You can use a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility (vREx) proxy to manage datacenters from a single VMware Aria Automation instance.

Use a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy when vCenter servers are in geographically dispersed datacenters, or in datacenters that are not networked together. You can manage datacenters from a single VMware Aria Automation instance instead of deploying a dedicated VMware Aria Automation instance for each vCenter server. The VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy is also referred to as the vREX proxy.

You can create or convert a vCenter cloud account in VMware Aria Automation to access the remote vSphere agent, for example in separate datacenters that are not directly networked together. Instead of deploying an entire independent VMware Aria Automation deployment to a remote datacenter, you can use a vSphere agent within a specified VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to act as a vCenter server proxy. In this scenario, using a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy can improve network reliability and optimize vSphere provisioning and enumeration across datacenters that may not be otherwise connected.

The remote vSphere agent is a software component that resides within the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy. The VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy is the virtual appliance that you deploy and configure. The vSphere agent running in the properly configured VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy acts as a communications intermediary between VMware Aria Automation and vSphere. When you deploy the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy virtual appliance, the vSphere agent is configured automatically.

Note that the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy must be able to connect to port 443 of the remote VMware Aria Automation machine over HTTPS. You can enable this access by configuring and maintaining an HTTP proxy. That proxy must allow HTTPS traffic on port 443 to and from the FQDN of the remote VMware Aria Automation machine or the corresponding load balancer in case of an HA setup. If working in a multi-tenant environment, traffic must be allowed to and from the FQDN of the tenant that the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy VA should access.

To set up and use the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy, perform the following sequential steps.

  1. Deploy a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to one or more vCenter servers in one or more datacenters.
  2. Configure VMware Aria Automation settings that support remote vSphere servers by using an VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy.
  3. Join the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to the remote VMware Aria Automation instance.
  4. Create or edit a vCenter cloud account in VMware Aria Automation and associate it to the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy in the specified datacenter to access the remote site vCenter server.

Step 1 - Deploy a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to one or more vCenter servers in one or more datacenters.

To deploy the needed VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy OVA, use the following procedure.

  1. Open the VMware Aria Automation Download Product page in Customer Connect, select your VMware Aria Automation product and version, and then open the downloads page.

    Alternatively, you can open the VMware Aria Suite downloads page and then access the VMware Aria Automation downloads from there.

  2. Download the version-specific VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy OVA to the target vCenter server in the remote datacenter.

    The OVA appears as VMware Aria Extensibility version virtual appliance on the VMware Aria Automation downloads page.

  3. To deploy the OVA as a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy, select Extend VMware Aria Automation on premises.
  4. To facilitate network isolation between VMware Aria Automation and the target datacenter, configure an HTTP proxy.

    The HTTP proxy allows services that are running in the remote datacenter to contact VMware Aria Automation. For example, this is important in network isolation scenarios where you have configured a single HTTP proxy as the only way to reach remote network locations (such as the VMware Aria Automation instance), from within the datacenter.

Step 2 - Configure VMware Aria Automation to support remote vSphere servers by using a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy

As a cloud admin user, enable the remote vSphere agent capability in VMware Aria Automation by using the vracli command line.

This step involves opening the vCenter server where the VMware Aria Automation instance is deployed and using the vSphere client user interface to power down all nodes of the VMware Aria Automation cluster.

Once the nodes are powered down, you can open each node in the cluster and add an additional 6 GB of memory. The default memory is typically 42 GB. Add at least 6 GB more memory to each node to accommodate the extra services needed to support the remote vSphere agent.

After you add the additional memory to each node in the cluster, you again use the vSphere client user interface to power all of the nodes that are associated to the VMware Aria Automation instance back on.

The overall procedure is as follows.
  1. Power down the nodes. Use SSH to open the host environment and stop the VMware Aria Automation services by using the following command:

    /opt/scripts/deploy.sh --shutdown

  2. Add memory, at least 6 GB, to each VMware Aria Automation node in the vCenter server by using the vSphere host client.

    For information about working in the vSphere client to add memory to a node, see topics such as Virtual Memory Configuration in vSphere product documentation.

  3. Power on the nodes.
  4. Wait for the VMware Aria Automation VA to recover after the restart. Use the following command to wait for up to 10 minutes (600 seconds) for the restart check to pass:

    vracli status first-boot --wait 600

    If the command returns a First boot complete message, you can then proceed to the configuration step.

  5. In the host environment command line, run the following vracli command to enable remote agent (proxy) support:

    vracli capabilities remote-proxy --enable

    This feature toggle is not enabled by default.

  6. Restart VMware Aria Automation services by using the following command:

    /opt/scripts/deploy.sh

Step 3 - Join the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to the remote VMware Aria Automation instance

As a cloud admin user, configure the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy on the target vCenter in the designated datacenter by using the following procedure.

  1. Open the host environment command line by using SSH and use a vracli join command to connect the VMware Aria Automation instance with a particular organization, namely the organization for which the specified cloud administrator user is an administrator.
    Note: This is the command line of the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy, not the VMware Aria Automation command line that we used in the Step 1 procedure above.

    With this action, the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy (from where you run the join command) is joined to the VMware Aria Automation instance. The VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy is thus connected to VMware Aria Automation and associated with a specific VMware Aria Automation organization.

    A command line example for both a default tenant and a named tenant are provided below:

    • Default tenant (single tenant environment)
      In this example, the FQDN of the VMware Aria Automation load balancer is passed to associate the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy with the default tenant of VMware Aria Automation. 
      vracli vra join vra.my-company.com -u admin_user@org_domain
    • Named tenant (multi-tenant environment)
      In this example, the FQDN of specific tenant (organization) is passed to associate the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy with the named organization. 
      vracli vra join my-tenant.vra.my-company.com -u admin_user@org_domain

    If you are using a multi-tenant environment, you must create an integration for each tenant. Specifically, you must deploy a separate VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy for each tenant (organization). A VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy can only be associated with one VMware Aria Automation organization at a time.

  2. The above join command returns a certificate for the remote VMware Aria Automation instance. If you are prompted to trust the certificate, enter yes as prompted.
  3. Allow 5 minutes or so for the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to deploy the necessary software components before proceeding.

Step 4 - Create or edit a vCenter cloud account in VMware Aria Automation to connect to a remote vCenter server account by using a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy

To create a vCenter cloud account in VMware Aria Automation, see Create a basic vCenter cloud account in VMware Aria Automation.

To convert an existing vCenter cloud account, see Convert a traditional vCenter cloud account to one based on a VMware Aria Automation extensibility (vREx) proxy.

Upgrading a VMware Aria Automation Extensibility (vREx) proxy virtual appliance

Upgrade binaries are available for download at VMware Customer Connect. Search for and open your specific VMware Aria Automation product version. The upgrade binaries appear as VMware Aria Automation Extensibility Appliance on the product version page. The download may be specific to a particular VMware Aria Automation version.

Prerequisites
  1. Navigate to VMware Customer Connect Downloads page and search on your product name and version. Click Download Now in the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility Appliance section to download the needed VMware Aria Automation <version> virtual appliance OVA. For related information, see KB 80305.
  2. Connect the CD-ROM drive of the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy virtual machine in vSphere. See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration product documentation.
    Note: After connecting the CD-ROM drive, navigate to your VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy VM settings page and verify that the Connect At Power On option is enabled.
  3. Mount the ISO image to the CD-ROM drive of the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy virtual machine in vSphere. See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration product documentation.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy command line as root.
  2. Run the blkid command, and note the device name for the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy CD-ROM drive.
  3. Mount the CD-ROM drive by using the following procedure.
    mount /dev/xxx /mnt/cdrom
  4. Back up your VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy by taking a virtual machine (VM) snapshot. See Take a Snapshot of a Virtual Machine.

    The VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy does not support memory snapshots. Before taking the snapshot, verify that the Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory option is deactivated.

  5. To initiate the upgrade, run the following command, based on which version you are upgrading from.
    If you are upgrading from vRealize Automation (the precursor to VMware Aria Automation 8.8.1 or 8.8.2, run the following command. 
    vracli upgrade exec -y --repo cdrom://
    If you are upgrading from vRealize Automation (the precursor to VMware Aria Automation) 8.9 or later, run the following command. 
    vracli upgrade exec -y --profile lcm --repo cdrom://

    During the upgrade process, you are automatically logged out because the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy reboots.

  6. Log in to the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy command line as root and run the following command.
    vracli upgrade status --follow

    Results

    You have successfully upgraded your VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy to the latest version.

What to do next

Validate that the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy virtual appliance upgrade was successful by running the vracli version command in the command line of the appliance. By running this command, you can validate the product version and build number of the VMware Aria Automation Extensibility proxy virtual appliance.