From a lifecycle manager perspective we have a couple of ways to add keys to the environment
If the my vmware user that is added to lifecycle manager has access to they keys, the keys can automatically discovered and imported. For this we can go to the locker from Home -> Locker -> License. If the keys are not discovered we can click on the refresh button up top to perform a manual sync
If the keys havent been imported or if we need to add a key manually we can click on the add button and complete the fields
Click on validate and add. This will add the key to the catalog and it will be consumable by lifecycle manager when we install the products
In my previous post i went over the installation of vIDM which is a pre requisite for vRA. You can find the link here
Next, we need to create a new environment that will be used to deploy vRA. For this we can go to Lifecycle Operations -> Create Environment. Fill in the necessary information and click next
Select vRealize Automation, select the version and install type then click next
Review and accept the EULA then click Next
Next screen is the key. Click on Select and select the vRA key from the inventory. If we need to add the key manually we can follow the steps in my post here
Verify the key selection click on Validate Association and click on next
Select the certificate and click next. If a new certificate needs to be create follow the instructions on my post here
Make the proper selections for where the vRA server will get deployed and click Next
Fill in the proper network configuration and click next
Specify the proper network configuration for the product and click next
Run the precheck and verify that everything is green then click Next
Verify the summary and click submit
Next we are taken to the request details where we can follow the process that LCM is performing for us automatically.
We can see that the task completed
If we go to environments we can see that the vRA Environment
Because im running on a deployment from VCF i can see that the datacenter was already provioned for me under under Home -> Lifecycle Operations -> Datacenters
However it seems like my Environment is not completely configured. In order to configure we can go to Home -> Lifecycle Operations -> Create Environment
Add a new password to the vault that will be used by our installation wizards. We can add a password by clicking on the + sign next to the Default Password
Enter the password details and click add
Now i can select the new password by clicking on Select Default Password. I can select the Datacenter from the drop down and click Next.
Select the VMware Identify Manager and click Next
Accept the EULA and click Next
Select the certificate. If you do not have a certificate you can follow the instructions i have here. Click next
Select the proper details to where the server will be deployed
Fill in the network information and click next
Fill in the product information
Run the precheck and verify that everything is valid and click next
Verify the details in the Summary and click Submit
We are taken to the request details page
Once the deployment is complete we can see the vIDM server under Environments
vRealize Lifeycycle Manager (vRSLCM) come with a Certificate Management feature. We can access the certificate management from Home -> Locker -> Certificate
We can generate Self Signed certificates for products managed by Lifecycle Manager as well as certificate requests to be signed by a certification authority
Generate a new CSR
Download the CSR and take it to the certified authority, in my case im using a Microsoft server /certsrv/certrqxt.asp
Click on advanced certificate requests and complete the request details
Download the certificate in the Base 64 encoded format
Next we can import it in to the certificate vault
Click on import and complete the details. The private key can be found in the certificate request file
Make sure you create a file that includes the signed certificate + the private key + the intermediate and root certificates.
In order to enable product downloads in lifecycle manager we need to go to Lifecycle Operations
Settings -> My vmware
Add my vmware account. Make sure the account added has a proper entitlement to perform downloads and patches.
With the releases of 8.x and above we now have a password vault that we need to add the passwords to. When presented with the add my VMware Account Detail screen press on Click here to add a new password
Type in the details for your password and press add
Click on Select Credential and add the new password you created, add the username, click validate and then add
After the process is complete we can go back to settings and click on Binary Mapping
This will take us to the Product Binary page where we can click on Add Binaries
We can add binaries from a local source, NFS, My VMware or Windows ISO. In this scenario we can download the binaries directly from My VMware. Click on my VMware and click discover
In my case i want to download vRealize Automation and VMware Identity Manager. So i selected th downloads as install type and clicked on add
We are now presented with a link where we can track the status of the download. Click on Click here to check the status request
In my case i was taken to Requests page and i can now see that there are 2 tasks In Progress for binary download
I can get more details by clicking on the In Progress link
While trying to deploy vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VCF 4, i was prompted by an error X-Region Application Virtual Network is not created
After doing some research i found out that the error is due to AVN not getting deployed part of the initial deployment. I remembered that VCF 4 doesnt actually require it so after i did some research i was able to find a kb article that allowed me to continue with my install. KB 78608
All i had to do is log in to my sddc manager with my root credentials and execute the following commands:
The official documentation for deploying the vRealize suite can be found here
First step is to download the bundle by going to sddc-manager -> Repository -> Bundle management. Look for VMware Software Install Bundle – vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.1.0-16256499
After the download is complete we can go to Administration -> vRealize Suite and a deploy button should be available. If the deploy button is not available due to X-Region Application Virtual Network is not created errorplease follow the instructions found here:
Verify the Prerequisites and click on begin
Fill up the network settings and click next
Fill up the Virtual Appliance Settings:
Review the summary and click Finish
We can follow the progress by click on the Task on the bottom of the screen
This allows me to see the subtasks that are running
Once the deployment is complete we can open the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager by clicking on the link
I wanted to reuse my VCF downloaded bundles on another SDDC Manager system so that i wont have to download it from internet again. Ive found an easy guide here in the VMware documentation. My goal was to download the specific bundle once and upload it on other SDDC Managers.
The first command from SDDC manager was to list the bundles. The lcm bundle transfer utility can be found in /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools/bin
I replaced the ${depotUser} with my vmware email address and ${product_version} with the version of the VCF product i wanted to install in my case 4.0.1.1. I was greeted with a list of bundle IDs and the specific component that it was for:
Enter Myvmware user password:
Validating the depot user credentials...
Bundle Product Bundle Size Components
Version (in MB)
bundle-27565 4.0.1.1 10092.0 MB SDDC_MANAGER_VCF-4.0.1.1-16660200
bundle-27336 4.0.1.1 5220.0 MB VCENTER-7.0.0.10600-16620007-PATCH
bundle-27337 4.0.1.1 7613.0 MB VCENTER-7.0.0.10600-16620007-INSTALL
In my case i need the installer. To download a specific bundle we run
This allowed me to grab the download from /some/temporary/path and save it/upload it on my other SDDC Managers that were missing it.
Finally before the patch can be used in SDDC Manager we need to upload it to the repo. Please note that once we issue the upload command the download gets deleted, so make sure you save the download ahead of time
With all the recent releases for VCF i noticed that my file system was getting full and once the updates are complete i wanted to reclaim all that used space.
The first step was to identify the Bundle ID. We can find this by going to the bundle itself and checking out the details by clicking on View Details
For example this specific Bundle ID is ee194251-9fe4-4729-9c29-ca5172acffc6
At this point i had to log in to the sddc manager and issue the following command:
Once i logged on to my SDDC Manager i was able to see that na update is already available for me to download:
All i had to do was click on my management domain SDDC-MGT and then go to the Update\Patches tab
After reviewing the update notes click on Download now. The download will start and it will take some time to get there as it is about 11 GB. I took this time to check the environment to make sure everything was ready for the update
Once the download is complete click on Update Now
Once the upgrade starts we will get redirected to the update status page:
My update went thorough without a hitch and finished in 35 minutes. All i had to is click finish
Next is updating vCenter to 7.0.0c. Click on download now under Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Management domain -> Updates/Patches
Once the download is complete click on Update Now. This will initiate a task to perform the necessary steps to get the vCenter server upgraded to 7.0.0.c
Dont forget to follow the same steps for the workload domain if you have one
