Course Overview

This five-day course is a follow-on to the VMware vRealize® Automation™ Install, Configure, Manage course. In this course you go deeper into the advanced features of vRealize Automation to deploy user systems and interface vRealize Automation with other platforms and you learn how to deploy an enterprise-level cluster environment using LCM.

This course relies heavily on hands-on labs.

Product Alignment

VMware vSphere® 6.7 U2
VMware vRealize Automation 8.1
VMware vRealize Orchestrator™ 8.1
VMware vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.0
VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.0

Course Content

Course Introduction
vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment
vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment Architecture
Advanced Blueprints
Advanced Networking
Using vRealize Orchestrator
Using ABX Actions
Kubernetes Integration
Code Stream
Using GitLab Integration
Configuration Management
Troubleshooting

Who should attend

Experienced system administrators and system integrators responsible for using the advanced features of vRealize Automation in enterprise deployments.

Prerequisites

This course requires completion of the following course:

VMware vRealize Automation: Install, Configure, Manage [V8.3] (VRAICM83)

Experience working at the command line is helpful.

This course requires that a student be able to perform the following tasks with no assistance or guidance before enrolling in this course:

Create VMware vCenter Server® objects, such as data centers and folders
Create a virtual machine using a wizard or a template
Modify a virtual machine’s hardware
Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere® vMotion®
Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion®
Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® DRS cluster with resource pools.
Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® High Availability cluster.
Create and deploy a simple blueprint in vRealize Automation 8.x
Use cloudConfig in vRealize Automation blueprints
Configure infrastructure in vRealize Automation 8.x

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

Describe and configure the vRealize Automation in a clustered enterprise deployment using VMware vRealize® Suite Lifecycle Manager™
Scale VMware Identity Manager™ to support High Availability.
Configure security certificates in vRealize Automation from external Certificate Authorities.
Describe the clustered deployment architecture, including Kubernetes pods and services.
Create and configure advanced blueprints with complex YAML and cloudConfig.
Use vRealize Automation advanced blueprints to deploy an actual 2-tier DB-Server using MySQL and phpMyAdmin.
Practice troubleshooting techniques with advanced YAML blueprints in vRealize Automation.
Use advanced VMware NSX-TTM Data Center networking features including NAT, routed networks, load balancers, security groups, and tags.
Use VMware Code Stream™ to integrate vRealize Automation with Kubernetes.
Create Code Stream pipelines.
Create and use Ansible playbooks that integrate with vRealize Automation.
Configure vRealize Automation to integrate with Puppet.
Configure and use ABX actions to create day-2 actions and interface with PowerShell scripts.
Use vracli commands, log files, and VMware vRealize® Log Insight™ to troubleshoot vRealize Automation and vRealize Automation deployments.

Outline: VMware vRealize Automation: Advanced Features and Troubleshooting [V8.x] (VRAAFT8)

Course Introduction

Introductions and course logistics
Course objectives

vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment

Use LCM in a clustered deployment
Configure External Certificates
Configure NSX-T Data Center load balancer
Install vRealize Automation using Clustered Deployment
Scale VMware Identity Manager to support High Availability

vRealize Automation Clustered Deployment Architecture

List of Kubernetes Pods
The vRealize Automation Kubernetes Architecture
Relationship of Kubernetes Pods to Services
Logs and their locations
Blueprint deployment workflow with Kubernetes Service interaction
Backup strategies and potential problems

Advanced Blueprints

Use advanced YAML and cloudConfig to deploy a functioning 2-tier application with a phpMyAdmin front-end server and a MySQL database server
Use troubleshooting techniques to debug problems in advanced YAML blueprints
List the log files that can aid in troubleshooting blueprint deployment

Advanced Networking

Use VMware NSX-T Data Center advanced features in blueprints
Interfacing to IPAMs
Use NSX-T Data Center NAT in blueprints
Use NSX-T Data Center routed networks
Use NSX-T Data Center load balancers
Use NSX-T Data Center security groups
Use tags with NSX-T Data Center network profiles

Using vRealize Orchestrator

Create Day-2 Actions with vRealize Orchestrator workflows
Troubleshoot vRealize Orchestrator cluster issues
Use vRealize Orchestrator to add computer objects to Active Directory when vRealize Automation deploys blueprints
Use a tagging approach to vRealize Orchestrator workflows
Use dynamic forms with vRealize Orchestrator

Using ABX Actions

Determine when to use ABX and when to use vRealize Orchestrator
Use ABX to create day-2 Actions
Call PowerShell from ABX

Kubernetes Integration

Create a Kubernetes namespace from vRealize Automation
Connect to an existing Kubernetes cluster
Automate the deployment of an application to a Kubernetes cluster with Code Stream
Use Kubernetes in Extensibility

Code Stream

Create and use CI/CD pipelines
Use the Code Stream user interface
Add states and tasks to a Code Stream pipeline
Integrate code from Code Stream with Git

Using GitLab Integration

Configure the GitLab Integration
Use Gitlab with blueprints

Configuration Management

Describe the use case of Ansible and Ansible Tower
Connect to Ansible Tower
Use Ansible playbooks
Use Puppet in configuration management

Troubleshooting

vracli commands and when to use them
Check the status of Kubernetes pods and services
Correct the state of pods and services
Diagnose and solve vRealize Automation infrastructure problems
Diagnose and solve vRealize Automation failures to deploy blueprints and services
Use vRealize Log Insight for troubleshooting

VMware vRealize Automation: Advanced Features and Troubleshooting [V8.x] (VRAAFT8)