Category : VRealize Automation
Written by Christopher Lewis on December 11, 2017 .
This is the first in a series of posts covering the replacement of vRealize Automation SSL Certificates. For the purpose of these posts, I have deployed vRealize Automation 7.3 environment with self signed certificates. This means that when you navigate to https://vra7.fqdn/vcac , the site is not secure nor trusted. Therefore, you will be presented with something like the following in your browser (I mostly use Chrome):
We’re looking to achieve the following in the browser URL bar after the certificate has been replaced.
Certificates VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Orchestrator
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 21, 2017 .
Today marks another “milestone” in my personal certification journey. Following the successful completion of the VCAP6-CMA Deploy exam ( post ), I can now call myself a VMware Certified Implementation Expert 6 - Cloud Management and Automation.
Note: I’m still waiting for VMware Cert Manager and Acclaim to catch up!
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 21, 2017 .
Today marks the end of another certification journey. After taking the exam Wednesday afternoon, I received notification this morning that I passed the 3V0-633 VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 - Cloud Management and Automation - Deploy Exam.
Note: I am still waiting for Cert Manager to be updated but that should happen in the next 24hrs!
It has been a long and trying road getting this exam in the bag, and I have blogged about my experiences:
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 18, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 5.3 - Create/Modify/Execute a vRealize Orchestrator Workflow
- Create/modify/troubleshoot actions
- Create/modify/execute vRO workflows
- Install/launch/use the vRO client
- Configure variable binding in a vRO workflow
- Perform logging from a vRO workflow
- Add schema elements to a vRO workflow
- Run workflow(s) in the vRO HTTP-REST plug-in to invoke a REST operation
- Modify a workflow to display a non-default icon
- Create a configuration element
- Modify a workflow to use to a configuration element
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Application Services VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 15, 2017 .
One of the many prerequisites of the VMware vRealize Automation Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) components (including Microsoft SQL Server) is the installation and configuration of Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC).
Not installing and configuring MS DTC correctly can be the the bane of someone trying to install VMware vRealize Automation.
ProTip 1 - Uninstall MS DTC via PowerShell
MS DTC seems to be installed by default in Windows, but if you have cloned (without Sysprep) the Windows image, then MS DTC will need to be removed (and re-installed). A simple PowerShell command can be used to remove MS DTC:
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 10, 2017 .
Anyone and everyone should know by now that vRealize Automation 7.3 came out within the last month. My lab was due for a refresh so I scraped the vRA7.2 lab I had previously created and started a fresh with vRA7.3. The installation is as smooth as it has been since its release (in a good way)!
Health Service
Once configured, the first thing that hit me was the new Health option under the Administration menu.
Written by Christopher Lewis on June 1, 2017 .
VMware vRealize Automation 7.x introduced a #awesome Installation Wizard. This was a #QuantumLeap forward from the vRA6 installation mechanism that can be best described as laborious.
The Installation/Configuration Wizard guides you through all of the stages of the installation and can even install all of the IaaS prerequisites for you. In my experience from vRA6, getting the prerequisites correct, was the place where most pain was caused. This was the reason @vBrianGraf created some powershell scripts to handle it.
Written by Christopher Lewis on May 26, 2017 .
Intro
I was drafted into a customer today to try and work out why, amongst other small niggles, their Windows Virtual Machines had suddenly started to hang during provisioning. The deployments were from a relatively standard IaaS Blueprint that was created 6 months ago. I thought I would share my thought process/steps (right or wrong) to solving the issue and also tell you what happened. I’m not really a “check the logs” kind of guy (unless its uber complicated).
Written by Christopher Lewis on May 17, 2017 .
So it seems VMware are actually listening to the feedback and this just happened…
vRealize Orchestrator - with the following new features:
- RBAC in the Control Center - Yes!
vRealize Automation - with the following new features:
- Integration with Puppet - Yes!
- Automatic failover for the IaaS Manager Service - Yes!
- Enhanced logging - Yes!
- NSX improvements - Yes!
It’s good that a release make someone a #HappyBunny rather than a #SadPanda!
Written by Christopher Lewis on March 13, 2017 .
Objective Overview
Objective 7.1 - Deploy and Manage a vRealize Application Services Appliance
Knowledge:
- Assign a user the necessary permissions to gain access to Application Services.
- Install and set up the Application Services virtual appliance.
- Configure Application Services to use a proxy.
- Register a cloud provider with Application Services.
- Map a Cloud Template to a Logical Template.
- Map Application Services to a vRA reservation policy
Objective Prerequisites
The following prerequisites are assumed for this Objective:
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Application Services VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
- 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