Tag : VRealize Automation
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 20, 2017 .
It was not an unsurprising email I got last week from VMware certification services confirming what I expected but sincerely hoped wouldn’t happen. I had narrowly failed at my first attempt at the VCAP6-CMA Deploy exam (see my original post here ).
As I had complained/registered with the exam center after the exam, they raised a case with Pearson Vue for me. I took to twitter to vent my frustration at PearsonVue and with VMware Education about the quality of the exam (hardly a “world class service” that I’m now expected to pay more money for!) . Both of whom initially responded promptly. Eventually Pearson Vue put on their teflon suit and came back with the response (and I’m paraphrasing) “there is nothing we can do because the Labs are externally hosted by VMware”.
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
Written by Christopher Lewis on March 12, 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 deployment of vRealize Application Services.
Prerequisite Steps
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation implementation.
Overview
- Deploy VMware vRealize Application Services Appliance.
- Configure VMware vRealize Application Services.
- Navigate to the Application Services Portal
Step by Step Instructions
Note: For anyone who has deployed an OVF/OVA before (such as the vRealize Automation Identity Appliance or the vRealize Automation Appliance) the steps will look very familiar!
VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Application Services VCAP6 VCAP6-CMA
Written by Christopher Lewis on March 12, 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 deployment of vRealize Business for Cloud.
Prerequisite Steps
- A fully deployed vRealize Automation implementation.
Overview
- Deploy VMware vRealize Business for Cloud Appliance.
- Configure integration with vRealize Automation.
Step by Step Instructions
Note: For anyone who has deployed an OVF/OVA before (such as the vRealize Automation Identity Appliance or the vRealize Automation Appliance) the steps will look very familiar!
Certification VCAP6-CMA VCIX6 VMware vRealize Automation vRealize Business
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:
- 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