Technology

Of the types of networks available through NSX, private networks are the easiest to get going because they don’t require any NSX edge routers to be in place. Think about it, the NSX edge appliance is used to allow communication with the physical network which we won’t need for a private network. A quick refresher here, a private network is a network that is not connected to the rest of the environment. Machines that are on the private network can communicate with each other, but nothing else in the environment. Its simple, think of some machines connected to a switch and the switch isn’t connected to any routers. The machines connected to the switch can talk to each other, but thats it. ...

Before we can start deploying environments with automated network segments, we need to do some basic setup of the NSX environment. NSX Manager Setup It should be obvious that you need to setup NSX Manager, deploy controllers and do some host preparation. These are basic setup procedures just to use NSX even without vRealize Automation in the middle of things, but just as a quick review: Install NSX Manager and deploy NSX Controller Nodes NSX Manager setup can be deployed from an OVA and then you must register the NSX Manager with vCenter. After this is complete, deploy three NSX Controller nodes to configure your logical constructs. ...

A common task that comes up during an automation engagement relates to passing values from vRealize Automation blueprints over to vRealize Orchestrator. There is a workflow that I use quite frequently that will list the properties available for further programming and you can download the plugin at github.com if you’d like to use it as well. How it works The workflow takes several inputs that are provided by vRealize Automation during a stub like Building Machine, Machine Provisioned or Machine Disposing. These inputs include the vRA Virtual Machine instance, the vCenter Virtual Machine ID, the vRealize Automation Host, the stubs used and most importantly the vRealize Automation VM properties. ...

I found some conflicting information about setting up load balancers for vRealize Automation in a Distributed installation, specifically around Health Checks. The following health checks were found to work for a fully distributed installation of vRA 6.2.2. vRealize Automation Appliances This is the pair of vRealize Automation Linux appliances that are deployed via OVA file. Type: HTTPS Interval: 5 seconds Timeout: 9 seconds Send String: GET /vcac/services/api/statusrn Load Balancing Method: Round Robin ...

vRealize Automation is at its best when it can leverage multiple infrastructures to provide a hybrid cloud infrastructure. One of the things we might want to do is to set up VMware vCloud Air integration with your vRA instance. To start, we need to have a vCloud Air account which you can currently sign up for with some initial credits to get you started for free. Once you’ve got an account you’ll be able to setup a VDC and will have some catalogs that you can build VMs from. If you’re concerned about these steps, don’t worry a default VDC including some storage and a network will be there for you by default. ...

This last post in the series shows you how Nick Colyer and I to tie everything together. If you want to just download the plugins and get started, please visit Github.com and import the plugins into your own vRealize Orchestrator environment. Download the Plugin from Github NOTE: The first version of this code has been refactored and migrated to Github in Rubrik’s Repository since the time of this initial writing To recap where we’ve been, we: ...

Part four of this series will show you how to lookup a VM in the Rubrik Hybrid Cloud appliance through the REST API by using vRealize Orchestrator. If you’d rather just download the plugin and get using it, check out the link to Github to get the plugin and don’t forget to check out Nick Colyer’s post over at systemsgame.com about how to use it. Download the Plugin from Github NOTE: The first version of this code has been refactored and migrated to Github in Rubrik’s Repository since the time of this initial writing ...

Part three of this series focuses on how Nick Colyer and I built the authentication piece of the plugin so that we could then pass commands to the Rubrik appliance. An API requires a login just like any other portal would. Since this is a a REST API, we actually need to do a “POST” on the login resource to get ourselves an authentication token. Download the Plugin from Github NOTE: The first version of this code has been refactored and migrated to Github in Rubrik’s Repository since the time of this initial writing ...

When you execute a Cisco UCS Director workflow you’re usually prompted to enter in some information. Usually this is something like a virtual machine name, or an IP Address, even some credentials possibly. The values that you enter can be formatted so that they come from a list and the user just has to select the right value. This helps immensely in the amount of troubleshooting you have to do because only specific verified values can be displayed. ...

Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light - Milton Apparently, Milton has been through the VCDX process. It is a challenge that will test your resolve and you will probably learn a lot along the way. You’ll also be glad when its over. I’ve been good at many things in my life, but never felt like I was great at anything. I’ve succeeded at most things I’ve attempted, but the VCDX was a goal I truly didn’t think I was capable of achieving. Chris Colotti mentioned in one of his posts that you need to decide why you’re going for the VCDX in the first place. In my case, I was doing it to prove to myself that I could do it. The process really taught me something about myself that I didn’t know. It was my own personal Vision Quest. (Queue Lunatic Fringe them song here) ...