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vRealize Automation 8

VMware vRealize Automation 8

Upgrading vROPS (vRealize Operations Manager) to 8.6 via vRSLCM

In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vROPS appliance to 8.6 using vRSLCM (vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager). As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.6. Instructions can be found here. The upgrade already includes the latest Product Support Pack so an update to the Product Support Pack is not required.

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you haven’t added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Select My VMware and click on Discover

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. Make sure we select the upgrade package not the install package. We can select what we need and click on Add

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

We now have to wait for the download to complete

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes vROPS

Click on Upgrade

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Select product Version 8.6.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Run the Upgrade Assessment tool to make sure the currently used dashboards, reports, metrics etc are still compatible with the new version

Once the report has finished running we can either Download or view the report. Once everything has been reviewing we can click on the I have viewed the report and agree to proceed box and click next to proceed to the next step.

A new feature that was added was the capability to automatically create a snapshot prior to the upgrade and remove it after the upgrade. On this screen we also have the ability to chose if we want to keep the snapshots post upgrade for validation testing for example. Click next

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors or issues.

Once the check is complete we can review the checks that were performed and we can continue by clicking Next.

Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.6

Since we are doing a major upgrade i strongly recommend to clean the cache before using the new vROPS version.

Upgrading vRA (vRealize Automation) to 8.6

In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vRA appliance to 8.6. As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.6. Instructions can be found here. The upgrade already includes the latest Product Support Pack so an update to the Product Support Pack is not required.

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you haven’t added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Select My VMware and click on Discover

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. We can select what we need and click on Add

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

We now have to wait for the download to complete

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes vRA

Click on Upgrade

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Select product Version 8.6.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Anew feature that was added was the capability to automatically create a snapshot prior to the upgrade and remove it after the upgrade. On this screen we also have the ability to chose if we want to keep the snapshots post upgrade for validation testing for example. Click next

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors

The next screen remind us of hardware requirements for vRA and vIDM which can be checked here for vRA and vIDM which can be checked here. As far as i can tell they haven’t changed since the 8.3 release. Check the I took care of the manual steps above and am ready to proceed check mark and click on Run Precheck

Once the check is complete we can review the checks that were performed and we can continue by clicking Next.

Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.6

Since we are doing a major upgrade i strongly recommend to clean the cache before using the new vRA version.

Upgrading vRA (vRealize Automation) to 8.5

In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vRA appliance to 8.5. As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.4.1. Instructions can be found here. You will also need to apply the latest Product Support Pack (version 8.4.1.4). The instructions can be found here.

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you havent added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Select My VMware and click on Discover

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. We can select what we need and click on Add

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

We now have to wait for the download to complete

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes vRA

Click on Upgrade

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Select product Version 8.4.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Since we already checked the sizing while the download was occurring we can check the check box for I took care of the manual steps above and am ready to proceed and click on run precheck

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors

Once the check is complete, click on Next. Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.5

vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) Product Support Pack

In this guide i will go over the steps of getting an existing 8.x vRSLCM appliance to support the latest product releases available. Here is a great blog that goes in to the details about what the Product Support Pack is https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2019/01/vrslcm-pspak.html. Typically the newer Product Support Pack is included part of the upgrade for LCM, however sometimes there are product releases in between releases where product support packs come in handy.

The first step is to log in to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager under the Lifecycle Operations section

Go to settings -> Product Support Pack

We can see that i recently upgraded to 8.4.1.2 however a new update is available 8.4.1.3. Based on what we can see in the details the new support pack adds support for network insight 6.3.0.

Click on Apply Version

Verify that a snapshot or a backup exists and click Submit

We can view the progress by clicking on the Click Here link after submitting the request

Once the process is complete the system will most likely reboot. To check the status we can go back to settings -> Product Support Pack. As we can see we are now at the updated patch level

If you get the below error clear the browser cache and try again

Patching vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) to 8.4.1.1 Patch 1

In this guide i will go over the steps of getting an existing 8.x vRSLCM appliance upgraded to the latest 8.4.1 Patch 1 release. The release notes can be found here

The first step is to lo in to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager under the Lifecycle Operations section

Go to settings -> Binary Mapping

Click on Patch Binaries up top and click on Check Patches Online

We can see that the check found a new patch

Click on download button under Action. We can follow the process by clicking on Click here to check request status

Wait till the download is complete and go back to settings

Go to Settings -> System Patches

Click on New patch on the right side of the screen

Select the newly downloaded patch and click Next

Review the details and click Install

This will fire up the patch process and start the patching.

The system will automatically reboot on 8.4.1.1 Patch 1 once completed. We can check the version by going to Settings -> System Details

If you get the below error clear the browser cache and try again

Upgrading vRA (vRealize Automation) to 8.4

In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vRA appliance to 8.4. As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.4. Instructions can be found here

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you havent added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Select My VMware and click on Discover

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. We can select what we need and click on Add

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

We now have to wait for the download to complete

While the download is going check hardware requirements for vRealize Automation 8.4.0 here. If the VMware Identity Manager hardware needs to be resized refer to the documentation: Re-Size Hardware Resources for VMware Identity Manager

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes vRA

Click on Upgrade

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Select product Version 8.4.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Since we already checked the sizing while the download was occurring we can check the check box for I took care of the manual steps above and am ready to proceed and click on run precheck

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors

Once the check is complete, click on Next. Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.4

vRA cloud API getting started

I wanted to keep track of what needs to be done prior to actually being able to query API on vRA cloud. Ive been having a hard time finding the documentation i needed in the past

First step is to get an API token for the specific username. We can do this by going to My account under User Settings in vRA Cloud

Go to API Tokens and click on Generate a new api token

Give it a name and select what it will have access to and click on Generate

Once we have the api token generated we can use it to generate an access token by running 

curl --location --request POST 'https://console.cloud.vmware.com/csp/gateway/am/api/auth/api-tokens/authorize' --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' --data-urlencode 'refresh_token=api token generated earlier'

Now we can use the output from “access_token”. There`s a number of Cloud Assembly examples here

Full guide available here

vIDM 3.3.4 online upgrade

I wanted to go through the upgrade of vIDM 3.3.4 outside of lifecycle manager. I wanted to do it using the online upgrade via the console. Official documentation can be found here. First step is to log on to the console via the root credentials and upgrade the upgrade manager to 3.3.4

/usr/local/horizon/update/updatemgr.hzn updateinstaller

Set the upgrade version that you are upgrading from in my case was 3.3.2 so i ran

/usr/local/horizon/update/configureupdate.hzn manifest --set-version 3.3.2.0

Because we are switching operating systems to Photon OS 3 we need to download the dual boot update package from here. Look for VMware Identity Manager Service Virtual Appliance Dual Boot Update and transfer it to the vIDM server

And finally run the update

/usr/local/horizon/update/updatemgr.hzn update

Specify the path to the dualboot file. It would look something like this:

If everything went through properly you would be greeted with something like this

All we need to do now is to reboot.

If you are greeted by the following screen follow my other post here

Upgrading vRA (vRealize Automation) to 8.3

In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.2 vRA appliance to 8.3. As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.3. Instructions can be found here

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you havent added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Select My VMware and click on Discover

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. We can select what we need and click on Add

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

We now have to wait for the download to complete

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes vRA

Click on Upgrade

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Select product Version 8.3.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors

Once the check is complete, click on Next. Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.3

Upgrading vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) to 8.3

In this guide i will go over the steps of getting an existing 8.x vRSLCM appliance upgraded to the latest 8.3 release

The first step is to lo in to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager under the Lifecycle Operations section

Go to settings -> System Upgrade

Click on Check for Upgrade

We can see that the check found a new version available for 8.3

Click on Upgrade

This will fire up the upgrade process and start upgrading packages. The system will automatically reboot on 8.3 once completed. We can check the version by going to Settings -> System Details