Managing VRealize Automation 7.2 V Realize 72 Management

User Manual: Pdf vRealize Automation - 7.2 - Managing User Guide for VMware vRealize Software, Free Instruction Manual

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 93

Download
Open PDF In Browser	View PDF

Managing vRealize
Automation
vRealize Automation 7.2

Managing vRealize Automation

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:
https://docs.vmware.com/
If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to
docfeedback@vmware.com

VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
www.vmware.com
Copyright © 2015–2017 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.
VMware, Inc.

Contents
1 Managing vRealize Automation 5
Updated Information

2 Managing vRealize Automation 7
Broadcast a Message on the Message Board Portlet

Starting Up and Shutting Down vRealize Automation

Start Up vRealize Automation

Restart vRealize Automation

Shut Down vRealize Automation

Updating vRealize Automation Certificates

Extracting Certificates and Private Keys

Replace Certificates in the vRealize Automation appliance
Replace the Infrastructure as a Service Certificate
Replace the IaaS Manager Service Certificate

Updating the vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate
Replace a Management Agent Certificate

Change the Polling Method for Certificates

Managing the vRealize Automation Postgres Appliance Database
Configure the Appliance Database

Scenario: Perform Manual vRealize Automation Appliance Database Failover
Scenario: Perform a Maintenance Database Failover

Backup and Recovery for vRealize Automation Installations
The Customer Experience Improvement Program

Join or Leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program for vRealize Automation
Configure Data Collection Time
Adjusting System Settings

Modify the All Services Icon in the Service Catalog
Customize Data Rollover Settings

Adjusting Settings in the Manager Service Configuration File
Monitoring vRealize Automation

Monitoring Workflows and Viewing Logs
Monitoring Event Logs and Services

Viewing Host Information for Clusters in Distributed Deployments
Monitoring and Managing Resources
Resource Usage Terminology
Connecting to a Cloud Machine

Choosing a Resource Monitoring Scenario

VMware, Inc.

50
50

Managing vRealize Automation

Reducing Reservation Usage by Attrition
Decommissioning a Storage Path
Data Collection

Understanding vSwap Allocation Checking for vCenter Server Endpoints
Removing Datacenter Locations
Monitoring Containers

Bulk Import, Update, or Migrate Virtual Machines

Import a Virtual Machine to a vRealize Automation Environment
Update a Virtual Machine in a vRealize Automation Environment

60
64

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a Different vRealize Automation Environment
Managing Machines

Managing Virtual Machines

Running Actions for Provisioned Resources

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Managing vRealize Automation provides information about maintaining VMware vRealize ™ Automation,
including how to start and stop a deployment, as well as manage certificates and the appliance database.
In addition, it contains information on backing up and restoring vRealize Automation.

Intended Audience
This information is intended for anyone who wants to manage a vRealize Automation deployment. The
information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with
virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For
definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

VMware, Inc.

Updated Information
This Managing vRealize Automation is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.
This table provides the update history of the Managing vRealize Automation.
Revision

Description

EN-002293-04

Updated Schedule the Start.

EN-002293-03

Removed an erroneous topic.

EN-002293-02

Updated the following topics:
n

Action Menu Options for Provisioned Resources

Import a Virtual Machine to a vRealize Automation Environment

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a Different vRealize Automation Environment

EN-002293-01

Updated the Monitoring Containers topic.

EN-002293-00

Initial release.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

You can manage provisioned machines and other aspects of your vRealize Automation deployment.
This section includes the following topics:
n

Broadcast a Message on the Message Board Portlet

Starting Up and Shutting Down vRealize Automation

Updating vRealize Automation Certificates

Managing the vRealize Automation Postgres Appliance Database

Backup and Recovery for vRealize Automation Installations

The Customer Experience Improvement Program

Adjusting System Settings

Monitoring vRealize Automation

Monitoring and Managing Resources

Monitoring Containers

Bulk Import, Update, or Migrate Virtual Machines

Managing Machines

Broadcast a Message on the Message Board Portlet
As the tenant administrator, you use the message board portlet to broadcast a message to all the users
who have the portlet on their Home tab.
Any new users that you add to vRealize Automation has the portlet on their Home tab by default. Existing
users must add the portlet to receive your messages.
You use the message board portlet to broadcast a text message or a Web page. Depending on the Web
page, your users can navigate through the Web site in the message board.
The message board has the following limitations.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑1. Message Board Portlet Limitations
Option

Limitations

URL message limitations

You can only publish content that is hosted on an https site.

You cannot use self-signed certificates. The option to accept
the certificate does not appear in the message board.

The message board URL is embedded in an iframe. Some
Web sites do not work in iframe and an error appears. One
cause of the failure is the X-Frame-Options DENY or
SAMEORIGIN in the header on the target Web site. If your
target Web site is one that you control, you can set the XFrame-Options header to X-Frame-Options: ALLOW-FROM
https://.

Custom message limitations

Some Web sites have a redirect to a top-level page that
might refresh entire vRealize Automation page. This type of
Web site does not work in the message board. The refresh
is suppressed and a Loading... message appears on the
message board.

If you display an internal HTML page, the page cannot have
the vRealize Automation host as the URL.

To maintain security, the Custom Message does not support
HTML code. For example, you cannot use to link to a
Web site. You must use the URL message option.

Prerequisites

Select the Home tab.

Click the Edit icon (

Select Add Portlets.

Locate Message Board and click Add.

Click Close.

) in the upper right corner.

The portlet is added to the top of the Home tab. If you are a user and a message is broadcast, you
see the message until the tenant administrator changes it or removes it. If you are the tenant
administrator, you configure the message.
6

To configure the message as a tenant administrator, click Add New Message.

Configure one of the following options.

Option

Description

URL

Enter the page URL.

Custom Message

Enter the plain text message.

Click Publish.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

The message is broadcast to any tenant users who added the message board portlet to their Home tab.
To change or remove the message, you must be logged in as the tenant administrator. To change the
message, repeat the same steps. To remove the message, remove the URL or text and publish the blank
message.

Starting Up and Shutting Down vRealize Automation
A system administrator performs a controlled shutdown or startup of vRealize Automation to preserve
system and data integrity.
You can also use a controlled shutdown and startup to resolve performance or product behavior issues
that can result from an incorrect initial startup. Use the restart procedure when only some components of
your deployment fail.

Start Up vRealize Automation
When you start vRealize Automation from the beginning, such as after a power outage, a controlled
shutdown or after recovery, you must start its components in a specified order.
Prerequisites

Verify that the load balancers that your deployment uses are running.
Procedure

Start the MS SQL database machine. If you are using a legacy PostgreSQL standalone database,
start that machine as well.

(Optional) If you are running a deployment that uses load balancers with health checks, disable the
health check before you start the vRealize Automation appliance. Only ping health check should be
enabled.

Start all instances of vRealize Automation appliance at the same time and wait for approximately 15
minutes for the appliances to startup. Verify that the vRealize Automation appliance services are up
and running.
If you have more than one node and you start only one node, you may have to wait for extra 35
minutes. However, the extra wait time would be canceled out as soon as you start the second node.

Start the primary Web node and wait for the startup to finish.

(Optional) If you are running a distributed deployment, start all secondary Web nodes and wait 5
minutes.

Start the primary Manager Service node and wait for 2 to 5 minutes, depending on your site
configuration.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Start the Distributed Execution Manager Orchestrator and Workers and all vRealize Automation proxy
agents.
You can start these components in any order and you do not need to wait for one startup to finish
before you start another.

If you disabled health checks for your load balancers, reenable them.

Verify that the startup succeeded.
a

Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

Click the Services tab.

Click the Refresh tab to monitor the progress of service startup.

When all services are listed as registered, the system is ready to use.

Restart vRealize Automation
When you restart more than one vRealize Automation component, you must restart the components in a
specified order.
You might need to restart some components in your deployment to resolve anomalous product behavior.
If you are using vCenter Server to manage your virtual machines, use the guest restart command to
restart vRealize Automation.
If you cannot restart a component or service, follow the instructions in Shut Down vRealize Automation
and Start Up vRealize Automation.
Prerequisites

Verify that load balancers that your deployment uses are running.
Procedure

Restart the all instances of the vRealize Automation appliance at the same time.

Restart the primary Web node and wait for the startup to finish.

If you are running a distributed deployment, start all secondary Web nodes and wait for the startup to
finish.

Restart all Manager Service nodes and wait for the startup to finish.

Restart the Distributed Execution Manager Orchestrator and Workers and all vRealize Automation
agents, and wait for the startup to finish for all components.
You can restart these components in any order.

Verify that the service you restarted is registered.
a

Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

Click the Services tab.

Click the Refresh tab to monitor the progress of service startup.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

When all services are listed as registered, the system is ready to use.

Shut Down vRealize Automation
To preserve data integrity, you must shut down vRealize Automation in a specified order.
If you are using vCenter Server to manage your virtual machines, use the guest shutdown command to
shut down vRealize Automation.
Procedure

Shut down the Distributed Execution Manager Orchestrator and Workers and all vRealize Automation
agents in any order and wait for all components to finish shutting down.

Shut down virtual machines that are running the Manager Service and wait for the shutdown to finish.

(Optional) For distributed deployments, shut down all secondary Web nodes and wait for the
shutdown to finish.

Shut down the primary Web node, and wait for the shutdown to finish.

(Optional) For distributed deployments, shut down all secondary vRealize Automation appliance
instances and wait for the shutdown to finish.

Shut down the primary vRealize Automation appliance and wait for the shutdown to finish.
If applicable, the primary vRealize Automation appliance is the one that contains the master, or
writeable, Appliance Database. Make a note of the name of the primary vRealize Automation
appliance. You use this information when you restart vRealize Automation.

Shut down the MSSQL virtual machines in any order and wait for the shutdown to finish.

If you are using a legacy standalone PostgreSQL database, also shut down that machine.

You shut down your vRealize Automation deployment.

Updating vRealize Automation Certificates
A system administrator can update or replace certificates for vRealize Automation components.
vRealize Automation contains three main components that use SSL certificates in order to facilitate
secure communication with each other. These components are as follows:
n

vRealize Automation appliance

IaaS website component

IaaS manager service component

In addition, your deployment can have certificates for the vRealize Automation appliance management
site. Also, each IaaS machine runs a Management Agent that uses a certificate.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Typically, self-signed certificates are generated and applied to these components during product
installation. You might need to replace a certificate to switch from self-signed certificates to certificates
provided by a certificate authority or when a certificate expires. When you replace a certificate for a
vRealize Automation component, trust relationships for other vRealize Automation components are
updated automatically.
For instance, in a distributed system with multiple instances of a vRealize Automation appliance, if you
update a certificate for one vRealize Automation appliance all other related certificates are updated
automatically.
Note vRealize Automation supports SHA2 certificates. The self-signed certificates generated by the
system use SHA-256 With RSA Encryption. You may need to update to SHA2 certificates due to
operating system or browser requirements.
The vRealize Automation appliance management console provides three options for updating or replacing
certificates for existing deployments:
n

Generate certificate - Use this option to have the system generate a self-signed certificate.

Import certificate - Use this option if you have a certificate that you want to use.

Provide certificate thumbprint - Use this option if you want to provide a certificate thumbprint to use
a certificate that is already deployed in the certificate store on the IaaS servers. Using this option will
not transmit the certificate from the virtual appliance to the IaaS servers. It enables users to deploy
existing certificates on IaaS servers without uploading them in the vRealize Automation management
console.

Also, you can select the Keep Existing option to keep your existing certificate.
Certificates for the vRealize Automation appliance management site do not have registration
requirements.
With one exception, changes to later components in this list do not affect earlier ones. The exception is
that an updated certificate for IaaS components must be registered with vRealize Automation appliance.
Note If your certificate uses a passphrase for encryption and you fail to enter it when replacing your
certificate on the virtual appliance, the certificate replacement fails and the message Unable to load
private key appears.
For important information about troubleshooting, supportability, and trust requirements for certificates, see
the VMware knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2106583.

Extracting Certificates and Private Keys
Certificates that you use with the virtual appliances must be in the PEM file format.
The examples in the following table use Gnu openssl commands to extract the certificate information you
need to configure the virtual appliances.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑2. Sample Certificate Values and Commands (openssl)
Certificate Authority Provides

Command

Virtual Appliance Entries

RSA Private Key

openssl pkcs12 -in path _to_.pfx
certificate_file -nocerts -out key.pem

RSA Private Key

PEM File

openssl pkcs12 -in path _to_.pfx
certificate_file -clcerts -nokeys -out
cert.pem

Certificate Chain

(Optional) Pass Phrase

n/a

Pass Phrase

Replace Certificates in the vRealize Automation appliance
The system administrator can update or replace a self-signed certificate with a trusted one from a
certificate authority. You can use Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificates, wildcard certificates, or any
other method of multi-use certification appropriate for your environment as long as you satisfy the trust
requirements.
When you update or replace the vRealize Automation appliance certificate, trust with other related
components is re-initiated automatically. See Updating vRealize Automation Certificates for more
information about updating certificates.
Procedure

Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

Select vRA Settings > Host Settings.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select the certificate type from the Certificate Action menu.
If you are using a PEM-encoded certificate, for example for a distributed environment, select Import.
Certificates that you import must be trusted and must also be applicable to all instances of vRealize
Automation appliance and any load balancer through the use of Subject Alternative Name (SAN)
certificates.
Note If you use certificate chains, specify the certificates in the following order:
a

Client/server certificate signed by the intermediate CA certificate

One or more intermediate certificates

A root CA certificate

Option

Action

Keep Existing

Leave the current SSL configuration. Select this option to cancel your changes.

Generate Certificate

The value displayed in the Common Name text box is the Host Name as it
appears on the upper part of the page. If any additional instances of the
vRealize Automation appliance available, their FQDNs are included in the
SAN attribute of the certificate.

Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the
Organization text box.

Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in
the Organizational Unit text box.

Enter a two-letter ISO 3166 country code, such as US, in the Country text
box.

Import

Copy the certificate values from BEGIN PRIVATE KEY to END PRIVATE KEY,
including the header and footer, and paste them in the RSA Private Key text
box.

Copy the certificate values from BEGIN CERTIFICATE to END
CERTIFICATE, including the header and footer, and paste them in the
Certificate Chain text box. For multiple certificate values, include a BEGIN
CERTIFICATE header and END CERTIFICATE footer for each certificate.
Note In the case of chained certificates, additional attributes may be
available.

(Optional) If your certificate uses a pass phrase to encrypt the certificate key,
copy the pass phrase and paste it in the Passphrase text box.

Click Save Settings.
After a few minutes, the certificate details for all applicable instances of the vRealize Automation
appliance appear on the page.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

If required by your network or load balancer, copy the imported or newly created certificate to the
virtual appliance load balancer.
You might need to enable root SSH access in order to export the certificate.
a

If not already logged in, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance Management Console as
root.

Click the Admin tab.

Click the Admin sub menu.

Select the SSH service enabled check box.
Deselect the check box to disable SSH when finished.

Select the Administrator SSH login check box.
Deselect the check box to disable SSH when finished.

f
7

Click Save Settings.

Confirm that you can log in to vRealize Automation console.
a

Open a browser and navigate to https://vcac-hostname.domain.name/vcac/.
If you are using a load balancer, the host name must be the fully qualified domain name of the
load balancer.

b
c

If prompted, continue past the certificate warnings.
Log in with administrator@vsphere.local and the password you specified when configuring
Directories Management.
The console opens to the Tenants page on the Administration tab. A single tenant named
vsphere.local appears in the list.

If you are using a load balancer, configure and enable any applicable health checks.

The certificate is updated.

Replace the Infrastructure as a Service Certificate
The system administrator can replace an expired certificate or a self-signed certificate with one from a
certificate authority to ensure security in a distributed deployment environment.
You can use a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificate on multiple machines. Certificates used for the
IaaS components (Website and Manager Service) must be issued with SAN values including FQDNs of
all Windows hosts on which the corresponding component is installed and with the Load Balancer FQDN
for the same component.
There are three options for replacing a certificate:
n

Generate certificate - Use this option to have the system generate a self-signed certificate.

Import certificate - Use this option if you have a certificate that you want to use.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Provide certificate thumbprint - If you accept a certificate that is signed by a CA but that certificate is
not trusted by your system, you must determine whether to accept the certificate thumbprint. The
thumbprint is used to quickly determine if a presented certificate is the same as another certificate,
such as the certificate that was accepted previously.

Also, you can use Keep Existing to keep your existing certificate.
Procedure

Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

Select vRA Settings > Certificates.

Click IaaS Web on the Component Type menu.

Go to the IaaS Web Certificate pane.

Select the certificate replacement option from the Certificate Action menu.
If you are using a PEM-encoded certificate, for example for a distributed environment, select Import.
Certificates that you import must be trusted and must also be applicable to all instances of vRealize
Automation appliance and any load balancer through the use of Subject Alternative Name (SAN)
certificates.
Note If you use certificate chains, specify the certificates in the following order:
a

Client/server certificate signed by the intermediate CA certificate

One or more intermediate certificates

A root CA certificate

Option

Description

Keep Existing

Leave the current SSL configuration. Choose this option to cancel your changes.

Generate Certificate

Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the
Organization text box.

Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in
the Organizational Unit text box.

Enter a two-letter ISO 3166 country code, such as US, in the Country text
box.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Option

Description

Import

Copy the certificate values from BEGIN PRIVATE KEY to END PRIVATE KEY,
including the header and footer, and paste them in the RSA Private Key text
box.

c
Provide Certificate Thumbprint

(Optional) If your certificate uses a pass phrase to encrypt the certificate key,
copy the pass phrase and paste it in the Passphrase text box.

Use this option if you want to provide a certificate thumbprint to use a certificate
that is already deployed in the certificate store on the IaaS servers. Using this
option will not transmit the certificate from the virtual appliance to the IaaS
servers. It enables users to deploy existing certificates on IaaS servers without
uploading them in the management interface.

Click Save Settings.
After a few minutes, the certificate details appear on the page.

Replace the IaaS Manager Service Certificate
A system administrator can replace an expired certificate or a self-signed certificate with one from a
certificate authority to ensure security in a distributed deployment environment.
You can use a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificate on multiple machines. Certificates used for the
IaaS components (Website and Manager Service) must be issued with SAN values including FQDNs of
all Windows hosts on which the corresponding component is installed and with the Load Balancer FQDN
for the same component.
The IaaS Manager Service and the IaaS Web Service share a single certificate.
Procedure

Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

Select vRA Settings > Certificates.

Click Manager Service from the Certificate Type menu.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Client/server certificate signed by the intermediate CA certificate

One or more intermediate certificates

A root CA certificate

Option

Description

Keep Existing

Leave the current SSL configuration. Choose this option to cancel your changes.

Generate Certificate

Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the
Organization text box.

Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in
the Organizational Unit text box.

Enter a two-letter ISO 3166 country code, such as US, in the Country text
box.

Import

Copy the certificate values from BEGIN PRIVATE KEY to END PRIVATE KEY,
including the header and footer, and paste them in the RSA Private Key text
box.

c
Provide Certificate Thumbprint

(Optional) If your certificate uses a pass phrase to encrypt the certificate key,
copy the pass phrase and paste it in the Passphrase text box.

Click Save Settings.
After a few minutes, the certificate details appear on the page.

If required by your network or load balancer, copy the imported or newly created certificate to the load
balancer.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Open a browser and navigate to https://managerServiceAdddress/vmpsProvision/ from a
server that this running a DEM worker or agent.
If you are using a load balancer, the host name must be the fully qualified domain name of the load
balancer.

If prompted, continue past the certificate warnings.

10 Validate that the new certificate is provided and is trusted.
11 If you are using a load balancer, configure and enable any applicable health checks.

Updating the vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site
Certificate
The system administrator can replace the SSL certificate of the management site service when it expires
or to replace a self-signed certificate with one issued by a certificate authority. You secure the
management site service on port 5480.
The vRealize Automation appliance uses lighttpd to run its own management site. When you replace a
management site certificate, you must also configure all Management Agents to recognize the new
certificate.
If you are running a distributed deployment, you can update Management Agents automatically or
manually. If you are running a minimal deployment, you must update the management agent manually.
See Manually Update Management Agent Certificate Recognition for more information.
Procedure
1

Find the Management Agent Identifier
You use the Management Agent identifier when you create and register a new management site
server certificate.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Find the Management Agent Identifier
You use the Management Agent identifier when you create and register a new management site server
certificate.
Procedure

Open the Management Agent configuration file located at \Management
Agent\VMware.IaaS.Management.Agent.exe.config.

Record the value from the id attribute of the agentConfiguration element.

Replace the vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate
The vRealize Automation appliance uses lighttpd to run its own management site. You can replace the
SSL certificate of the management site service if your certificate expires or if you are using a self-signed
certificate and your company security policy requires you to use its SSL certificates. You secure the
management site service on port 5480.
You can choose to install a new certificate or reuse the certificate used by the vCloud Automation Center
service on port 443.
When you request a new certificate to update another CA-issued certificate, it is a best practice to reuse
the Common Name from the existing certificate.
Prerequisites
n

New certificates must be in PEM format and the private key cannot be encrypted. By default, the
vRealize Automation appliance management site SSL certificate and private key are stored in a PEM
file located at /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem.
See Extracting Certificates and Private Keys if you require information about exporting a certificate
and private key from a Java keystore to a PEM file.

Procedure

Back up your current certificate file.
cp /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem-bak

Copy the new certificate to your appliance by replacing the content of the
file /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem with the new certificate information.

Run the following command to restart the lighttpd server.
service vami-lighttp restart

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

The new vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate is installed.
What to do next

Update all management agents to recognize the new certificate.
For distributed deployments, you can update management agents manually or automatically. For minimal
installations, you must update agents manually.
n
For information about automatic update, see Automatically Update Management Agents in a
Distributed Environment to Recognize a vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate.
n

For information about manual update, see Manually Update Management Agent Certificate
Recognition.

Update Management Agent Certificate Recognition
After replacing a vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate, you must update all
Management Agents to recognize the new certificate and to reestablish trusted communications between
the virtual appliance management site and Management Agents on IaaS hosts.
Each IaaS hosts runs a Management Agent and each Management Agent must be updated. Minimal
deployments must be updated manually, while distributed deployments can be updated manually or using
an automated process.
n
Manually Update Management Agent Certificate Recognition
After replacing a vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate, you must update
Management Agents manually to recognize the new certificate to reestablish trusted
communications between the virtual appliance management site and Management Agents on IaaS
hosts.
n

Manually Update Management Agent Certificate Recognition
After replacing a vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate, you must update
Management Agents manually to recognize the new certificate to reestablish trusted communications
between the virtual appliance management site and Management Agents on IaaS hosts.
Perform these steps for each Management Agent in your deployment after you replace a certificate for
the vRealize Automation appliance management site.
For distributed deployments, you can update Management Agents manually or automatically. For
information about automatic update, see Automatically Update Management Agents in a Distributed
Environment to Recognize a vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate.
Prerequisites

Obtain the SHA1 thumbprints of the new vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

Stop the VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service.

Navigate to the Management Agent configuration file located at
[vcac_installation_folder]\Management
Agent\VMware.IaaS.Management.Agent.exe.Config, typically C:\Program Files
(x86)\VMware\vCAC\Management Agent\VMware.IaaS.Management.Agent.exe.Config.

Open the file for editing and locate the endpoint configuration setting for the old management site
certificate. which you can identify by the endpoint address.
For example:

Change the thumbprint to the SHA1 thumbprint of the new certificate.
For example:

Start the VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service.

Check the Distributed Deployment Information table to verify that the IaaS server has contacted the
virtual appliance recently, which confirms that the update is successful.

Automatically Update Management Agents in a Distributed Environment to Recognize a
vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate
After the Management Site certificate is updated in a high-availability deployment, the Management Agent
configuration must also be updated to recognize the new certificate and reestablish trusted
communication.
You can update vRealize Automation appliance management site certificate information for distributed
systems manually or automatically. For information about manually updating Management Agents, see
Manually Update Management Agent Certificate Recognition.
Use this procedure to update the certificate information automatically.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

When Management Agents are running, replace the certificate on a single vRealize Automation
appliance management site in your deployment.

Wait fifteen minutes for the Management Agent to synchronize with the new vRealize Automation
appliance management site certificate.

Replace certificates on other vRealize Automation appliance management sites in your deployment.
Management Agents are automatically updated with the new certificate information.

Replace a Management Agent Certificate
The system administrator can replace the Management Agent certificate when it expires or replace a selfsigned certificate with one issued by a certificate authority.
Each IaaS host runs its own Management Agent. Repeat this procedure on each IaaS node whose
Management Agent you want to update.
Prerequisites
n

Copy the Management Agent identifier in the Node ID column before you remove the record. You use
this identifier when you create the new Management Agent certificate and when you register it.

When you request a new certificate, ensure that the Common Name (CN) attribute in the certificate
subject field for the new certificate is typed in the following format:
VMware Management Agent 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Use the string VMware Management Agent, followed by a single space and the GUID for the
Management Agent in the numerical format shown.
Procedure

Stop the Management Agent service from your Windows Services snap-in.
a

From your Windows machine, click Start.

In the Windows Start Search box, enter services.msc and press Enter.

Right-click VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service and click Stop to
stop the service.

Remove the current certificate from the machine. For information about managing certificates on
Windows Server 2008 R2, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772354.aspx or the Microsoft wiki article at
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2167.how-to-use-the-certificatesconsole.aspx.
a

Open the Microsoft Management Console by entering the command mmc.exe.

Press Ctrl + M to add a new snap-in to the console or select the option from the File drop-down
menu.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select Certificates and click Add.

Select Computer account and click Next.

Select Local computer: (the computer this console is running on).

Click OK.

Expand Certificates (Local Computer) on the left side of the console.

Expand Personal and select the Certificates folder.

Select the current Management Agent certificate and click Delete.

Click Yes to confirm the delete action.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the Cafe directory on the machine
on which the Management Agent is installed at \Management
Agent\Tools\Cafe, typically C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Management
Agent\Tools\Cafe.

Enter the Vcac-Config.exe RegisterNode command with options to register the Management
Agent identifier and certificate in one step. Include the Management Agent identifier you recorded
earlier as the value for the -nd option.
Table 2‑3. Required Options and Arguments for Vcac-Config.exe RegisterNode
Option

Argument

Notes

-vamih

"vra-va-hostname.domain.name:5480"

The URL of the management site host,
including a port specification.

-cu

"root"

The user name, which must be the root
user.

-cp

"password"

Password for the root user as a quoted
string.

-hn

"machine-hostname.domain.name"

The machine name of the Management
Agent host, including domain
information.
This value must match the hostname that
the current node is registered with in the
vRealize Automation appliance. Can be
seen with option 1 specified above for
the node ID or in the VAMI - Distributed
Deployment Information table. If it is not
the same value, the following error is
returned when the command is
executed: Failure: Cannot add duplicate
node id
00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000
00.

-nd

"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

Management Agent identifier.

-tp

"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Thumb print of the SSL certificate of the
management console.

The following example shows the command format:
Vcac-Config.exe RegisterNode -v -vamih "vra-va-hostname.domain.name:5480"
-cu "root" -cp "password" -hn "machine-hostname.domain.name"
-nd "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
-tp "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Example: Command to Register a Management Agent Certificate
Vcac-Config.exe RegisterNode -v -vamih "vra-va.eng.mycompany:5480" -cu "root" -cp
"secret" -hn "iaas.eng.mycompany" -nd "C816CFBX-4830-4FD2-8951-C17429CEA291" -tp
"70928851D5B72B206E4B1CF9F6ED953EE1103DED"

Change the Polling Method for Certificates
If you use commas in the OU section of the IaaS certificate, you may encounter STOMP WebSocket
errors in the Manager Service log files and virtual machine provisioning may fail. You can remove the
commas or change the polling method from WebSocket to HTTP to resolve these issues.
See Installing vRealize Automation 7.2 for more information about the Manager Service.
Procedure

Open the Manager Service configuration file in a text editor.
The Manager Service configuration file is located at C:\\:Program FIles
(x86)\VMware\vCAC\Server\Manager Service.exe.config.

Add the following lines to the section of the Manager Service configuration file.

Restart the Manager Service.

Managing the vRealize Automation Postgres Appliance
Database
vRealize Automation requires the appliance database for system operation. You can manage the
appliance database through the vRealize Appliance Virtual Appliance Management Interface.
Note This information applies only to deployments that use an embedded appliance database. It does
not apply to deployments that use an external Postgres database.
You can configure the database as a single node system or with multiple nodes to facilitate high
availability through failover. The appliance database is set up initially when you install
vRealize Automation, and it requires no maintenance unless a machine configuration changes or, in the
case of a clustered configuration, you need to promote a different node to be the master.
Note The database clustered configuration is set up automatically when you join a virtual appliance to
the cluster using the Join cluster operation. Importantly, however, the database cluster is not directly
dependent upon the virtual appliance cluster. For instance, a virtual machine joined to a cluster can
operate normally even if the embedded appliance database is not started or has failed.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

A clustered configuration contains one master node and one or more replica nodes. The master node is
the vRealize Automation appliance node with the master database that supports system functionality.
Replica nodes contain copies of the database that can be pulled into service if the master node fails.
Several high availability appliance database options exist. Choosing the replication mode is the most
important database configuration option. The replication mode determines how your vRealize Automation
deployment maintains data integrity and, for high availability configurations, how it fails over should the
master or primary node fail. There are two available replication modes: synchronous and asynchronous.
Both replication modes support database failover, though each has advantages and disadvantages. Note
that to support high availability database failover, asynchronous mode requires at least two nodes, while
synchronous mode requires at least three nodes.
Replication Mode

Advantages

Disadvantages

Synchronous

Minimizes chance of data loss.

Might affect system performance .

Requires at least three nodes.

Asynchronous

Requires only two nodes.

Affects system performance less
than synchronous mode.

Not as robust as synchronous mode in
preventing data loss.

vRealize Automation supports both modes, but operates in asynchronous mode by default and provides
high availability only if there are at least two appliance database nodes. The Database tab on the Virtual
Appliance Management Interface enables you to switch synchronization modes and to add database
nodes as needed.
If you start with one node in a non-high-availability configuration, you can add nodes later as required to
enhance high availability. If you have the appropriate hardware and require maximum protection against
data loss, consider configuring your deployment to operate in synchronous mode.

Configure the Appliance Database
You can use the Virtual Appliance Management Interface Database page to monitor or update the
configuration of the appliance database. You can also use it to change the master node designation and
the synchronization mode used by the database.
The appliance database is installed and configured during vRealize Automation system installation and
configuration, but you can monitor and change the configuration from the Database tab on the Virtual
Appliance Management Interface.
The Connection Status text box indicates whether the database is connected to the
vRealize Automation system and is functioning correctly.
If your appliance database uses multiple nodes to support failover, the table at the bottom of the page
displays the nodes, and their status and indicates which node is the master. The Replication mode text
box shows the currently configured operation mode for the system, either synchronous or asynchronous.
Use this page to update appliance database configuration.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

The Sync State* column in the database nodes table shows the synchronization method for the cluster.
This column works with the Status column to show the state of cluster nodes. Potential status differs
depending on whether the cluster uses asynchronous or synchronous replication.
Table 2‑4. Sync State for Appliance Database Replication Modes
Mode

Sync State Message

Synchronous replication

Master node - no status
Replica node - sync
Other nodes - potential

Asynchronous replication

Master node - no status
Other nodes - potential

The Valid column indicates whether replicas are synchronized with the master node. The master node is
always valid.
The Priority column shows the position of replica nodes in relation to the master node. The master node
has no priority value. When promoting a replica to become the master, select the node with the lowest
priority value.
Prerequisites
n

Install and configure vRealize Automation according to appropriate instructions in the Installing
vRealize Automation 7.2.

Configure an appropriate embedded Postgres appliance database cluster as part of your
vRealize Automation deployment.

Procedure

On the Virtual Appliance Management Interface, select vRA Settings > Database.

If your database uses multiple nodes, review the table at the bottom of the page and ensure that the
system is operating appropriately.
n

Ensure that all nodes are listed.

Ensure that the appropriate node is the designated master node.

Note Do not click Sync Mode to change the synchronization mode of the database unless you are
certain that your data is secure. Changing the sync mode without preparation may cause data loss.
3

To promote one of the nodes to be the master, click Promote in the appropriate column.

Click Save Settings to save your configuration if you have made any changes.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Scenario: Perform Manual vRealize Automation Appliance
Database Failover
When there is a problem with the vRealize Automation appliance Postgres database, you manually fail
over to a replica vRealize Automation appliance node in the cluster.
Follow these steps when the Postgres database on the master vRealize Automation appliance node fails
or stops running.
Prerequisites
n

Configure a cluster of vRealize Automation appliance nodes. Each node hosts a copy of the
embedded Postgres appliance database.

Procedure

Remove the master node IP address from the external load balancer.

Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface as root.
https://vrealize-automation-appliance-FQDN:5480

Click vRA Settings > Database.

From the list of database nodes, locate the replica node with the lowest priority.
Replica nodes appear in ascending priority order.

Click Promote and wait for the operation to finish.
When finished, the replica node is listed as the new master node.

Correct issues with the former master node and add it back to the cluster:
a

Isolate the former master node.
Disconnect the node from its current network, the one that is routing to the remaining vRealize
Automation appliance nodes. Select another NIC for management, or manage it directly from the
virtual machine management console.

Recover the former master node.
Power the node on or otherwise correct the issue. For example, you might reset the virtual
machine if it is unresponsive.

From a console session as root, stop the vpostgres service.
service vpostgres stop

Add the former master node back to its original network, the one that is routing to the other
vRealize Automation appliance nodes.

From a console session as root, restart the haproxy service.
service haproxy restart

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click vRA Settings > Database.

Locate the former master node, and click Reset.

After a successful reset, restart the former master node.

With the former master powered on, verify that the following services are running.
haproxy
horizon-workspace
rabbitmq-server
vami-lighttp
vcac-server
vco-server

Re-add the former master node to the external load balancer.

Note If a master node that was demoted to replica is still listed as master, you might need to
manually re-join it to the cluster to correct the problem.

Scenario: Perform a Maintenance Database Failover
As a vRealize Automation system administrator, you must perform an appliance database maintenance
failover operation.
This scenario assumes that the current master node is up and running normally. There are two database
failover maintenance steps: maintenance of the master and maintenance of a replica node. When a
master node has been replaced so that it becomes a replica, you should perform maintenance on it so
that it is suitable to become the master again should the need arise.
Note Do not stop or restart the HAProxy service on the applicable host machine while performing a
maintenance failover.
Prerequisites
n

vRealize Automation is installed and configured according to appropriate instructions in the Installing
vRealize Automation 7.2.

Install and configure an appropriate embedded Postgres appliance database cluster.

If your database uses synchronous replication mode, ensure that there are at least three active nodes
in the cluster.

Procedure

Ensure that the current master node is up and running in preparation for maintenance.

Select vRA Settings > Database on the Virtual Appliance Management Interface.

Select the most suitable replica node for promotion to the master, and click Promote.
The old master is demoted to replica status, and the new master is promoted.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Perform the appropriate replica maintenance.

When the maintenance is complete, ensure that the virtual appliance is running with network
connectivity and that its HAProxy service is running.

Ensure that the replica node can be pinged, resolved by name, and has a recent status in the

Click Reset for the replica node.
This operation resets the database so that it is configured to replicate to the current master and
resynchronizes the replica node with the latest haproxy configuration from the master node.

Following successful reset, return the replica virtual appliance node IP address to the external virtual
appliance load balancer IP address pool.

Ensure that the replica node appears healthy on the Configure Postgres vRA Database table and that
it can be pinged and resolved by name.

Backup and Recovery for vRealize Automation
Installations
To minimize system downtime and data loss in the event of failures, administrators back up the entire
vRealize Automation installation on a regular basis. If your system fails, you can recover by restoring the
last known working backup and reinstalling some components.
To backup and restore vRealize Automation, see the following topics in the vRealize Suite documentation:
n

vRealize Automation Preparations for Backing Up

vRealize Automation System Recovery

The Customer Experience Improvement Program
This product participates in VMware's Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). The CEIP
provides VMware with information that enables VMware to improve its products and services, to fix
problems, and to advise you on how best to deploy and use our products. You can choose to join or leave
the CEIP for vRealize Automation at any time.
Details regarding the data collected through CEIP and the purposes for which it is used by VMware are
set forth at the Trust & Assurance Center at http://www.vmware.com/trustvmware/ceip.html.

Join or Leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program for
vRealize Automation
You can join or leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) for vRealize Automation at
any time.
vRealize Automation gives you the opportunity to join the Customer Experience Improvement Program
(CEIP) when you initially install and configure the product. After installation, you can join or leave the
CEIP by following these steps.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

Log in as root to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface.
https://vrealize-automation-appliance-FQDN:5480

Click the Telemetry tab.

Check or uncheck the Join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program option.
When checked, the option activates the Program and sends data to https://vmware.com.

Click Save Settings.

Configure Data Collection Time
You can set the day and time when the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) sends data
to VMware.
Procedure

Open the following file in a text editor.
/etc/telemetry/telemetry-collector-vami.properties

Edit the properties for day of week (dow) and hour of day (hod).
Property

Description

frequency.dow=

Day when data collection occurs.

frequency.hod=

Local time of day when data collection occurs. Possible
values are 0–23.

Save and close telemetry-collector-vami.properties.

Apply the settings by entering the following command.
vcac-config telemetry-config-update --update-info
Changes are applied to all nodes in your deployment.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Adjusting System Settings
As a system administrator, you adjust logging and customize IaaS email templates. You can also manage
settings that appear as defaults for each tenant, such as email servers to handle notifications. Tenant
administrators can choose to override these defaults if their tenant requires different settings.

Modify the All Services Icon in the Service Catalog
You can modify the default icon in the service catalog to display a custom image. When you modify the
icon, it changes for all tenants. You cannot configure tenant-specific icons for the catalog.
Commands are provided for Linux or Mac and Windows so that you can run the cURL commands on any
of those operating systems.
Prerequisites
n

Convert the image to a base64 encoded string. You can use a conversion tool such as
www.dailycoding.com/UTILS/CONVERTER/IMAGETOBASE64.ASPX.

cURL must be installed on the machine where you run the commands.

You must have the credentials for a vRealize Automation user with the system administrator role.

Procedure

Set the VCAC variable in the terminal session for the cURL commands.
Operating System

Command

Linux/Mac

export VCAC=

Windows

set VCAC=

Retrieve the authentication token for the system administrator user.
Operating System

Command

Linux/Mac

curl https://$VCAC/identity/api/tokens --insecure -H "Accept:
application/json" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data
'{"username":"","password":"","tenant":"vsphere.local"}'

Windows

curl https://%VCAC%/identity/api/tokens --insecure -H
"Accept:application/json" -H "Content-Type:application/json" -data "{\"username\":\"\",\"password\":\"\",\"tenant\":\"vsphere.local\"}
"

An authentication token is generated.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Set the authentication token variable by replacing with the token string you generated
in the previous step.
Operating System

Command

Linux/Mac

export AUTH="Bearer "

Windows

set AUTH=Bearer

Add the base64 encoded string for the image.
Operating System

Command

Linux/Mac

curl https://$VCAC/catalog-service/api/icons --insecure -H
"Accept: application/json" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H
"Authorization: $AUTH" --data
'{"id":"cafe_default_icon_genericAllServices","fileName":"","contentType":"image/png","image":""}'
curl https://%VCAC%/catalog-service/api/icons --insecure -H
"Accept: application/json" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H
"Authorization: %AUTH%" --data
"{\"id\":\"cafe_default_icon_genericAllServices\",\"fileName\":\"
\",\"contentType\":\"image/png\",\"image\":\"\"}"

Windows

The new services icon appears in the service catalog after approximately five minutes.
If you want to revert to the default icon, you can run the following command after you follow steps 1-3..
Operating
System

Command

Linux/Mac

curl https://$VCAC/catalog-service/api/icons/cafe_default_icon_genericAllServices -insecure -H "Authorization: $AUTH" --request DELETE

Windows

curl https://%VCAC%/catalog-service/api/icons/cafe_default_icon_genericAllServices -insecure -H "Authorization: %AUTH%" --request DELETE

Customize Data Rollover Settings
You can enable and configure vRealize Automation data rollover settings to control how your system
retains, archives, or deletes legacy data.
Use the data rollover feature to configure the maximum number of days for vRealize Automation to retain
data in the IaaS SQL Server database before archiving or deleting it. By default, this feature is disabled.
Configure data rollover settings on the vRealize Automation Global Settings page. When enabled, this
feature queries and removes data from the following SQL Server database tables:
n

UserLog

Audit

CategoryLog

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

VirtualMachineHistory

VirtualMachineHistoryProp

AuditLogItems

AuditLogItemsProperties

TrackingLogItems

WorkflowHistoryInstances

WorkflowHistoryResults

If you set DataRolloverIsArchiveEnabled to True, archive versions of the tables are created in the dbo
schema. For example, the archive version of UserLog would be UserLogArchive, and the archive
version of VirtualMachineHistory would be VirtualMachineHistoryArchive.
When enabled, the data rollover feature runs once a day at a predetermined time of 3 a.m. according to
the vRealize Automation appliance time zone configuration. Using the DataRollover
MaximumAgeInDays setting, you can set the maximum number of days that you want to retain the data.
If DataRollover IsArchiveEnabled is set to True, data older than that specified in the DataRollover
MaximumAgeInDays is moved to the archive tables. If DataRollover IsArchiveEnabled is set to False,
data is permanently deleted and no data archiving occurs. Deleted data is not recoverable.
Note Consider existing system data and the potential impact on system performance before enabling
data rollover. For example, if you enable this feature one year after vRealize Automation began running in
your environment, verify that you have set the value of DataRollover MaximumAgeInDays to 300 or
greater to ensure that enabling data rollover feature does not impact system performance.
Procedure

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Global Settings.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

On the Global Settings page, locate the Data Rollover section of the table and review and configure
settings.
Setting

Description

DataRollover IsArchiveEnabled

Specifies whether to move rollover data to archive tables after
the maximum number of days is reached.
By default this value is set to True.
If you set this value to False, all data older than that specified
in the DataRollover MaximumAgeInDays setting is
permanently deleted.

DataRollover MaximumAgeInDays

Specifies the maximum number of days that the system
retains data in the database before moving it to archive or
permanently deleting it.
By default this value is set to 90 days.

DataRollover Status

Specifies whether to enable data rollover.
To enable data rollover, set the value to Enabled. By default
this value is set to Disabled.
If you disable this workflow while it is running, the current
workflow is not impacted, but the next workflow is disabled.

Click the Edit icon (

) in the first table column to edit a setting.

The Value field for the applicable setting becomes editable and you can place your cursor within it to
change the value.
5

Click the Save icon (

) in the first table column to save your changes.

Adjusting Settings in the Manager Service Configuration File
You can use the manager service configuration file (managerService.exe.config) to adjust common
settings for machine deployments.
The managerService.exe.config file is typically located in the %System-Drive%\Program Files
x86\VMware\vCAC\Server directory. You should always make a copy of the file before editing it.
You can use the following managerService.exe.config file settings to control various aspects of
machine deployments. Default values are shown.
n

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Setting Resource-Intensive Concurrency Limits
To conserve resources, vRealize Automation limits the number of concurrently running instances of
machine provisioning and data collection. You can change the limits.
Configuring Concurrent Machine Provisioning
Multiple concurrent requests for machine provisioning can impact the performance of
vRealize Automation. You can make some changes to limits placed on proxy agents and workflow
activities to alter performance.
Depending on the needs of machine owners at your site, the vRealize Automation server may receive
multiple concurrent requests for machine provisioning. This can happen under the following
circumstances:
n

A single user submits a request for multiple machines

Many users request machines at the same time

One or more group managers approve multiple pending machine requests in close succession

The time required for vRealize Automation to provision a machine generally increases with larger
numbers of concurrent requests. The increase in provisioning time depends on three important factors:
n

The effect on performance of concurrent resource-intensive vRealize Automation workflow activities,
including the SetupOS activity (for machines created within the virtualization platform, as in WIMbased provisioning) and the Clone activity (for machines cloned within the virtualization platform).

The configured vRealize Automation limit on the number of resource-intensive (typically lengthy)
provisioning activities that can be executed concurrently. By default this is eight. Concurrent activities
beyond the configured limit are queued.

Any limit within the virtualization platform or cloud service account on the number of
vRealize Automation work items (resource-intensive or not) that can be executed concurrently. For
example, the default limit in vCenter Server is four, with work items beyond this limit being queued.

By default, vRealize Automation limits concurrent virtual provisioning activities for hypervisors that use
proxy agents to eight per endpoint. This ensures that the virtualization platform managed by a particular
agent never receives enough resource-intensive work items to prevent execution of other items. Plan to
carefully test the effects of changing the limit before making any changes. Determining the best limit for
your site may require that you investigate work item execution within the virtualization platform as well as
workflow activity execution within vRealize Automation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

If you do increase the configured vRealize Automation per-agent limit, you may have to make additional
configuration adjustments in vRealize Automation, as follows:
n

The default execution timeout intervals for the SetupOS and Clone workflow activities are two hours
for each. If the time required to execute one of these activities exceeds this limit, the activity is
cancelled and provisioning fails. To prevent this failure, increase one or both of these execution
timeout intervals.

The default delivery timeout intervals for the SetupOS and Clone workflow activities are 20 hours for
each. Once one of these activities is initiated, if the machine resulting from the activity has not been
provisioned within 20 hours, the activity is cancelled and provisioning fails. Therefore, if you have
increased the limit to the point at which this sometimes occurs, you will want to increase one or both
of these delivery timeout intervals.

Configuring Concurrent Data Collections
By default, vRealize Automation limits concurrent data collection activities. If you change this limit, you
can avoid unnecessary timeouts by changing the default execution timeout intervals for the different types
of data collection.
vRealize Automation regularly collects data from known virtualization compute resources through its
proxy agents and from cloud service accounts and physical machines through the endpoints that
represent them. Depending on the number of virtualization compute resources, agents, and endpoints in
your site, concurrent data collection operations may occur frequently.
Data collection running time depends on the number of objects on endpoints including virtual machines,
datastores, templates, and compute resources. Depending on many conditions, a single data collection
can require a significant amount of time. As with machine provisioning, concurrency increases the time
required to complete data collection.
By default, concurrent data collection activities are limited to two per agent, with those over the limit being
queued. This ensures that each data collection completes relatively quickly and that concurrent data
collection activities are unlikely to affect IaaS performance.
Depending on the resources and circumstances at your site, however, it may be possible to raise the
configured limit while maintaining fast enough performance to take advantage of concurrency in proxy
data collection. Although raising the limit can increase the time required for a single data collection, this
might be outweighed by the ability to collect more information from more compute resources and
machines at one time.
If you do increase the configured per-agent limit, you might have to adjust the default execution timeout
intervals for the different types of data collection that use a proxy agent—inventory, performance, state,
and WMI. If the time required to execute one of these activities exceeds the configured timeout intervals,
the activity is canceled and restarted. To prevent cancellation of the activity, increase one or more of
these execution timeout intervals.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Adjust Concurrency Limits and Timeout Intervals
You can change the per-agent limits on concurrent provisioning, data collection activities, and the default
timeout intervals.
When typing a time value for these variables, use the format hh:mm:ss (hh=hours, mm=minutes, and
ss=seconds).
Prerequisites

Log in as an administrator to the server hosting the IaaS Manager Service. For distributed installations,
this is the server on which the Manager Service was installed.
Procedure

Open the ManagerService.exe.config file in an editor. The file is located in the
vRealize Automation server install directory, typically %SystemDrive%\Program Files
x86\VMware\vCAC\Server.

Locate the section called workflowTimeoutConfigurationSection.

Update the following variables, as required.
Parameter

Description

MaxOutstandingResourceIntensiveWor
kItems

Concurrent provisioning limit (default is 8)

CloneExecutionTimeout

Virtual provisioning execution timeout interval

SetupOSExecutionTimeout

Virtual provisioning execution timeout interval

CloneTimeout

Virtual provisioning clone delivery timeout interval

SetupOSTimeout

Virtual provisioning setup OS delivery timeout interval

CloudInitializeProvisioning

Cloud provisioning initialization timeout interval

MaxOutstandingDataCollectionWorkIte
ms

Concurrent data collection limit

InventoryTimeout

Inventory data collection execution timeout interval

PerformanceTimeout

Performance data collection execution timeout interval

StateTimeout

State data collection execution timeout interval

Save and close the file.

Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

Stop and then restart the vRealize Automation service.

(Optional) If vRealize Automation is running in High Availability mode, any changes made to the
ManagerService.exe.config file after installation must be made on both the primary and failover
servers.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Adjust Execution Frequency of Machine Callbacks
You can change the frequency of several callback procedures, including the frequency that the
vRealize Automation callback procedure is run for changed machine leases.
vRealize Automation uses a configured time interval to run different callback procedures on the Model
Manager service, such as ProcessLeaseWorkflowTimerCallbackIntervalMiliSeconds which searches for
machines whose leases have changed. You can change these time intervals to check more or less
frequently.
When entering a time value for these variables, enter a value in milliseconds. For example, 10000
milliseconds = 10 seconds and 3600000 milliseconds = 60 minutes = 1 hour.
Prerequisites

Log in as an administrator to the server hosting the IaaS Manager Service. For distributed installations,
this is the server on which the Manager Service was installed.
Procedure

Open the ManagerService.exe.config file in an editor. The file is located in the
vRealize Automation server install directory, typically %SystemDrive%\Program Files
x86\VMware\vCAC\Server.

Update the following variables, as desired.
Parameter

Description

RepositoryWorkflowTimerCallbackMili
Seconds

Checks the repository service, or Model Manager Web Service, for activity.
Default value is 10000.

ProcessLeaseWorkflowTimerCallbackI
ntervalMiliSeconds

Checks for expired machine leases. Default value is 3600000.

BulkRequestWorkflowTimerCallbackMi
liSeconds

Checks for bulk requests. Default value is 10000.

MachineRequestTimerCallbackMiliSec
onds

Checks for machine requests. Default value is 10000.

MachineWorkflowCreationTimerCallba
ckMiliSeconds

Checks for new machines. Default value is 10000.

Save and close the file.

Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

Stop and then restart the vCloud Automation Center service.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Adjust IaaS Log Settings
You can adjust vRealize Automation to log only the information you want to see in the Manager Service
log.
If vRealize Automation is running in high availability mode, and you make changes to the
ManagerService.exe.config file after installation, you must make the changes on the primary and the
failover vRealize Automation servers.
Procedure

Edit the ManagerService.exe.config file in %SystemDrive%\Program Files
x86\VMware\vCAC\Server, or in the vRealize Automation server install directory, if it is in a different
location.

Edit the RepositoryLogSeverity and RepositoryLogCategory keys to configure what types of
events get written to your log files.
Option

Description

RepositoryLogSeverity

Specify a severity level to ignore events below that severity.
n

Error logs only recoverable errors and higher

Warning logs noncritical warnings and higher

Information logs all informative messages and higher

Verbose logs a debugging trace and can impair performance

For example, .
RepositoryLogCategory

Specify a category to log all events for that category regardless of severity. For
example, logs all events for missing or unregistered
machines, and every accepted or rejected machine request.

Save and close the file.

Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services and restart the vCloud Automation Center service.

You can see how your changes effect logging by viewing the Manager Service log file located in
%SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Server\Logs on the machine where the
Manager Service is installed, or in the vRealize Automation server install directory, if you installed it in a
different location.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Monitoring vRealize Automation
Depending on your role, you can monitor workflows or services, view event or audit logs, or collect logs
for all the hosts in a distributed deployment.

Monitoring Workflows and Viewing Logs
Depending on your role, you can monitor workflows and view activity logs.
Table 2‑5. Monitoring and Log Display Options
Objective

Role

Menu Sequence and Description

Display information about actions that
have occurred, such as the action type,
date and time of the action, and so on.

IaaS administrator

Display default log information or control display content
using column and filter options.
Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > Audit Log.
The audit log provides details about the status of
managed virtual machines and activities performed on
these machines during reconfiguration. The log includes
information about machine provisioning, NSX,
reclamation, and reconfigure actions.

View the status of scheduled and
available Distributed Execution Manager
and other workflows.

IaaS administrator

View and optionally export log data.

IaaS administrator

Display workflow status and optionally open a specific
workflow to display its details.
Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > DEM Status.
Display default log information or control display content
using column and filter options.
Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > Log.

View the status and history of executed
Distributed Execution Manager and other
workflows.

IaaS administrator

Display a list of events, including event
type, time, user ID, and so on, and
optionally display an event details page.

System administrator

Display workflow history and optionally open a specific
workflow to display its execution details.
Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > Workflow History.
View a list of events and their associated attributes, such
as run time, event description, tenant name, target type
and ID, and other characteristics.
Select Administration > Events > Event Logs.

Monitor the status of your requests and
view request details.

Tenant administrator or
business group manager

Display the status of requests that you are responsible for
or own.
Click Requests.

View information about recent events.

IaaS administrator or
Tenant administrator

Display recent events for the currently logged in user.
Select Infrastructure > Recent Events

Monitoring Event Logs and Services
You can monitor vRealize Automation event logs and services to determine their current and historic
states.
For information about clearing logs by customizing data rollover settings, see Configuring vRealize
Automation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

vRealize Automation Services
A system administrator can view the status of vRealize Automation services from the Event Log on the
system administrator console.
Subsets of services are required to run individual product components. For example, identity services and
UI core services must be running before you can configure a tenant.
The following tables tell you which services are associated with areas of vRealize Automation
functionality.
Table 2‑6. Identity Service Group
Service

Description

management-service

Identity Service Group

sts-service

Single Sign-on Appliance

authorization

Authorization Service

authentication

Authentication

eventlog-service

Event log service

licensing-service

Licensing service

Table 2‑7. UI Core services
Service

Description

shel-ui-app

Shell Service

branding-service

Branding Service

plugin-service

Extensibility (Plug-in) Service

portal-service

Portal Service

All the following services are required to run the IaaS component.
Table 2‑8. Service Catalog Group (Governance Services)
Service

Description

notification-service

Notification service

workitem-service

Work Item service

approval-service

Approval Service

catalog-service

Service Catalog

Table 2‑9. IaaS Services Group
Service

Description

iaas-proxy-provider

IaaS Proxy

iaas-server

IaaS Windows machine

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑10. XaaS
Service

Description

vco

vRealize Orchestrator

advanced-designer-service

XaaS blueprints and resource actions

Viewing Host Information for Clusters in Distributed Deployments
You can collect logs for all nodes that are clustered in a distributed deployment from the vRealize
Automation appliance management console.
You can also view information for each host in your deployment. The Cluster tab on the
vRealize Automation management console includes a Distributed Deployment Information table that
displays the following information:
n

A list of all nodes in your deployment

The host name for the node. The host name is given as a fully qualified domain name.

The time since the host last replied to the management console. Nodes for IaaS components report
availability every three minutes and nodes for virtual appliances report every nine minutes.

The vRealize Automation component type. Identifies whether the node is a virtual appliance or an
IaaS server.

Figure 2‑1. Distributed Deployment Information table

You can use this table to monitor activity in your deployment. For example, if the Last Connected column
indicates a host has not connected recently, that can be an indication of a problem with the host server.

Log Collection
You can create a zip file that contains log files for all hosts in your deployment. For more information, see
Collect Logs for Clusters and Distributed Deployments.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Removing Nodes from the Table
When you remove a host from your deployment, remove the corresponding node from the Distributed
Deployment Information table to optimize log collection times. .

Collect Logs for Clusters and Distributed Deployments
You can create a zip file that includes all log files for servers in your deployment.
The Distributed Deployment Information table lists the nodes from which log files are collected.
For related information about vRealize Automation appliance deployment configuration, see Installing
vRealize Automation 7.2.
Procedure

Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance with user name root and the password you specified
when deploying the appliance.

Click vRA Settings.

Click the Cluster tab.
The Distributed Deployment Information table displays a list of nodes for the distributed deployment.

Click Collect Logs.
Log files for each node are collected and copied to a zip file.

Remove a Node from the Distributed Deployment Information Table
You delete the entry for a node from the Distributed Deployment Information table when the node is
removed from your deployment cluster or when you are replacing a Management Agent certificate.
Procedure

Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance by using the user name root and the password you
specified when you deployed the appliance.

Click vRA Settings.

Click the Cluster tab.
The Distributed Deployment Information table displays a list of nodes for the distributed deployment.

Locate the node ID for the node to be deleted and copy the ID to use in the next step.

Open a command prompt and type a command of the following form, using the node ID you
previously copied.
/usr/sbin/vcac-config cluster-config-node
--action delete --id node-UID

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click Refresh.
The node no longer appears in the display.

Monitoring and Managing Resources
Different vRealize Automation roles monitor resource usage and manage infrastructure in different ways.

Choosing a Resource Monitoring Scenario
Fabric administrators, tenant administrators, and business group managers have different concerns when
it comes to resource monitoring. Because of this, vRealize Automation allows you to monitor different
facets of resource usage.
For example, a fabric administrator is concerned with monitoring the resource consumption of
reservations and compute resources, whereas a tenant administrator is concerned with the resource
usage of the provisioning groups within a tenant. Depending on your role and the specific resource usage
you want to monitor, vRealize Automation allows you different ways to track resource consumption.
Table 2‑11. Choose a Resource Monitoring Scenario
Resource Monitoring Scenario

Privileges Required

Location

Monitor the amount of physical storage
and memory on your compute
resources that is currently being
consumed and determine what amount
remains free. You can also monitor the
number of reserved and allocated
machines provisioned on each
compute resource.

Fabric Administrator (monitor resource
usage on compute resources in your fabric
group)

Infrastructure > Compute Resources >
Compute Resources

Monitor machines that are currently
provisioned and under
vRealize Automation management.

Fabric Administrator

Infrastructure > Machines > Managed
Machines

Monitor the amount of storage,

Fabric Administrator (monitor resource

Infrastructure > Reservations >

memory, and machine quota of your
reservation that is currently allocated
and determine the capacity that
remains available to the reservation.

usage for reservations on your compute
resources and physical machines)

Reservations

Monitor the amount of storage,
memory, and the machine quota that
your business groups are currently
consuming and determine the capacity
that remains on reserve for them.

Tenant Administrator (monitor
resource usage for all groups in your
tenant)

Business Group Manager (monitor
resource usage for groups that you
manage)

Administration > Users & Groups >
Business Groups

You can also add resource monitoring portlets to your vRealize Automation homepage to monitor different
resource usage statistics.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Managing Resource Reports
You can add real-time resource reports to your Home page to monitor virtual, physical, and cloud
resource usage, change their layout, and export their data to other applications.
Add Reports to the Home Page
You can add one or more IaaS reports to your Home page. These real-time reports list your most recent
open tasks, catalog requests, provisioned items, and provisioned machines broken down by user,
blueprint, compute resource, and business group. Two reports also display updated summaries of
reclamation savings.
Prerequisites

Navigate to the Home page.

Click the Edit
menu.

Click Add for each report to add to your Home page.

icon in the upper-right corner of the page and click Add Portlets in the drop-down

A disabled Add button indicates an already added report.
4

Click Close.

What to do next

Configure the Report Layout.
Configure the Report Layout
You can configure your Home page to display reports in one, two, three, or four columns. You can move a
report from one column to another.
Prerequisites

Navigate to the Home page.

Click the Edit icon (

) in the upper-right corner of the page and click Change Layout in the drop-

down menu.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select a report layout.
Option

Description

1 Column

Lay out reports in one column.

2 Columns

Lay out reports in two columns of equal or unequal widths.

3 Columns

Lay out reports in three columns of equal or unequal widths.

4 Columns

Lay out reports in four equal columns.

Click Submit.

Point to the title bar of a report.
The cursor changes to a four-headed cursor.

Drag the report to its new location.
The width of the report changes to fit the new location.

Export Report Data
You can save IaaS reports located on your Home page to CSV files where you can customize the data.
Prerequisites
n

Add Reports to the Home Page.

Procedure

Navigate to the Home page.

Click Export as CSV in the report to save.
Some browsers save the file immediately. With Firefox, a dialog box appears with selections for
opening or saving the report with Microsoft Excel or another application.

(Optional) Select whether to open or save the report data, and which application to use.

Resource Reports
Resource reports display data about machines and resources used and reclaimed according to owner,
compute resource, and group.
Name

Description

My Inbox

Displays a list of the most recent open tasks in your inbox. Click a row to view the detail page of a task.
Click More to open the complete list of inbox tasks.

My Open Requests

Displays a list of your most recent catalog requests. Click a row to view the detail page of a request.
Click More to open the complete list of requests.

My Recent Requests

Displays a list of your most recent catalog requests regardless of status. Click a row to view the detail
page of a request. Click More to open the complete list of requests.

My Items

Displays a list of your most recently provisioned items. Click a row to view the detail page of an item.
Click More to open the complete list of items.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Name

Description

My Group Requests

Displays a list of the most recent catalog requests for users in groups that you manage. Click a row to
view the detail page of a request. Click More to open the complete list of requests.

My Groups Items

Displays a list of the most recently provisioned items for users in groups that you manage. Click a row
to view the detail page of an item. Click More to open the complete list of items.

New & Noteworthy

Highlights catalog items that were recently made available in the catalog.

Calendar of Events

Displays a calendar view of important events for catalog items that you own, such as lease expiration
and machine destruction.

Business Groups
Resource Allocation

Displays the resource allocations for business groups in a tenant. If you are a tenant administrator, the
portlet displays the resource allocations for all the tenant business groups. If you are business group
manager, the portlet displays the resource allocation for your business groups.

IaaS Capacity Usage by

Displays the number of machines provisioned from each blueprint and the total resources that those

Blueprint

machines used.

IaaS Capacity Usage by
Group

Displays the number of machines that users own in each business group and the total resources that
those machines use.

IaaS Capacity Usage by
Owner

Displays the number of machines that each user owns and the total resources that those machines
use.

IaaS Capacity Usage by
Compute Resource

Displays the number of machines provisioned on each compute resource and the total resources that
those machines use.

My Trips

Displays a sample consumer report.

Add the Business Groups Resource Allocation Portlet to the Home Tab
The Business Group Resource Allocation Portlet is a dashboard portlet that you add to your Home tab to
monitor resources for business groups.
If you are a tenant administrator, the portlet displays the resource allocations for all the tenant business
groups. If you are business group manager, the portlet displays the resource allocation for your business
groups.
If you are not a tenant administrator or business group manager, the portlet is not available to install on
your Home tab.
Prerequisites

Select Home.

Click the Edit icon (

Select Add Portlets.

Locate Business Groups Resource Allocation and click Add.

Click Close.

) in the upper right corner.

The portlet is added to the top of the Home tab.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click and drag to portlet title bar to move to a different location.

Resource Usage Terminology
vRealize Automation uses explicit terminology to distinguish between resources that are available,
resources that have been set aside for specific usages, and resources that are actively being consumed
by provisioned machines.
The Resource Usage Terminology table explains the terminology vRealize Automation uses to display
resource usage.
Table 2‑12. Resource Usage Terminology
Term

Description

Physical

Indicates the actual memory or storage capacity of a compute resource.

Reserved

Indicates the machine quota, memory, and storage capacity set aside for a reservation. For
example, if a compute resource has a physical capacity of 600 GB and there are three
reservations on it for 100 GB each, then the reserved storage of the compute resource is 300
GB and the storage reserved is 50 percent.

Managed

Indicates that the machine is provisioned and currently under vRealize Automation
management.

Allocated

Indicates the machine quota, memory, or storage resources actively being consumed by
provisioned machines. For example, consider a reservation with a machine quota of 10. If there
are 15 provisioned machines on it, but only 6 of them are currently powered on, the machine
quota is 60 percent allocated.

Used

The Used column value always equals the Allocated column value.

Free

Indicates the unused physical capacity on a storage path.

Connecting to a Cloud Machine
The first time you connect to a cloud machine you must log in as Administrator.
You can then add the credentials under which you log in to the vRealize Automation console as a user on
the machine, and log in under your vRealize Automation credentials from that point on.
Important If you are using Amazon Web Services, RDP, or SSH must be enabled on the Amazon
machine instance and the machines must be in a security group in which the correct ports are open.

Collect User Credentials for an Amazon Machine
To log in to an Amazon machine as an administrator, you must discover the machine's administrator
password.
The administrator password is available on the Machine Information Details page. If the Amazon machine
image from which the machine was provisioned is not configured to generate the administrator password
on every boot, you will need to find the password using an alternate technique. For information about
otherwise obtaining the administrator password, search on Connect to Your Amazon EC2 Instance topics
in Amazon documentation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

If needed, you can create the necessary vRealize Automation user credentials. The user credentials are
then valid for subsequent logins to that machine.
Prerequisites
n

The Amazon machine has already been provisioned.

RDP or SSH is active on the Amazon machine image that will be used for provisioning

The machines are in a security group in which the correct ports are open.

Procedure

Navigate to the Items page and filter on the groups you manage or a specific group.

Select the Amazon machine in the list of machines.
You can click View Details on the Actions drop-down menu to display details such as machine type.

Select Edit in the Actions drop-down menu.

Click Show Administrator Password to obtain the administrator password of the machine.
Alternatively, you can obtain the password using an external Amazon procedure.

Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.

Click User another account when prompted for the login credentials.

Type LOCAL\Administrator when prompted for the user name.

Type the administrator password when prompted.

Click OK.
You are now logged in to the machine as an administrator.

10 Add your vRealize Automation credentials as appropriate. For example, on a Windows server
machine, open the server manager and select Configuration > Local Users and Groups and add
your credentials, using a DOMAIN\username format, to the Remote Desktop Users group.
Your vRealize Automation user name and password are now valid credentials for subsequent login to
this machine.
11 Log out of the Amazon machine.
12 Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.
13 When prompted to log in, type your vRealize Automation user name and password credentials to log
in to the machine.
Machine owners can now log in to the machine using their vRealize Automation credentials.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Collect User Credentials for a vCloud Machine
To log in to an vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine as an administrator, you must discover the
machine's administrator password.
The administrator password is available on the Machine Information Details page. If the machine image
from which the machine was provisioned is not configured to generate the administrator password on
every boot, you can find the password using an alternate technique. For information about otherwise
obtaining the administrator password, see vCloud Air or vCloud Director documentation.
If needed, you can create the necessary vRealize Automation user credentials. The user credentials are
then valid for subsequent logins to that machine.
Prerequisites
n

The vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine has already been provisioned.

RDP or SSH is active on the vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine image that will be used for
provisioning

The machines are in a security group in which the correct ports are open.

Procedure

Navigate to the Items page and filter on the groups you manage or a specific group.

Select the vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine in the list of machines.
You can click View Details on the Actions drop-down menu to display details such as machine type.

Select Edit in the Actions drop-down menu.

Click Show Administrator Password to obtain the administrator password of the machine.
Alternatively, you can obtain the password using an external vCloud Air or vCloud Director procedure.

Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.

Click User another account when prompted for the login credentials.

Type LOCAL\Administrator when prompted for the user name.

Type the administrator password when prompted.

Click OK.
You are now logged in to the machine as an administrator.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

10 Add your vRealize Automation credentials as appropriate. For example, on a Windows server
machine, open the server manager and select Configuration > Local Users and Groups and add
your credentials, using a DOMAIN\username format, to the Remote Desktop Users group.
Your vRealize Automation user name and password are now valid credentials for subsequent login to
this machine.
11 Log out of the vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine.
12 Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.
13 When prompted to log in, type your vRealize Automation user name and password credentials to log
in to the machine.
Machine owners can now log in to the machine using their vRealize Automation credentials.

Reducing Reservation Usage by Attrition
Fabric administrators can reduce the number of machines on a particular reservation over the long term
while keeping the reservation and the existing machines provisioned on it active.
You can reduce the reserved machine quota, memory, and storage of a virtual reservation below the
amount currently allocated. This allows management of existing machines to continue without change
while preventing provisioning of new machines until allocation falls below the new reserved amount.
Note Because virtual machines that are powered off are not included in allocated memory and machine
quota totals, reducing the memory or machine allocation of a reservation might prevent machines that are
currently powered off from being powered back on.
For example, consider a business group with a reservation that contains 20 provisioned machines that
are set to expire over the next 90 days. If you want to reduce this reservation by attrition to no more than
15 machines, you can edit the reservation to reduce the quota from 20 machines to 15. No further
machines can be provisioned on the reservation until the number of machines on the reservation is
naturally reduced by the upcoming expirations.

Decommissioning a Storage Path
If you are decommissioning a storage path and moving machines to a new one, a fabric administrator
must disable the storage path in vRealize Automation.
The following is a high-level overview of the sequence of steps required to decommission a storage path:
1

A fabric administrator disables the storage path on all reservations that use it. See Disable a Storage
Path.

Move the machines to a new storage path outside of vRealize Automation.

Wait for vRealize Automation to automatically run inventory data collection or initiate inventory data
collection manually. See Configure Compute Resource Data Collection.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Disable a Storage Path
Fabric administrators can disable storage paths on reservations when storage paths are
decommissioned.
Note For each reservation where you disable a storage path, verify that there is sufficient space
remaining on other enabled storage paths.
Prerequisites

Select Infrastructure > Reservations > Reservations.

Point to the reservation on which the storage path you are decommissioning is used and click Edit.

Click the Resouces tab.

Locate the storage path you are decommissioning.

Click the Edit icon (

Select the check box in the Disabled column to disable this storage path.

Click the Save icon (

Click OK.

Repeat this procedure for all reservations that use the storage path you are decommissioning.

Data Collection
vRealize Automation collects data from infrastructure source endpoints and their compute resources.
Data collection occurs at regular intervals. Each type of data collection has a default interval that you can
override or modify. Each type of data collection also has a default timeout interval that you can override or
modify.
IaaS administrators can manually initiate data collection for infrastructure source endpoints and fabric
administrators can manually initiate data collection for compute resources.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑13. Data Collection Types
Data Collection Type

Description

Infrastructure Source Endpoint Data Collection

Updates information about virtualization hosts, templates, and
ISO images for virtualization environments. Updates virtual
datacenters and templates for vCloud Director. Updates
Amazon regions and machines provisioned on Amazon regions.
Endpoint data collection runs every 4 hours.

Inventory Data Collection

Updates the record of the virtual machines whose resource use
is tied to a specific compute resource, including detailed
information about the networks, storage, and virtual machines.
This record also includes information about unmanaged virtual
machines, which are machines provisioned outside of
vRealize Automation.
Inventory data collection runs every 24 hours.
The default timeout interval for inventory data collection is 2
hours.

State Data Collection

Updates the record of the power state of each machine
discovered through inventory data collection. State data
collection also records missing machines that
vRealize Automation manages but cannot be detected on the
virtualization compute resource or cloud endpoint.
State data collection runs every 15 minutes.
The default timeout interval for state data collection is 1 hour.

Performance Data Collection (vSphere compute resources only)

Updates the record of the average CPU, storage, memory, and
network usage for each virtual machine discovered through
inventory data collection.
Performance data collection runs every 24 hours.
The default timeout interval for performance data collection is 2
hours.

Network and security inventory data collection (vSphere
compute resources only)

Updates the record of network and security data related to
vCloud Networking and Security and NSX, particularly
information about security groups and load balancing, for each
machine following inventory data collection.

WMI data collection (Windows compute resources only)

Updates the record of the management data for each Windows
machine. A WMI agent must be installed, typically on the
Manager Service host, and enabled to collect data from
Windows machines.

Start Endpoint Data Collection Manually
Endpoint data collection runs automatically every 4 hours, but IaaS administrators can manually start
endpoint data collection at any time for endpoints that do not require proxy agents.
The Data Collection page provides information on the status and age of data collections and allows you
to manually start a new endpoint data collection.
Prerequisites

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

Select Infrastructure > Endpoints > Endpoints.

Point to the endpoint for which you want to run data collection and click Data Collection.

Click Start.

(Optional) Click Refresh to receive an updated message about the status of the data collection you
initiated.

Click Cancel to return to the Endpoints page.

Configure Compute Resource Data Collection
You can enable or disable data collection, configure the frequency of data collection, or manually request
data collection.
The Data Collection page provides information on the status and age of data collections. It also allows
you to configure data collection for your compute resources.
Prerequisites

Select Infrastructure > Compute Resources > Compute Resources.

Point to the compute resource for which to configure data collection and click Data Collection.

Configure Compute Resource data collection specifications.

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Configure Inventory data collection.
n

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Enter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between
inventory data collections.

Click Request Now to manually start data collection.

Configure State data collection.
n

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Enter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in minutes) between
state data collections.

Click Request Now to manually start data collection.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Configure Performance data collection.
This is available only for vSphere integrations.

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Enter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between
performance data collections.

Click Request Now to manually start data collection.

Configure Snapshot Inventory data collection.
This is option is available for compute resources managed by vRealize Business for Cloud.

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Enter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between
snapshot data collections.

Click Request Now to manually start data collection.

Configure Cost data collection.
This is option is available for compute resources managed by vRealize Business for Cloud.

Select On to enable data collection.

Select Off to disable data collection.

Enter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between cost
data collections.

Click Request Now to manually start data collection.

Click OK.

Update Cost Data for All Compute Resources
Fabric administrators can manually update cost information for all compute resources managed by
vRealize Business for Cloud.
Prerequisites

Select Infrastructure > Compute Resources > Compute Resources.

Click Update Cost.

Click Request Now.

When the cost update is complete, the status changes to successful.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Understanding vSwap Allocation Checking for vCenter Server
Endpoints
You can use vSwap to determine swap space availability for the maximum size swap file on a target
machine. The vSwap check occurs when you create or reconfigure a virtual machine from
vRealize Automation. vSwap allocation checking is only available for vCenter Server endpoints.
vRealize Automation storage allocation checks if there is sufficient space available on the datastore to
accommodate virtual machine disks during a create or reconfigure request. However, when the machine
is powered on, if enough space is not available to create swap files on the vCenter Server endpoint, the
machine fails to power on. When the power on operation fails, any customizations that depend on the
machine also fail. The machine may also be disposed of. Depending on the size of the request, feedback
that the machine is not powering on or not provisioning is not immediately obvious.
You can use the vSwap allocation check to help overcome these limitations by checking swap space
availability for the maximum size swap file as part of the vRealize Automation create and reconfigure
process for vCenter Server endpoints. To enable the vSwap allocation check, set the custom property
VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory to True in the machine component or overall blueprint.
Consider the following behaviors for vSwap allocation checks:
n

The swap file is located on the datastore that contains the virtual machine. Alternate vCenter Server
configurations for locating swap files on a dedicated or different datastore are not supported.

Swap size is considered when creating or reconfiguring a virtual machine . The maximum swap size
is the size of the virtual machine's memory.

Reserved values for vRealize Automation storage reservations in a host must not exceed the physical
capacity of the compute resource.

When creating a reservation, the sum of the reserved values must not exceed the available storage
space.

Resource pool or host level or virtual machine level memory reservations on vSphere are not
collected from the vSphere endpoint and not considered during the calculations on
vRealize Automation.

vSwap does not validate the swap space that is available during power on operations for existing
machines.

You must re-run data collection to capture any changes made to the vSphere endpoint relative to
vSwap.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Removing Datacenter Locations
To remove a datacenter location from a user menu, a system administrator must remove the location
information from the locations file and a fabric administrator must remove location information from the
compute resource.
For example, if you add London to the locations file, associate ten compute resources with that location,
and then remove London from the file, the compute resources are still associated with the location
London and London is still included in the location drop-down list on the Confirm Machine Request page.
To remove the location from the drop-down list, a fabric administrator must edit the compute resource and
reset the Location to blank for all compute resources that are associated with the location.
The following is a high-level overview of the sequence of steps required to remove a datacenter location:
1

A system administrator removes the datacenter location information from the locations file.

A fabric administrator removes all the compute resource associations to the location by editing the
locations of each associated compute resource.

Monitoring Containers
You can monitor the status of a container that you create in Containers for vRealize Automation.
After you create your containers based on a template, you can monitor their state. By clicking Details on
a container, you can monitor the network bandwidth, CPU and memory usage, logs, and properties of that
container.

Bulk Import, Update, or Migrate Virtual Machines
You can use the Bulk Imports feature to import, update, or migrate virtual machines to
vRealize Automation. Bulk Imports streamlines the management of multiple machines in multiple
environments.
The Bulk Imports feature imports virtual machines intact with defining data such as reservation, storage
path, blueprint, owner, and any custom properties. Bulk Imports supports the following administrative
tasks:
n

Import one or more unmanaged virtual machines so that they can be managed in a
vRealize Automation environment.

Make a global change to a virtual machine property, such as a storage path.

Migrate a virtual machine from one environment to another.

You can execute the Bulk Imports feature commands using either the vRealize Automation console or the
CloudUtil command-line interface. For more information about using the CloudUtil command-line
interface, see the Life Cycle Extensibility documentation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Prerequisites
n

If you are importing virtual machines that use static IP addresses, prepare a properly configured
address pool.

Import a Virtual Machine to a vRealize Automation Environment
You can import an unmanaged virtual machine to a vRealize Automation environment.
An unmanaged virtual machine exists in a hypervisor but is not managed in a vRealize Automation
environment and cannot be viewed in the console. After you import an unmanaged virtual machine, the
virtual machine is managed using the vRealize Automation management interface. Depending on your
privileges, you can see the virtual machine on the Managed Machines tab or the Items tab.
The bulk import option does not support deployments that are provisioned from a blueprint that contains
an NSX network and security component or a software component.
Prerequisites
n

If you are importing virtual machines that use static IP addresses, prepare a properly configured
address pool. For more information about using a network profile to control IP address ranges, see
Configuring vRealize Automation.

Procedure

Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click Generate CSV File.

Select Unmanaged from the Machines drop-down menu.

Select the Business group default value from the drop-down menu.

Enter the Owner default value.

Select the Blueprint default value from the drop-down menu.
The blueprint must be published and added to an entitlement for the import to be successful.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select the Component machine default value from the drop-down menu.
If you select a value for Business group and Blueprint, you might see the following results in
the CSV data file:
n

Host Reservation (Name or ID) = INVALID_RESERVATION

Host To Storage (Name or ID) = INVALID_HOST_RESERVATION_TO_STORAGE

These messages appear if you do not have a reservation in the selected business group for the
host virtual machine that also hosts the unmanaged virtual machine. If you have a reservation in
that business group for the unmanaged virtual machine host, the Host Reservation and Host to
Storage values fill in properly.
h

Select one of the available resource types from the Resource drop-down menu.
Menu Item

Description

Endpoint

Information required to access a virtualization host.

Compute Resource

Information required to access a group of virtual machines performing a
similar function.

Select the name of the virtual machine resource from the Name drop-down menu.

Click OK.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Edit your virtual machine CSV data file.
a

Open the CSV file, and edit the data categories to match existing categories in the target
vRealize Automation environment.
To import virtual machines contained in a CSV data file, each virtual machine must be associated
with the following items:
n

Reservation

Storage location

Blueprint

Virtual machine component

Owner that exists in the target deployment

All the values for each virtual machine must be present in the target vRealize Automation
environment for the import to succeed. You can change the values for reservation, storage
location, blueprint, and owner, or add a static IP address value to individual virtual machines by
editing the CSV file.
Heading

Comment

# Import--Yes or No

Change to No to prevent a particular virtual machine from being imported.

Virtual Machine Name

Do not change.

Virtual Machine ID

Do not change.

Host Reservation (Name
or ID)

Enter the name or ID of a reservation in the target vRealize Automation environment.

Host To Storage (Name
or ID)

Enter the name or ID of a storage location in the target vRealize Automation environment.

Deployment Name

Enter a new name for the deployment, for example, the virtual machine name, you are
creating in the target vRealize Automation environment.
Note Each virtual machine must be imported to its own deployment. You cannot import a
single virtual machine to an existing deployment. You cannot import multiple virtual machines
to a single deployment.

Blueprint ID

Enter the ID of the blueprint in the target vRealize Automation environment that you use to
import the virtual machine.
Note Make sure that you enter only the blueprint ID. Do not enter the blueprint name. You
must select a blueprint that contains only a single virtual machine component. The blueprint
must be published and added to an entitlement.

Component Machine ID

Enter the name of a virtual machine component that is contained in the blueprint you
selected. You cannot import a virtual machine into a blueprint that has more than one
component.

Owner Name

Enter a user in the target vRealize Automation environment who is entitled to the blueprint.

If you are importing a virtual machine with a static IP address, append a command in the
following form to the CSV file.
,VirtualMachine.Network#.Address, w.x.y.z, HOP

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Configure the command with the appropriate information for your virtual machine.
n

Change the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP
address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

Change w.x.y.z to be the static IP address for the virtual machine. For example,
11.27.42.57.

The HOP string, Hidden, Not encrypted, Not runtime, sets the visibility of the property. This
default property is removed from the virtual machine after a successful import.

For a successful import, the IP address must be available in a properly configured address pool.
If the address cannot be found or is already in use, the import succeeds without the static IP
address definition, and an error is logged.
c
3

Save the CSV file.

Use the vRealize Automation management interface to import your virtual machine to a
vRealize Automation environment.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click New.

Enter a unique name for this task in the Name text box, for example, unmanaged import 10.

Enter the CSV filename in the CSV file text box by browsing to the CSV filename.

Select import options.

Option

Description

Start time

Schedule a future start date. The chosen start time is the local server time and
not the local time of the user workstation.

Now

Begin the import process immediately.

Delay (seconds)

If you are importing many virtual machines, select the number of seconds to
delay each virtual machine registration. Selecting this menu item slows the
import process. Leave blank to select no delay.

Batch size

If you are importing many virtual machines, select the total number of virtual
machines to register at a given time. Selecting this menu item slows the import
process. Leave blank to select no limit.

Ignore managed machines

Leave unselected.

Skip user validation

Selecting this menu item sets the virtual machine owner to the value listed in
the Owner column of the CSV data file without verifying that the user exists.
Selecting this menu item can decrease the import time.

Test import

Test the import process without importing the virtual machines so you can test
your CSV file for errors.

Click OK.
The progress of the operation appears on the Bulk Imports page.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Update a Virtual Machine in a vRealize Automation Environment
You can make a change to a virtual machine property, such as a storage path, to update one or more
managed virtual machines in a vRealize Automation environment.
A managed virtual machine is a machine that is managed in a vRealize Automation environment and can
be viewed in the console.
Prerequisites
n

Procedure

Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click Generate CSV File.

Select Managed from the Machines drop-down menu.

Select one of the available resource types from the Resource drop-down menu.
Option

Description

Endpoint

Information required to access a virtualization host.

Compute Resource

Information required to access a group of virtual machines performing a
similar function.

Select the name of the virtual machine resource from the Name drop-down menu.

(Optional) Select Include custom properties if you want to migrate the virtual machine custom
properties.

Click OK.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Edit your virtual machine CSV data file.
a

Open the CSV file with a text editor and edit the data categories that you want to change globally.
To update virtual machines contained in a CSV data file, each machine must be associated with
the following items:
n

Reservation

Storage location

Blueprint

Machine component

Owner that exists in the target deployment

All of the values for each machine must be present in the target vRealize Automation
environment for the update to succeed. You can change the values for reservation, storage
location, blueprint, and owner, or add a static IP address value to individual machines by editing
the CSV file.
b

If you are changing a virtual machine static IP address, append a command in the following form
to the CSV file.
,VirtualMachine.Network#.Address, w.x.y.z, HOP
Configure the command with the appropriate information for your virtual machine.
n

Change the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP
address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

Change w.x.y.z to be the static IP address for the virtual machine. For example,
11.27.42.57.

The HOP string, Hidden, Not encrypted, Not runtime, sets the visibility of the property. This
default property is removed from the virtual machine after a successful import.

For a successful update, the IP address must be available in a properly configured address pool.
If the address cannot be found or is already in use, the update succeeds without the static IP
address definition, and an error is logged.
c
3

Save the CSV file and close your text editor.

Use the vRealize Automation management interface to update one or more virtual machines in a
vRealize Automation environment.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click New.

Enter a unique name for this task in the Name text box, for example, managed global update 10.

Enter the CSV file name in the CSV file text box by browsing to the CSV file name.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select import options.
Option

Description

Start time

Schedule a future start date. The specified start time is the local server time
and not the local time of the user workstation.

Now

Begin the import process immediately.

Delay (seconds)

If you are updating a large number of virtual machines, select the number of
seconds to delay each virtual machine update. Selecting this option slows the
update process. Leave blank to specify no delay.

Batch size

If you are updating a large number of virtual machines, select the total number
of machines to update at a given time. Selecting this option slows the update
process. Leave blank to specify no limit.

Ignore managed machines

Leave unselected.

Skip user validation

Selecting this option sets the machine owner to the value listed in the Owner
column of the CSV data file without verifying that the user exists. Selecting this
option can decrease the update time.

Test import

Leave unselected.

Click OK.
The progress of the operation appears on the Bulk Imports page.

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a Different vRealize Automation
Environment
You can migrate one or more managed virtual machines in a VMware vRealize ™ Automation
environment to a different vRealize Automation environment.
A managed virtual machine is a virtual machine that is managed in a vRealize Automation environment
and can be viewed in the console.
Prerequisites
n

Procedure

Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click Generate CSV File.

Select Managed from the Machines drop-down menu.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select one of the available resource types from the Resource drop-down menu.
Option

Description

Endpoint

Information required to access a virtualization host.

Compute Resource

Information required to access a group of virtual machines performing a
similar function.

Select the name of the virtual machine resource from the Name drop-down menu.

(Optional) Select Include custom properties.
You include custom properties when you import a virtual machine into a new deployment with the
same properties.

Click OK.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Edit your virtual machine CSV data file.
Whether you must edit the CSV data file depends on the similarity of the source and target
environments. If the configuration values in the source environment do not match the values in the
target environment, you must edit the CSV data file so that the values match before you begin
migration.
a

Open the CSV file, and edit the data categories to match existing categories in the target
vRealize Automation environment.
To migrate virtual machines contained in a CSV data file, each virtual machine must be
associated with a reservation, storage location, blueprint, machine component, and owner that
exists in the target vRealize Automation environment. All the values for each virtual machine must
be present in the target vRealize Automation environment for migration to succeed. You can
change the values for reservation, storage location, blueprint, and owner, or add a static IP
address value to individual virtual machines by editing the CSV file.
Heading

Comment

Example

# Import--Yes or No

Change to No to prevent a particular virtual machine from being
imported.

Yes

Virtual Machine
Name

Do not change.

MyMachine

Virtual Machine ID

Do not change.

a6e05812-0b06-4d4e-a84afed242340426a

Host Reservation
(Name or ID)

Enter the name or ID of a reservation in the target
vRealize Automation environment.

DevReservation

Host To Storage
(Name or ID)

Enter the name or ID of a storage location in the target
vRealize Automation environment.

ce-san-1:custom-nfs-2

Deployment Name

Enter a new name for the deployment you are creating in the
target vRealize Automation environment.

ImportedDeployment0001

Each virtual machine must be migrated to its own deployment.
You cannot import a single virtual machine to an existing
deployment. You cannot import multiple virtual machines to a
single environment.
Converged Blueprint
ID

Enter the ID of the blueprint in the target vRealize Automation
environment that you use to import the virtual machine.

ImportBlueprint

Make sure that you enter only the blueprint ID. Do not enter the
blueprint name. You must select a blueprint that contains only a
single virtual machine component. The blueprint must be
published and added to an entitlement.
Component Blueprint
ID

Enter the name of a virtual machine component that is
contained in the blueprint you selected. You cannot import a
virtual machine into a blueprint that has more than one
component.

ImportedMachine

Owner Name

Enter a user in the target vRealize Automation environment.

user@tenant

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Example of a complete, properly formatted CSV line: Yes, MyMachine, a6e05812-0b06-4d4ea84a-fed242340426, DevReservation, ce-san-1:custom-nfs-2, Imported Deployment 0001,
ImportBlueprint, ImportedMachine, user@tenant
b

If you are migrating a virtual machine with a static IP address, append a command in the
following form to the CSV file.
,VirtualMachine.Network#.Address, w.x.y.z, HOP
Configure the command with the appropriate information for your virtual machine.
n

Change the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP
address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

Change w.x.y.z to be the static IP address for the virtual machine. For example,
11.27.42.57.

The HOP string, Hidden, Not encrypted, Not runtime, sets the visibility of the property. This
default property is removed from the virtual machine after a successful import.

For a successful migration, the IP address must be available in a properly configured address
pool. If the address cannot be found or is already in use, the migration succeeds without the static
IP address definition, and an error is logged.
c
3

Save the CSV file.

Use the vRealize Automation management interface to migrate your virtual machine to a
vRealize Automation environment.
a

Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

Click New.

Enter a unique name for this task in the Name text box, for example, managed migration 10.

Enter the CSV filename in the CSV file text box by browsing to the CSV filename.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Select import options.
Option

Description

Start time

Schedule a future start date. The chosen start time is the local server time and
not the local time of the user workstation.

Now

Begin the migration process immediately.

Delay (seconds)

If you are migrating many virtual machines, select the number of seconds to
delay each virtual machine registration. Selecting this option slows the
migration process. Leave blank to select no delay.

Batch size

If you are migrating many virtual machines, select the total number of virtual
machines to register at a given time. Selecting this option slows the migration
process. Leave blank to select no limit.

Ignore managed machines

Leave unselected.

Skip user validation

Selecting this option sets the virtual machine' owner to the value listed in the
Owner column of the CSV data file without verifying that the user exists.
Selecting this option can decrease the migration time.

Test import

Test the migration process without migrating the virtual machines so you can
test your CSV file for errors.

Click OK.
The progress of the operation appears on the Bulk Imports page.

Managing Machines
You can manage provisioned machines and deployments by using available action options.

Managing Virtual Machines
Managing virtual machines requires different roles to perform some tasks. For example, only a fabric
administrator can change the reservation of a virtual machine, but a machine owner can create a
snapshot of a virtual machine.

Reconfigure a Machine
vSphere, vCloud Air, and vCloud Director platforms support reconfiguration of existing machines to
modify specifications for CPU, memory, storage, or networks.
Reconfiguration requests are subject to approval based on entitlements, policies, and the actions enabled
for the machine component in the blueprint.
If you are entitled to the Cancel Reconfigure (Machine) and Execute Reconfigure (Machine) actions, you
can cancel a reconfiguration or retry a failed reconfiguration.
Prerequisites
n

Log in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, support user, tenant
administrator, or business group manager.

The machine you want to reconfigure has the status On or Off with no active reconfigure status.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure
1

Start the Operation
You start the reconfigure operation by selecting a provisioned machine with an On or Off status.

Reconfigure CPUs and Memory
You can optionally change the number of CPUs or the amount of memory used by the provisioned
machine, within the limits set by the provisioning blueprint.

Reconfigure Storage
You can add, delete, or change the size of a storage volume on a provisioned virtual machine.

Add Custom Properties
Optionally, you can add custom properties to a volume.

Reconfigure Networks
You can add, remove, or edit a network adapter when you reconfigure a virtual machine.

Schedule the Start
You can start the reconfiguration immediately or schedule it to start at a particular day and time. You
can also specify the power option for the machine before reconfiguring it.

Start the Operation
You start the reconfigure operation by selecting a provisioned machine with an On or Off status.
Prerequisites
n

Log in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, support user, tenant
administrator, or business group manager.

The machine you want to reconfigure must have the status On or Off with no active reconfigure
status.

Procedure

Select Items > Machines.

Select the row of the machine to reconfigure.

Select Reconfigure from the Actions drop-down menu.

What to do next

Reconfigure CPUs and Memory.
Reconfigure CPUs and Memory
You can optionally change the number of CPUs or the amount of memory used by the provisioned
machine, within the limits set by the provisioning blueprint.
Prerequisites

Start the Operation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

(Optional) Type the number of CPUs in the # CPUs text box.
The allowable range appears next to the text box.

(Optional) Type the amount of memory in the Memory (MB) text box.
The allowable range appears next to the text box.

What to do next

Reconfigure Storage.
Reconfigure Storage
You can add, delete, or change the size of a storage volume on a provisioned virtual machine.
You cannot reconfigure storage for the IDE disk type.
Prerequisites

Reconfigure CPUs and Memory.
Procedure

Click the Storage tab.
The allowable range for storage appears below the Storage volumes table.

(Optional) Add a volume.
a

Click New Volume.

Type the capacity in the Capacity (GB) text box.

(Optional) Select a storage reservation policy from the Storage reservation policy drop-down
menu.

Click the Save icon (

(Optional) Delete a volume.
a
b

Locate the volume.
Click the Delete icon (

An unselectable icon indicates an undeletable volume such as one from a linked clone.
4

(Optional) Increase the size of a volume.
You cannot reduce the size of existing volumes. Volume size is limited by the total amount of storage
specified in the blueprint, less the amount allocated to other volumes.
a

Locate the volume.

Click the Edit icon (

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Type the new size in the Capacity (GB) text box.

Click the Save icon (

What to do next

Add Custom Properties.
Add Custom Properties
Optionally, you can add custom properties to a volume.
You cannot use custom properties to enter values for volume disk number, capacity, label, or storage
reservation policy. You must enter these values in their required locations by adding or editing a volume in
the Storage volumes table.
Prerequisites

Reconfigure Storage.
Procedure

In the Custom Properties column of the Storage volumes table, click Edit for the volume receiving
the custom property.

Click New Property.

Enter the name of the custom property in the Name text box.

Enter the value for the custom property in the Value text box.

Select the Encrypted check box to encrypt the value.

Select the Prompt user check box to prompt users for the value when they request the machine.

What to do next

Reconfigure Networks.
Reconfigure Networks
You can add, remove, or edit a network adapter when you reconfigure a virtual machine.
After you reconfigure a network based on reservation and network profile information, the new network IP
is assigned in vRealize Automation but the deployed machine is not updated with the new IP information.
You must manually assign the IP to the machine after the reconfiguration process is finished.
Prerequisites

Add Custom Properties.
Procedure

Click the Network tab.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

(Optional) Add a network adapter.
a

Click New Network Adapter.

Select a network from the Network Path drop-down menu.
All networks selected on the machine’s reservation are available.

Type a static IP address for the network in the Address text box.
The IP address must be unallocated in the network profile assigned in the reservation.

d
3

Click the Save icon (

(Optional) Remove a network adapter.
a
b

Locate the network adapter.
Click the Delete icon (

You cannot remove network adapter 0.
4

(Optional) Edit a network adapter.
a

Locate the network adapter.

Click the Edit icon (

Select a network from the Network Path drop-down menu.

Click the Save icon (

What to do next

Schedule the Start.
Schedule the Start
You can start the reconfiguration immediately or schedule it to start at a particular day and time. You can
also specify the power option for the machine before reconfiguring it.
Prerequisites

Reconfigure Networks.
Procedure

Click the Execution tab.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

(Optional) Select an option from the Execute request drop-down menu.
Option

Description

Immediate

Start reconfiguration as soon as possible after approval.

Scheduled

Start reconfiguration at the specified date and time. Type or select the date and
time in the text boxes that appear.

The scheduled time is the local time where the vRealize Automation Web server is located. If
Execute request is not available, reconfiguration starts immediately.
3

(Optional) Select a power action from the Power action drop-down menu.
Option

Description

Reboot if required

(Default) If required, reboot the machine before reconfiguring it.

Reboot

Reboot the machine before reconfiguring it, regardless of whether reboot is
required.

Do not reboot

Do not reboot the machine before reconfiguring it, even if reboot is required.

The following conditions require that the machine be rebooted before reconfiguration:
n

CPU change where hot add is not supported or is disabled

Memory change where hot memory is not supported or is disabled

Storage change where hot storage is disabled

If the machine is in the shutdown state, it is not rebooted.
Note You can disable the vSphere hot add option by using the
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu custom property.
4

Click OK.

What to do next

You can monitor the progress of the reconfiguration by observing the workflow states displayed in the
user interface. See Workflow States of Reconfigure Operations.
Workflow States of Reconfigure Operations
When reconfiguration starts and as it progresses through the workflow, you can monitor the progress from
the Edit page.
Table 2‑14. Workflow States of Reconfigure Operations
State

Description

Reconfigure pending

The State Operation was created.

Scheduled

A scheduled workflow has been created for the Distributed Execution Manager (DEM).

Reconfiguring

The interface-specific workflow is being executed.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑14. Workflow States of Reconfigure Operations (Continued)
State

Description

Reconfigure failed, waiting to
retry

The reconfigure failed, waiting for the owner to request a retry. If the machine owner is entitled
to the actions execute reconfigure or cancel reconfigure, the owner can retry or cancel a
reconfiguration.

ReconfigureFailed

The reconfigure failed, waiting for the RVG workflow to perform the next action.

ReconfigureSuccessful

The reconfigure was successful, waiting for the RVG workflow to perform the next action.

Canceled

The user has canceled the reconfiguration. Machine owners who are entitled to the cancel
reconfigure action can cancel a reconfiguration.

Complete

The completion workflow sets this state after completing the cleanup, so that the RVG workflow
can proceed to clean up the state operations and approvals. A status of complete indicates that
the request from vRealize Automation is finished, but it does not indicate that the machine
reconfiguration completed successfully.

Configure a Metrics Provider
You can configure vRealize Automation to use vRealize Operations Manager health and resource metrics
for vSphere virtual machines.
For more information about vRealize Operations Manager health badges and metrics, see the
vRealize Operations Manager documentation.
Prerequisites
n

Create a vRealize Operations Manager user account with view and resource metrics query privileges
for all vSphere servers that you integrate with vRealize Automation.

Create vRealize Operations Manager adapter instances for all vSphere servers you add as endpoints
in vRealize Automation. For information about creating adapter instances, see the
vRealize Operations Manager documentation.

Procedure

Select Administration > Reclamation > Metrics Provider.

Select a metrics provider.
Option

Description

(Default) vRealize Automation metrics
provider

If you do not have a vRealize Operations Manager instance, vRealize Automation
provides basic machine metrics.

vRealize Operations Manager endpoint

Provide connection information for the vRealize Operations Manager instance you
want to use as your metrics provider for vSphere virtual machines.

Click Test Connection.

Click Save.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Tenant administrators, machine owners, and business group managers of the group in which the machine
resides can view health badges and health alerts on the item details pages for vSphere virtual machines.
They can also view vRealize Operations Manager metrics and health badges when they filter by the
platform type vSphere on the reclamations page.
What to do next

Send Reclamation Requests.

Send Reclamation Requests
You can view and manage deployments and send reclamation requests to deployment owners. A
reclamation request specifies a new lease length in days, the amount of time given for a deployment
owner’s response, and which machines to target for reclamation.
Prerequisites
n

(Optional) To see health badges or view metrics provided by vRealize Operations Manager, see
Configure a Metrics Provider.

Procedure

Select Administration > Reclamation > Deployments.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Find virtual machine deployments that match your search criteria.
You must select platform type vSphere to view metrics provided by vRealize Operations Manager.
a

Click the Advanced Search down arrow to open the search box.

Enter or select one or more search values.
Option

Action

Virtual Machine name contains

Enter one or more characters in the text box to find virtual machine names that
match.

Owner name contains

Enter a name in the text box to find owner names that match.

Business group names contains

Enter a name in the text box to find business group names that match.

Platform Type

Select a platform type from the drop-down menu. Select vSphere to view
metrics provided by vRealize Operations Manager.
Required for vRealize Operations Manager.

Power State

Select a power state value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines
with a matching power state.

Expiration date between

Click the calendar icons and select start and end dates to find expiration dates
inside the range.

CPU usage

Select a value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines with High
CPU use, above 80%, Low CPU use below 5%, or None, no value.
If you are querying vRealize Operations Manager metrics, you cannot use this
filter to query, and you cannot sort results by CPU usage.

Memory usage

Select a value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines with High
Memory use, above 80%, Low Memory use, below 10%, or None, no value.
If you are querying vRealize Operations Manager metrics, you cannot use this
filter to query, and you cannot sort results by memory usage.

Disk usage

Select a value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines with Low
Hard Disk use, less than 2 KBs per second or None, no value.
If you are querying vRealize Operations Manager metrics, you cannot use this
filter to query, and you cannot sort results by disk usage.

Network usage

Select a value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines with Low
Network use, less than 1 KB per second, or None, no value.
If you are querying vRealize Operations Manager metrics, you cannot use this
filter to query, and you cannot sort results by network usage.

Complex metric

Select a value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines based on
complex metrics. For example, select idle to find machines that have CPU,
network, memory, and disk usage values all under 20%.
You cannot use this filter if you are querying vRealize Operations Manager
metrics.

c
3

Click the search icon (

From the Deployments page, select one or more machines whose parent deployment is to be
reclaimed.
Only selected machines that are visible on the current results page are reclaimed.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click Reclaim.
The deployments that contain virtual machines that are selected on the current page are included in
the request.
Note The Reclaim Deployment page can list machines that are not available for reclamation, such
as machines for which the lease has expired. If you specify a machine that is not available for
reclamation, you receive the following error:
Selection Error: Virtual machine name is not in valid state for reclamation.

Enter the duration of the new lease in the New lease length (days) text box.
The minimum is 1 day, the maximum is 365 days, and the default is 7 days.

Enter how many days the deployment owner has to respond to the reclamation request in the Wait
before forcing lease (days) text box
At the end of that time, the deployment gets a new lease with the new lease length. The minimum
waiting period is 1 day, the maximum is 365 days, and the default is 3 days.

Enter a reason for the request in the Reason for request text box.

Click Submit.

Click OK.

When you send a reclamation request, it appears in the Inbox of the deployment owner. If the owner does
not respond to the request in the required number of days, the deployment gets a new lease of the
specified length, unless its current lease is shorter. If the owner clicks Item in Use on the reclamation
request, the deployment's lease remains unchanged. If the owner clicks Release for Reclamation, the
deployment lease expires immediately.
What to do next

Track Reclamation Requests.

Track Reclamation Requests
You can track the current state of reclamation requests and other details.
The following alternative methods are available for checking a recent reclamation request:
n

Click the Inbox tab and select Reclamation Requests to view reclamation request information.

Click the Reclamation Requests tab and view the list of recent requests

Click the Items tab and select Deployments to view recent deployment changes.

Prerequisites

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Procedure

Select Administration > Reclamation > Reclamation Requests.

Find the virtual machines that match your search criteria.

Click the Advanced Search down arrow to open the search box.

Type or select one or more search values.
Option

Action

Virtual Machine name contains

Type one or more characters in the text box to find virtual machine names that
match.

Owner name contains

Type one or more characters in the text box to find owner names that match.

Request Reason contains

Type one or more characters in the text box to find a request reason that
matches.

Request State

Select a request state value from the drop-down menu to find virtual machines
with a matching request state.

Click the Search icon (

Click the Advanced Search up arrow to close the search box.

) or press Enter to start the search.

(Optional) Click Refresh Data to update the display of reclamation requests.

Change the Reservation of a Managed Machine
You can change the reservation of a managed machine. This ability is useful when a machine moves to a
new storage path that is not available in its current reservation. For a single machine deployment, you
can also change the business group for the machine.
You can change the machine’s current compute resource. You can also move it to any reservation on that
compute resource.
You can also move a machine in a single machine deployment to a different business group if the
machine owner is a member of the target business group. You must be a business group manager of the
original and the target business group to use this function.
The change business group action does not recognize reservation policies. If there is a reservation policy
assigned to the machine, you cannot change its business group.
Prerequisites

Select Infrastructure > Managed Machines.

Locate the machine with the reservation to change.

Click Change Reservation in the Actions drop-down menu.

Select values from the drop-down menus as required.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click OK.

Create a Snapshot of Your Machine
Depending on how your administrators have configured your environment, you might be able to create a
snapshot of your virtual machine. A snapshot is an image of a virtual machine at a specific time. It is a
space-efficient copy of the original VM image. Snapshots are an easy way to recover a system from
damage, data loss, or security threats. After you create a snapshot of your virtual machine, you can apply
it and reset your system back to the point where the snapshot was taken.
When you create a memory snapshot, the snapshot captures the state of the virtual machine power
settings and, optionally, the virtual machine's memory. When you capture the virtual machine's memory
state, the snapshot operation takes longer to complete. You might also see a momentary lapse in
response over the network.
Prerequisites
n

An existing virtual machine that is powered on, off, or suspended.

If your virtual machine is configured for one or more independent disks, power off the machine before
creating a snapshot. You cannot create a snapshot when it is powered on. For disk configuration
information, see Custom Properties V Table.

Your tenant administrator or business group manager entitled you to the snapshot action.

Procedure

Select Items > Machines.

Locate the machine to snapshot.

In the Actions column, click the down arrow and click View Details.

Click Create Snapshot in the Actions menu.

Enter a name and, optionally, a description.

If you want to capture the memory and power settings of the machine, select Include memory.

Click Submit.

Configuring Remote Consoles for vSphere with Untrusted SSL Certificates
If your vRealize Automation deployment uses untrusted certificates, before you can use remote consoles
with VMRC, you must configure your client browser to trust the certificate, The steps to do this vary by
browser.
If vRealize Automation is configured with a trusted SSL certificate for your environment, then VMRC does
not require additional configuration on client browsers. When a vRealize Automation appliance certificate
is replaced and is a trusted certificate, there is no need to update certificate information for the Web
browser client.
If you want to replace the certificate, see the topic on replacing a vRealize Automation appliance
certificate in the System Administration guide for vRealize Automation.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Remote connections using VMRC for machines provisioned on vSphere are secured by vRealize
Appliance certificates through a proxy console. VMRC requires WebSockets support in the browser and
browsers must trust the vRealize Appliance certificate. The certificate can be obtained by going to the
root-level virtual appliance at an address of the form https://vra-va.eng.mycompany.com/.
For information about support requirements for browsers and vSphere, see the VMware vRealize Support
Matrix.
Configure Firefox to Trust a Certificate for vRealize Automation
Untrusted vRealize Automation appliance certificates must be manually imported to client browsers to
support VMware Remote Console on clients provisioned on vSphere.
For information about supported versions of Firefox, see the VMware vRealize Support Matrix on the
VMware Web site.
Note If vRealize Automation is configured with a trusted SSL certificate for your environment, then
VMware Remote Console does not require additional configuration on client browsers.
Procedure

In a Firefox browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.
A message appears saying that the certificate is not trusted.

Choose the option to display the current connection information. Click View Certificate to display the
current SSL certificate and click Detail in the Certificate Viewer.

Click More Information and click the Security tab on the Page Info page.

Select a certificate from the Certificate Hierarchy pane.
Option

Action

Certificate Authority issued certificates

Select the top-level vRealize Automation certificate.

Self-signed certificates

Select the vRealize Automation certificate.

Click Export.

Configure the certificate information in the Save Certificate To File dialog box.
a

Enter a certificate name in the Save As text box. The certificate name must end in .crt, .cert,
or .cer.

Select a location in which to save the file.

Select X.509 Certificate (PEM) as the format.

Click Save.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click the Authorities tab in the Certificate Management dialog box.
Option

Action

Windows

Select Preference > Advanced > Certificates from the Firefox menu.

iOS

Select Preference > Advanced > Certificates from the Firefox menu and click
View Certificates.

Click the Authorities tab and click Import.

10 Select the certificate file you saved earlier and click Open in the dialog box.
11 Edit the trust settings.
Option

Action

Self-signed certificates

Select This certificate can identify websites.

Certificates issued by a Certificate
Authority

Select Trust this CA to identify websites.

12 Click OK and restart the browser.
You can connect to the remote console without certificate errors.
Configure Internet Explorer to Trust a Certificate for vRealize Automation Appliance
Untrusted vRealize Automation appliance certificates must be manually imported to client browsers to
support VMware Remote Console on clients provisioned on vSphere.
Note If vRealize Automation is configured with a trusted SSL certificate for your environment, then
VMware Remote Console does not require additional configuration on client browsers.
The steps in this procedure apply for self-signed certificates and certificates issued by a Certificate
Authority.
For information about supported versions of Internet Explorer, see the VMware vRealize Support Matrix
on the VMware Web site.
Procedure

In an Internet Explorer browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.

Click View Certificate on the certificate error message that appears in the browser address bar.

Click the General tab of the Certificate Information window..

Verify that the information about the certificate is correct and click Install Certificate.

Select Place all certificates in the following store in the Certificate Store dialog box.

Click Browse to locate the certificate store.

Select Trusted Root Certification Authority and click OK.

Click Next on the Certificate Store dialog box.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Click Yes in the Security Warning dialog box to install the certificate.

10 Restart the browser.
You can connect to the remote console without certificate errors.
Configure Chrome to Trust a Certificate for vRealize Automation Appliance
Untrusted vRealize Automation appliance certificates must be manually imported to client browsers to
support VMware Remote Console on clients provisioned on vSphere.
For information about supported versions of Chrome, see the VMware vRealize Support Matrix on the
VMware Web site.
Note If vRealize Automation is configured with a trusted SSL certificate for your environment, then
VMware Remote Console does not require additional configuration on client browsers.
On Windows, Chrome and Internet Explorer use the same certificate store. This means that certificates
that are trusted by Internet Explorer are also trusted by Chrome. To establish trusted certificates for
Chrome, import them through Internet Explorer. For information about this procedure, see Configure
Internet Explorer to Trust a Certificate for vRealize Automation Appliance.
When you complete the procedure, restart Chrome.
To permanently trust a certificate on the Macintosh operating system, download the certificate file and
install the certificate as trusted in your certificate management tool.
Procedure

In a Chrome browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.

Click the icon in the address bar.

Click the certificate information link.

Save the certificate by dragging the certificate icon to the desktop.

Start the Keychain Access application.

Select File > Import Items.

On the Keychain Access screen, select the certificate file you saved earlier.
Set the value of Destination Key to System.

Click Open to import the certificate.

Restart the browser.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Connect Remotely to a Machine
You can connect remotely to a machine from the vRealize Automation console.
Prerequisites
n

Verify that VMware Tools is installed.
VMware Tools must be installed on your vRealize Automation client to support fully functioning
access when connecting with VMware Remote Console. If VMware Tools is not installed, problems
occur, such as the mouse pointer and mouse keys not working after connecting to the target machine.
For information about supported VMware Tools versions, see vRealize Automation Support Matrix.

Verify that the provisioned machine is powered on.

Procedure

Select Items > Deployment.

Click Actions in the machine name row or select the machine and click Actions on its machine page.

Select the remote connection method.
n

Select Connect Using RDP to connect by using RDP.

Select Connect to remote console to connect by using VMware Remote Console.

Respond to any prompts.
4

Click Connect and log in to the machine as directed.

When finished, log out and close the browser window.

Running Actions for Provisioned Resources
The actions that are available for a provisioned resource depend on the type of resource, how the action
was configured and made available for provisioned items, and the operational state of the item.
The configured actions that are available for a provisioned machine or deployment appear in the Actions
menu for the selected resource on the Items tab.
If the item was provisioned by IaaS using an IaaS machine blueprint, the list of available actions is
determined by what was selected on the Actions tab for the machine type component when the blueprint
was created, and then by what is applicable based on machine type or state.
If the item was provisioned using an XaaS blueprint, the resource actions must be created, published,
and entitled in the same service that is used to provision the item. The list of available actions is
determined by the item type and the current state of the item.
The available actions for an item that was provisioned as an IaaS machine might also include XaaS
resource actions if the actions are mapped to the item.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Action Menu Options for Provisioned Resources
Actions are changes that you can make to provisioned resources. The vRealize Automation actions are
used to manage the life cycle of the resources.
The options on the Action menu for a provisioned item include the actions specified on the blueprint and
might include custom menu operations created by your service architects. The available actions depend
on how your business group manager or tenant administrator configured the entitlement that contains the
resource on which the actions run.
Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options
Action

Resource Type

Description

Associate Floating IP

Machine (OpenStack)

Associate a floating IP address with
an Openstack machine.

Cancel Reconfigure

Machine

Cancel a running reconfiguration
action.

Change Lease

Deployment and Machine

Change the number of days
remaining in the lease for either a
specific machine or for all resources
included in a deployment. If you do
not provide a value, the lease does
not expire.

Change Owner

Deployment

Change the owner of the
deployment and all the included
resources. Only Business group
managers and support users can
change the ownership of a
deployment.
The machine must be in the On,
Off, or Active state when you initiate
the change owner action or the
action fails with the following
message:
The action is invalid for
the machine.

Connect using VMRC

Machine

Connect to the virtual machine
using a VMRC 8.x application.
To use this action, the VMRC
application must be installed on the
local system of the service catalog
user who is running the action.
For installation and user
instructions, see VMware Remote
Console Documentation. To
download, see Download VMware
Remote Console.
The VMRC 8.x replaces the
previous VMware Remote Console.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description

Connect to remote console

Machine

Connect to the selected machine
using VMware Remote Console.
The virtual machine console
appears in the browser. The VMRC
8.x replaces the VMware Remote
Console.

Connect using Console Ticket

Machine (OpenStack and KVM)

Connect to the OpenStack or KVM
virtual machine using a console
ticket for a
VMware Remote Console
connection.

Connect using ICA

Machine (Citrix)

Connect to the Citrix machine using
the Independent Computing
Architecture.

Connect using RDP

Machine

Connect to the machine by using
Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol.

Connect using SSH

Machine

Connect to the selected machine by
using SSH.
The Connect Using SSH option
requires that your browser has a
plug-in that supports SSH, for
example the FireSSH SSH terminal
client for Mozilla Firefox and Google
Chrome. When the plug-in is
present, selecting Connect Using
SSH displays an SSH console and
prompts for your administrator
credentials.
To use this action, the Machine.SSH
custom property must be included
and set to true in the blueprint's
machine component in either a
property group or individual custom
property.

Connect using Virtual Desktop

Machine

Connect to the selected machine
using Microsoft virtual desktop.

Create Snapshot

Virtual Machine

Create a snapshot of the virtual
machine. If you are allowed only
two snapshots and you already
have them, this option is not
available until you delete a
snapshot.

Delete Snapshot

Virtual Machine

Delete a snapshot of the virtual
machine.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description

Destroy

Cloud Machine, Deployment, Virtual Machine, and
VMware NSX Edge

Immediately destroy a provisioned
resource. You must run this action
to destroy XaaS resources, even if
they are part of a deployment you
are destroying. Other resources are
destroyed when their lease or their
archival period ends.
With the exception of XaaS,
destroying components of a
deployment is not a recommended
best practice. It is recommended to
use the scale in action to reduce the
number of machines in your
deployment, or destroy the entire
deployment.
The Destroy action is not available
for the following deployment
situations:
n

physical machine deployments

deployments with an NSX
existing network or NSX
existing security resource

deployments with an NSX ondemand load balancer resource

Because an NSX load balancer is
property of an on-demand NSX
edge, when an NSX edge is
destroyed, the load balancer
resource is also destroyed and
resources are released. When a
machine tier that is load balanced is
destroyed, it is removed from the
load balancer pool on the respective
NSX edge.
Note Note: Storage and memory
that are assigned to a provisioned
machine by a reservation are
released when the machine to
which they are assigned is deleted
in vRealize Automation by the
Destroy action. The storage and
memory are not released if the
machine is deleted on the
vCenter Server.
When destroying a deployment that
contains an Amazon machine
component, all EBS volumes that
were added to the machine during
its life cycle are detached, rather

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description
than destroyed.
vRealize Automation does not
provide an option for destroying the
EBS volumes.

Destroy Existing Network

Existing Network

Destroy the network.

Destroy VMWare NSX Load
Balancer

VMWare NSX Load Balancer

Destroy the NSX load balancer.

Destroy VMWare NSX Network

VMWare NSX Network

Destroy the NSX network.

Destroy VMWare NSX Security
Group

VMWare NSX Security Group

Destroy the NSX security group.

Destroy VMWare NSX Security Tag

VMWare NSX Security Tag

Destroy the NSX security tag.

Disassociate Floating IP

Machine (Openstack)

Remove the floating IP from the
Openstack machine.

Execute Reconfigure

Machine

Override a scheduled
reconfiguration, or rerun or
reschedule a failed reconfiguration.

Expire

Deployment and Machine

Terminate the deployment or
machine lease for all resources
included in the deployment.

Export Certificate

Machine

Export the certificate from a Cloud
machine.

Get Expiration Reminder

Machine

Downloads a calendar event file for
the current lease expiration date.

Install Tools

Machine

Install VMware Tools on a vSphere
virtual machine.

Power Cycle

Machine

Power off the machine, then power
it back on.

Power Off

Machine

Power off the machine without
shutting down the guest operating
system.

Power On

Machine

Power on the machine. If the
machine was suspended, normal
operation resumes from the point at
which the machine was suspended.

Reboot

Machine

Reboot the guest operating system
on a vSphere virtual machine.
VMware Tools must be installed on
the machine to use this action.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description

Reconfigure

Machine

A business group manager, support
user, or machine owner can
reconfigure the following machine
settings on a vSphere machine:
n

Change description

Change CPU, memory,
network, and disk settings

Add, edit, and delete properties

Reconfigure shutdown

Change machine owner
(Business group managers and
support users only)

You cannot change a storage
reservation policy if doing so would
change the storage profile on a
disk.
Register VDI

Virtual Machine (XenServer)

Reprovision

Machine

Destroys the machine, then initiates
the provisioning workflow to create
a new machine with the same
name.
When you request that a machine
be reprovisioned, a known issue
might cause vRealize Automation to
display the reprovisioning status as
Complete in the catalog, when the
actual state is In Progress. After you
submit a request to reprovision a
machine, you can use any of the
following sequences to check the
status of the reprovisioned machine:

Revert Snapshot

VMware, Inc.

Virtual Machine

Infrastructure > Managed
Machines

Items > Item Details

Administration > Events >
Event Logs

Revert to a previous snapshot of the
machine. You must have an existing
snapshot to use this action.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description

Scale In

Deployment

Destroy unneeded instances of
machines in your deployment to
adjust to reduced capacity
requirements. Machine components
and any software components
installed on them are destroyed.
Dependent software components
and networking and security
components are updated for the
new deployment configuration.
XaaS components are not scalable
and are not updated during scale
operations.
You can try to repair partially
successful scale operations by
attempting to scale the deployment
again. However, you cannot scale a
deployment to its current size, and
fixing a partially successful scale
this way does not deallocate the
dangling resources. You can view
the request execution details screen
and find out which tasks failed on
which nodes to help you decide
whether to fix the partially
successful scale with another scale
operation. Failed and partially
successful scale operations do not
impact the functionality of your
original deployment, and you can
continue to use your catalog items
while you troubleshoot any failures.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Table 2‑15. Action Menu Options (Continued)
Action

Resource Type

Description

Scale Out

Deployment

Provision additional instances of
machines in your deployment to
adjust to growing capacity
requirements. Machine components
and any software components
installed on them are provisioned.
Dependent software components
and networking and security
components are updated for the
new deployment configuration.
XaaS components are not scalable
and are not updated during scale
operations.
You can try to repair partially
successful scale operations by
attempting to scale the deployment
again. However, you cannot scale a
deployment to its current size, and
fixing a partially successful scale
this way does not deallocate the
dangling resources. You can view
the request execution details screen
and find out which tasks failed on
which nodes to help you decide
whether to fix the partially
successful scale with another scale
operation. Failed and partially
successful scale operations do not
impact the functionality of your
original deployment, and you can
continue to use your catalog items
while you troubleshoot any failures.

Shutdown

Machine

Shut down the guest operating
system and power off the machine.
VMware Tools must be installed on
the machine to use this action.

Suspend

Machine

Pause the machine so that it cannot
be used and does not consume any
system resources other than the
storage it is currently using.

Unregister

Machine

Remove the machine from the
inventory without destroying it.
Unregistered machines are not
usable.

Unregister VDI

Virtual Machine (XenServer)

Unregister the virtual disk image on
XenServer items.

VMware, Inc.

Managing vRealize Automation

Troubleshooting Missing Actions in the Resource Actions Menu
As a machine or resource owner, you do not see all entitled actions for a provisioned item.
Problem

In an environment where you know that an action was entitled for your user or business group, you
expect to see all actions when you select an item in your Items list.
Cause

The availability of actions depends on the type of provisioned resource, operational state of the resource,
and how it was configured and made available. The following list provides some reasons why you do not
see all configured actions.
n

The action is not applicable based on the current state of the provisioned resource. For example,
Power Off is available only when the machine is powered on.

The action is not applicable to the selected item type. If the item does not support the action, it does
not appear in the list. For example, the Create Snapshot action is not available for a physical
machine, and the Connect by Using RDP action is not available if the selected item is a Linux
machine.

The action is applicable for the provisioned resource type, but the action is disabled in the
Infrastructure blueprint. If the action is disabled, it never appears as an available action for any of the
items that were provisioned using the blueprint.

The action is not included in the entitlement used to provision the item on which you need to run the
action. Only entitled actions, either as part of an IaaS blueprint or as an XaaS resource action, can
appear in the Actions menu.

The action is created as an XaaS resource action but was not included in the entitlement used to
provision the item on which you need to run the action. Only entitled actions appear in the Actions
menu.

The action might be limited based on the configured target criteria for XaaS resource actions or
resource mappings to provisioned IaaS machines.

Solution
n

Verify that the action is applicable to the provisioned item or the state of the provisioned item.

Verify that the action is configured and included in the entitlement used to provision the item.

VMware, Inc.

Source Exif Data:

File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.5
Linearized                      : No
Author                          : VMware, Inc.
Create Date                     : 2017:12:04 14:56:50-08:00
Modify Date                     : 2017:12:04 14:56:50-08:00
Creator                         : AH XSL Formatter V6.3 MR1 for Windows (x64) : 6.3.2.23978 (2016/03/18 11:26JST)
Producer                        : Antenna House PDF Output Library 6.3.762 (Windows (x64))
Title                           : Managing vRealize Automation - vRealize Automation 7.2
Trapped                         : False
Page Count                      : 93
Page Mode                       : UseOutlines
Page Layout                     : SinglePage
Language                        : EN

EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools

Managing VRealize Automation 7.2 V Realize 72 Management

Navigation menu

Versions of this User Manual:

Views

Navigation