As an Automation Consultant currently working at Xtravirt, I am constantly on the lookout for new and innovative ways to automate processes and improve efficiency. Recently, I have been preparing for the CKA exam, and as part of my studies, I have been exploring Tanzu Community Edition (TCE) and vRealize Automation 8 (vRA8). In this blog post, I will share some tips and concepts for deploying TCE on Azure, as well as some information on custom naming in vRA8.
Deploying Tanzu Community Edition on Azure
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TCE is a full-featured, easy to manage Kubernetes platform that can be deployed on a variety of infrastructure providers, including Azure. To deploy TCE on Azure, you will need to have an Azure subscription and a few other prerequisites in place. Here are the high-level steps for deploying TCE on Azure:
1. Create an Azure resource group and virtual network for your TCE cluster.
2. Deploy a management cluster using the TCE Management Cluster template.
3. Deploy a workload cluster using the TCE Workload Cluster template.
4. Deploy a demo application to your workload cluster.
Creating a Management Cluster
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The first step in deploying TCE on Azure is to create a management cluster. To do this, you will need to use the TCE Management Cluster template. This template provides a fully functional Kubernetes management cluster that includes everything you need to get started with TCE, including network policies, RBAC, and more.
Here are the steps for creating a management cluster:
1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to the TCE templates page.
2. Search for the TCE Management Cluster template and click on it to open the details page.
3. Click the “Deploy” button to create a new deployment of the management cluster.
4. Follow the prompts to configure the deployment, including selecting the Azure subscription and resource group you want to use.
5. Once the deployment is complete, you will be able to access your management cluster using the public IP address or hostname provided by Azure.
Creating a Workload Cluster
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Once you have created your management cluster, you can create a workload cluster using the TCE Workload Cluster template. This template provides a fully functional Kubernetes workload cluster that includes everything you need to run your applications, including network policies, RBAC, and more.
Here are the steps for creating a workload cluster:
1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to the TCE templates page.
2. Search for the TCE Workload Cluster template and click on it to open the details page.
3. Click the “Deploy” button to create a new deployment of the workload cluster.
4. Follow the prompts to configure the deployment, including selecting the Azure subscription and resource group you want to use.
5. Once the deployment is complete, you will be able to access your workload cluster using the public IP address or hostname provided by Azure.
Deploying a Demo Application
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Once you have created your management and workload clusters, you can deploy a demo application to your workload cluster. TCE provides a variety of demo applications that you can use to test out the platform and get familiar with its features and capabilities.
Here are the steps for deploying a demo application:
1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to your workload cluster’s dashboard.
2. Click on the “Applications” tab and then click on the “New Application” button.
3. Select the demo application you want to deploy (e.g., the “Hello World” application) and click the “Deploy” button.
4. Follow the prompts to configure the deployment, including selecting the container registry you want to use and specifying any additional configuration options you want to apply.
5. Once the deployment is complete, you will be able to access your demo application using the public IP address or hostname provided by Azure.
Custom Naming in vRealize Automation 8
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In addition to deploying TCE on Azure, I also wanted to explore some of the custom naming options available in vRA8. vRA8 provides various levels and methods of applying custom naming to deployed virtual machine resources, including:
1. Custom names for virtual machines: You can assign a custom name to each virtual machine in your vRA8 environment. This can be useful if you want to give your virtual machines more descriptive or memorable names.
2. Custom labels for virtual machines: You can assign custom labels to virtual machines in your vRA8 environment. These labels can be used to categorize or filter your virtual machines based on specific criteria.
3. Custom properties for virtual machines: You can define custom properties for virtual machines in your vRA8 environment. These properties can be used to store additional information about your virtual machines, such as their operating system or IP address.
4. Custom naming for resource pools: You can assign a custom name to each resource pool in your vRA8 environment. This can be useful if you want to give your resource pools more descriptive or memorable names.
5. Custom naming for networks: You can assign a custom name to each network in your vRA8 environment. This can be useful if you want to give your networks more descriptive or memorable names.
Conclusion
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In this blog post, I have shared some tips and concepts for deploying Tanzu Community Edition on Azure, as well as some information on custom naming in vRealize Automation 8. Deploying TCE on Azure can be a straightforward process if you have the right prerequisites in place, and custom naming in vRA8 can provide additional flexibility and control over your virtual machine resources. I hope these tips and concepts are helpful to you as you explore TCE and vRA8 for yourself.