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Harness the Power of vRA with the SovLabs Property Toolkit and Template Engine – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series we walked through how you can use the SovLabs Property Toolkit and Template Engine to configure vRealize Automation (vRA) for our environment input.  In this second part of the series, we’re going to walk through setting up the Application and Compliance inputs for our particular use case.  If you are starting to see smoke, don’t be alarmed. It’s just our Genie being let out of the lamp.

In Part 1, we determined that the required options for our Application input will be:

  • WordPress
  • Microsoft SQL

Determine the Outcome

In this scenario, the selection of the application will have a significant impact on the outcome. However, while we need to think about the application, we also need to look at the larger picture. What do I mean by “the bigger picture”? Well, once we figure out the desired outcome for each of these items, we need to think about how each item relates to the environment and the choices we made in Part 1.

What if the requester chooses WordPress as the application and Production as the environment?  Alternatively, what if they choose Microsoft SQL and Development? Will the outcome of the application differ based on the environment to which it is being deployed?

Some things to consider:

  1. Do the workload specs change based on the environment selection?
  2. Do development, test, and production instances have the same CPU and Memory requirements?
  3. Do any of the integrations change based on application and environment?  
  4. Do WordPress and Microsoft SQL have the same backup requirements?
    1. Does this requirement change based on which environment the workload is being deployed to?
  5. What else could affect the outcome?

To read the entire article please see the original article on the SovLabs Blog.

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My vRA Journey Continues

Many of you may have already heard after 6 years at VMware I decided to spread my wings and go back to the world from which I came.  I joined VMware when they acquired DynamicOps a little over 6 years ago, and after 6 great years at VMware I decided to move on to something new, but not so new.

If it doesn’t show from my blog I am very passionate about automation.   I’m even more passionate about helping organizations overcome all the challenges they face during their journey towards automation.  Having been working with vRA for over 10 years I’ve learned a lot.  I’ve learned the countless ways different organizations go about achieving the same end result.  I’ve learned the challenges with automation in the datacenter.  I’ve learned I could probably write endlessly about what I have learned Winking smile

Continue reading “My vRA Journey Continues”

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VMware vRealize Automation – vRA7 – Custom Hostnaming Extension for vRA7 and beyond

THIS EXTENSION IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED

I want to thank all of you that have downloaded and used this module.  We never expected it to be as widely used as it has been.  We decided to stop maintaining this because it was originally built as an example of how one could achieve this capability.  Much to our surprise it has been deployed into countless production environments.  As a result we have received countless requests for support which we cannot provide.

Their is good news however.  Their is a commercially available supported product that is capable to doing much more than this module is capable of.  For more information   See article on SovLabs Hostname Module 

Overview

One of the most frequent asks when using vRA is, “How do I deploy machines using my company’s hostnaming standards automatically using vRA?”  Since the out-of-the box hostnaming only provides a way to do prefix-suffix, the answer to this question usually is that it will require customization.

This solution is intended to provide a way to implement this functionality by using a small, highly versatile custom extension which can handle 95% of use cases without writing custom code.

The rest of this article contains instructions on installing and configuring the vRA Custom Hostnaming Extension.  This extension allows administrators to model very specific custom hostnaming schemes for their vRA virtual machines, Deployments, and vCloud Director vApps using vRA custom properties, with dynamic creation of stock machine prefixes and index tracking for each unique hostname combination.

This extension is proof-of-concept or demo grade.  While it runs well and consistently, it has not been put through a formal quality assurance process, so please use with caution.

Continue reading “VMware vRealize Automation – vRA7 – Custom Hostnaming Extension for vRA7 and beyond”

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vRealize Automation – vCAC 6.1 – Custom Property Toolkit for vCO

For those of you who have not seen this yet, it is a must have for anyone writing vCO workflows for vCAC.  VMware’s own Dan Linsey build a set of pre-built workflows to help aid you in your own development efforts.  The toolkit includes workflows for performing Create, Read, Update, & Delete Operations for vCAC custom properties for more than just virtual machine objects.  IT includes support for the following:

 

  • Blueprints
  • Build Profiles
  • Business Groups
  • Endpoints
  • Property Dictionary
  • Virtual Machines
  • and more

Top check out this incredibly useful toolkit head over to the VMware Communities and download it.

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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Creating a Business Group

Business Groups are representations of your organizations logical groupings of users and managers. These can be business units or other groupings such as developers, windows users, etc. Business groups are very important within vCAC because these are the groups that you assign resources to. You can assign resources from the various types of supported infrastructure to these groups and the users are then able to provision workloads to those assigned resources.

Creating a Business Group

  1. From the Infrastructure menu select Group form the left menu.

    2. VCAC6FG-1
    Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Creating a Business Group”

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vCloud Automation Center – Active Directory Computer Account Management Extension

Overview

A common extension requested for vCloud Automation Center is the ability to pre-create computer account objects in Active Directory in a specific Organizational Unit, and also to decommission the accounts in different ways along with the virtual machine. Without a custom workflow, you can have the computer join the domain during the customization phase, but this will only create the computer account in the default Computers container. Also, while there is an out-of-the box AD machine cleanup plugin which can be enabled, it will likely never support the multi-tenancy introduced in vCAC 6.0. vCO does not support it today either, but it is more likely to gain support in the near future.

This solution implements these functions using vCenter Orchestrator and its plugins for vCAC and Active Directory.

The rest of this article contains instructions on installing and configuring the vCAC AD Computer Account Management Extension. This extension allows administrators to model very specific OU structures for their AD machine accounts using vCAC custom properties, and supports dynamic OU Distinguished Name building based on combinations of properties derived from different areas of vCAC (compute resources, reservations, groups, blueprints, etc.).

This extension is Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – Active Directory Computer Account Management Extension”

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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 5.2/6.0 – Custom Hostnaming Extension v3.1

Overview

One of the most frequent asks when using vCAC is, “How do I deploy machines using my company’s hostnaming standards automatically using vCAC?”  Since the out-of-the box hostnaming only provides a way to do prefix-suffix, the answer to this question usually is that it will require customization.

This solution is intended to provide a way to implement this functionality by using a small, highly versatile custom extension which can handle 95% of use cases without writing custom code.

The rest of this article contains instructions on installing and configuring the vCAC Custom Hostnaming Extension.  This extension allows administrators to model very specific custom hostnaming schemes for their vCAC virtual machines, multi-machine services, and vCloud Director vApps using vCAC custom properties, with dynamic creation of stock machine prefixes and index tracking for each unique hostname combination.

This extension is Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 5.2/6.0 – Custom Hostnaming Extension v3.1”

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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Installting the vCAC 6.0 Virtal Appliance

The vCAC 6.0 Virtual appliance(VA) is your gateway into vCAC 6.0. The vCAC VA packs a punch with lots of new capabilities including:

  • Multi-Tenancy
  • New Self-Service Portal
  • Catalog Brand-able per tenant
  • Ultra flexible advanced approvals
  • Custom service offerings (XaaS)
  • Custom Day 2 operations
  • Built-In vCO Server
  • Lots more….

The vCAC 6.0 VA is the second of three required components for vCAC 6.0. The First component the vCAC 6.0 Identity Appliance handles SSO authentication for the architecture, the vCAC VA handles the web interface for administration, self-service, and API. The vCAC IaaS Server which we will be installing next is what was formerly known as vCAC.

The appliance is delivered as an ova or ovf whichever you prefer. I will be walking through the installation using the ova version. In this tutorial we will do the following:

  • Import the vCAC 6.0 Virtual Appliance OVA to vCenter
  • Configure the vCAC 6.0 Virtual Appliance for use

Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Installting the vCAC 6.0 Virtal Appliance”

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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Installing the vCAC 6.0 Identity Server Appliance

The vCAC 6.0 Identity Appliance (IA) is an integral component of vCAC and a very welcomed addition. The vCAC 6.0 IA will be the first component of the new vCAC 6.0 Suite that is deployed in your environment. If you don’t already have the vCAC 6.0 Identity Appliance you can download from the VMware Downloads page.

Identify Appliance Features

The identity appliance gives vCAC some newly added benefits and features that with regards to authentication and supporting multiple directory services. Some of these features include:,/p>

  • Multiple AD Provider Support per tenant
  • Multiple LDAP Service Providers per tenant
  • Single Sign-On Capabilities
  • Allows for the portal to now have the much sought after logout button

The appliance is delivered as an ova or ovf whichever you prefer. I will be walking through the installation using the ova version. In this tutorial we will do the following:

  • Import the vCAC 6.0 Identity Appliance OVA to vCenter
  • Configure the vCAC 6.0 Identity Appliance for use

Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Installing the vCAC 6.0 Identity Server Appliance”

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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 5.2 – Virtual Machine LifeCycle Demystified

vCAC has what is referred to as the “Master Workflow” which makes up the Virtual Machine Lifecycle. The Master workflow is the top level workflow states that a virtual machine will go through, throughout it’s life. These workflow states tie pretty closely to the Workflow stubs that are shipped with the designer, but they are not a direct match to them. I often see confusion around the workflow states and the workflow stubs. I’m hoping to clear up the confusion around this and help everyone understand the difference between them.

Master WorkFlow States

The vCAC Master workflow states are as follows:

  1. Request State
  2. Approval State
  3. Provision State
  4. Manage State
  5. Expired State
  6. Decommissioned State

Continue reading “vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 5.2 – Virtual Machine LifeCycle Demystified”