VMware vRA 8 Standard Installation with Easy Installer Step by Step

VMware vRA 8 has completely new architecture, before deployment of VMware vRA 8 lets understand first what are the components needed for VMware vRA 8 and what is the role of these components.

Components of VMware vRA 8

vRealize Lifecycle Manager (vRLCM)
vRLCM Offers single installation and management platform for various VMware vRealize Products

vRealize Identity Manager
VIDM Offers Application Provisioning, Conditional Access Control and SSO.

vRealize Automation
vRA Offers secure self service portal, this portal IT as a Service. Through this portal one can automate the delivery of Virtual Machines, Cloud Machines, Applications and Personalized IT services.

Cloud Assembly
Cloud Assembly is used to create and deploy machines, application and services to multiple clouds.

Service Broker
Service Broker aggregates content in native formats from multiple clouds and platforms into a common catalog for easy consumption on VMware Cloud.

Code Stream
Code Stream is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CICD) software that enables you to deliver software rapidly and reliably, with little overhead.


VMware vRA 8 Port Communication Diagram

Image Credit: VMware Documentation

 vRA 8 Standard Installation Procedure

1. Download Easy Installer ISO from here https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VRA-800&productId=938&rPId=38310

 
2. Mount this ISO in your System from where you want to perform Remote Installation of vRA 8 Components > Once Mounted Drive where ISO is Mounted > vrlcm-ui-installer > Win32 (As my machine where ISO was mounted is running Windows OS, if it MAC OS or Linux OS access folders accordingly instead of Win32).

3.  Click on Install Tile

4. Click Next on Introduction Page

5. Accept EULA > Click on Next > Accept Security Warning

6. Enter the Details of vCenter Server at Appliance Deployment Target Page > Click on Next

7. Select VM and Templates Location to keep VMs Deployed for vRA by Easy Installer > Click on Next

8. Select Cluster to Provide the resources New VMs Deployed for vRA 8 > Click on Next

 9. Select Datastore to keep the vRA VMs Files > Click on Next

10.  Configure Network Settings for vRA, vIDM and vRLCM > Click on Next

11. Configure Password for vRA, vIDM and vRLCM users > Click on Next

12. Specify vRLM Configuration > Click on Next

13. Specify vIDM Configuration > Click on Next

14. Specify vRA Configuration Details > Click on Next

15. Review Summary > Click on Next

16. It will take Few Minutes (Approx 90 Minutes for Standard Installation [Subject to Vary in different environments]) to complete the Installation. Once Completed You can start accessing your vRA environment.

VMware VCP 2020 and VCAP 2020 Certification Policy Update

Here is the announcement link of Upgrade to VCP 2020 and VCAP 2020
http://bit.ly/2SjAfvO

VMware vRA Latency and Bandwidth

vRealize Automation supports multiple site, distributed installation, but data transmission speed and volume must meet minimum prerequisites.

vRealize Automation needs an environment of 5 ms or lower network latency, and 1 GB or higher bandwidth, among the following components.
•    vRealize Automation appliance
•    IaaS Web server
•    IaaS Model Manager host
•    IaaS Manager Service host
•    IaaS SQL Server database
•    IaaS DEM Orchestrator

The following component might work at a higher latency site, but the practice is not recommended.
•    IaaS DEM Worker

You may install the following component at the site of the endpoint with which it communicates.
•    IaaS Proxy Agent

Info Source Link

Changing the vRealize Automation 7.x Management UI User

You can add and delete users on the Virtual Appliance Management Interface to create the appropriate level of security:

Create a new user and add the user to the Virtual Appliance Management Interface group.
useradd -G vami,root <new_user>

Create a password for the user.
passwd <new_user>


Disable root access on the Virtual Appliance Management Interface.
usermod -R vami root

How to Verify that the password history enforced for the root account.
 cat /etc/pam.d/common-password-vmware.local | grep pam_pwhistory.so

Retired VMware Certifications And Exams And Badges

Check this Link:-
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/certification/vmw-certification-retired-exams.pdf

Application Monitoring in VMware vROPS 8.x

You can monitor application services supported by vRealize Application Remote Collector (ARC) in vRealize Operations Manager. You can also manage the life cycle of agents and application services on virtual machines.
Using vRealize Operations Advanced edition >, you can monitor operating systems and conduct remote checks in vRealize Operations Manager. Using vRealize Operations Enterprise edition >, you can conduct remote checks, monitor operating systems and applications, and run custom scripts in vRealize Operations Manager. Get More Details about different editions from here

vRealize Operations Manager can monitor applications using the End Point Operations Management Solution and vRealize Application Remote Collector.

You cannot run the vRealize Application Remote Collector agent on the same VM as the End Point Operations Management agent.  

Configuration of Application Remote Monitoring

1. Activate VMware vRealize Application Management Pack
Home > Monitor Applications > Configure Application Monitoring

2. Click on Activate Link

3. Click on Activate > Yes

4.  Verify the Activate Status

5. Download and Deploy and Configure ARC (Application Remote Collector) Appliance. Follow the Guidelines from here

6. Application Remote Collection > Click on Plus Button > Enter ARC Appliance Details > Next

7. Select vCenter from Drop Down > Next

8. Review Details > Finish

9. Accept the Certificate

10. Click on Manage Agents

11. Select VM > Click on Install Agent > Select Credential Option > Next

12. Enter Credential Guest Operating System  > Next

13. Click on Install Agent > It will take Few Minutes to Complete the Installation.

14. Home > Monitor Applications > OS and Services will be Discovered from the VM through Agent

15. Select VM > Configure Discovered Services for the Metric Data Collection related to this Service. You can even perform Remote Checks and Execute Custom Scripts.

16. Enter Display Name of Service > Save > Close. It will few minutes to configure it.

17. Once it is Configured, You can check the status from Home > Monitor Applications

Service Discovery Feature in VMware vROPS 8.x

Service discovery is new feature in vROPS 8.x, which helps you discover services running in each VM and then builds a relationship or dependency between the services from different VMs. You can view basic metrics based on the services you want to monitor. You can also use the service discovery dashboards to monitor the services.

Service discovery helps you determine the kind of services running on each VM in your environment. You can find out which VM is a part of a service, the impact of shutting down or moving a VM, the impact of an incident, and the right escalation path for a problem. You can also determine which VMs are used to migrate a service and which services are impacted by a planned outage on a VM or an infrastructure component.

You can discover and monitor services using vRealize Operations Advanced and Enterprise editions.

Configuration of Service Discovery

1.  Enable Service Discovery. Home > Discover Services under Manage Applications Category > Configure Service Discovery

Services Supported by vROPS Service Discovery

• Active Directory
• Apache HTTP
• Apache Tomcat
• DB2
• Exchange Client Access Server
• Exchange Edge Transport Server
• Exchange Hub Transport Server
• Exchange Mailbox Server
• Exchange Server
• Exchange Unified Messaging Server
• GemFire
• IIS
• JBoss
• MS SQL DB
• MySQL DB
• Nginx
• Oracle DB
• RabbitMQ
• SharePoint
• SRM vCenter Replication Management Server
• SRM vCenter Replication Server
• Sybase DB
• Pivotal tc Server
• vCenter Site Recovery Manager Server
• vCloud Director
• VMware vCenter
• VMware vCenter (Appliance)
• VMware View Server
• vRealize Operations Analytics
• vRealize Operations Collector
• vRealize Operations GemFire
• vRealize Operations Postgres Data
• vRealize Operations Postgres Repl
• vRealize Operations UI
• WebLogic
• WebSphere

Supported Product Versions:-

• ESXi 6.0 or later
• vCenter Server 6.0 or later
• VMware Tools: For details see KB 75122
• VMware Cloud on AWS 1.7 and 1.8

Supported Operating System Versions:-

• Windows = Windows 7, Windows Server 2008/R2, and above.
• Linux = Photon, RHEL, CentOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, OEL, and Ubuntu (all Linux operating systems must be based on kernel version 2.6.25 or above).

2. Cloud Accounts > Edit vCenter Server Account

3. Service Discovery Tab > Enable Service Discovery > Enter Credentials Used in Windows and Linux Operating Systems > Test Connection > Save. Now it will Few Minutes to Discover Services.

4. Services Discovered in the Environment will be listed in the Disovered Services

5. Click on Virtual Machines Link

6. Enable Service Monitoring. Select VM > Click on Enable Service Monitoring

7.  Select VM > Click  on Show Detail

8. Click Actions > Now you can Get Top Processes in VM

9. Click on RUN

10. After Few Seconds you will get Similar type of Output depends upon your Environment

11. Now you can Execute Scripts or Commands in VM Operating System

12. Enter the Command and Execute it