vRealize Automation (vRA) 8.0: A Deep Dive into the Four Main Services

In my previous post, we configured vRA 8.0 with a vSphere endpoint and explored the different components that make up this powerful automation tool. In this post, we’ll delve deeper into the four main services that vRA offers: Cloud Assembly, Service Broker, Code Stream, and Orchestrator. We’ll discuss the role of each service and what you can expect from them in vRA 8.0.

Cloud Assembly

The Cloud Assembly service is the multi-cloud provisioning service in vRA 8.0, and it is where most of your time will be spent. This service allows you to create your SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center) private cloud and provides an abstraction layer across multiple clouds. This abstraction enables you to create blueprints that can be used to deploy applications across different cloud providers, mapping the cloud constructs of one public cloud provider with another.

The Cloud Assembly service includes several key features:

1. Guided Setup: This feature helps you understand how all the terminology fits together and provides a step-by-step guide to creating your first blueprint.

2. Infrastructure Tab: Here, you can create projects, cloud zones, flavor and image mappings, network and storage profiles, and define cloud accounts. You can also deploy compute, network, security, and storage resources.

3. Kubernetes Integration: vRA 8.0 includes Kubernetes integration, allowing you to manage your containerized applications more easily.

4. Extensibility Tab: This tab combines the power of vRA 7.x Event Based Subscriptions (EBS) with several new features, including lightweight node.js and python scripts instead of entire vRO workflows.

Service Broker

The Service Broker service is the storefront presented to users to consume catalog items and provide governance around the usage of templates and services through policy definition and configuration. This service allows you to manage your IT services and deliver them to your end-users in a more streamlined manner.

Key features of the Service Broker service include:

1. Catalog Tab: Here, you can view all the catalog items you are entitled to.

2. Deployments Tab: This tab shows existing deployments that you have access to, allowing you to provision day-2 resources.

3. Content & Policies Tab: You can import blueprints from vRO and create custom forms here, as well as manage lease policies.

4. Infrastructure Tab: Similar to the Cloud Assembly service, this tab allows you to create projects, cloud zones, and define cloud accounts.

Code Stream

The Code Stream service brings the productivity gains of DevOps to vRA 8.0 as a continuous delivery (CD) service. This service includes continuous integration (CI) plugins for common development tools such as Git, Jenkins, and Bamboo, as well as orchestration systems such as Kubernetes and vRO. Code Stream automates the deployments created in Cloud Assembly through various stages and environments, from Development to Production.

Key features of the Code Stream service include:

1. Plugins for common development tools: This feature allows you to integrate your existing development workflows with vRA 8.0 more easily.

2. Orchestration systems integration: With support for Kubernetes and vRO, you can manage your containerized applications and traditional virtual machines more effectively.

3. End-to-end Git integration: This feature provides a seamless Git integration experience, allowing you to manage your application source code more easily.

Orchestrator

The Orchestrator service is the orchestration engine behind vRA and provides extensibility features. With the 8.0 release, the traditional Java client is no longer supported, and all functionality is now available in the HTML 5 client. This service allows you to migrate from vRealize Automation 7.x to 8.0 more easily.

Key features of the Orchestrator service include:

1. All functionality available in HTML 5 client: This feature provides a more streamlined and intuitive user experience.

2. End-to-end Git integration: Like the Code Stream service, this feature provides a seamless Git integration experience.

3. Migration from vRA 7.x: This service helps customers migrate from vRealize Automation 7.x to 8.0 more easily.

Conclusion

vRA 8.0 is a powerful automation tool that offers many benefits for managing your multi-cloud infrastructure. The four main services – Cloud Assembly, Service Broker, Code Stream, and Orchestrator – provide a comprehensive solution for managing your IT services and delivering them to your end-users in a more streamlined manner. With vRA 8.0, you can provision your multi-cloud infrastructure more easily, manage your containerized applications more effectively, and migrate from vRealize Automation 7.x to 8.0 more smoothly.