- Preparing vSphere Templates – vRealize Automation Series Part 13
- Deploying Application Services – vRealize Automation Series Part 12
- Creating Reservations – vRealize Automation Series Part 11
- Adding Business Groups – vRealize Automation Series Part 10
- Configure Fabric Groups – vRealize Automation Series Part 9
- Add vCenter Endpoint – vRealize Automation Series Part 8
- Configure vRealize Permissions – vRealize Automation Series Part 7
- Install vRealize Automation IaaS Installation – vRealize Automation Series Part 6
- Install vRealize Automation IaaS SQL 2014 Installation – vRealize Automation Series Part 5
- Install vRealize Automation IaaS Preparation – vRealize Automation Series Part 4
- Configure the vRealize Automation Appliance – vRealize Automation Series Part 3
- Deploy the vRealize Automation Appliance – vRealize Automation Series Part 2
- vSphere SSO or vRA Identity Appliance – vRealize Automation Series Part 1
- Workstation Home Lab Wrap-Up – On to vRealize Automation
In order to use vSphere templates in vRealize Automation / vCloud Automation Center and Application Services / Application Director there is a bit of preparation you need to do, especially if you want to use Application Services. There are guest agents for both vRealize Automation and Application Services so lets get started. A quick assumption here, you already have a linux virtual machine installed with VMware Tools. I am going to cheat a bit here and use the e1000 NIC, if you want to use the VMXNET3 adapter see my post on how to install VMware Tools…which needs Perl…which needs network access…which needs Perl! Let’s get started with the specifics on configuring your Linux VM; I have a CentOS virtual machine called vxprt-centos-tmp that is powered on and ready to configure. Log in via the VMRC or SSH to get started:
Note that as of Application Services 6.1, you cannot use CentOS7 – at the very least the guest agent will not install, I have not tested beyond the agent installation so certain functionality may work. The support matrix has more details on supported operating systems.
- For linux, this is bundled into an installer
- Logged in as root run wget http://192.168.6.22/tools/preparevCACTemplate.sh – replace with your server name as necessary (I’ve not configured all network settings for this VM)
- If wget is not installed, run yum install wget
- Type ls – notice preparevCACTemplate.sh is grey
- Now run chmod +x ./preparevCACTemplate.sh
- Type ls again, notice now its green; +x added execute permission on the script
- Now run the script; ./preparevCACTemplate.sh – the vCloud Automation Center Agent Installer will start
- Enter the following information in the wizard:
- vCloud Automation Center Manager Service Server: 192.168.6.20
- vCloud Automation Center IaaS Server: 192.168.6.21
- Application Services Server: 192.168.6.22
- Check certificates: n
- Download timeout: Just press enter
- Download and install Java: y
- When prompted click Y to install
The installer will download all of the necessary components and place them in the correct location; a nice step forward from vCloud Automation Center and Application Director 6.0. You should receive a message that the Installation Complete Successfully and Ready to capture as a template… however there is still one more step we actually need to do – remove the 70-persistent-net.rules file. This file keeps track of MAC addresses and it will change every time we clone the template. By removing it, it will recreate the file on first boot.
- Type cd /etc/udev/rules.d
- Type rm 70-persistent-net.rules
- Type y
- Type shutdown now -h to shutdown the virtual machine
- Return to the vSphere Web Client
- Right click on the powered off virtual machine and select All vCenter Actions >> Convert to Template
We should now be ready to add the vSphere template as a Blueprint in vRealize Automation Center
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Preparing vSphere Templates – vRealize Automation Series Part 13