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THIS EXTENSION IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED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.

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VMware Introduces 24 product releases including the much anticipated vSPhere 6

Yesterday VMware was very busy announcing the release of over 2 dozen product which included two new products to the market these two new additions to the VMware portfolio are:

VMware Integrated Openstack – That’s right it’s out and it’s available now for you to download.
VMware Software Manager 1.0 – This probably not as exciting as VIO, but it will come in handy for finding, selecting, and downloading the content needed to install or upgrade a VMware Suite.

Below is a list of all the products released yesterday including links to their downloads, documentation, and release notes for your convenience.

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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”

vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Creating a Fabric Group

Fabric groups are important in vCAC.  The Fabric groups are what enable you to provide access to resources from your physical infrastructure.  Within a fabric group you add users or groups that are responsible for managing infrastructure resources and add the resources they are responsible for.  For example you may select clusters that are managed from vCenter and assign the user/groups that are responsible for managing those resources.

Creating a Fabric Group

  1. From the Infrastructure menu select Group form the left menu.
  2. VCAC6FG-1
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vCloud Automation Center – vCAC 6.0 – Adding Tenants

After vCAC 6 is initially installed you have only the default tenant that was created during the configuration of the Identity Appliance. The administrator user for the default tenant will allow you to login to the vCAC UI and created additional tenants and configure default branding.

It is highly recommended that you do not utilize the default tenant for anything other than tenant management. You can add a directory service such as AD to the default tenant to assign other administrators, however beyond that it is not recommended that you utilize the default tenant to provide any additional service. This post will walk you through creating a new tenant in vCAC 6.0 that can be used to publish services.

Creating a new tenant

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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

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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”