vRA-Lab-09-Bringing Resources Under vRealize Automation Management (Create endpoints and Fabric Groups)

To allow vRealize Automation to manage your infrastructure, IaaS administrators create endpoints, store administrator-level user credentials for those endpoints, and add compute resources to a fabric group. The procedure for creating endpoints differs depending on your environment.

Prerequisites

Log in to the vRealize Automation Tenants URL “https://vr-vcac.vmexpo.local/vcac/org/vmexpo” as an “IaaS administrator”. In my case, I have created one already in my Active Directory with name “vmexpo-iadmin@vexpo.local” and gave permission to configure tenants during “create new tenants” process. Enter the “credentials” and click “Login”

1- Configure IaaS License

First step in the task is to configure the vRealize Automation IaaS license. This is very important step. Without the license, you are not able to configure the Endpoints.

To configure the “IaaS License”. you can either go from My Goal -> Fabric Configuration -> Enter IaaS License or Infrastructure tab-> Administration-> Licensing -> Click “Add License”.

Enter the license key and verify it.

2-Store User Credentials for Endpoints

NOTE:

If you are working in a vSphere environment, your system administrator might have configured the vSphere proxy agent to use integrated credentials. If this is the case, you might not need to store additional credentials for your vSphere endpoint.

Procedure:

Once you login. At left side in “My Goals” Walkthrough wizard. Either you Click on “Fabric Configuration” or go to “infrastructure -> Endpoints-> Credentials” -> Click “New Credentials”.

Enter a name in the “Name, description (optional)” and “User Name/password” of the end point.once done click on the highlighted “green good sign” to save the configuration.

NOTE: In my case, I will be using VMWare vSphere as an endpoint

Verify your added credentials.

3-Create a vSphere Endpoint

IaaS administrators create endpoints that allow vRealize Automation to communicate with the vSphere environment and discover compute resources, collect data, and provision machines.

In “Infrastructure tab ->Endpoints -> Endpoints -> Click “New Endpoints” -> Virtual -> Choose “vSphere (vCenter)”

1-Enter a “New End point name” and description (optional)

NOTE: This must match the endpoint name provided to the vSphere proxy agent during installation of IaaS components otherwise data collection will fail.

2-Enter the “URL for the vCenter Server” instance in the Address text box.

NOTE: The URL must be of the type: https://vCenterName/sdk or https://vCenter IP_address/sdk

3-Select the “Credentials for the endpoint”, which I have created in previous step.

4- Do not Check “Specify manager for network and security platform”. This is for implementations that use vCloud Networking and Security or NSX and requires additional configuration.

Once done, click “OK”.

Verify your created endpoint as shown below.

4-Create a Fabric Group

An IaaS administrator can organize virtualization compute resources and cloud endpoints into fabric groups by type and intent. An IaaS administrator also assigns one or more fabric administrators to manage the resources in the fabric group.

You can grant the Fabric Administrator role to multiple users by either adding multiple users one at a time or by choosing an identity store group or custom group as your fabric administrator.

To create a Fabric group either go through “My Goal Walkthrough” or In “Infrastructure” tab-> Groups-> Fabric Groups-> Click “New Fabric Groups”.

1-Enter a fabric group name ”Production_FG” and description (optional)

2-Type a user name or group name in the “Fabric administrators” text box, in my case I have created one already in my AD name “vmexpo-fadmin@vmexpo.local” and press “Enter”.

NOTE: Repeat this step to add multiple users or groups to the role.

3-Click one or more “Compute resources” to include in your fabric group. For first Fabric group, I choose my Cluster Name “RG-Cluster” for compute resources

4- Once done -> Click “OK”.

Verify your added Fabric group as shown below.