In my last post, I've discussed how one would deploy a vIDM cluster. Now let's see what does one need to deploy a vRealize Automation 8.x clustered instance
Load Balancer Configuration
I'm using NSX-V as my Load Balancer version 6.4.7
Application Profile
Service Monitor
Pools
Virtual Servers
One more thing to remember, create an application rule and then map it to workspace one virtual server configuration as shown below, why is this needed, I'll explain this later
Once all of these are done, you are pretty much done with the load balancer configuration needed to deploy a distributed instance of vRealize Automation 8.x
Now let's go to the next phase
Configure Certificate and Generate vRA 8.x environment creation request
As a first step, enter all details needed to generate a certificate.
Remember, I am using a default certificate generated by vRLCM so that I can replace it with a CA-signed certificate later
Once the certificate is generated, then create a new vRA environment
Once the vRA 8.1 Cluster option is selected, we will click next and then accept EULA
After EULA, we have to add/apply a license
Enter Certificate information
Enter Infrastructure information
Enter Network Information
Perform PreCheck. All Validations must be successful
I have attached the precheck report here. Download and review if you would like to
Review all the details and then submit a request
Stages in vRA Distributed Installation
We have 11 stages in total for a distributed vRA deployment
Stage 1: validateenvironmentdata
Stage 2: infraprevalidation
Stage 3: vravaprevalidation
Stage 4: vravainstall
Stage 5: vravajoincluster
Stage 6: vravajoincluster
Stage 7: vravasetlicense
Stage 8: vravainstallcertificate
Stage 9: vravainitializecluster
During this phase, I did encounter issues at a stage where it does vravainitialize
Basically, at a point where it was trying to initialize client secrets, it was failing prematurely
This is the reason we created Application rules while trying to configure the Load Balancer.
Once this was configured, we did retry the installation again
After ensuring the application rule is present you can now see the stage is has been completed successfully
Stage 10: environmentupdate
Stage 11: notificationschedules
vRealize Automation 8.x Clustered Deployment is now completed
Logs to monitor during deployment
vRA Appliances : /var/log/deploy.log
vRLCM Appliance : /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.logPost Deployment Checks
Ensure the status of all pool members is shown as UP
This is how your LCM environment pane would look
Explore your vRA environment
Access your vRA Load Balancer and it responds back with the login page
In the next few blogs, we shall explore the vRA 8.x configuration and using it with a few advanced blueprints
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