As part of this design, use the application virtual network configuration to connect the vRealize Automation with the other management solutions in the SDDC. Use the load balancer in the cross-region application virtual network for high availability and request balancing of the vRealize Automation components.

This design uses NSX logical switches to abstract the vRealize Automation application and its supporting services. You can place the application in any region regardless of the underlying physical infrastructure such as network subnets, compute hardware, or storage types.

Application Virtual Networks

The vRealize Automation appliance and main IaaS components are installed in the cross-region shared application virtual network and the vSphere proxy agent nodes are installed in their region-specific shared application virtual networks.

This networking design has the following features:

  • The vRealize Automation appliance and IaaS nodes are on the same network because they can be failed over between regions after scaling out to a multi-region design. vRealize Automation and vRealize Business also share this network.
  • All nodes have routed access to the vSphere management network through the NSX Universal Distributed Logical Router.
  • Routing to the vSphere management network and other external networks is dynamic and is based on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

For more information about the networking configuration of the application virtual network, see Virtualization Network Design for Consolidated SDDC and NSX Design for Consolidated SDDC.

Table 1. Design Decisions on the Application Virtual Network for vRealize Automation

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

CSDDC-CMP-008

Place the following components of vRealize Automation on the existing cross-region application virtual network:

  • vRealize Automation appliance

  • IaaS Web Server

  • IaaS Manager virtual machine running DEM Orchestrator, IaaS Proxy Agent and DEM Worker

Provides a consistent deployment model for management applications and ensures that growth to a dual-region design is supported.

You must use an implementation in NSX to support this network configuration.

Load Balancer Configuration

By using session persistence on the load balancer, the same server can serve all requests after a session is established with that server. The session persistence is enabled on the load balancer to direct subsequent requests from each unique session to the same vRealize Automation server in the load balancer pool.

The load balancer also handles failover for the IaaS Manager Service because only one Manager Service is active at one time. The Manager Service can operate with the use of session persistence.

Consider the following load balancer characteristics for vRealize Automation.

Table 2. Specification of the Load Balancer Application Profiles
Server Role Type Enable SSL Pass-Through Persistence Expires in (Seconds)
vRealize Automation - Persistence HTTPS (443) Enabled Source IP 1800
vRealize Automation HTTPS (443) Enabled - -
Table 3. Specification of the Load Balancer Service Monitoring
Monitor Interval Timeout Max Retries Type Expected Method URL Receive
vRealize Automation Appliance 3 10 3 HTTPS 204 GET /vcac/services/api/health
vRealize Automation IaaS Web 3 10 3 HTTPS GET /wapi/api/status/web REGISTERED
vRealize Automation IaaS Manager 3 10 3 HTTPS GET /VMPSProvision ProvisionService
vRealize Orchestrator 3 10 3 HTTPS GET /vco-controlcenter/docs
Table 4. Specification of the Load Balancer Pools
Server Role Algorithm Monitor Members Port Monitor Port
vRealize Automation Appliance Round Robin vRealize Automation Appliance monitor vRealize Automation Appliance nodes 443
vRealize Automation Remote Console Proxy Round Robin vRealize Automation Appliance monitor vRealize Automation Appliance nodes 8444 443
vRealize Automation IaaS Web Round Robin vRealize Automation IaaS Web monitor IaaS web nodes 443
vRealize Automation IaaS Manager Round Robin vRealize Automation IaaS Manager monitor IaaS Manager nodes 443
vRealize Automation Appliance Round Robin Embedded vRealize Automation Orchestrator Control Center monitor vRealize Automation Appliance nodes 8283
Table 5. Specification of the Load Balancer Virtual Servers
Protocol Port Default Pool Application Profile
HTTPS 443 vRealize Automation Appliance Pool vRealize Automation - Persistence Profile
HTTPS 443 vRealize Automation IaaS Web Pool vRealize Automation - Persistence Profile
HTTPS 443 vRealize Automation IaaS Manager Pool vRealize Automation Profile
HTTPS 8283 Embedded vRealize Orchestrator Control Center Pool vRealize Automation - Persistence Profile
HTTPS 8444 vRealize Automation Remote Console Proxy Pool vRealize Automation - Persistence Profile
Table 6. Design Decisions on Load Balancing vRealize Automation

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

CSDDC-CMP-009

Set up an NSX edge device for load balancing the vRealize Automation services.

Enabling this design with a load balancer allows for a future expansion of the CMP with application-level HA.

Additional configuration is required to configure the load balancers

CSDDC-CMP-010

Configure the load balancer for vRealize Automation Server Appliance, Remote Console Proxy, and IaaS Web to use Round-Robin algorithm with Source-IP based persistence with a 1800 second timeout.

  • Round-robin provides a good balance of clients between both appliances, while the Source-IP persistence mode ensures that individual clients remain connected to the same appliance.

  • 1800-second timeout aligns with the vRealize Automation Appliance Server sessions timeout value. Sessions that transfer to a different vRealize Automation Appliance might result in a poor user experience.

None

CSDDC-CMP-011

Configure the load balancer for vRealize IaaS Manager Service to use Round-Robin algorithm without persistence.

The Manager Service does not need session persistence.

None