If you followed my previous posts Deploying the vRealize suite using VCF 4.0 and vRealize Lifeycycle Manager (vRSLCM) enable product dowloads you should now have vRA and vIDM already downloaded.

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

If you followed my previous posts Deploying the vRealize suite using VCF 4.0 and vRealize Lifeycycle Manager (vRSLCM) enable product dowloads you should now have vRA and vIDM already downloaded.

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

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 error please 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

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util -du ${depotUser} -l -p ${product_version}

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

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --outputDirectory ${absolute-path-output-dir} --depotUser ${depotUser} -b ${bundle_name}

in my case it was:

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --download --outputDirectory /some/temporary/location --depotUser my@vmware.id -b bundle-27565

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

./lcm-bundle-transfer-util --upload --bundleDirectory /some/temporary/path -b bundle-27565

Once the upload was complete i was able to see it in SDDC Manager as an package that i can apply.

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:

/opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/bin/bundle_cleanup.py ee194251-9fe4-4729-9c29-ca5172acffc6

We can also specify multiple bundle IDs:

/opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-app/bin/bundle_cleanup.py 168ee409-d2b7-40e5-9d77-1dc3cec75e07 1f44ba0a-bf48-493e-a92b-bd791a201c12

I hope this helps