it locally.

I’ve installed vRA from a United club lounge, I’ve installed vRA from a Horizon desktop while crossing the country at 44,000 ft.

I’ve done small and isolated installs, I’ve done highly-available and distributed installs……

Installing the vROps Management Pack for vRealize Automation

Automation, Management, VMware, vRA, vROPS6 Comments

Following the general availability of vRealize Operations (vROps) 6.0 and vRealize Automation (vRA) 6.2, VMware has released several integration and management packs that bring the solutions together to help streamline management between consumption and operations. These management packs connect external sources and “solutions” into vROps to provide a more holistic view of the ecosystem. vROps has provided this capability for a small set external sources for quite some time, but not until vROps 6 has that included more of VMware’s own cloud management solutions. Considering the number of VMware customers that purchase these products together (e.g. vCloud Suite or vRealize Suite), these integrations add a ton of overall value. One great example is the vROps Management Pack for vRealize Automation.…

ProTip – Importing and Exporting ASD Content Between vRA Instances

ProTip, VMware, vRA1 Comment

Many customers have asked for the ability to move Blueprints built in the Advanced Services Designer (ASD) between environments. Up until vRA 6.2 this wasn’t possible – but now this capability will make moving content in and out of vRA instances significantly easier. Use the Import/Export wizards to move ASD Blueprints from a Test/Dev environment to a Production instance, across regions, or even across Tenants.


“Content” refers to any logic that supports the ASD Blueprint, including vRO workflows, custom resources, resource mappings, resource actions, and the service blueprint itself.


The wizards are located at Administration -> Advanced Services -> Import (or Export) Content.

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@virtualjad…

vRealize Automation 6.2 Install and Config (Live!) Videos

Automation, Cloud, Install Guide, Management, VMware, vRA24 Comments

Earlier this month I hosted “vRA 6.2 Install and Config Live!“, an open-invite social event dubbed “vRA Live” (#vralive). To my surprise, I had 185 RSVP’s with more than 100 people — VMware partners, customers, and several of my peers — attending the 4 1/2+ hour online session. Although I tried to focus on the fundamentals of deploying vRA and associated services, the online Q&A and dialog provided by the experts panel added several examples, lesson’s learned, and plenty of colorful commentary. I couldn’t be more pleased with the turnout and hope to get the next session(s) queued up very soon!…

VMware vRA 6.2 Install & Configure Live Event!

Automation, Cloud, Management, VMware, vRA6 Comments

Thanks to all who have shown interest in this event.  I was expecting 50 RSVP’s…currently at 128!  That just about guarantees this will be a fun (and informative) event.  I have put together the following agenda based on feedback from the sign up survey.

The primary objective is to install, configure, and demonstrate vRA 6.2 from scratch.  For this, I will follow the install and configure workflow I previously covered in my vCAC 6.0 POC and Detailed Implementation Guide.  Although vRA 6.2 provides additional capabilities and a more streamlined installation, many of the concepts are the same.…

ProTip – Specifying a vCAC Provisioning Folder

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Using the custom property “VMware.VirtualCenter.Folder” will allow you to save provisioned machines to a folder other than the default “VRM” folder that is automatically created. Better yet, this custom property can be added to the Blueprint or Business Group level resulting in per-Blueprint or per-BG provisioning to a given folder.

You can also get a little more sophisticated and create a drop-down (or free text) field to allow users to select (or manually type) the desired folder by using a combination of this property and some Property Dictionary wizardry.

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@virtualjad…

ProTip – vCAC Storage Tiering

ProTip, VMware, vRA1 Comment

A Storage Reservation Policy is created in Infrastructure -> Reservations -> Reservation Policies within vCAC. You can create any number of Storage Reservation Policies and assign them to an accessible Storage Path (one that is accessible to the Business Group’s Resource Reservation).  SRP’s are assigned per storage volume, meaning you can assign different volumes (VMDK’s) to different policies for multi-tiering within an application.


– Step 1: Ensure all desired Storage Paths are enabled in the Reservation
– Step 2: Create the Storage Reservation Policy
– Step 3: Edit the Cluster Configuration (Infrastructure -> Compute Resources -> Compute Resources -> Configuration tab) to the assign a Storage Reservation Policy for each Storage Path
– Step 4: Enable the SRP by editing the Blueprint’s storage volumes. You can also select “Allow user to see and change storage reservation policies” to allow users to change this setting during provisioning.

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@virtualjad…