To deploy the vRealize Suite components by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, you configure a My VMware account, product binaries, Marketplace integration, data centers, environment structures, and product configuration drift.

Product Binaries

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager provides two methods to retrieve and store product binaries for installation and upgrade of the vRealize Suite components.

Table 1. Methods for Uploading Product Binaries to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Method for Retrieving Product Binaries

Description

My VMware

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager can integrate directly with My VMware to access vRealize Suite entitlements. Use this method to simplify, automate, and organize the repository.

You download OVA files for installation and upgrade directly to the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance at the following locations:

  • /data/myvmware/product/version/install/ for installation

  • /data/myvmware/product/version/upgrade/ for upgrade

If you remove individual binaries that are downloaded from My VMware from the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager user interface, the solution removes the related files and metadata from the repository.

If you register a My VMware account with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, you can provide license keys directly from an entitlement account or input a license key in the installation wizard during an environment creation.

Manual Upload

You can download vRealize Suite product binaries for installation and upgrade directly from My VMware, and then upload them to the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance. Use this method if your organization restricts external traffic from the management components of the Software-Defined Data Center.

You can upload the product binaries directly to the /data/upload/ folder of the appliance or to an NFS share. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager discovers the upload and adds it to the repository.

If you remove individual product binaries from the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager user interface, the solution removes the metadata from the repository but you must manually remove the file from the filesystem.
Table 2. Design Decisions on Downloading Product Binaries in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
Decision ID Design Decision Design Justification Design Implication
SDDC-OPS-LCM-004 Register the virtual appliance of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager with My VMware. Provides the following capabilities:
  • Retrieve and use vRealize Suite licenses in the entitlement of the My VMware account during an SDDC deployment.
  • Download vRealize Suite marketplace content from the VMware Marketplace to the repository.
  • You must have a My VMware account with the required entitlement to access vRealize Suite product downloads and licenses.
  • You must manage a dedicated My VMware account for use with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.
  • You must provide external HTTPS access to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for My VMware and VMware Marketplace endpoints.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-005 Use a dedicated My VMware account for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instead of a named user account.

Provides the following access control features:

  • Accessibility and privileges on the destination service remain restricted to an integration account.
  • Accountability in tracking interactions between the SDDC and My VMware.
  • You must have a My VMware account with the required entitlement to access vRealize Suite product downloads and licenses.
  • You must manage a dedicated My VMware account for use with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-006 Download product binaries from My VMware to the virtual appliance of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.
  • Supports download and organization of both installation and upgrade binaries (.ova, .iso, and .pak) for each vRealize Suite product in this design to the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager repository.
  • Reduces the administrative overhead of downloading, uploading, and importing media to the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager repository.
  • Supports adding product upgrades.
  • You must have a My VMware account with the required entitlement to access vRealize Suite product downloads and licenses.
  • You must provide more storage because the workflow downloads both installation and upgrade media for each product.
  • If My VMware is not accessible, you must upload the product binaries to the virtual appliance and register them with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. You must also enter manually the product licenses.
  • Because you use the local repository of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, you transfer the product binaries across the WAN during product deployment and upgrade across regions.

Deployment Paths

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager provides the following installation methods in the UI for an environment creation: using a product and using a JSON configuration file.

  • Installation Wizard

    • Product Path

    • Solution Path

  • Configuration File

Product Path

The default option in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Add individual vRealize Suite products to the SDDC environment as a clean installation or by importing an existing installation of the product.

A new environment has the following attributes:

  • Target data center

  • Environment type

  • Environment name

When you add one or more products to an environment, you have the following deployment options:

  • For a clean installation:

    • Product version

    • Deployment type

    • Node size

  • Additional Configuration

Solution Path

Deploy a use case-based solution for the SDDC environment. You do not use this option with this VMware Validated Design.

Configuration File

Deploy a new environment or import an existing one by using a configuration file in JSON format.

An environment has the following attributes:

  • Target data center

  • Environment type

  • Environment name

When you add one or more products to an environment, you provide a product configuration JSON file.

In this design, you use the product path option in the installation wizard for pre-deployment validation and simplified product deployment.

Table 3. Design Decisions on Deployment Paths in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
ID Design Decision Design Justification Design Implication
SDDC-OPS-LCM-007 Create environments using the product-based deployment path in the installation wizard.
  • Provides a modular path to deploy the vRealize Suite components in this design.
  • Aligns the deployment configurations and sizing.
  • Simplifies the preparation for deployment to a small set of configuration parameters.
  • Provides pre-deployment validations.
You must fill in the necessary configuration parameters in the UI during each installation operation.

Marketplace Integration

You can use vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to add and manage content from VMware Marketplace. Once downloaded, you can direct the content deployment to your SDDC directly from vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

To use the integration with the VMware Marketplace, you must register the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance with My VMware and the appliance must have Internet access.

You download the content packs from vRealize Log Insight Content Packs in VMware Validated Design to the Marketplace in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for integration in the SDDC. For information about the supported content pack versions, see VMware Validated Design Release Notes.

You download and install manually the vRealize Operations management packs in this design. Most management packs for the SDDC are pre-installed in the product. Some management packs are available only for manual download from My VMware, and you deploy and manage them using the vRealize Operations Manager user interface. See Management Packs in vRealize Operations Manager and VMware Validated Design Release Notes.

Table 4. Design Decisions on Marketplace Integration in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
ID Design Decision Design Justification Design Implication
SDDC-OPS-LCM-008 Download vRealize Log Insight content packs to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager using the VMware Marketplace integration. Provides the ability to centrally download and manage vRealize Log Insight content packs across the SDDC.
  • The virtual appliance of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager must be registered with a My VMware account to enable the VMware Marketplace integration.
  • If My VMware and VMware Marketplace are inaccessible from the SDDC, you must manually download the vRealize Log Insight content packs from the VMware Solution Exchange and install the content packs using the vRealize Log Insight administrative user interface.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-009 Download manually vRealize Operations management packs to a location that is accessible from the SDDC. The majority of vRealize Operations management packs for this design are pre-installed with the product and only some are available through My VMware. You must download the vRealize Operations management packs that are not included in the product from the VMware Solution Exchange and My VMware.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-010 Deploy the vRealize Log Insight content packs using the VMware Marketplace integration in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Provides the ability to centrally deploy vRealize Log Insight content packs across the SDDC. If My VMware and VMware Marketplace are inaccessible from the SDDC, you must manually download and install the content packs using the vRealize Log Insight administrative user interface.

The VMware Marketplace integration and in-product Marketplace stores only the latest versions of the content packs. This validated design supports the latest versions of the packs that are available at the time this design is validated. When you deploy the validated design, a later version of a content pack might be available.

SDDC-OPS-LCM-011 Deploy manually vRealize Operations management packs. The majority of vRealize Operations management packs in this design are pre-installed in the product and only some are available through the My VMware. You must install the vRealize Operations management packs that are not included in the product directly using the vRealize Operations Manager administrative user interface.

Environments and Data Centers

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

These products are as follows:

  • vRealize Operations Manager

  • vRealize Log Insight

  • vRealize Automation (with embedded vRealize Orchestrator)

  • vRealize Business

Environments are deployed to a data center object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Each environment can contain only one instance of a vRealize Suite product. For example, only one vRealize Log Insight cluster can exist in an environment. However, you can use vRealize Lifecycle Manager to scale out this vRealize Log Insight cluster in the environment to the required number of nodes.

The data center object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager represents a geographic location in the organization. Add the vCenter Server instances to each data center. Each vCenter Server instance is of one of the following types:

  • Management

  • Workload

  • Consolidated Management and Workload

In this design, you create data centers and environments in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to manage the lifecycle of the vRealize Suite components and to support the organic growth of the SDDC using a few operations.

You create the following data center and environment objects:

Table 5. Data Center to vCenter Server Instance Mapping in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Data Center

vCenter Server Instances

Cross-Region

  • Management vCenter Server in Region A

  • Management vCenter Server in Region B

Region A

  • Management vCenter Server in Region A

Region B

  • Management vCenter Server in Region B
Table 6. Configuration of Data Center-Environment Pairs in vRealize Lifecycle Manager

Data Center-Environment Pair

Description

Cross-Region

Supports the deployment of cross-region components like vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Automation and vRealize Business including collectors and proxy agents.

Region A

Supports the deployment of vRealize Log Insight in Region A. vRealize Log Insight has several instances across the SDDC, each instance specific to a region. You deploy each instance using a separate data center and environment.

Region B

Supports the deployment of vRealize Log Insight in Region B.
Table 7. Environment Layout in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

Environment Name

Environment Type

Data Center

Product Components

Cross-Region

Production

Cross-Region

  • vRealize Operations Manager Analytics Cluster

  • vRealize Operations Manager Remote Collectors

  • vRealize Automation Appliances

  • vRealize Automation IaaS Managers

  • vRealize Automation IaaS Web Servers

  • vRealize Automation IaaS DEMs

  • vRealize Automation vSphere Proxy Agents

  • vRealize Business Server Appliances

  • vRealize Business Data Collectors

Region A

Production

Region A

vRealize Log Insight Cluster

Region B

Production

Region B

vRealize Log Insight Cluster
Table 8. Design Decisions on the Environment Configuration in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
ID Design Decision Design Justification Design Implication
SDDC-OPS-LCM-012
  • Create a data center object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for SDDC solutions that are managed across regions.
  • Assign the management vCenter Server instance in each region to the data center.
Allows you to deploy and manage the integrated vRealize Suite components across the SDDC as a group. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager requires a geographic designation for each data center. The cross-region location is labeled as Region A, that is, San Francisco, only to satisfy the UI requirement.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-013
  • Create a data center object in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for each region.
  • Assign each data center object the Management vCenter Server instance for the region.

Supports deployment and management of vRealize Suite components that are region-specific.

You must manage a separate data center object for the products that are specific to each region.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-014 Create an environment in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for SDDC solutions that are cross-region:
  • vRealize Operations Manager Analytics Nodes
  • vRealize Operations Remote Collectors
  • vRealize Automation Appliances
  • vRealize Automation IaaS Managers
  • vRealize Automation IaaS Web Servers
  • vRealize Automation IaaS DEMs
  • vRealize Automation vSphere Proxy Agents
  • vRealize Business for Cloud Serve Appliance
  • vRealize Business for Cloud Data Collectors Appliances
  • Supports deployment and management of the integrated vRealize Suite components across the SDDC regions as a group.
  • Enables the deployment of region-specific components, such as collectors and proxy agents, that provide data to primary components. In vRealize Lifecycle Manager, you can deploy and manage collectors and proxy agents only in an environment that contains the associated cross-region primary components.
You can management region-specific components, such as, collectors and proxy agents, only in an environment that is cross-region.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-015 Create an environment in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager for each region to deploy and manage the standalone vRealize Suite products that region-specific:
  • vRealize Log Insight Cluster
Supports the deployment of an instance of a management product in each region. Using vRealize Lifecycle Manager, you can deploy only one instance of a vRealize Suite product per environment. You use a separate environment for each region where you deploy a product instance. You must maintain an environment for each the region to deploy and manage the standalone region-specific solutions.

Configuration Drift Intervals

You can use the configuration drift capability in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to save a baseline of the vRealize Suite product configurations. You set the configuration drift interval in the vRealize Suite Lifecycle manager settings to compare the baseline with the current state configuration of each product and create a configuration drift report for review. If you discover that a product configuration has changed during the drift timeline, you can review the changes.

Table 9. Design Decisions on the Configuration Drift Interval in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
ID Design Decision Design Justification Design Implication
SDDC-OPS-LCM-016 Use the default configuration drift interval. The default configuration drift monitors the changes in vRealize Suite product configurations over each 24-hour period. Drift analysis occurs only every 24 hours.
SDDC-OPS-LCM-017 Create a baseline for each product in an environment post-deployment and post-upgrade. You can view any changes to the current configuration of the product compared with the configuration drift baseline of the product. You must save the configuration baseline after deployment or upgrades.