vRealize Automation

Written by Sam McGeown on 7/7/2015
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
vSphere 6 HA SSO (PSC) with NetScaler VPX Load Balancer for vRealize Automation Deploying vRealize Automation 6.2 Appliance Cluster with Postgres Replication Deploying fully distributed vRealize Automation IaaS components - Part 1: Pre-requisites Deploying fully distributed vRealize Automation IaaS components - Part 2: Database, Web and Manager services Deploying fully distributed vRealize Automation instance - Configuring NetScaler Monitors Providing a highly available single sign on for vRealize Automation is a fundamental part of ensuring the availability of the platform.
Written by Sam McGeown on 1/4/2015
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
I tested vSphere 6 quite intensively when it was in beta, but I didn’t ever upgrade my lab - basically because I need a stable environment to work on and I wasn’t sure that I could maintain that with the beta. Now 6 has been GA a while and I have a little bit of time, I have begun the lab upgrade process. You can see a bit more about my lab hardware over on my lab page.
Written by Simon Eady on 14/1/2015
Published under vRealize Automation
Recently when do a fresh install of vRealize Automation (vRA) 6.2 I came across the following error after configuring the first end point. Error log example DataBaseStatsService: ignoring exception: Error executing query usp_SelectAgent Inner Exception: Error executing query usp_SelectAgentCapabilities and Error processing ping response Error executing query usp_SelectAgent Inner Exception: Error executing query usp_SelectAgentCapabilities First of all I checked to see if the end points were working which in this case they appeared to be, but I wanted to clear the error before continuing the install.
Written by Sam McGeown on 20/10/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
I am aware that that’s not a catchy blog post title. In fact, it doesn’t even really describe the problem or solution very well - for that I need to go into a little bit more depth! Suppose I have configured a Reservation with two Networks ticked (“192.168.1.0-VLAN1” and “192.168.10.0-VLAN10”). As you can see in the screenshot below, each of the networks has a Network Profile created and assigned with a network pool to provide IP addressing for the VMs.
Written by Sam McGeown on 12/9/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
SSO is a fundamental requirement when deploying vCAC, whether for a distributed or simple installation. This walk through goes through the deployment and configuration of the vCAC Identity Appliance, which provides a stand alone SSO instance for vCAC. Some of the posts in this series are completed with vCAC 6.0.1, others will be with 6.1. Where there are differences I will aim to point them out! Deploying the OVF Deploying the OVF is very simple, just run through the wizard:
Written by Sam McGeown on 10/7/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
This was a fun little error, whilst installing the distributed IaaS roles I couldn’t seem to get the IaaS components to install – when I got the Website and Model Manager Data install it would fail with the following message: ##InitializeRepo Registering solution user in the VA, initializing Repository MetaModel and Authorization "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Server\Model Manager Data\Cafe\Vcac-Config.exe" RegisterSolutionUser -url https://vcloud.definit.local --Tenant "vsphere.local" -cu "[email protected]" -cp ****** --FileName "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Server\Model Manager Data\Cafe\Vcac-Config.
Written by Sam McGeown on 25/6/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
This is the first part of the 3rd article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model. By the end of this part, we will not have modified the vCAC deployment in any way, we’ll just have 3 configured load balanced URLs vCAC simple configuration with vPostgres and Load Balancers prepared An overview of the steps required are below: Issue and install certificates Deploy an external vPostgres appliance and migrate the vCAC database Configure load balancing Deploy a second vCAC appliance and configure clustering Install and configure additional IaaS server Deploy vCenter Orchestrator Appliance cluster Deploy a vShield Edge appliance Log in to your vShield Manager and select your Datacenter, then the Network Virtualisation tab
Written by Sam McGeown on 24/6/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
This is the second article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model. The diagram below shows the deployment at the end of this part, with vPostgres deployed and the vCAC Appliance running from the remote database. vCAC deploymnent with vPostgres deployed An overview of the steps required are below: Issue and install certificates Deploy an external vPostgres appliance and migrate the vCAC database Configure load balancing Deploy a second vCAC appliance and configure clustering Install and configure additional IaaS server Deploy vCenter Orchestrator Appliance cluster Create the required DNS records First of all, create DNS records for your vPostgres database server – you need both an A and PTR record.
Written by Sam McGeown on 23/6/2014
Published under Microsoft, VMware and vRealize Automation
This is the first article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model. Simple vCAC deployment In a simple installation you have the Identity Appliance, the vCAC appliance (which includes a vPostgres DB and vCenter Orchestrator instance) and an IaaS server. The distributed model still has a single Identity Appliance but clusters 2 or more vCAC appliances behind a load balancer, backed by a separate vPostgres database appliance.
Written by Sam McGeown on 17/1/2014
Published under VMware and vRealize Automation
So this morning I took the VMware Infrastructure as a Service exam (VCPVCD510) to gain the VCP5-Cloud qualification. The IaaS exam is available for existing VCP5-DCV holders to take without any other pre-requisites. I am very pleased to say I finished the exam in good time and scored 466/500 – the pass mark is 300. The Exam The exam itself is 85 multiple choice questions, and gives you 90 minutes to do them.