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Managing vRealize Automation

Managing vRealize

Automation

vRealize Automation 7.2

Managing vRealize Automation

VMware, Inc. 2

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Contents

1Managing vRealize Automation 5

Updated Information 6

2Managing vRealize Automation 7

Broadcast a Message on the Message Board Portlet 7

Starting Up and Shutting Down vRealize Automation 9

Start Up vRealize Automation 9

Restart vRealize Automation 10

Shut Down vRealize Automation 11

Updating vRealize Automation Certificates 11

Extracting Certificates and Private Keys 12

Replace Certificates in the vRealize Automation appliance 13

Replace the Infrastructure as a Service Certificate 15

Replace the IaaS Manager Service Certificate 17

Updating the vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate 19

Replace a Management Agent Certificate 23

Change the Polling Method for Certificates 26

Managing the vRealize Automation Postgres Appliance Database 26

Configure the Appliance Database 27

Scenario: Perform Manual vRealize Automation Appliance Database Failover 29

Scenario: Perform a Maintenance Database Failover 30

Backup and Recovery for vRealize Automation Installations 31

The Customer Experience Improvement Program 31

Join or Leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program for vRealize Automation 31

Configure Data Collection Time 32

Adjusting System Settings 33

Modify the All Services Icon in the Service Catalog 33

Customize Data Rollover Settings 34

Adjusting Settings in the Manager Service Configuration File 36

Monitoring vRealize Automation 42

Monitoring Workflows and Viewing Logs 42

Monitoring Event Logs and Services 42

Viewing Host Information for Clusters in Distributed Deployments 44

Monitoring and Managing Resources 46

Choosing a Resource Monitoring Scenario 46

Resource Usage Terminology 50

Connecting to a Cloud Machine 50

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Reducing Reservation Usage by Attrition 53

Decommissioning a Storage Path 53

Data Collection 54

Understanding vSwap Allocation Checking for vCenter Server Endpoints 58

Removing Datacenter Locations 59

Monitoring Containers 59

Bulk Import, Update, or Migrate Virtual Machines 59

Import a Virtual Machine to a vRealize Automation Environment 60

Update a Virtual Machine in a vRealize Automation Environment 64

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a Different vRealize Automation Environment 66

Managing Machines 70

Managing Virtual Machines 70

Running Actions for Provisioned Resources 85

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Managing vRealize Automation 1

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.

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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:

nAction Menu Options for Provisioned Resources

nImport a Virtual Machine to a vRealize Automation Environment

nMigrate a Virtual Machine to a Different vRealize Automation Environment

EN-002293-01 Updated the Monitoring Containers topic.

EN-002293-00 Initial release.

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Managing vRealize Automation 2

You can manage provisioned machines and other aspects of your vRealize Automation deployment.

This section includes the following topics:

nBroadcast a Message on the Message Board Portlet

nStarting Up and Shutting Down vRealize Automation

nUpdating vRealize Automation Certificates

nManaging the vRealize Automation Postgres Appliance Database

nBackup and Recovery for vRealize Automation Installations

nThe Customer Experience Improvement Program

nAdjusting System Settings

nMonitoring vRealize Automation

nMonitoring and Managing Resources

nMonitoring Containers

nBulk Import, Update, or Migrate Virtual Machines

nManaging 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.

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Table 2‑1. Message Board Portlet Limitations

Option Limitations

URL message limitations nYou can only publish content that is hosted on an https site.

nYou cannot use self-signed certificates. The option to accept

the certificate does not appear in the message board.

nThe 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 X-

Frame-Options header to X-Frame-Options: ALLOW-FROM

https://<vRealizeAutomationApplicanceURL>.

nSome 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.

nIf you display an internal HTML page, the page cannot have

the vRealize Automation host as the URL.

Custom message limitations nTo maintain security, the Custom Message does not support

HTML code. For example, you cannot use <href> to link to a

Web site. You must use the URL message option.

Prerequisites

Procedure

1Select the Home tab.

2Click the Edit icon ( ) in the upper right corner.

3Select Add Portlets.

4Locate Message Board and click Add.

5Click Close.

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.

6To configure the message as a tenant administrator, click Add New Message.

7Configure one of the following options.

Option Description

URL Enter the page URL.

Custom Message Enter the plain text message.

8Click Publish.

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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

1Start the MS SQL database machine. If you are using a legacy PostgreSQL standalone database,

start that machine as well.

2(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.

3Start 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.

4Start the primary Web node and wait for the startup to finish.

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

minutes.

6Start the primary Manager Service node and wait for 2 to 5 minutes, depending on your site

configuration.

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7Start 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.

8If you disabled health checks for your load balancers, reenable them.

9Verify that the startup succeeded.

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

b Click the Services tab.

c 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

1Restart the all instances of the vRealize Automation appliance at the same time.

2Restart the primary Web node and wait for the startup to finish.

3If you are running a distributed deployment, start all secondary Web nodes and wait for the startup to

finish.

4Restart all Manager Service nodes and wait for the startup to finish.

5Restart 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.

6Verify that the service you restarted is registered.

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

b Click the Services tab.

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

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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

1Shut 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.

2Shut down virtual machines that are running the Manager Service and wait for the shutdown to finish.

3(Optional) For distributed deployments, shut down all secondary Web nodes and wait for the

shutdown to finish.

4Shut down the primary Web node, and wait for the shutdown to finish.

5(Optional) For distributed deployments, shut down all secondary vRealize Automation appliance

instances and wait for the shutdown to finish.

6Shut 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.

7Shut down the MSSQL virtual machines in any order and wait for the shutdown to finish.

8If 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:

nvRealize Automation appliance

nIaaS website component

nIaaS 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.

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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:

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

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

nProvide 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.

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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

1Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

2Log in with user name root and the password you specified when deploying the vRealize Automation

appliance.

3Select vRA Settings > Host Settings.

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4Select 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

b One or more intermediate certificates

c A root CA certificate

Option Action

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

Generate Certificate a 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.

b Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the

Organization text box.

c Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in

the Organizational Unit text box.

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

box.

Import a 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.

b 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.

c (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.

5Click Save Settings.

After a few minutes, the certificate details for all applicable instances of the vRealize Automation

appliance appear on the page.

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6If 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.

b Click the Admin tab.

c Click the Admin sub menu.

d Select the SSH service enabled check box.

Deselect the check box to disable SSH when finished.

e Select the Administrator SSH login check box.

Deselect the check box to disable SSH when finished.

f Click Save Settings.

7Confirm 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 If prompted, continue past the certificate warnings.

c 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.

8If 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:

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

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

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nProvide 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

1Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

2Log in with user name root and the password you specified when deploying the vRealize Automation

appliance.

3Select vRA Settings > Certificates.

4Click IaaS Web on the Component Type menu.

5Go to the IaaS Web Certificate pane.

6Select 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

b One or more intermediate certificates

c A root CA certificate

Option Description

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

Generate Certificate a 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.

b Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the

Organization text box.

c Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in

the Organizational Unit text box.

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

box.

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Option Description

Import a 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.

b 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.

c (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.

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 management interface.

7Click 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

1Open a Web browser to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface URL.

2Log in with user name root and the password you specified when deploying the vRealize Automation

appliance.

3Select vRA Settings > Certificates.

4Click Manager Service from the Certificate Type menu.

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5Select 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

b One or more intermediate certificates

c A root CA certificate

Option Description

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

Generate Certificate a 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.

b Enter your organization name, such as your company name, in the

Organization text box.

c Enter your organizational unit, such as your department name or location, in

the Organizational Unit text box.

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

box.

Import a 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.

b 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.

c (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.

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 management interface.

6Click Save Settings.

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

7If required by your network or load balancer, copy the imported or newly created certificate to the load

balancer.

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8Open 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.

9If 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

1Find the Management Agent Identifier

You use the Management Agent identifier when you create and register a new management site

server certificate.

2Replace 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.

3Update 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.

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Find the Management Agent Identiﬁer

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

certificate.

Procedure

1Open the Management Agent configuration file located at <vra-installation-dir>\Management

Agent\VMware.IaaS.Management.Agent.exe.config.

2Record 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

nNew 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

1Log in by using the appliance console or SSH.

2Back up your current certificate file.

cp /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem-bak

3Copy the new certificate to your appliance by replacing the content of the

file /opt/vmware/etc/lighttpd/server.pem with the new certificate information.

4Run the following command to restart the lighttpd server.

service vami-lighttp restart

5Log in to the management console and validate that the certificate is replaced. You might need to

restart your browser.

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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.

nFor information about automatic update, see Automatically Update Management Agents in a

Distributed Environment to Recognize a vRealize Automation Appliance Management Site Certificate.

nFor 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.

nManually 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.

nAutomatically 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.

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.

Managing vRealize Automation

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Procedure

1Stop the VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service.

2Navigate 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.

3Open 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:

<endpoint address="https://vra-va.local:5480"

thumbprint="D1542471C30A9CE694A512C5F0F19E45E6FA32E6" />

</managementEndpoints>

</agentConfiguration>

4Change the thumbprint to the SHA1 thumbprint of the new certificate.

For example:

<endpoint address="https://vra-va.local:5480"

thumbprint="8598B073359BAE7597F04D988AD2F083259F1201" />

</managementEndpoints>

</agentConfiguration>

5Start the VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service.

6Login to the virtual appliance management site and go to vRA Settings > Cluster.

7Check 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.

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Procedure

1When Management Agents are running, replace the certificate on a single vRealize Automation

appliance management site in your deployment.

2Wait fifteen minutes for the Management Agent to synchronize with the new vRealize Automation

appliance management site certificate.

3Replace 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 self-

signed 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

nCopy 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.

nWhen 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

1Stop the Management Agent service from your Windows Services snap-in.

a From your Windows machine, click Start.

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

c Right-click VMware vCloud Automation Center Management Agent service and click Stop to

stop the service.

2Remove 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-certificates-

console.aspx.

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

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

menu.

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c Select Certificates and click Add.

d Select Computer account and click Next.

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

f Click OK.

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

h Expand Personal and select the Certificates folder.

i Select the current Management Agent certificate and click Delete.

j Click Yes to confirm the delete action.

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3Register the Management Agent certificate with the vRealize Automation appliance management site.

a Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the Cafe directory on the machine

on which the Management Agent is installed at <vra-installation-dir>\Management

Agent\Tools\Cafe, typically C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Management

Agent\Tools\Cafe.

b 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"

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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

1Open 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.

2Add the following lines to the <appSettings> section of the Manager Service configuration file.

3Restart 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.

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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. nMight affect system performance .

nRequires at least three nodes.

Asynchronous nRequires only two nodes.

nAffects 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.

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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

nInstall and configure vRealize Automation according to appropriate instructions in the Installing

vRealize Automation 7.2.

nLog in to the vRealize Automation management console as root.

nConfigure an appropriate embedded Postgres appliance database cluster as part of your

vRealize Automation deployment.

Procedure

1On the Virtual Appliance Management Interface, select vRA Settings > Database.

2If your database uses multiple nodes, review the table at the bottom of the page and ensure that the

system is operating appropriately.

nEnsure that all nodes are listed.

nEnsure 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.

3To promote one of the nodes to be the master, click Promote in the appropriate column.

4Click Save Settings to save your configuration if you have made any changes.

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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

nConfigure a cluster of vRealize Automation appliance nodes. Each node hosts a copy of the

embedded Postgres appliance database.

Procedure

1Remove the master node IP address from the external load balancer.

2Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface as root.

https://vrealize-automation-appliance-FQDN:5480

3Click vRA Settings > Database.

4From the list of database nodes, locate the replica node with the lowest priority.

Replica nodes appear in ascending priority order.

5Click Promote and wait for the operation to finish.

When finished, the replica node is listed as the new master node.

6Correct 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.

b 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.

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

service vpostgres stop

d Add the former master node back to its original network, the one that is routing to the other

vRealize Automation appliance nodes.

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

service haproxy restart

f Log in to the new vRealize Automation appliance master node management interface as root.

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g Click vRA Settings > Database.

h Locate the former master node, and click Reset.

i After a successful reset, restart the former master node.

j With the former master powered on, verify that the following services are running.

haproxy

horizon-workspace

rabbitmq-server

vami-lighttp

vcac-server

vco-server

k 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

nvRealize Automation is installed and configured according to appropriate instructions in the Installing

vRealize Automation 7.2.

nLog in to the vRealize Automation management console as root.

nInstall and configure an appropriate embedded Postgres appliance database cluster.

nIf your database uses synchronous replication mode, ensure that there are at least three active nodes

in the cluster.

Procedure

1Ensure that the current master node is up and running in preparation for maintenance.

2Select vRA Settings > Database on the Virtual Appliance Management Interface.

3Select 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.

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4Perform the appropriate replica maintenance.

5When the maintenance is complete, ensure that the virtual appliance is running with network

connectivity and that its HAProxy service is running.

a Log in to the vRealize Automation management console as root.

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

6Click 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.

7Following successful reset, return the replica virtual appliance node IP address to the external virtual

appliance load balancer IP address pool.

8Ensure 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:

nvRealize Automation Preparations for Backing Up

nvRealize 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.

Managing vRealize Automation

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Procedure

1Log in as root to the vRealize Automation appliance management interface.

https://vrealize-automation-appliance-FQDN:5480

2Click the Telemetry tab.

3Check 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.

4Click 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

1Log in to a console session on the vRealize Automation appliance as root.

2Open the following file in a text editor.

/etc/telemetry/telemetry-collector-vami.properties

3Edit the properties for day of week (dow) and hour of day (hod).

Property Description

frequency.dow=<day-of-week>Day when data collection occurs.

frequency.hod=<hour-of-day>Local time of day when data collection occurs. Possible

values are 0–23.

4Save and close telemetry-collector-vami.properties.

5Apply the settings by entering the following command.

vcac-config telemetry-config-update --update-info

Changes are applied to all nodes in your deployment.

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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

nConvert the image to a base64 encoded string. You can use a conversion tool such as

www.dailycoding.com/UTILS/CONVERTER/IMAGETOBASE64.ASPX.

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

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

Procedure

1Set the VCAC variable in the terminal session for the cURL commands.

Operating System Command

Linux/Mac export VCAC=<VA URL>

Windows set VCAC=<VA URL>

2Retrieve 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":"<Catalog Administrator

User>","password":"<password>","tenant":"vsphere.local"}'

Windows curl https://%VCAC%/identity/api/tokens --insecure -H

"Accept:application/json" -H "Content-Type:application/json" --

data "{\"username\":\"<Catalog Administrator

User>\",\"password\":\"<password>\",\"tenant\":\"vsphere.local\"}

An authentication token is generated.

Managing vRealize Automation

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3Set the authentication token variable by replacing <Auth Token> with the token string you generated

in the previous step.

Operating System Command

Linux/Mac export AUTH="Bearer <Auth Token>"

Windows set AUTH=Bearer <Auth Token>

4Add 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":"<filena

me>","contentType":"image/png","image":"<IMAGE DATA as base64

string>"}'

Windows 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\":\"

<filename>\",\"contentType\":\"image/png\",\"image\":\"<IMAGE

DATA as base64 string>\"}"

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:

nUserLog

nAudit

nCategoryLog

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nVirtualMachineHistory

nVirtualMachineHistoryProp

nAuditLogItems

nAuditLogItemsProperties

nTrackingLogItems

nWorkflowHistoryInstances

nWorkflowHistoryResults

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

1Log in to the vRealize Automation console as a system administrator.

2Select Infrastructure > Administration > Global Settings.

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3On 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.

4Click 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.

5Click 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<add key="ProcessLeaseWorkflowTimerCallbackIntervalMilliseconds" value="600000"/>

n<add key="BulkRequestWorkflowTimerCallbackMilliseconds" value="10000"/>

n<add key="MachineRequestTimerCallbackMilliseconds" value="10000"/>

n<add key="MachineWorkflowCreationTimerCallbackMilliseconds" value="10000"/>

n<add key="RepositoryConnectionMaxRetryCount" value="100"/>

n<add key="MachineCatalogRegistrationRetryTimerCallbackMilliseconds"

value="120000"/>

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n<add key="MachineCatalogUnregistrationRetryTimerCallbackMilliseconds"

value="120000"/>

n<add key="MachineCatalogUpdateMaxRetryCount" value="15"/>

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:

nA single user submits a request for multiple machines

nMany users request machines at the same time

nOne 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:

nThe effect on performance of concurrent resource-intensive vRealize Automation workflow activities,

including the SetupOS activity (for machines created within the virtualization platform, as in WIM-

based provisioning) and the Clone activity (for machines cloned within the virtualization platform).

nThe 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.

nAny 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.

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If you do increase the configured vRealize Automation per-agent limit, you may have to make additional

configuration adjustments in vRealize Automation, as follows:

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

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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

this is the server on which the Manager Service was installed.

Procedure

1Open 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.

2Locate the section called workflowTimeoutConfigurationSection.

3Update 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

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

4Save and close the file.

5Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

6Stop and then restart the vRealize Automation service.

7(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.

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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

this is the server on which the Manager Service was installed.

Procedure

1Open 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.

2Update 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.

3Save and close the file.

4Select Start > Administrative Tools > Services.

5Stop and then restart the vCloud Automation Center service.

6(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.

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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

1Log in to the vRealize Automation server by using credentials with administrative access.

2Edit 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.

3Edit 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.

nError logs only recoverable errors and higher

nWarning logs noncritical warnings and higher

nInformation logs all informative messages and higher

nVerbose logs a debugging trace and can impair performance

For example, <add key="RepositoryLogSeverity" value="Warning" />.

RepositoryLogCategory Specify a category to log all events for that category regardless of severity. For

example, <add key="RepositoryLogCategory"

value="MissingMachines,UnregisteredMachines,AcceptMachineRequest,

RejectMachineRequest" /> logs all events for missing or unregistered

machines, and every accepted or rejected machine request.

4Save and close the file.

5Select 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.

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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 Display workflow status and optionally open a specific

workflow to display its details.

Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > DEM Status.

View and optionally export log data. IaaS administrator 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 workflow history and optionally open a specific

workflow to display its execution details.

Select Infrastructure > Monitoring > Workflow History.

Display a list of events, including event

type, time, user ID, and so on, and

optionally display an event details page.

System administrator 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.

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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

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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:

nA list of all nodes in your deployment

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

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

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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

1Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance with user name root and the password you specified

when deploying the appliance.

2Click vRA Settings.

3Click the Cluster tab.

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

4Click 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

1Log in to the vRealize Automation appliance by using the user name root and the password you

specified when you deployed the appliance.

2Click vRA Settings.

3Click the Cluster tab.

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

4Locate the node ID for the node to be deleted and copy the ID to use in the next step.

5Open 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

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6Click 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,

memory, and machine quota of your

reservation that is currently allocated

and determine the capacity that

remains available to the reservation.

Fabric Administrator (monitor resource

usage for reservations on your compute

resources and physical machines)

Infrastructure > Reservations >

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.

nTenant Administrator (monitor

resource usage for all groups in your

tenant)

nBusiness 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.

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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

Procedure

1Navigate to the Home page.

2Click the Edit icon in the upper-right corner of the page and click Add Portlets in the drop-down

menu.

3Click Add for each report to add to your Home page.

A disabled Add button indicates an already added report.

4Click 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

Procedure

1Navigate to the Home page.

2Click the Edit icon ( ) in the upper-right corner of the page and click Change Layout in the drop-

down menu.

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3Select 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.

4Click Submit.

5Point to the title bar of a report.

The cursor changes to a four-headed cursor.

6Drag 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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console.

nAdd Reports to the Home Page.

Procedure

1Navigate to the Home page.

2Click 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.

3(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.

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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

Blueprint

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

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

Procedure

1Select Home.

2Click the Edit icon ( ) in the upper right corner.

3Select Add Portlets.

4Locate Business Groups Resource Allocation and click Add.

5Click Close.

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

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6Click 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.

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If needed, you can create the necessary vRealize Automation user credentials. The user credentials are

then valid for subsequent logins to that machine.

Prerequisites

nThe Amazon machine has already been provisioned.

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, business group manager, or support

user.

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

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

Procedure

1Navigate to the Items page and filter on the groups you manage or a specific group.

2Select 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.

3Select Edit in the Actions drop-down menu.

4Click Show Administrator Password to obtain the administrator password of the machine.

Alternatively, you can obtain the password using an external Amazon procedure.

5Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.

6Click User another account when prompted for the login credentials.

7Type LOCAL\Administrator when prompted for the user name.

8Type the administrator password when prompted.

9Click 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.

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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

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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, business group manager, or support

user.

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

provisioning

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

Procedure

1Navigate to the Items page and filter on the groups you manage or a specific group.

2Select 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.

3Select Edit in the Actions drop-down menu.

4Click 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.

5Click Connect Using RDP from the Actions drop-down menu.

6Click User another account when prompted for the login credentials.

7Type LOCAL\Administrator when prompted for the user name.

8Type the administrator password when prompted.

9Click OK.

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

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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.

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

3 Wait for vRealize Automation to automatically run inventory data collection or initiate inventory data

collection manually. See Configure Compute Resource Data Collection.

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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

Procedure

1Select Infrastructure > Reservations > Reservations.

2Point to the reservation on which the storage path you are decommissioning is used and click Edit.

3Click the Resouces tab.

4Locate the storage path you are decommissioning.

5Click the Edit icon ( ).

6Select the check box in the Disabled column to disable this storage path.

7Click the Save icon ( ).

8Click OK.

9Repeat 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.

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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

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Procedure

1Select Infrastructure > Endpoints > Endpoints.

2Point to the endpoint for which you want to run data collection and click Data Collection.

3Click Start.

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

initiated.

5Click 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

Procedure

1Select Infrastructure > Compute Resources > Compute Resources.

2Point to the compute resource for which to configure data collection and click Data Collection.

3Configure Compute Resource data collection specifications.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

4Configure Inventory data collection.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

nEnter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between

inventory data collections.

nClick Request Now to manually start data collection.

5Configure State data collection.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

nEnter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in minutes) between

state data collections.

nClick Request Now to manually start data collection.

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6Configure Performance data collection.

This is available only for vSphere integrations.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

nEnter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between

performance data collections.

nClick Request Now to manually start data collection.

7Configure Snapshot Inventory data collection.

This is option is available for compute resources managed by vRealize Business for Cloud.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

nEnter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between

snapshot data collections.

nClick Request Now to manually start data collection.

8Configure Cost data collection.

This is option is available for compute resources managed by vRealize Business for Cloud.

nSelect On to enable data collection.

nSelect Off to disable data collection.

nEnter a number in the Frequency text box to configure the time interval (in hours) between cost

data collections.

nClick Request Now to manually start data collection.

9Click 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

Procedure

1Select Infrastructure > Compute Resources > Compute Resources.

2Click Update Cost.

3Click Request Now.

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

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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:

nThe 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.

nSwap size is considered when creating or reconfiguring a virtual machine . The maximum swap size

is the size of the virtual machine's memory.

nReserved values for vRealize Automation storage reservations in a host must not exceed the physical

capacity of the compute resource.

nWhen creating a reservation, the sum of the reserved values must not exceed the available storage

space.

nResource 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.

nvSwap does not validate the swap space that is available during power on operations for existing

machines.

nYou must re-run data collection to capture any changes made to the vSphere endpoint relative to

vSwap.

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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.

2 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:

nImport one or more unmanaged virtual machines so that they can be managed in a

vRealize Automation environment.

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

nMigrate 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.

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Prerequisites

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a fabric administrator and as a business group

manager.

nIf 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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a fabric administrator and as a business group

manager.

nIf 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

1Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click Generate CSV File.

c Select Unmanaged from the Machines drop-down menu.

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

e Enter the Owner default value.

f 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.

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g 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:

nHost Reservation (Name or ID) = INVALID_RESERVATION

nHost 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.

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

j Click OK.

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2Edit 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:

nReservation

nStorage location

nBlueprint

nVirtual machine component

nOwner 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.

b 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

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

nChange the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP

address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

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

11.27.42.57.

nThe 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 Save the CSV file.

3Use the vRealize Automation management interface to import your virtual machine to a

vRealize Automation environment.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click New.

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

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

e 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.

f Click OK.

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

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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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a fabric administrator and as a business group

manager.

Procedure

1Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click Generate CSV File.

c Select Managed from the Machines drop-down menu.

d 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.

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

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

properties.

g Click OK.

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2Edit 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:

nReservation

nStorage location

nBlueprint

nMachine component

nOwner 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.

nChange the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP

address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

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

11.27.42.57.

nThe 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 Save the CSV file and close your text editor.

3Use the vRealize Automation management interface to update one or more virtual machines in a

vRealize Automation environment.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click New.

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

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

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e 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.

f Click OK.

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

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a Dierent 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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a fabric administrator and as a business group

manager.

nIf 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

1Generate a virtual machine CSV data file.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click Generate CSV File.

c Select Managed from the Machines drop-down menu.

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d 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.

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

f (Optional) Select Include custom properties.

You include custom properties when you import a virtual machine into a new deployment with the

same properties.

g Click OK.

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2Edit 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-a84a-

fed242340426a

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.

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.

ImportedDeployment0001

Converged Blueprint

Enter the ID of the blueprint in the target vRealize Automation

environment that you use to import the virtual machine.

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.

ImportBlueprint

Component Blueprint

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

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Example of a complete, properly formatted CSV line: Yes, MyMachine, a6e05812-0b06-4d4e-

a84a-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.

nChange the # to the number of the network interface being configured with this static IP

address. For example, VirtualMachineNetwork0.Address.

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

11.27.42.57.

nThe 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 Save the CSV file.

3Use the vRealize Automation management interface to migrate your virtual machine to a

vRealize Automation environment.

a Select Infrastructure > Administration > Bulk Imports.

b Click New.

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

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

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e 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.

f 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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, support user, tenant

administrator, or business group manager.

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

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Procedure

1Start the Operation

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

2Reconfigure 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.

3Reconfigure Storage

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

4Add Custom Properties

Optionally, you can add custom properties to a volume.

5Reconfigure Networks

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

6Schedule 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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, support user, tenant

administrator, or business group manager.

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

status.

Procedure

1Select Items > Machines.

2Select the row of the machine to reconfigure.

3Select 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.

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Procedure

1(Optional) Type the number of CPUs in the # CPUs text box.

The allowable range appears next to the text box.

2(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

1Click the Storage tab.

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

2(Optional) Add a volume.

a Click New Volume.

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

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

menu.

dClick the Save icon ( ).

3(Optional) Delete a volume.

a Locate the volume.

bClick 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.

bClick the Edit icon ( ).

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

dClick 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

1In the Custom Properties column of the Storage volumes table, click Edit for the volume receiving

the custom property.

2Click New Property.

3Enter the name of the custom property in the Name text box.

4Enter the value for the custom property in the Value text box.

5Select the Encrypted check box to encrypt the value.

6Select 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

1Click the Network tab.

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2(Optional) Add a network adapter.

a Click New Network Adapter.

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

All networks selected on the machine’s reservation are available.

c 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.

dClick the Save icon ( ).

3(Optional) Remove a network adapter.

a Locate the network adapter.

bClick the Delete icon ( ).

You cannot remove network adapter 0.

4(Optional) Edit a network adapter.

a Locate the network adapter.

bClick the Edit icon ( ).

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

dClick 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

1Click the Execution tab.

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2(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:

nCPU change where hot add is not supported or is disabled

nMemory change where hot memory is not supported or is disabled

nStorage 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.

4Click 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.

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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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator, business group manager, or

machine owner.

nCreate a vRealize Operations Manager user account with view and resource metrics query privileges

for all vSphere servers that you integrate with vRealize Automation.

nCreate 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

1Select Administration > Reclamation > Metrics Provider.

2Select 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.

3Click Test Connection.

4Click Save.

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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

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator.

n(Optional) To see health badges or view metrics provided by vRealize Operations Manager, see

Configure a Metrics Provider.

Procedure

1Select Administration > Reclamation > Deployments.

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2Find 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.

b 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.

cClick the search icon ( ).

3From 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.

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4Click 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.

5Enter 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.

6Enter 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.

7Enter a reason for the request in the Reason for request text box.

8Click Submit.

9Click 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:

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

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

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

Prerequisites

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Procedure

1Select Administration > Reclamation > Reclamation Requests.

2Find the virtual machines that match your search criteria.

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

b 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.

cClick the Search icon ( ) or press Enter to start the search.

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

3(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

Procedure

1Select Infrastructure > Managed Machines.

2Locate the machine with the reservation to change.

3Click Change Reservation in the Actions drop-down menu.

4Select values from the drop-down menus as required.

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5Click 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

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

nIf 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.

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

Procedure

1Select Items > Machines.

2Locate the machine to snapshot.

3In the Actions column, click the down arrow and click View Details.

4Click Create Snapshot in the Actions menu.

5Enter a name and, optionally, a description.

6If you want to capture the memory and power settings of the machine, select Include memory.

7Click 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.

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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

1In a Firefox browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.

A message appears saying that the certificate is not trusted.

2Choose the option to display the current connection information. Click View Certificate to display the

current SSL certificate and click Detail in the Certificate Viewer.

3Click More Information and click the Security tab on the Page Info page.

4Select 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.

5Click Export.

6Configure 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.

b Select a location in which to save the file.

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

7Click Save.

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8Click 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.

9Click 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

1In an Internet Explorer browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.

2Click View Certificate on the certificate error message that appears in the browser address bar.

3Click the General tab of the Certificate Information window..

4Verify that the information about the certificate is correct and click Install Certificate.

5Select Place all certificates in the following store in the Certificate Store dialog box.

6Click Browse to locate the certificate store.

7Select Trusted Root Certification Authority and click OK.

8Click Next on the Certificate Store dialog box.

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9Click 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

1In a Chrome browser, log in to the vRealize Automation appliance.

2Click the icon in the address bar.

3Click the certificate information link.

4Save the certificate by dragging the certificate icon to the desktop.

5Start the Keychain Access application.

6Select File > Import Items.

7On the Keychain Access screen, select the certificate file you saved earlier.

Set the value of Destination Key to System.

8Click Open to import the certificate.

9Restart the browser.

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Connect Remotely to a Machine

You can connect remotely to a machine from the vRealize Automation console.

Prerequisites

nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a machine owner, tenant administrator, or business

group manager.

nVerify 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.

nVerify that the provisioned machine is powered on.

Procedure

1Select Items > Deployment.

2Click Actions in the machine name row or select the machine and click Actions on its machine page.

3Select the remote connection method.

nSelect Connect Using RDP to connect by using RDP.

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

Respond to any prompts.

4Click Connect and log in to the machine as directed.

5When 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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

nphysical machine deployments

ndeployments with an NSX

existing network or NSX

existing security resource

ndeployments with an NSX on-

demand 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

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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.

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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:

nChange description

nChange CPU, memory,

network, and disk settings

nAdd, edit, and delete properties

nReconfigure shutdown

nChange 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.

XenServer items.

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:

nInfrastructure > Managed

Machines

nItems > Item Details

nAdministration > Events >

Event Logs

Revert Snapshot Virtual Machine Revert to a previous snapshot of the

machine. You must have an existing

snapshot to use this action.

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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.

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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.

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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.

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

nThe action might be limited based on the configured target criteria for XaaS resource actions or

resource mappings to provisioned IaaS machines.

Solution

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

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

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Managing VRealize Automation 7.2 V Realize 72 Management

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