OOTB Infoblox IPAM with vRA 7.1 - Setup Guide

Since this is an Integration part so my assumption is that you have fair amount of experience with Infoblox IPAM NIOS appliance and vRealize Automation. Here I am going to use the recent release of vRealize Automation version 7.1 in this blog.

vRA7 Blueprints

Setting up Blueprints is little different here as compared to earlier version of vRealize Automation. The blueprints are setup under the 'Design' tab.

Procedure

1. Select Design > Blueprints. Click the New icon (+). Fill in the required information in General settings.

vRA7 Reservations Setup

Network Profile

Network profiles are created to specify network settings in reservations. You can also specify a network profile in the  blueprints. An external network profile is created for the reservations and blueprints. When the VM is destroyed the IP is released back to the pool.

Note: If a network profile is specified in the blueprint by using the "VirtualMAchine.NetworkN.ProfileName" custom property and by a reservation that is used by the blueprint, the network profile specified in the blueprint takes precedence.

vRA7 Business Group Setup

Business groups are used to associate a set of services and resources to a set of users, often corresponding to a line of business, department, or other organizational unit. You create a business group so that you can configure reservations and entitle users to provision service catalog items for the business group members.

vRA7 Endpoint Setup and Fabric Setup

IaaS and Fabric administrators configure the resources for the existing infrastructure to work with vRealize Automation and allocates the infrastructure resources to vRealize Automation business groups.

The diagram shows the flow of things happening from the administrators side.

vRA7 Adding Directory Services

1. Login with the Local account you created. Select Administration > Directories Management > Directories.

vRA7 Tenant Setup

1. Once the installation is complete, open the vRA URL using the VIP or first node of vRA appliance. You should see the page below.

vRA7 Enterprise Installation

Enterprise deployments are typically used for production environment. You can design your enterprise deployment as per your needs. An enterprise deployment can consist of distributed components or high-availability deployments configured with load balancers. Enterprise deployments are designed for more complex installation structures with distributed and redundant components and generally include load balancers.

Note: For load-balanced deployments, multiple active Web server instances and vRealize Automation appliance appliances cause the installation to fail. Only a single Web server instance and a single vRealize Automation appliance should be active during the installation.

vRA7 Management Agent Deployment

You can downloads and installs a Management Agent on IaaS machines in your deployment. The Management Agent must be installed on all IaaS servers except for those that are used exclusively for your MS SQL database. The Management Agent registers IaaS nodes with the vRealize Automation appliance, automates the installation and management of IaaS components, and collects support and telemetry information. The Management Agent runs as a Windows service on your IaaS machine and you must have local administrator rights to install the agent.

vRA7 Distributed Deployment Guide

Enterprise (Distributed) Deployment

An administrator can deploy and install multiple instances of the vRealize Automation appliance and IaaS components for scale, redundancy, high availability, and disaster recovery. In a typical architecture, the IaaS components are distributed over multiple machines. For high availability deployments, load balancers distribute the workload across the computing environment. System administrators configure load balancers outside of the vRealize Automation framework.

VMware ESXi 6.0 Install (Interactive)

Prerequisites

• ESXi installer ISO must be in one of the following locations:

         On CD or DVD
         On a USB flash drive.
         You can also PXE boot the ESXi installer to launch an interactive installation or a scripted one.

• Verify that the server hardware clock is set to UTC. This setting is in the system BIOS.
• Verify that a keyboard and monitor are attached to the machine on which the ESXi software will be installed. Alternatively, use a remote management application.
• Consider disconnecting your network storage. This action decreases the time it takes the installer to search for available disk drives.

Note that when you disconnect network storage, any files on the disconnected disks are unavailable at installation.

• Do not disconnect a LUN that contains an existing ESX or ESXi installation.
• Gather the information required by the ESXi installation wizard
• Verify that ESXi Embedded is not present on the host machine. ESXi Installable and ESXi Embedded cannot exist on the same host.