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February 2021

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 upgrade to 3.3.4 no networking detected

If you are like me and you tried to perform an upgrade of vIDM 3.3.x to 3.3.4 you were most likely greeted by no network connectivity after upgrade with the following screen:

If you made a backup of the network configuration this is where we would restore it.

If not we can perform it manually by running

/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

Press 6 and go through the screens to configure the ip

Press 2 for default gateway

Press 4 for the DNS

Press 0 to show the current configuration

If you notice in my configuration the dns server didnt take. In order to fix it i recreated the /etc/resolv.conf.

Remove the resolv.conf running

rm -f /etc/resolv.conf

Create a symlink for resolv.conf

ln -s /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

In my case vIDM was still not responding so i had to reboot the server. After the reboot everything started working properly

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

Deploying SaltStack Config via Lifecycle Manager in a VRA environment

Assuming that you already downloaded the SaltStack Config binaries in this guide we will go over the deployment of SaltStack Config in an existing VRA 8.3 environment via Lifecycle Manager 8.3

Log on to Lifecycle Manager -> Go to environments, on the vRA environment click on the Menu and go to Add Product

Select the checkbox next to vRealize Automation SaltStack Config and click Next

Review the EULA, click on the agree box on the bottom of the page and click on next

Click on Select and select a vrealize or vra advanced\enterprise. Clieck on the validate button and click next

Select an existing certificate or click on the + sign and generate a new certificate. In my case i didnt have a certificate created so im going to create a new one. If you already have a certificate this step can be skipped.

Complete the fields and click on generate

Now the list is populated with the certificate we just created. Click Next

Select the infrastructure details and click on Next

Verify the network details and click next

If the tenant list is empty a sync of vra is required

To do this we can go to Environments. Dont worry the progress will be saved

View details

Click on submit

Once the sync is complete we can go back to requests

Under requests click on Pending Action

Complete the details and click next

Click on Run precheck in order to make sure everything is in a working order

If everything looks good click on Next

Verify the summary and click on Submit

LCM will go through everything needed to. As we can see theres allot of steps that otherwise would need to perform manually

Get a cup of coffee and wait. In my case it took about 13 minutes for the installation to finish