In this article, we will see how to install and configure VMware vRealize Automation 7.6 in the case of LAB or POC with minimum deployment.
Prerequisites for LAB
- Let’s download the vRealize Automation Appliance 7.6 OVA file from VMware’s site.
- Prepare the IP/Hostname for the following machines.
| Hostname | IP Address | Description |
| vra-ad01 | 10.111.64.49 | Active Directory and DNS Server |
| vra-db01 | 10.111.64.50 | MSSQL Server 2017 and Management Studio |
| vra-app01 | 10.111.64.51 | vRealize Automation 7.6 |
| vra-iaas01 | 10.111.64.52 | Iaas Server |
We have listed the required VMs in the table above. In the first step, we deploy a Windows VM(vra-ad01) to set up Active Directory and DNS server. This VM will be available after you install the Active Directory Services and DNS Server features. You can see the DNS records created below.
Now we need a SQL Server (I chose the 2017 version) to start the vRA appliance installation. In this blog post, you can find the SQL Server installation for vRealize Automation. If you have limited disk, memory, etc., you can install SQL Server in IaaS Server.
SQL Server and AD/DNS are ready. Now, we can connect to vCenter Server and deploy the vRA Appliance.
Login to vCenter and right click on the cluster or host. Click Deploy OVF Template and select the OVA file you downloaded and click next.
Type name of the VM and select the location.
Select the destination compute resource.
Verify the vRA template details.
The end-user license aggrement must be accepted.
Select the datastore to which the vRA appliance needs to be deployed and click next.
Select the vRA appliance network.
Provide below details :
- Root password: ********
- Hostname: vra-app01.umitlab.com
- Default Gateway: 10.111.64.33
- Domain Name: umitlab.com
- Domain Search Path: umitlab.com
- Name Servers: 10.111.64.49
- Network 1 IP Address: 10.111.64.51
- Network 1 Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Click finish to start creation.
Now the deploying of vRA appliance has been completed. After about 10 minutes the vRA appliance is ready and we can power on. Wait a 20/30 minutes, the device will configure itself because the first boot is not fast. Wait until the following screen appears before continuing.
vRA 7.6 Initial Configuration
Login with the root account password to the appliance management interface at https://10.111.64.51:5480 or https://FQDN:5480 (https://vra-app01.umitlab.com:5480).
Leave the default deployment type as Minimal Deployment + Install Infrastructure as a Service click on next.
In this step, we will install vCAC-IaasManagementAgent on IaaS Server. Click on the link and copy the vCAC-IaaSManagementAgent URL. Download it in IaaS Server.
Login to IaaS Server and install the agent.
Accept the license agreement.
Leave by default location then click on next.
Fill in the information of the vra-app01 appliance. Provide below details :
- vRA appliance address: https://vra-app01.umitlab.com:5480/
- Root username: root
- Password: ******
- Click load and check the checkbox.
Enter the information of an administirator account of the vra-iaas01.
Click install start installation.
When finished, click finish.
The vra-iaas01 VM is now ready for use by the vra-app01 vRA appliance. Now back to the vRA appliance wizard and we can see the vRA-iaas01 server is showing below. Click on next.
The installation wizard should check the contents of vRA-iaas01, click on run to start the check. When finished, the message “Some prerequisites are not met” appears, click fix to let the agent install the missing components and configure the server properly.
After the agent is finished and the server is ready, click next.
Click on Resolve Automatically.
Choose a password for the default tenant account. This is the password used to login to the vRA portal.
Fill in the information of the vra-iaas01 server as in the image below. Choose an encryption password from the database.
Fiil in the MSSQL Server information (vra-db01) as in the image below.
If you installed MSSQL Server in the IaaS Server, choose the name of IaaS Server(vra-iaas01) in the Server name field.
Leave the default configuration.
Leave the default configuration, but remember the name of the agent, because it will be requested later when adding a vCenter to vRA. (Agent Name: vCenter, Endpoint: vCenter)
Fill in the fields of the certificate that will be automatically generated by the wizard, if you have your own certificates from your PKI this is where it happens.
Once, generated, click on Keep Existing and click on next.
Click on the Validate.
Once validation is complete, click on next.
This step is very important. I recommend that you to make VM snapshot(vra-app01, vra-iaas01, vra-db01). If the installation fails, you can come back and correct the incorrect information or continue with the different VM.
Click on install.
The installation starts slowly, wait this phase.
Once the installation is complete, you should have green everywhere. Click on next.
Fill in the vRA license key.
Join CEIP if you like it and click on next.
If this is the first time you have installed vRA, you can install the default content that contains some sample blueprint.
Enter a password for the user configurationadmin, click on “Create Initial Content” then on next.
The installation is now complete. Click finish to close the wizard.
Connection Tests
Now open https://vra-app01.umitlab.com in browser and click on “vRealize Automation console“.
Login as administrator and password in SSO screen.
Once connected, you should have the interface below.
That’s it. In the next articles we will see in depth how to exploit VMware vRealize Automation by creating blueprint with different scenarios of deployments. I will also publish articles that contains configuration settings after the are installed.
Hopefully this post has been informative for you. If you have a question, opinion or request about the article, you can contact us from the comments below or my e-mail address. If you think this post is informative to others, be social and share it on social media! Thank you for reading !!