Introduction to VMware vRealize Automation Orchestration and Extensibility v7.x
VMware vRealize Automation orchestration and extensibility v7.x has become a game-changer in the world of cloud infrastructure management. This powerful suite of tools allows organizations to automate complex IT processes, streamline operations, and extend their capabilities beyond traditional boundaries. As businesses increasingly rely on cloud technologies, the need for efficient orchestration and extensibility solutions has never been more crucial.
This guide explains how to use vRealize Automation Orchestration v7.x, providing helpful tips on VMware vRA Orchestration and Extensibility. It covers essential topics such as mastering vRealize Orchestrator workflows, integrating vRealize Automation and Orchestrator, and exploring advanced extensibility techniques. Additionally, the guide addresses common challenges and provides troubleshooting tips for VMware vRA Orchestration v7.x, making it an invaluable resource for IT professionals looking to optimize their cloud infrastructure management.
Understanding vRealize Automation and Orchestrator
Key Components and Architecture
VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) is a cloud management platform that automates the delivery of IT services. It consists of three main components: the vRA appliance, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Authentication Services. The vRA appliance hosts the web console and includes Application Services and vRealize Orchestrator. IaaS components are installed on a Windows machine and handle resource provisioning. Authentication Services are part of the vRA appliance and support Active Directory integration.
Integration with VMware Cloud Infrastructure
vRA integrates seamlessly with VMware’s cloud infrastructure. It supports VMware Cloud on AWS, allowing users to create cloud accounts based on VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs. The integration process involves generating API tokens, selecting SDDCs, and configuring vCenter and NSX settings. This integration enables organizations to leverage VMware’s cloud capabilities while maintaining control over their infrastructure.
Benefits of Automation and Orchestration
Automation and orchestration offer numerous benefits to organizations. They produce consistent results, increase speed, reduce failures, and standardize IT processes. By automating routine tasks, IT professionals can focus on business-driving initiatives. vRealize Orchestrator, a key component of vRA, simplifies complex IT tasks and integrates with third-party software. It supports multiple scripting languages and provides centralized management for efficient change control across environments.
Mastering vRealize Orchestrator Workflows
Workflow Basics and Design Considerations
vRealize Orchestrator workflows automate complex IT processes, saving valuable time for system administrators. When designing workflows, it’s crucial to break them into smaller, standalone components. This approach enhances readability, simplifies debugging, and facilitates testing. Designers should clearly define the workflow’s purpose, expected changes, and output. Identifying reusable steps helps in modularizing the workflow, making it more efficient and versatile.
Developing Custom Workflows
To create a custom workflow, administrators log into the vRO client and navigate to the Workflows tab. They can organize workflows by creating folders, then right-click to initiate a new workflow. The process involves naming the workflow, dragging and dropping schema elements, and optionally adding custom JavaScript code. Validation is crucial before finalizing the workflow. vRO also offers pre-configured plug-in solutions from various vendors, expanding its automation capabilities.
Debugging and Exception Handling
vRealize Orchestrator includes a built-in debugging tool for troubleshooting workflows. Developers can insert breakpoints into script lines and use options like ‘Step into’, ‘Step over’, and ‘Step return’ to navigate through the code. The debugger allows adding expressions and editing variable values on the fly. For exception handling, workflows can incorporate user interaction components to prevent failures and improve the end-to-end process.
Extending vRealize Automation Capabilities
Event Broker and API Integration
VMware vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) remains a popular choice for automating infrastructure tasks. The vCenter Event Broker Appliance (VEBA) Fling allows users to subscribe to specific vCenter Server events and trigger automation workflows. This integration enables vRO customers to leverage existing workflows while benefiting from VEBA’s capabilities. By utilizing VEBA’s REST API, administrators can easily trigger vRO workflows in response to vCenter Server events, streamlining processes such as notifications, vSphere automation, and ticket creation.
Creating XaaS Blueprints and Custom Forms
vRealize Automation 7.4 introduced Custom Forms, enhancing the flexibility of request forms. This feature allows for conditional logic, input constraints, custom help text, and CSS formatting. Custom Forms can be applied to existing blueprints without relying on XaaS as a front-end. To enable Custom Forms, administrators can access the design tab, select blueprints, and choose the Custom Forms menu. The editor provides options to add elements like text boxes, CPU and memory selectors, and environment-specific configurations.
Best Practices for Extensibility
To optimize vRealize Automation extensibility, consider using the vRealize Automation Extensibility proxy for managing geographically dispersed data centers. This approach improves network reliability and optimizes vSphere provisioning across disconnected data centers. When creating Custom Forms, focus on providing a consistent experience for service architects while designing infrastructure and application catalog items. Leverage conditional values and visibility options to create dynamic, user-friendly forms that adapt to specific environments and requirements.
vRealize Automation Fundamentals
Core Components and Features
vRealize Automation (vRA) comprises three main components: the vRA appliance, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Authentication Services. The appliance hosts the web console and includes Application Services and vRealize Orchestrator. IaaS components, installed on Windows machines, handle resource provisioning. Authentication Services support Active Directory integration.
Unified Self-Service Portal
The self-service portal, known as Service Broker, allows users to access applications, services, and virtual machine deployments. It supports multi-tenancy, identity management, and per-tenant web portal branding. Service Broker offers a customizable catalog with various content sources, including Cloud Assembly Blueprints, AWS CFT, and vRO Workflows.
Converged Blueprint Concepts
vRA 8 introduced a converged model for automation, allowing users to compose services using reusable building blocks. Blueprints are expressed declaratively in YAML, with the option to write actions in code. The graphical canvas provides an alternate mechanism for power users to create and modify blueprints.
Integrating vRealize Automation and Orchestrator
Extending Machine Lifecycle with Workflows
vRealize Automation extends to multi-vendor environments by leveraging vRealize Orchestrator workflows. After creation, these workflows are exposed in vRealize Automation, allowing architects and administrators to design and provision services. The Anything as a Service designer offers a wizard-driven approach to creating end-to-end service delivery processes. Hundreds of predefined workflows are available, and new ones can be created as needed.
Event-Based Automation
Event Broker triggers vRealize Orchestrator workflows based on specific lifecycle events. This allows administrators to extend automation without additional code or configurations. For example, an administrator can create a subscription to customize a machine during provisioning or implement a pre-approval workflow to send requests to external systems for processing.
API-Driven Extensibility
vRealize Orchestrator API enables function as a service (FaaS) operations for on-premises and cloud deployments. The vRealize Automation plug-in for vRealize Orchestrator provides tools to manage orchestrated hosts, pass credentials, and access an inventory of objects. It offers over 40 JavaScript scripting objects and nearly a hundred library actions and workflows supporting common operations.
vRealize Automation 7.x Architecture
Core Services and Components
vRealize Automation 7.x comprises several core services and components. The vRA appliance hosts the web console, Application Services, and vRealize Orchestrator. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) components, installed on Windows machines, handle resource provisioning. Authentication Services support Active Directory integration. The vPostgres database serves both Identity Manager and vRA.
Integration Points with vSphere
vRealize Automation integrates seamlessly with vSphere environments. It can manage up to 50 vCenter endpoints in a single deployment. The vRA appliance can scale up to 20,000 virtual machines across four different vCenter servers. This integration allows for advanced workload placement, deployment health monitoring, and virtual machine metrics display.
Scalability and High Availability Considerations
For high availability, vRA appliance nodes can be placed behind a load balancer in an active-active configuration. IaaS components require distributed deployment across multiple nodes for scalability. The Manager Service uses an active-passive configuration, while DEM Workers are CPU-bound and should be deployed near external resources. Microsoft SQL Server can be configured for high availability using various methods to ensure database resilience.
Orchestration Capabilities in vRealize Automation
vRealize Orchestrator Overview
vRealize Orchestrator simplifies the automation of complex IT tasks and integrates seamlessly with VMware vCloud Suite components. It enables the creation of workflows to automate operations in virtual infrastructures, performing tasks such as provisioning virtual machines, backing up data, and managing physical infrastructure. The platform supports various scripting languages, including JavaScript, PowerShell, and Python, offering flexibility in workflow development.
Building Reusable Workflow Libraries
vRealize Orchestrator provides a standard library of workflows for automating virtual infrastructure operations. Users can create custom workflows using the integrated development environment (IDE) in the vRealize Orchestrator Client interface. The platform allows for the design of scalable workflows to automate simple to complex IT processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing efficiency.
Integrating Third-Party Systems
vRealize Orchestrator supports integration with various third-party applications and systems. It offers a rich library of out-of-the-box plug-ins to extend core capabilities. Users can leverage the vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In Software Development Kit to create custom plug-ins for third-party management systems, enabling automation across both VMware and external applications.
Advanced Extensibility Techniques
Custom Resource Types and Provisioning
Custom resource types in vRealize Automation 8.1 enable users to create and manage objects previously only manageable through vRealize Orchestrator plugins. For instance, an Active Directory custom resource can be created as “Custom.ad:user”. This feature allows linking workflows for creating or destroying objects and adding actions for vRA users. To enhance control, administrators can configure default values for certain parameters, limiting user actions to specific groups.
Approval Policies and Governance
Approval policies in Service Broker provide governance over deployment and day 2 action requests. These policies enable designated approvers to review requests before resources are consumed or changes are made. Multiple approval levels can be set up, with each level addressing different criteria such as resource deployment or compute requirements. Approvers are notified sequentially based on the policy level, ensuring a structured review process.
Multi-Cloud Extensibility
The vRealize Automation Extensibility proxy (vREX proxy) facilitates management of geographically dispersed data centers from a single vRA instance. This approach improves network reliability and optimizes vSphere provisioning across disconnected data centers. The vREX proxy acts as a communication intermediary between vRA and vSphere, eliminating the need for separate vRA deployments in remote locations.
Automating Cloud Infrastructure with vRealize
vRealize Automation Core Concepts
vRealize Automation (vRA) is a DevOps-based infrastructure management platform that automates the delivery of IT resources and container-based applications. It offers self-service provisioning, fine-grained policy management, and hybrid cloud support. vRA’s Cloud Assembly simplifies template creation for provisioning machines, applications, and services across cloud vendors. The Service Broker provides a centralized catalog for templates, workflows, and services, enabling efficient resource management and user access control.
vRealize Orchestrator Fundamentals
vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) serves as the orchestration and workflow development engine for vRA. It allows users to create custom workflows using JavaScript, supporting integration with various systems through plugins and APIs. vRO’s visual drag-and-drop interface simplifies workflow creation, while its scripting capabilities enable complex automation scenarios. The platform supports event-driven automation and offers reusable workflow components for enhanced efficiency.
Integration Between vRA and vRO
vRA and vRO work together to provide comprehensive cloud automation. vRO extends vRA’s capabilities by enabling custom workflow creation for Day-1 and Day-2 operations. This integration allows for seamless orchestration of tasks across different systems and technologies within the cloud environment. Together, they offer a powerful solution for managing hybrid cloud infrastructures, supporting continuous integration and delivery principles, and enabling efficient resource provisioning and management.
Conclusion
VMware vRealize Automation v7.x is a powerful solution for automating and orchestrating IT processes, enabling organizations to boost efficiency and streamline workflows. With its extensive features, extensibility, and integration capabilities, vRealize Automation empowers businesses to deliver infrastructure, applications, and services at speed. By following best practices, leveraging customizations, and acquiring the necessary skills, organizations can fully unlock the power of vRealize Automation and achieve greater operational efficiency and agility in their IT operations.
