Last and final section in the VCP CMA 7 Exam...
Section 6: Extend a vRealize
Automation Implementation
+ Objective 6.1: Configure vRealize Orchestrator for use
with vRealize Automation
Knowledge
·
Configure vRealize Automation to use an external
vRealize Orchestrator server
Administration >
vRO Configuration > Server Configuration:
Default port is
8281.
·
Configure default vRealize Orchestrator settings
in vRealize Automation
From default tenant
(https://vra-app/vcac/org/vsphere.local) as administrator@vsphere.local, vRO Configuration – then modify from there:
·
Set tenant specific vRealize Orchestrator
settings in vRealize Automation
From a specific
tenant (https://vra-app/vcac/org/engineering) as someone with tenant admin rights, then ‘Administration’
tab, vRO Configuration, Server configuration and configure as above.
Objective 6.2: Create and Manage
Event Broker Subscriptions
Knowledge
Normally EBS used for extensibility
during machine provisioning or life cycle management; for example, when
provisioning a server, you might want to talk to an IPAM or CMDB, or a Linux
server might need to have a DNS entry added to AD. The same in reverse when disposing of the
server.
·
Determine appropriate subscription option based
on design (blockable, replyable, schema)
Replyable =
something like Pre approval if a response from an external system is needed to
be returned to vRA (i.e., if a VM creation is dependent on another approval
system). Look at the schema to identify
what the output parameter from vRO needs to be:
Event Topic (for
example, pre-approval, machine provisioning, business group
configuration): Choose the type of event
you want to execute a workflow on
Conditions –
normally Life cycle stage or similar.
Blocking: Blocking will wait for the workflow to
complete until continuing deployment
Priority: Used to determine the order in which EBS
should be run; the LOWER the priority number = the sooner it will run
·
Configure subscription conditions based on the
design (data, core event message values)
Administration >
Events > Subscriptions > +
Select the event
type… For the example of add a server in
CMDB, you can do this through machine provisioning:
Click Next… Add conditions. Typically, something like:
Data > Lifecycle
state > Lifecycle State Name = VMPSMasterWorkflow32.MachineProvisioned
Now choose the
workflow you wish to run. In the example
here, I am writing out to an SQL database with some info about the VM…
Change details as
required:
·
Configure subscription workflow including input
and output parameters based on the design
Input must be a
property with a sensible name (most people tend to use ‘payload’ – according to
the extensibility guide:
“To use a single
parameter, configure one parameter with a type of Properties. You can provide
any useful name. For example, you can use payload as the parameter name.”
Outputs must match
the reply schema (see the picture under the ‘blockable, replyable, schema’
section)
·
Configure subscription details based on the
design (priority, timeout, blocking)
Covered in
‘blockable, replyable, schema’.
+ Objective 6.3: Configure Virtual Machine Lifecycle
Automation
Knowledge
All of
the below assume you have vRO workflows for specific lifecycle events – i.e., a
workflow which will create a DNS entry in AD for a Linux server, or interact
with a CMDB to create or delete entries).
·
Configure automatic post-provisioning actions
based on design criteria
·
Configure automatic deactivation of a virtual
machine based on condition criteria
·
Configure automated event brokering for
different status or event criteria based on design requirements
Covering off all of the above – from
the Administration tab, click on ‘Subscriptions’ and ‘Events’. Depending on when you want the specific use
case is, you can select a particular event to trigger a workflow.
Various states available are listed
in this document - https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Automation/7.0/com.vmware.vra.extensibility.doc/GUID-7DCDBC69-3A0A-476F-8335-DC165275F25B.html
Specifically
And can be selected from an Event
Broker Subscription workflow
Add conditions to trigger the
particular workflows:
·
Data > Lifecycle
state > Lifecycle State Name = VMPSMasterWorkflow32.something (see below)
·
Data > Lifecycle
state > State Phase = PRE or POST
·
Anything else that you
need to specify, i.e., I tend to use things like the blueprint names (assuming
they have the OS type in there).
Objective 6.4: Install and
Configure Plugins in vRealize Orchestrator
Knowledge
·
Install and configure plug-in in vRealize
Orchestrator
o
Install and configure vRealize Automation plugin
vRO 7.0 Get the automation plugin – either from a
vRO server that is shipped with vRA, from the vRA server (connecting through
WinSCP or similar and browsing to /usr/lib/vco/app-server/plugins) OR from the
solution Exchange
And get the vCAC plugin…
N.B., by default the standard vRO server will not
have these plugins so for a simple quick install, the vRA version of vRO is
going to save you a lot of time…
Click on ‘Plugins’:
Find the .vmoapp plugin file
(or .DAR file extension) that you want to install…
From vRO 7.1+ The plugin is already installed in vRO so no
need to download / install it.
o
Install and configure VMware NSX plugin
Get the pugin from VMware Downloads:
And install in the same method as above:
·
Run configuration workflows in vRealize
Orchestrator client
o
Run configuration workflows for vRealize
Automation plugin
This has already
been demonstrated *** using the vRO console, but can also be done using vRA
> Administration > vRO Configuration > Server Endpoints > New+:
And workflows can be run from vRO directly
here:
o
Run configuration workflows for NSX plugin
Outlined in section 5.1
o
Run configuration workflows for vSphere plugin
From within vRO, run the workflow Library >
vCenter > Configuration > Add a vCenter Server Instance:
·
Determine if a plugin is enabled
Ensure
check-box in the plugins screen from the vco-controlcenter
Objective
6.5: Modify and Run Basic vRealize Orchestrator Workflows
Knowledge
Enormous topic covered by a few lines, and vRO is definitely
something that you will need to work with extensively… There are week-long training courses for
datacentre automation with vRO, but this VMware freeby (albeit slightly old) is
well worth a look: https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=244418
·
Execute vRealize Orchestrator workflows with defined
parameters
From within vRO, select a workflow, right-click and select
‘Start Workflow’
·
Troubleshoot vRealize Orchestrator workflow
errors
Again, huge topic;
from each WF run:
Review the logs here.
·
Modify vRealize Orchestrator workflows
Varies depending on vRO version; find the ‘Edit’ pencil icon:
Depending on what needs to be modified, click on the
‘per-item’ edit button:
(This has changed with vRO 7.2 where you’ll half the screen
is reserved for the WF and half is for the edit field (In, Out, Exception,
Visual Bindings, Scritping, etc))
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