Deploying vRealize Suite of Products in a Homelab Environment
In my previous post, we discussed the configuration of vRSLCM and now it’s time to deploy the vRealize Suite of products in our homelab environment. Before we begin, I cannot stress this enough – read the release notes! There are countless changes to each of the products, and vRA 8.0 especially is missing some features that may return in vRA 8.1 or later.
Creating a New Datacenter
To create a new datacenter, log into vRSLCM and select Lifecycle Operations > Datacenters on the left. Then, click Add Datacenter and enter a name along with the location. In my case, I created a datacenter named “Homelab” located in Palo Alto, California, US.
Creating an Environment for vRA Deployment
Select Create Environment on the left menu and enter the details required for your new vRA installation. For this example, I am deploying vRA, vRLI, and vROps. Enter the environment name, email, default password, and datacenter. Ensure you select your newly created datacenter.
Product Selection and Deployment Properties
Select the products you wish to deploy in this environment along with the version numbers and deployment type. For this example, I selected vRA 8.0, vRLI 8.0, and vROps 8.0. Accept the EULA, enter your licenses, and validate the association.
Certificate Creation
In vRA 8.0 Release Notes, it is mentioned that only public DNS suffixes are supported for wildcard certificates. So if your domain name is *.local, then the deployment will fail. In this situation, use the host names in the Server Domain/Hostname section instead of a wildcard. If you are running vRA 8.0.1, this issue is resolved.
Infrastructure Details
Enter the infrastructure details such as the vCenter server, cluster, network, datastore, and disk mode. For this example, I used my existing vCenter server and created a new cluster named “Homelab Cluster”.
Network Details
Enter the network details which are common across all appliances, such as default gateway, netmask, domain name, domain search path, DNS servers, time sync mode, and NTP servers. Select your previously added DNS and NTP servers using Edit Selection.
Product Properties and VM Settings
On the Products tab, select each of the products you are installing and enter their product properties along with the VM specific details such as VM name and IP address. For this example, I selected vRA 8.0, vRLI 8.0, and vROps 8.0.
Precheck and Submission
Run the Precheck to confirm everything looks okay, and once you get the green light, export the configuration so you have a backup and click Submit!
Initial Deployment Failure and Resolution
The initial deployment failed with an error stating that the vRA 8.0 appliance could not be powered on due to resource constraints in my homelab environment. To resolve this issue, I reduced the hardware of the vRA appliance to 2 vCPU and 16 GB RAM. However, even with these reduced resources, the deployment still failed. Checking the /var/log/deploy.log file showed that the “identity-service” failed upgrading despite it being a fresh install. Restarting the appliance and trying several other things didn’t work.
Next step was to power off the appliance, adjust the VM Settings to 4 vCPU & 24 GB RAM, power the VM back on, and retry the deployment. This time, the deployment succeeded!
vRA, vRLI, and vROps Deployment
vRA 8.0, vRLI 8.0, and vROps 8.0 are now deployed in our homelab environment! If you have ever installed vRA before, that is by far the simplest vRA deployment ever!!
Navigate to https:/// where you are greeted with the new welcome page. Navigate to https:/// where you are greeted with the new vROps robot man. Navigate to https:/// where you are greeted with the familiar vRLI login screen.
Conclusion
Deploying vRealize Suite of products in a homelab environment is relatively straightforward. However, it is crucial to read the release notes and be aware of any potential issues or workarounds. In this example, we encountered an issue with resource constraints, but it was resolved by adjusting the VM Settings and retrying the deployment. vRA 8.0, vRLI 8.0, and vROps 8.0 are now deployed in our homelab environment, and we can explore their features and capabilities in future posts.