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Home > Cloud & Networking > Cloud Computing > Learning VMware vRealize Automation
Learning VMware vRealize Automation
Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Learning VMware vRealize Automation: Learn the fundamentals of vRealize Automation to accelerate the delivery of your IT services

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Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Chapter 2. Distributed Installation Using Custom Certificates

Deploying and configuring distributed architecture using custom certificates is unarguably a challenging task. In this chapter, we will focus on step-by-step elucidative material that will be easy to follow and guide you through the installation faster.

This chapter is precisely an installation guide that will help users deploy vRA in a distributed architecture. Our focus will be around the installation, configuration of vRA components, and configuration of NSX load balancer settings. It is assumed that the infrastructure setups (Active Directory, DNS, vRA hostname and IP address, NSX Manager, and Edge) are deployed, configured, and supported to work properly in the target environment.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • Planning and preparing for the installation
  • An overview of the installation flow
  • Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components
  • Identity appliance configuration...

Getting started

From an architecture standpoint, deployment modes can be of two types—simple and distributed.

Simple deployment architecture

As the name suggests, a simple installation deploys a single instance of each virtual appliance and installs all IaaS components, including the SQL database, in a single virtual machine. It is highly suited for development or proof-of-concept environments. Importantly, this deployment lacks high availability.

Distributed deployment architecture

A distributed installation allows the separation of components that are best suited to the organization's needs and ideally used in production environments, and provides options for high availability. We have three distinct deployment modes: small, medium, and large. To learn more about these deployment modes, refer to http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vCloud/VMware-vCloud-Automation-Center-61-Reference-Architecture.pdf.

Planning and preparation

Here are some of the key tasks to do before we start...

Overview of the installation flow

I have put together a flowchart in the hope that it helps you recognize the high-level steps involved in building a distributed and highly available vRealize Automation infrastructure.

The following steps are detailed in a logical sequence that takes dependencies into account:

Overview of the installation flow

Certificates

SSL certificates are commonly used for a secure handshake between different services. In vRA, all communications between the client browser and services (identity management, CAFÉ, and IaaS) and between services are over TLS/SSL. However, I wanted to highlight that vRA components work with different SSL certificate file formats. Here is a list of the common formats used in a vRA solution:

  • PEM: short for Privacy Enhanced Mail
  • P7B: Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) Format #7
  • PFX: Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) Format #12
  • CSR: short for Certificate Signing Request (.CER or .CRT files can be in either PEM or DER format):
    Certificates

The certificate generation process

Given that certificate generation is a protracted process, we have detailed the high-level steps involved in creating the certificates. The extensive list of steps for creating the certificates will be covered later in this chapter:

Step 1:

Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components

This is one of the critical components used by vRealize automation for authentication and authorization. Since we chose to use the NSX load balancer service in our design, our preference was to go with the ID appliance from the list of supported options at the time of writing this book. Let's comprehend the argument behind our choice:

Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components

The identity (ID) appliance

The major benefit of running the vRealize identity appliance is that it is released as part of the vRealize Automation product. This is important because if new features are released in vRealize Automation that have dependencies on specific support from the SSO server, the identity appliance will be updated with the needed support. This will allow you to upgrade when a new version is released without having to worry about external dependencies.

It is recommended that the ID appliance be used in small deployments (10,000 managed machines and 500 catalog...

Configuring the external vPostgres DB in HA for the vRealize Automation CAFÉ appliance

It is recommended that you use an external instance of the vPostgres database for the CAFÉ appliance in a high availability (HA) environment. However, since the release of VMware vRealize Automation standalone, VMware vFabric Postgres is the end of availability and is no longer available as a standalone product. To address customers' needs, VMware developed a way to utilize the database instance located in the VMware vRealize Automation appliance in HA mode without having to incur additional licensing.

The following steps are clearly documented at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2108923. We will follow exactly the same steps given here, with some screenshots for ease of understanding.

Prerequisites

Allocate the hostname and IP address, and create DNS records (A and PTR) for the virtual IP of the vPostgres DB and two vPostgres DB nodes:

  1. Create the NSX load balancer configurations for the vPostgres database...

Getting started

From an architecture standpoint, deployment modes can be of two types—simple and distributed.

Simple deployment architecture

As the name suggests, a simple installation deploys a single instance of each virtual appliance and installs all IaaS components, including the SQL database, in a single virtual machine. It is highly suited for development or proof-of-concept environments. Importantly, this deployment lacks high availability.

Distributed deployment architecture

A distributed installation allows the separation of components that are best suited to the organization's needs and ideally used in production environments, and provides options for high availability. We have three distinct deployment modes: small, medium, and large. To learn more about these deployment modes, refer to http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vCloud/VMware-vCloud-Automation-Center-61-Reference-Architecture.pdf.

Planning and preparation

Here are some of the key tasks to do before we start the actual...

Overview of the installation flow

I have put together a flowchart in the hope that it helps you recognize the high-level steps involved in building a distributed and highly available vRealize Automation infrastructure.

The following steps are detailed in a logical sequence that takes dependencies into account:

Certificates

SSL certificates are commonly used for a secure handshake between different services. In vRA, all communications between the client browser and services (identity management, CAFÉ, and IaaS) and between services are over TLS/SSL. However, I wanted to highlight that vRA components work with different SSL certificate file formats. Here is a list of the common formats used in a vRA solution:

  • PEM: short for Privacy Enhanced Mail

  • P7B: Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) Format #7

  • PFX: Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) Format #12

  • CSR: short for Certificate Signing Request (.CER or .CRT files can be in either PEM or DER format):

The certificate generation process

Given that certificate generation is a protracted process, we have detailed the high-level steps involved in creating the certificates. The extensive list of steps for creating the certificates will be covered later in this chapter:

Step 1:

Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components

This is one of the critical components used by vRealize automation for authentication and authorization. Since we chose to use the NSX load balancer service in our design, our preference was to go with the ID appliance from the list of supported options at the time of writing this book. Let's comprehend the argument behind our choice:

The identity (ID) appliance

The major benefit of running the vRealize identity appliance is that it is released as part of the vRealize Automation product. This is important because if new features are released in vRealize Automation that have dependencies on specific support from the SSO server, the identity appliance will be updated with the needed support. This will allow you to upgrade when a new version is released without having to worry about external dependencies.

It is recommended that the ID appliance be used in small deployments (10,000 managed machines and 500 catalog items...

Configuring the external vPostgres DB in HA for the vRealize Automation CAFÉ appliance

It is recommended that you use an external instance of the vPostgres database for the CAFÉ appliance in a high availability (HA) environment. However, since the release of VMware vRealize Automation standalone, VMware vFabric Postgres is the end of availability and is no longer available as a standalone product. To address customers' needs, VMware developed a way to utilize the database instance located in the VMware vRealize Automation appliance in HA mode without having to incur additional licensing.

The following steps are clearly documented at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2108923. We will follow exactly the same steps given here, with some screenshots for ease of understanding.

Prerequisites

Allocate the hostname and IP address, and create DNS records (A and PTR) for the virtual IP of the vPostgres DB and two vPostgres DB nodes:

  1. Create the NSX load balancer configurations for the vPostgres database.

  2. Freshly...

Configuring the CAFÉ appliance in HA

Now that we have completed the installation of the vPostgres database and identity appliance, let's start the installation of the CAFÉ appliance. In this section, let's look at the recipe of configuring two CAFÉ nodes in cluster mode.

Prerequisites

Allocate the hostname and IP address, and create DNS records (A and PTR) for the CAFÉ virtual IP in the load balancer and two CAFÉ nodes (CAFE1 and CAFE2):

  1. Create NSX load balancer configurations for CAFÉ.

  2. Freshly deploy two VMware vRealize Automation 6.2 appliances without any configurations (again, I'm not going to walk through OVA deployment in this book).

  3. Power on and perform the following checks in both the CAFÉ appliances:

    • Connect to the VAMI page of the virtual appliance: https://<IP_address-or_FQDN-of-CAFE(1/2)-appliance|:5480.

    • Navigate to Network | Address.

      Check whether the hostname and DNS entries are accurate.

      The IP settings should be set to static.

    • Navigate to Admin- | Admin, and check whether SSH is...

IaaS installation

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables the rapid modeling and provisioning of servers and desktops across virtual and physical, private and public, or hybrid cloud infrastructures. Access to the infrastructure features is provided by the IaaS component. The installation of all IaaS components takes place on a Windows machine (physical or virtual).

The IaaS component of vRealize Automation includes multiple parts:

  • MS SQL database

  • IaaS Web Server

  • IaaS Manager Service

  • Distributed Execution Managers (Orchestrator and Workers)

  • Proxy Agents

A list of supported OSes and databases for installing IaaS components can be found at https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vrealize-automation-62-support-matrix.pdf.

The following configuration will be used in this setup:

  • All IaaS components will be installed in a virtual machine

  • Windows OS—Windows 2012 Standard

  • Database—SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM (10.50.1600.1) Enterprise Edition (x64)

The following are just recommendations for virtual machine configuration; feel...

Overview of the IaaS installation flow (only the first nodes)

In this chapter, we will install the first node for all the IaaS components and perform a functional test to affirm that the installation thus far is upright. Based on the results, we will proceed to install the second nodes for high availability in the distributed architecture. I created the below flow chart which typically illustrates the installation process.

Installing PFX certificate to IIS Web Server

Uploading the PFX certificate to the IIS web server is a requirement since IaaS components (Model Manager WEB and Manager Service) use the IIS web server during installation. In this example, the WEB2 node is used. The following are the steps for installing a PFX certificate on the IIS web server:

  1. Log in to the Node (WEB or MGR) before starting the installation as a Domain Administrator or service account user with sufficient privileges.

  2. Go to Server Manager | Tools | IIS Manager and select WEB2 (if you have logged in to the WEB1...

IaaS WEB installation

In this section, we will take a look at how to install and configure the first WEB node, which is called the Model Manager Web, also known as repository node:

  1. Log in to the WEB1 machine using the domain user or service account user created for the installation:

  2. Connect to one of the CAFÉ nodes and download the IaaS installer from https://CAFE1.PKCT.LOCAL:5480/i

  3. Do not change the name of this file—the name reflects the CAFÉ node from where it is downloaded:

  4. Right-click on the downloaded file and select Run as Administrator to begin installation.

  5. Enter the credentials for the CAFÉ1 appliance, check Accept Certificate as shown in the following screenshot, and click on Next:

  6. Select Custom Install and then choose IaaS Server in Component Selection.

  7. Database configuration:

    Note

    Ensure that MSDTC is enabled in the Database Machine used by IaaS components (DO NOT SKIP):

    Go to Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Component Services.

    Expand Component Services | Computers | My Computer...

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Page 1 of 15

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Key benefits

  • Learn to install the vRealize Automation product in a distributed architecture using a load balancer
  • Plan backup and recovery strategies for every vRealize automation component
  • Use vRealize Automation to manage applications and improve operational efficiency using this simple and intuitive guide

Description

With the growing interest in Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC), vRealize Automation offers data center users an organized service catalog and governance for administrators. This way, end users gain autonomy while the IT department stays in control, making sure security and compliance requirements are met. Learning what each component does and how they dovetail with each other will bolster your understanding of vRealize Automation. The book starts off with an introduction to the distributed architecture that has been tested and installed in large scale deployments. Implementing and configuring distributed architecture with custom certificates is unarguably a demanding task, and it will be covered next. After this, we will progress with the installation. A vRealize Automation blueprint can be prepared in multiple ways; we will focus solely on vSphere endpoint blueprint. After this, we will discuss the high availability configuration via NSX loadbalancer for vRealize Orchestrator. Finally, we end with Advanced Service Designer, which provides service architects with the ability to create advanced services and publish them as catalog items.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who wants to start their journey with vRealize Automation. It is your one-stop instruction guide to installing and configuring a distributed setup using NSX load balancer. Regardless of whether or not you have used vRealize Automation before, following the steps provided in each chapter will get you started with the product.

What you will learn

  • Understand the basic building blocks of vRealize Automation before embarking on the journey of installation
  • Familiarize yourself with the requirements and steps that need to be performed during the first phase of the distributed installation
  • Carry out a functional validation of the first phase of installation before completing the installation
  • Build a blueprint for vSphere endpoint, an essential step for a successful deployment of a service catalog
  • Create, configure, and deploy tenants, endpoints, blueprints, and the service catalog
  • Get to grips with the failover process for all components in vRealize Automation
  • Learn to configure the NSX loadbalancer for vRealize Orchestrator for high availability
  • Leverage ASD to develop XaaS (Anything as a Service) in vRealize Automation to deliver valuable competence
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ISBN-13 : 9781785885839
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Length: 230 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785885839
Vendor :
VMware
Category :
Cloud & Networking
Concepts :
Cloud Computing
Tools :
vRealize

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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
1. vRealize Automation and the Deconstruction of Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. vRealize Automation and the Deconstruction of Components
What is vRealize Automation?
Common use cases of vRealize Automation
vRealize Automation – a conceptual diagram
Identity management appliance or SSO or PSC
vRealize Automation or CAFÉ appliance
IaaS – architecture and component deep dive
Model Manager
MSSQL database
Manager Service
Distributed Execution Manager
Infrastructure agent
Management agent
Startup order
Shutdown order
Summary
2. Distributed Installation Using Custom Certificates Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Distributed Installation Using Custom Certificates
Getting started
Overview of the installation flow
Certificates
Identity management for authentication and authorization by vRA components
Configuring the external vPostgres DB in HA for the vRealize Automation CAFÉ appliance
Configuring the CAFÉ appliance in HA
IaaS installation
Overview of the IaaS installation flow (only the first nodes)
IaaS WEB installation
Installation of the first Manager Service and DEM Orchestrator node
Installation of the First DEM Worker and Proxy Agent
Proxy Agent installation
Updating the NSX load balancer configuration for WEB and MGR
Summary
3. Functional Validation – Phase 1 and Installing Secondary Nodes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Functional Validation – Phase 1 and Installing Secondary Nodes
Validation test
Installing the second active web node
Installing the standby Manager Service and the DEM Orchestrator node
Installing the second DEM Worker and proxy agent
Health monitor URL
Summary
4. Configuring a Guest OS for vRealize Automation vSphere Blueprints Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Configuring a Guest OS for vRealize Automation vSphere Blueprints
Guest agents
Preparing the vSphere guest OS template
GOS – Windows
GOS – Linux
Summary
5. Functional Validation – Phase 2 and Zero to VM Provisioning Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Functional Validation – Phase 2 and Zero to VM Provisioning
An overview of creating a service catalog
Providing the required permissions in the vSphere Endpoint
Creating and configuring credentials
Configuring the vSphere Endpoint
Login validation
Configuring fabric groups
Configuring the machine prefix
Creating business groups
Configuring reservation policies
Configuring VM template and VM customization specifications in vCenter
Creating a vSphere blueprint
Creating a service
Configuring a catalog item
Creating an entitlement
Requesting a service catalog
Monitoring deployment status
Things to remember
Summary
6. Testing Failover Scenarios for vRealize Automation Components Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Testing Failover Scenarios for vRealize Automation Components
vRealize Automation components and HA modes
Failover of the identity management appliance
Failover of vPostgres
Failover of CAFÉ appliance
Failover of Model Manager Web
Failover of Manager Service
Failover of DEM Orchestrator
Failover of DEM Worker and proxy agent
Summary
7. vRealize Orchestrator in High Availability via the NSX Load Balancer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. vRealize Orchestrator in High Availability via the NSX Load Balancer
Types of Orchestrator configuration
Planning and preparing
Infrastructure details
Configuring the vRealize Orchestrator cluster
Orchestrator NSX load balancer configurations
vRealize Orchestrator high availability mechanism
Configuring vRO at CAFÉ or IaaS makes a difference!
Summary
8. The Power of Advanced Service Designer (ASD) Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. The Power of Advanced Service Designer (ASD)
Advanced Service Designer overview
Enabling the ASD tab in vRA
Service blueprint
Summary
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index

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Amazon Customer Feb 09, 2016
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I was the technical reviewer of this book and I really enjoyed while perform the review of this book. Sriram Rajendran has done a great job in explaining the concepts of the vRA and the do’s and don’ts while designing and implementing vRealize Automation.The book is for anyone who is interested in learning the concepts of the vRA and planning to perform the deployments. It’s necessary to have basic system administration and virtualization skills particularity on the VMware vSphere.The book consists of 8 chapters, the first chapters gives a good overview of the vRA and the components which are part of the vRA suite. Chapter 2 – 5 takes you through installation & configuration of the vRA with the required functional testing to be done for a successful deployment. Chapter 6 helps to understand the failover testing which are performed as part of the User Acceptance testing of the vRealize Automation.Since the book is focused on the distributed install, load balancer is required for certain components of the vRA. VMware NSX load balancer is used as load balacer through this book for configuration. However do note this book covers only the basic configuration of the LB on NSX, it is assume NSX has been setup and fully functional for the vRA.The books ends with explaining the benefits of Advanced Service Designer (ASD), and how to achieve XaaS using the ASD.I would recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about automation and Orchestration.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Bengt Grønås Apr 16, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Vra6, basic for understanding vra. Very well written, simple to understand. Very pedagogically and comprehesive for you to understand the basics
Amazon Verified review Amazon
John Warner Sep 25, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
It's ok as an installation guide but is *extremely* shallow on blueprints. Not really worth buying.
Amazon Verified review Amazon

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About the author

Profile icon Sriram Rajendran
Sriram Rajendran
Sriram Rajendran is a member of the CTO Ambassador program at VMware. He has been a veteran of the IT industry, for more than 12 years, and a focused technologist with expertise in cloud computing, networking, storage, and server virtualization technologies. Sriram wears multiple hats at VMware. As a solution architect, he provides technical leadership and expertise to design, deploy, and scale the VMware SDDC stack for its Fortune 500 customers. His primary focus for VMware SSDC are automation, operations, and third-party integration. As a senior escalations manager, he is the go-to person for handling critical executive escalations that have out blown traditional GSS escalation processes. His focus here is not just managing escalations through various internal VMware organizations but also external partner organizations and their processes and extranet multivendor support processes like TSANET. As a CTO Ambassador, he is responsible for connecting the research and development team with customers, partners, and field as the global VMware evangelist. His focus is on defining and communicating VMware's vision and strategy, and acting as an advisor for VMware's vRealize Automation solutions, product roadmap, and portfolio. Previously, as a staff escalation engineer, he worked on customer escalations and prioritizing the requests for the team. He was also the lead on recruitment and talent management for the support and escalations team. He also worked closely with various engineering teams within VMware to help provide early feedback on the design and architecture of products based on escalations and his other field interactions. Prior to joining VMware, he worked at Slash Support and HP in their support organizations in technical leadership roles. Sriram has devoted much of his professional career to the design, implementation, and maintenance of large physical and virtual networks, storage and servers, and cloud architectures based on VMware, Microsoft, and other leading enterprise technologies.
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