With integrations, VMware Aria Automation Assembler can support other systems and services for extended cloud automation and workload life cycle management capabilities.

With an integration, you can connect external systems to VMware Aria Automation.

Table 1. VMware Aria Automation Assembler Integrations

Integration

Description

SDDC Manager

You can use the SDDC Manager integration to discover and consume VI workload domain topologies.

NSX Federation provides the ability to federate and manage multiple VI workload domains using an NSX Global Manager. With NSX Global Manager, you can configure consistent security policies across multiple locations and global networking objects (NSX Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways).

Important:

This solution does not use this integration. At the time of this solution authoring, the integration from VMware Aria Automation to SDDC Manager does not discover an NSX Federation topology.

VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator

You can use VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator workflows in extensibility subscriptions. With a VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator integration to VMware Aria Automation Assembler, you can use VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator workflows in extensibility subscriptions. VMware Aria Automation Assembler supports the integration with the default embedded or external VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator instances.

You can use VMware Aria Automation Assembler capability tags to manage the placement logic of your VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator integrations. For information about capability tags, see Tagging Design for VMware Aria Automation Assembler for Private Cloud Automation for VMware Cloud Foundation.

VMware Aria Operations

If VMware Aria Operations is integrated into your VMware Cloud Foundation environment as another validated solution, you can use VMware Aria Operations to direct workload placement and assign the pricing policies for the monetary impact of deployments and their resources. You can also use VMware Aria Operations display metrics, insights, and alerts post deployments.

For information on this solution interoperability, see Monitoring and Alerting for Private Cloud Automation for VMware Cloud Foundation.

My VMware

You can use VMware Marketplace to consume existing cloud templates from VMware and its technology partners.

Ansible and Ansible Tower

You can use Red Hat Ansible to manage deployments for configuration and drift.

Puppet

You can use Puppet to manage deployments for configuration and drift.

GitHub

You can use GitHub repositories to manage cloud templates and action scripts under source control, allowing you to use modern development tools, such as Visual Studio Code, for cloud templates and actions authoring.

GitHub support both cloud and on-premises integrations.

GitLab

You can use GitLab repositories to manage cloud templates and action scripts under source control, allowing you to use modern development tools, such as Visual Studio Code, for cloud templates and actions authoring.

GitLab support both cloud and on-premises integrations.

BitBucket

You can use Atlassian BitBucket repositories to manage cloud templates and action scripts under source control, allowing you to use modern development tools, such as Visual Studio Code, for cloud templates and actions authoring.

BitBucket support on-premises integration.

Terraform

You can embed HashiCorp Terraform configurations as a resource in cloud templates. Designs that include Terraform configurations require access to a Terraform run-time environment that you integrate with the VMware Aria Automation. The run-time environment consists of a Kubernetes cluster that runs Terraform CLI commands to perform requested operations.

Red Hat OpenShift

You can use the Kubernetes integration with Red Hat OpenShift to create Kubernetes clusters by using cloud templates.

IPAM

You can use an IPAM provider for IP address management.

Active Directory

You can use Active Directory to manage workload computer accounts.

Table 2. Design Decisions on Integrations for VMware Aria Automation Assembler in VMware Aria Automation

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

PCA-VAA-CA-CFG-011

Use the default integration to the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator cluster that is embedded in VMware Aria Automation.

The use of the embedded VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator cluster has the following advantages over the use of an external VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator instance:

  • Operates in cluster mode.

  • Provides a faster time to value.

  • Reduces the number of appliances to manage.

  • Provides an easier upgrade path and better supportability.

  • Improves performance.

  • Removes the requirement for an external database.

Using the embedded instance of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator is applicable in most use cases. For information about the use cases for using the external VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator, refer to the product documentation.

It might be less efficient to run a workflow in a multi-instance deployment from a centralized cluster. However, it is simpler to manage.