Learning VMware vRealize Automation

Learn the fundamentals of vRealize Automation to accelerate the delivery of your IT services

About This Book

• Learn to install the vRealize Automation product in a distributed architecture using a load balancer
• Plan backup and recovery strategies for every vRealize automation component
• Use vRealize Automation to manage applications and improve operational efficiency using this simple and intuitive guide

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who wants to start their journey with vRealize. It is your one-stop instruction guide to installing and configuring a distributed setup using NSX load balancer. Regardless of whether or not you have used vRealize Automation before, following the steps provided in each chapter will get you started with the product.

What You Will Learn

• Understand the basic building blocks of vRealize Automation before embarking on the journey of installation
• Familiarize yourself with the requirements and steps that need to be performed during the first phase of the distributed installation
• Carry out a functional validation of the first phase of installation before completing the installation
• Build a blueprint for vSphere endpoint, an essential step for a successful deployment of a service catalog
• Create, configure, and deploy tenants, endpoints, blueprints, and the service catalog
• Get to grips with the failover process for all components in vRealize Automation
• Get to know the essentials of the backup and recovery strategies for vRealize Automation components
• Leverage ASD to develop XaaS (Anything as a Service) in vRealize Automation to deliver valuable competence

In Detail

With the growing interest in Software Defined Data Centres (SDDC), vRealize Automation offers Data Center users an organized service catalog and governance to administrators. This way, end users gain autonomy while the IT department stays in control, making sure security and compliance requirements are met. However, going about the setup becomes a principal requirement. Learning what each component does and how they dovetail with each other will bolster your understanding of the vRealize Automation product.

The book starts off with an introduction to the distributed architecture that has been tested and installed in large scale deployments. Implementing and configuring distributed architecture with custom certificates is unarguably a demanding task, and it will be covered next. After this, we will progress with the installation. vRA blueprint can be prepared in multiple ways; we will focus solely vSphere endpoint blueprint. We then spend some time checking whether the distributed installation is working as expected by functionally validating it. Post-installation, we will look into failover scenarios for various components at various levels. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery(BCDR) is a critical part in every enterprise, so will briefly look into the backup and recovery approach for various components in a vRealize Automation solution. Finally, we end with the Advanced Service Designer, which provides the ability for service architects to create advanced services and publish them as catalog items.

Sriram Rajendran

Sriram Rajendran is a member of the CTO Ambassador program at VMware. He has been a veteran of the IT industry, for more than 12 years, and a focused technologist with expertise in cloud computing, networking, storage, and server virtualization technologies. Sriram wears multiple hats at VMware. As a solution architect, he provides technical leadership and expertise to design, deploy, and scale the VMware SDDC stack for its Fortune 500 customers. His primary focus for VMware SSDC are automation, operations, and third-party integration. As a senior escalations manager, he is the go-to person for handling critical executive escalations that have out blown traditional GSS escalation processes. His focus here is not just managing escalations through various internal VMware organizations but also external partner organizations and their processes and extranet multivendor support processes like TSANET. As a CTO Ambassador, he is responsible for connecting the research and development team with customers, partners, and field as the global VMware evangelist. His focus is on defining and communicating VMware's vision and strategy, and acting as an advisor for VMware's vRealize Automation solutions, product roadmap, and portfolio. Previously, as a staff escalation engineer, he worked on customer escalations and prioritizing the requests for the team. He was also the lead on recruitment and talent management for the support and escalations team. He also worked closely with various engineering teams within VMware to help provide early feedback on the design and architecture of products based on escalations and his other field interactions. Prior to joining VMware, he worked at Slash Support and HP in their support organizations in technical leadership roles. Sriram has devoted much of his professional career to the design, implementation, and maintenance of large physical and virtual networks, storage and servers, and cloud architectures based on VMware, Microsoft, and other leading enterprise technologies.