VMware vRealize Automation: Advanced Features and Troubleshooting [V8.x]

This five-day course is a follow-on to the VMware vRealize® Automation™ Install, Configure, Manage course. In this course you go deeper into the advanced features of vRealize Automation to deploy user systems and interface vRealize Automation with other platforms and you learn how to deploy an enterprise-level cluster environment using LCM.

This course relies heavily on hands-on labs.

Objectives

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

• Describe and configure the vRealize Automation in a clustered enterprise deployment using VMware vRealize® Suite Lifecycle Manager™
• Scale VMware Identity Manager™ to support High Availability.
• Configure security certificates in vRealize Automation from external Certificate Authorities.
• Describe the clustered deployment architecture, including Kubernetes pods and services.
• Create and configure advanced blueprints with complex YAML and cloudConfig.
• Use vRealize Automation advanced blueprints to deploy an actual 2-tier DB-Server using MySQL and phpMyAdmin.
• Practice troubleshooting techniques with advanced YAML blueprints in vRealize Automation.
• Use advanced VMware NSX-TTM Data Center networking features including NAT, routed networks, load balancers, security groups, and tags.
• Use VMware Code Stream™ to integrate vRealize Automation with Kubernetes.
• Create Code Stream pipelines.
• Create and use Ansible playbooks that integrate with vRealize Automation.
• Configure vRealize Automation to integrate with Puppet.
• Configure and use ABX actions to create day-2 actions and interface with PowerShell scripts.
• Use vracli commands, log files, and VMware vRealize® Log Insight™ to troubleshoot vRealize Automation and vRealize Automation deployments.

Intended Audience

Experienced system administrators and system integrators responsible for using the advanced features of vRealize Automation in enterprise deployments.

Prerequisites

This course requires completion of the following course:

• VMware vRealize Install Configure Manage [V8.x]

Experience working at the command line is helpful.

This course requires that a student be able to perform the following tasks with no assistance or guidance before enrolling in this course:

• Create VMware vCenter Server® objects, such as data centers and folders
• Create a virtual machine using a wizard or a template
• Modify a virtual machine’s hardware
• Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere® vMotion®
• Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion®
• Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® DRS cluster with resource pools.
• Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® High Availability cluster.
• Create and deploy a simple blueprint in vRealize Automation 8.x
• Use cloudConfig in vRealize Automation blueprints
• Configure infrastructure in vRealize Automation 8.x

Product Alignment

• VMware vSphere® 6.7 U2
• VMware vRealize Automation 8.1
• VMware vRealize Orchestrator™ 8.1
• VMware vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.0
• VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.0

Course Outline

1 Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

2 vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment

• Use LCM in a clustered deployment
• Configure External Certificates
• Configure NSX-T Data Center load balancer
• Install vRealize Automation using Clustered Deployment
• Scale VMware Identity Manager to support High Availability

3 vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment Architecture

• List of Kubernetes Pods
• The vRealize Automation Kubernetes Architecture
• Relationship of Kubernetes Pods to Services
• Logs and their locations
• Blueprint deployment workflow with Kubernetes Service interaction
• Backup strategies and potential problems

4 Advanced Blueprints

• Use advanced YAML and cloudConfig to deploy a functioning 2-tier application with a phpMyAdmin front-end server and a MySQL database server
• Use troubleshooting techniques to debug problems in advanced YAML blueprints
• List the log files that can aid in troubleshooting blueprint deployment

5 Advanced Networking

• Use VMware NSX-T Data Center advanced features in blueprints
• Interfacing to IPAMs
• Use NSX-T Data Center NAT in blueprints
• Use NSX-T Data Center routed networks
• Use NSX-T Data Center load balancers
• Use NSX-T Data Center security groups
• Use tags with NSX-T Data Center network profiles

6 Using vRealize Orchestrator 

• Create Day-2 Actions with vRealize Orchestrator workflows
• Troubleshoot vRealize Orchestrator cluster issues
• Use vRealize Orchestrator to add computer objects to Active Directory when vRealize Automation deploys blueprints
• Use a tagging approach to vRealize Orchestrator workflows
• Use dynamic forms with vRealize Orchestrator

7 Using ABX Actions

• Determine when to use ABX and when to use vRealize Orchestrator
• Use ABX to create day-2 Actions
• Call PowerShell from ABX

8 Kubernetes Integration 

• Create a Kubernetes namespace from vRealize Automation
• Connect to an existing Kubernetes cluster
• Automate the deployment of an application to a Kubernetes cluster with Code Stream
• Use Kubernetes in Extensibility

9 Code Stream

• Create and use CI/CD pipelines
• Use the Code Stream user interface
• Add states and tasks to a Code Stream pipeline
• Integrate code from Code Stream with Git

10 Using GitLab Integration 

• Configure the GitLab Integration
• Use Gitlab with blueprints 

11 Configuration Management

• Describe the use case of Ansible and Ansible Tower
• Connect to Ansible Tower
• Use Ansible playbooks
• Use Puppet in configuration management

12 Troubleshooting 

• vracli commands and when to use them
• Check the status of Kubernetes pods and services
• Correct the state of pods and services
• Diagnose and solve vRealize Automation infrastructure problems
• Diagnose and solve vRealize Automation failures to deploy blueprints and services
• Use vRealize Log Insight for troubleshooting