Category : VMware
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 13, 2017 .
This morning I “sat” the VCAP6-CMA Deploy exam. As you may have noticed I have been posting a lot of study materials recently on this. (see here for my Study Resources).
I turned up 10 minutes early like a good candidate, after being booked in and led into the exam room, the adjudicator attempted to log me in. That’s when the first problem hit. We were prompted with an unexplained error message that took ~1 hour to sort and it seems it was a problem between the PearsonVue software and my VMware Education account (something about not having the right entitlement). I don’t remember ever having to log into my VMware Education account at an exam center before, but whatever SSO solution being used wasn’t working today!
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 11, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 8.1 - Deploy and Manage a vRealize Business Standard Appliance
- Deploy vRealize Business Standard appliance
- Integrate vRealize Business Standard with vRealize Automation:
- Add vRealize Automation Hostname
- Configure SSO Default Tenant
- Configure SSO Admin User
- Configure SSO Admin Password
- Set Time Sync Mode
- Create a Tenant in vRealize Automation that leverages vRealize Business Standard:
- Specify an Identity Source
- Specify a tenant admin
- Assign vRealize Business roles:
- Business Management Administrator
- Business Management Read only
- Business Management Controller
- Add one or more virtual environments to vRealize Business Standard
- Add one or more vCenter Server instances to vRealize Business Standard
- Update the Reference Database
Information in this post uses vRealize Business for Cloud (7.2) as it is the only version compatible with vRealize Automation 6.2 and vSphere 6.5 (which is what my homelab runs on). The steps shown will be SIMILAR but may not be IDENTICAL with vRealize Business Standard (6.x).
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Business VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 11, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 3.1 - Configure and Manage NSX Integration with vRealize Automation
- Implement machine blueprints that use:
- External network profiles
- Routed network profiles
- NAT network profiles
- Private network profiles
- Deploy applications using a pre-configured networking model
- Deploy applications using a fully automated networking model
- Configure static and dynamic routing
- Deploy an application that uses an automatically provisioned load balancer
- Apply a security policy to elements of a multi-machine blueprint
- Automate the application of a security policy to new machines provisioned from a blueprint
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 11, 2017 .
NOTE: I’M IGNORING THE BLUEPRINT HERE AS THE CRITERIA DOESN’T MATCH THE OBJECTIVE.
Objective Overview
Objective 4.4 - Import existing workloads
- Set Global Properties according to a deployment plan
- Locate log files for the appropriate user
- Generate a log support bundle for all vRealize Automation components
- View and export log data for further analysis
- Configure database log file rollover
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation Solution (simple or distributed)
- A Blueprint is available to Import the VMs against.
Objective Breakdown
Manual Import
Navigate to the vRealize Automation Tenant Portal and Log in as the Fabric Administrator (or Business Group Manager) and then navigate to Infrastructure > Infrastructure Organizer
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 8, 2017 .
Following the announcement today, I consider myself extremely humbled to be given the community accolade of vExpert for a second year in a row.
I’m in the company of some giants of the industry and some seriously #awesome guys and gals.
Congratulations to everyone that made the cut, both new and continuing vExperts, the community wouldn’t be the same without you all.
The full announcement can be found at https://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2017/02/vexpert-2017-award-announcement.html
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2017 .
This post is a part of a series of posts for preparation for the VCAP6-CMA Deploy exam. For the full exam prep resources check here .
In this post we are covering the configuration of the Advanced Services Endpoint for vCenter Server.
Prerequisite Steps
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation implementation.
- An external Orchestrator deployment ( HOWTO )
Step by Step Instructions
Navigate to and Log into the vRealize Automation Tenant Portal as a Tenant Administration user.
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Orchestrator VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 6.1: Configure Advanced Service Designer
- Determine the appropriate vRO server deployment according to a deployment plan
- Assign the Service Architect role to a user or group
- Configure an external vRO server to run workflows
- Create a vCO endpoint to enable vRA to communicate with an external vRO server
- Configure advanced endpoints in ASD (vCenter, AD, SOAP, REST, PowerShell)
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Orchestrator VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2017 .
This post is a part of a series of posts for preparation for the VCAP6-CMA Deploy exam. For the full exam prep resources check here .
In this post we are covering the configuration of the Advanced Services Endpoint for Active Directory.
Prerequisite Steps
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation implementation.
Step by Step Instructions
Note: Once you have created an AD Endpoint it cannot be deleted, only updated.
Navigate to and Log into the vRealize Automation Tenant Portal as a Tenant Administration user.
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Orchestrator VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
VCAP6-CMA Deploy - Objective 5.2 - Modify a Blueprint to invoke a Workflow during a Lifecycle Change
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 5.2 - Modify a Blueprint to invoke a Workflow during a Lifecycle Change
- Configure vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vRA
- Associate a vRO workflow with a specific lifecycle state change for a Machine Blueprint
- Associate a vRO Endpoint with a Machine Blueprint
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation Solution (See Objective 1 ).
Objective Breakdown
Configure vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vRA**.**
The installation of the vRA Plug-in is not required for the embedded vRO. However, believe I covered the “Configure” of the Plug-in in Objective 5.1 .
Written by Christopher Lewis on February 7, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 4.3 - Manage Custom Properties and Build Profiles
- Add / edit Custom Properties to add new attributes or override default attributes.
- Create a Build Profile according to Custom Properties from a deployment plan.
- Use Property Dictionary to define new Custom Properties.
Custom Properties - Overview
When using a Custom Property it is important to understand the Order of Precedence:
- Build profile
- Blueprint
- Business group
- Compute resource
- Reservations
- Endpoint
- Runtime
What this means is that if the same Custom Property is specified at a different levels, the highest (1 being lowest) level wins. (i.e. a value set in a Build Profile can be overridden in the Blueprint, but also the Blueprint value can be overridden at runtime.)
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 3: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Automation
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 2: Creating a Pricing Card in VMware Aria Operations
- Operating a Private Cloud - Part 1: Understanding Pricing Cards in VMware Aria
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 5
- Zero2Hero - Using Aria Automation to Deploy Multiple Machines with Multiple Disks - Part 4