To deploy vRealize Suite products by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, you configure product support, data centers, environment structures, and product specifications.

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager supports the following products:

  • Workspace ONE Access

  • vRealize Log Insight

  • vRealize Operations Manager

  • vRealize Automation

Product Support

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager provides several methods to obtain and store product binaries for the install, patch, and upgrade of the vRealize Suite products.

Table 1. Methods for Obtaining and Storing Product Binaries

Method

Description

Product Upload

  • You can upload and discover product binaries to the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance. You first upload the product and patch binaries directly to a folder, for example, /data/upload, on the appliance or to an NFS share. Then, you discover and add the product binaries to the repository.

  • If you remove the individual product or patch binaries that are discovered, vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager removes the metadata from the repository but you must manage the related file on the file system.

VMware Customer Connect

  • You can integrate vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager with VMware Customer Connect to access and download vRealize Suite product entitlements from an online depot over the Internet. This method simplifies, automates, and organizes the repository.

  • If you remove an individual product or patch binaries that are downloaded from the depot, the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager removes the related files and metadata from the repository.
Table 2. Design Decisions on Product Support for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-001

Obtain product binaries for install, patch, and upgrade in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager by using local product upload or VMware Customer Connect.

  • You can upgrade vRealize Suite products based on their general availability and endpoint interoperability rather than being listed as part of VMware Cloud Foundation bill of materials (BOM).

  • You can deploy and manage binaries in an environment that does not allow access to the Internet or are dark sites.

You must use support packs (PSPAKS) for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to enable upgrading to newer version of vRealize Suite products.

Environments and Data Centers

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager supports the deployment and upgrade of vRealize Suite products in a logical environment grouping.

Products are deployed by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager constructs called environments.

Each environment has the following high-level attributes:

  • Environment name

  • Administrator email

  • Administrator password

  • Data center

  • Customer Experience Improvement Program state

  • VMware Cloud Foundation mode

An environment is a logical object that is mapped to a vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager data center object. Each environment can contain only one instance of a vRealize Suite product. For example, only one vRealize Log Insight instance can exist in an environment. However, you can use vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to deploy and scale out this vRealize Log Insight instance in the environment to the required number of nodes.

Table 3. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Environment Types

Environment Type

Description

Global Environment

Contains the Workspace ONE Access instance that is required before you can deploy vRealize Automation.

VMware Cloud Foundation Mode

  • Infrastructure details for the deployed products, including VMware vCenter Server®, networking, DNS and NTP information are retrieved from the SDDC Manager inventory by vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

  • Successful deployment details are synced back to the SDDC Manager inventory.

  • Limited to one instance of each vRealize Suite product

Standalone Mode

  • Infrastructure details for the deployed products are entered manually.

  • Successful deployment details are not synced back to the SDDC Manager inventory.

  • Supports deployment of more than one instance of a vRealize Suite product.

The vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager UI provides the following installation methods for environment creation.

  • Installation wizard (default)

  • JSON configuration file

You can deploy new vRealize Suite products to the SDDC environment or import existing product deployments.

When you add one or more products to an environment, the parameters differ for new product deployment and for an existing product import.

For example, for a new deployment, you can provide the following parameters:

Table 4. Example Deployment Configuration Elements

Elements

Example Properties

Product Selection

  • Selection

  • Version

  • Deployment type, for example, standard or cluster (if applicable)

  • Node count (if applicable)

Certificate

Certificate Authority signed certificate (from Locker)

Infrastructure

  • vCenter Server

  • Cluster

  • Datastore

  • Disk mode

  • Folder

  • Resource pool

  • Affinity/Anti-affinity rules

Network Settings

  • Network

  • Gateway

  • NTP

  • DNS

  • Domain search path

Product Properties

  • Product Properties

    • License

    • Cluster VIPs

    • Workspace ONE Integration

    • Virtual machine names

    • Virtual machine IP addresses

    • Fully qualified domain names

    • Node size

  • Password overrides

  • Infrastructure overrides

  • Network overrides

Pre-checks

  • Data validation

  • Infrastructure validation

  • Network validation

You can deploy products by using a configuration file in JSON format. When using the API, the JSON configuration file is provided as the payload for the environment specification.

A data center is another logical object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to represent a geographical or logical location for an organization. Management domain vCenter Server instances are added to specific data centers.

You create data centers and environments in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to manage the life cycle operations on the vRealize Suite products and to support the growth of the SDDC.

You create the following data center and environment objects:

Table 5. Logical Data Center to vCenter Server Mappings in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Logical Data Center

vCenter Server Type

Description

Cross-instance

  • Management domain vCenter Server from the local VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

  • Management domain vCenter Server from an additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

Supports the deployment of cross-instance components, such as Workspace ONE Access, vRealize Operations, and vRealize Automation, including any per-instance collector components.

Local-instance

Management domain vCenter Server from the local VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

Supports the deployment of vRealize Log Insight.
Table 6. Environment Topologies

Environment Name

VMware Cloud Foundation Mode

Logical Data Center

Product Components

Global Environment

Enabled

Cross-instance

Workspace ONE Access

Cross-instance

Enabled

Cross-instance

  • vRealize Operations Manager analytics nodes

  • vRealize Operations Manager remote collectors

  • vRealize Automation cluster

Each instance

Enabled

Local-instance

vRealize Log Insight cluster nodes
Table 7. Design Decisions on Environment and Data Center Management for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-002

  • Create a datacenter object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for the cross-instance VMware Cloud Foundation solutions.

  • Assign the management domain vCenter Server instance to the data center.

You can deploy and manage the integrated vRealize Suite components across the SDDC as a group.

None.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-003

  • In vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, create a data center for the local VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

  • Assign the corresponding management domain vCenter Server instance.

Supports deployment and management of vRealize Suite products that are instance-specific, such as vRealize Log Insight.

You must manage a separate data center object for the products that are specific to each instance.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-004

Create a global environment in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to support the deployment of workspace ONE Access.

A global environment is required by vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to deploy Workspace ONE Access.

None.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-005

Create a cross-instance environment in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to support the deployment of:

  • vRealize Operations analytics nodes

  • vRealize Operations remote collectors

  • vRealize Automation cluster nodes

  • Supports deployment and management of the integrated vRealize Suite products across VMware Cloud Foundation instances as a group.

  • Enables the deployment of instance-specific components, such as vRealize Operations remote collectors. In vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, you can deploy and manage vRealize Operations remote collector objects only in an environment that contains the associated cross-instance components.

You can manage instance-specific components, such as remote collectors, only in an environment that is cross-instance.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-CFG-006

In vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, create a local-instance environment to support the deployment of:

  • vRealize Log Insight

Supports the deployment of an instance of vRealize Log Insight.

None.

Environment and Data Center Management for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for Multiple VMware Cloud Foundation Instances

In an environment with multiple VMware Cloud Foundation instances, you configure environments and data centers that span all instances.

Table 8. Design Decisions on Environment and Data Center Management in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for Multiple VMware Cloud Foundation Instances

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-007

Assign the management domain vCenter Server instance in the additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance to the cross-instance data center.

Supports the deployment of vRealize Operations remote collectors in an additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

None.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-008

  • In each additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance, create a data center object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for the additional instance.

  • Assign the corresponding management domain vCenter Server instance.

Supports the deployment and management of vRealize Suite products that are specific to VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

You must manage a separate data center object for the products that are specific to each instance.

VCF-VRS-vRSLCM-ENV-009

In each additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance, create a local-instance environment in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to support the deployment of:

  • vRealize Log Insight

Supports the deployment of an instance of vRealize Log Insight in each additional VMware Cloud Foundation instance.

None.