vRA 7 Book – Free version

Chapter Navigation

Chapter 2: Architecture of vRealize Automation

Chapter 3: VMware vRealize Automation Design

Chapter 4: Deploying VMware vRealize Automation

Chapter 5: vRealize Automation System Configuration

Chapter 6: Designing and Configuring an Enterprise Cloud Solution

Chapter 7: Tenant implementation

Chapter 8: Introducing Blueprints

Chapter 9: Machine Blueprints

Chapter 10: Designing Blueprints

Chapter 11: Application authoring

Chapter 12: Introducing NSX

Chapter 13: Integrating NSX

Chapter 14: Working with the Service Catalog

Chapter 15: Reclamations

Chapter 16: Custom properties

Chapter 17: Monitoring the cloud

Chapter 18: Extensibility overview

Chapter 19: Working with vRealize Automation Designer

Chapter 20: Configuring vRealize Orchestrator

Chapter 21: Working with vRealize Orchestrator

Chapter 22: XaaS Services

Chapter 23: Automating vRealize Automation

 

Table of Content

Chapter 2: Architecture of vRealize Automation

2.1            The components in detail
2.1.1         vRealize Automation appliance
2.1.2         IaaS components
2.1.2.1      IaaS Website
2.1.2.2     Model Manager
2.1.2.3     vCloud Automation Manager Service
2.1.2.4     IaaS MS SQL database
2.1.2.5     Distributed Execution Manager (DEM)
2.1.2.6     vCloud Automation Center management agent
2.1.2.7     Proxy agents
2.1.3        Authentication Services
2.1.4        vRealize Orchestrator
2.1.5        vRealize Business for Cloud
2.1.6        NSX
2.1.7        Code Stream
2.2           vRealize Automation Licensing
2.3           Summary

Chapter 3: VMware vRealize Automation Design

3.1              Introduction
3.2             Approaching the design and architecture
3.2.1          Phase I: Requirements gathering and assessment
3.2.2         Phase II: Analysis
3.2.3         Phase III: Planning
3.2.4         Phase IV: Design
3.3            Design elements
3.3.1         Cloud infrastructure design
3.3.2         vRealize Automation design
3.4            Design of a vRealize Automation environment
3.4.1         Cluster configuration
3.4.2        Hardware requirements
3.4.3        Deployment architecture
3.4.4        High-availability and scalability considerations
3.4.4.1     vRealize Automation appliance
3.4.4.2     Authentication Services
3.4.4.3     IaaS components
3.5            Summary

Chapter 4: Deploying VMware vRealize Automation

4.1             Deploying the vRealize Automation Appliance
4.2             Installation of vRealize Automation
4.2.1          Installation requirements
4.2.1.1       IaaS database requirements
4.2.1.2       IaaS (Windows Server) Requirements
4.2.1.3       IaaS Manager Service
4.2.1.4      Distributed Execution Manager
4.2.1.5      Other pre-requisites
4.2.1.6      Automated Installation of Prerequisites
4.2.2         vRealize Automation Installation
4.2.2.1      vCloud Automation Center Management Agent Installation
4.2.2.2     vRealize Automation Installation Wizard
4.2.2.3     vRealize Automation Manual Installation
4.2.3         Setting up clusters
4.2.4         Testing of a distributed environment
4.2.4.1      Validation of appliances
4.2.4.2      Database failover and failback test
4.2.4.3      Validate the replication
4.3             Using CA-signed certificates and replacing certificates
4.3.1.1       Considerations before changing the certificates
4.3.1.2       Preparations
4.3.1.3       Updating the vRealize Automation appliance certificate
4.3.1.4       Creating and uploading certificates for the IaaS components

Chapter 5: vRealize Automation System Configuration

5.1             Basic vRealize Automation Configuration
5.1.1          Configuration of email settings
5.1.2          Branding of the system homepage
5.1.3          Basic tenant settings
5.2             Directory Management
5.2.1          Managing directories
5.2.2         Configuring Policies
5.2.3         Setting up Kerberos authentication
5.2.4         SAML-based authentication
5.2.4.1      Integration with SAML 2.0 based Identity Providers
5.2.5         Multifactor authentication
5.3            Tenant Branding
5.4            Summary

Chapter 6: Designing and Configuring an Enterprise Cloud Solution

6.1             vRealize Automation Layers
6.1.1          Infrastructure layer
6.1.2         Infrastructure fabric layer
6.1.3         Fabric group layer
6.1.3.1      Machine prefixes
6.1.3.2      Reservations and reservation policies
6.1.3.3      Network profiles
6.1.3.4      Amazon key pairs and EBS volumes
6.1.4          Tenant layer
6.1.4.1       Tenant Design
6.1.5          Business Group layer
6.2             User role overview
6.2.1          Custom groups
6.3             Advanced design considerations
6.3.1          Setting up custom virtual datacenter
6.3.2          Tiered resources
6.4             Summary

Chapter 7: Tenant implementation

7.1             Using the vSphere initial setup workflow
7.2             vRealize Automation Configuration
7.2.1          Setup endpoints
7.2.1.1       Creating a vSphere endpoint
7.2.1.2      Creating an AWS endpoint
7.2.2         Creating and configuring fabric groups
7.2.3         Creating a machine prefix
7.2.4         Defining business groups
7.2.5         Creating reservations
7.2.5.1      Create an AWS reservation
7.2.6        Configure reservation policies
7.2.7         Storage policies
7.2.8        Configuring network profiles
7.3           Configuring groups and user roles
7.3.1        Assigning roles to directory users and groups
7.3.2       Create a custom group
7.4          Summary

Chapter 8: Introducing Blueprints

8.1             Blueprint overview
8.1.1          Blueprint types
8.1.2          Provisioning mechanism
8.1.3          Lifecycle
8.1.4          Extensibility
8.1.5          Global and local blueprints
8.1.6          Machine leases
8.1.7           Reclamations
8.1.8           Configuration changes at runtime
8.1.9           Infrastructure as a code
8.1.10         Monitoring workflow executions and viewing logs
8.1.11          Providing machine templates
8.2              Summary

Chapter 9: Machine Blueprints

9.1             Blueprint – basic settings
9.1.1          General
9.1.2          Build information
9.1.3          Machine resources
9.1.4          Storage
9.1.5          Network
9.1.6          Security
9.1.7          Properties
9.1.8          Setting up dependancies
9.1.9          Publishing a blueprint
9.2             Provisioning of machines
9.2.1          Basic workflow
9.2.2          Clone and linked clone
9.2.3          NetApp flex clone
9.2.4          Linux Kickstart
9.2.4.1       Preparing the linux boot ISO
9.2.4.2       Creating the kickstart config
9.2.4.3       Verifying DHCP settings
9.2.4.4       Configuring the machine template
9.2.5          Microsoft SCCM provisioning
9.2.6          WIM provisioning
9.2.6.1       Preparing for WIM provisioning
9.3             Provisioning of cloud machines
9.3.1          Provisioning with Amazon AWS
9.3.2          Provisioning with Openstack
9.3.3          Provisioning with vCloud Air
9.3.4          Provisioning with vCloud Director
9.4             Summary

Chapter 10: Designing Blueprints

10.1             Template creation process
10.2             Creating a provisioning template
10.2.1           Installing the guest agent and the software bootstrap agent
10.2.1.1        Prepare a Linux reference machine
10.2.1.2        Prepare a Windows reference machine
10.2.2           Log Insight
10.2.3           EP Ops
10.2.4           Puppet / Chef
10.3              Summary

Chapter 11: Application authoring

11.1             Foundations of software components
11.1.1          Benefits of application authoring
11.1.2         Prerequisites of authoring software components
11.1.3         Setting up permissions for authoring software components
11.1.4         Importing existing applications
11.1.4.1      Import the Dukes Bank sample application
11.2            Designing software components
11.2.1         General settings of software components
11.2.2         Settings properties on software components
11.2.3         Software component actions
11.2.4         Assembling application blueprints
11.3            Using nested software components and blueprints
11.4            Grabbing the application blueprints’ output
11.5            Application blueprint use cases
11.5.1          Installation of the EP Ops agent
11.5.1.2      Implementation prerequisites
11.5.1.3      Implementaion of the software component
11.5.2         Installation of the Log Insight Agent
11.6            Common issues with software components
11.6.1         Checking the software bootstrap agent
11.6.2         Troubleshooting deployment issues
11.7             Summary

Chapter 12: Introducing NSX

12.1             Overview
12.2             Why use NSX?
12.2.1          Network automation
12.2.2          NSX and security
12.2.3          Application continuity
12.3             NSX background
12.3.1          Architecture of NSX
12.3.2          NSX switching functionality
12.3.3          NSX routing functionality
12.3.4          Security and Firewall functionality
12.4             Use cases for NSX integration
12.5              Summary

Chapter 13: Integrating NSX

13.1             Overview
13.2             How to prepare NSX for vRealize Automation
13.2.1          Creating a logical switch
13.2.2          Creating the provider edge gateway
13.2.3          Creating the distributed logical router
13.3             Using Orchestrator to set up an NSX endpoint
13.4             Editing the vSphere endpoint
13.5             Network profiles
13.5.1          Basics of network profiles
13.5.2          Routed network profiles
13.5.2.1       Setting up an external network profile
13.5.2.2       Setting up a routed network profile
13.5.2.3       Configuring the reservation
13.5.3          NAT network profiles
13.6             Deploying NSX blueprints
13.7             Using security groups on blueprints
13.7.1          Using existing security groups in vRealize Automation
13.7.2          Using on-demand security groups
13.7.3          Using App Isolation
13.8             Using Orchestrator for NSX
13.9             Summary

Chapter 14: Working with the Service Catalog

14.1             Service Catalog design
14.2            Configuring the Service Catalog
14.2.1         Creating services
14.2.2         Managing catalog items
14.2.3         Creating entitlements and assign permissions
14.3             Approval processes
14.3.1          Specifying approval policy information
14.3.2         Creating one or more approval level
14.3.3         Configuring an approval form
14.4            Using the service catalog
14.5            Configuring notifications
14.6            Requesting resources
14.7            Viewing requests
14.8            Approving requests
14.9            Managing virtual machines
14.10          Release a machine
14.11           Summary

Chapter 15: Reclamations

15.1             Reclamation workflow overview
15.2             Identifying unused machines in vRealize Automation
15.3             Capacity reports
15.4             Summary

Chapter 16: Custom Properties

16.1             Custom properties basics
16.1.1          Machine lifecycle
16.2             Custom properties in detail
16.2.1          Order of custom properties
16.2.2          Custom properties categories
16.2.2.1       Read-only custom properties
16.2.2.2       Internal custom properties
16.2.2.3       External custom properties
16.2.2.4       Updated custom properties
16.2.3           Configuration of custom properties
16.3              Property groups
16.3.1           Creating property groups
16.4              Property dictionary
16.4.1           Using the property dictionary
16.4.1.1        Creating a property definition for a string data type
16.4.1.2        Creating a string property definition with a dynamic input list
16.4.1.3        Setting up dependent user controls
16.5              Using custom properties to invoke scripts
16.6               Summary

Chapter 17: Monitoring the cloud

17.1             Challenges of cloud monitoring
17.2             Using vRealize Log Insight
17.2.1          Configuring Log Insight for vRealize Automation
17.2.2          Integrating Log Insight into vRealize Operations
17.3              Integrating vRealize Operations
17.3.1           Installation of vRealize Automation plug-ins
17.3.1.1        Setting up the management pack for vRealize Automation
17.3.2           Setting up the Management pack for vRealize Hyperic
17.4              Using vRealize Operations for capacity management
17.4.1           VM capacity management
17.4.2           Compute capacity management
17.4.3           Sample dashboards
17.5               Summary

Chapter 18: Extensibility Overview

18.1             Extensibility Options and Tools
18.2             Extensibility with the vRealize Automation Center Designer
18.3             vRealize Orchestrator
18.4             Advanced Service Designer
18.5             Event Broker
18.6             Cloud Client
18.7              Summary

Chapter 19: Working with the vRealize Automation Designer

19.1             The vRealize Automation IaaS model
19.2             vRealize Designer
19.3             Use case: Invoke a PowerShell script as part of the provisioning process
19.3.1          Implementing the workflow
19.4             Additional Workflow activities

Chapter 20: Configuring vRealize Orchestrator

20.1             Introduction to vRealize Orchestrator
20.2            vRealize Orchestrator configuration
20.2.1         Deploying and configuring the vRealize Orchestrator appliance
20.2.2         Installing the vRealize Automaiton plug-in
20.2.3         Managing authentication
20.2.4         Configuring the Orchestrator entpoint in vRealize Automation
20.2.5         Configuring the plug-ins in vRealize Orchestrator
20.2.5.1      Configuration of the vCenter plug-in
20.2.5.2      Configuration of the vRealize Automation plug-in
20.2.5.3      Configuration of the Actice Directory plug-in
20.2.5.4      Configuring the PowerShell-plugin
20.3             Summary

Chapter 21: Working with vRealize Orchestrator

21.1             Introducing the Event Broker
21.2            The vRealize Automation machine lifecycle
21.3         Working with subscriptions
21.4         Implementing extensibility workflows with Orchestrator
21.5         Using the Orchestrator REST API to initiate a workflow
21.6         Additional plug-ins and workflows
21.7         Summary

Chapter 22: XaaS Services

22.1          XaaS concepts and use cases
22.2          Advanced Service Configuration
22.3         Working with the Advanced Service Designer
22.4          Input validation
22.5         Advanced Service Designer use cases
22.6         Summary

Chapter 23: Automating vRealize Automation

23.1             Infrastructure as Code
23.1.1          Using the Cloud Client for Infrastructure as Code
23.2             Scripting vRealize Automation
23.2.1          Using the vRA REST API
23.2.2          Using PowerShell for automating vRealize Automation
23.3             Automating the vRealize Automation installation
23.3.1          Perform a silent installation of the management agent
23.3.2          Start of the unattended installation
23.3.3          The installation command line
23.3.4          The REST interface
23.4              Summary