The Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation provides step-by-step instructions for adding and connecting cross-region Workspace ONE® Access™ and VMware vRealize® Suite products to Region A and Region B of a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) deployment of VMware Validated Design™.

Intended Audience

This design is intended for cloud architects, infrastructure administrators, and cloud administrators who are familiar with and want to use VMware software to automate and monitor an SDDC that is deployed according to VMware Validated Design. The information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations.

Supported VMware Cloud Foundation Version

Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation is compatible with VMware Cloud Foundation™ 4.2.

Required VMware Software

Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation is compliant and validated with certain VMware Workspace ONE Access and vRealize Suite product versions on VMware Cloud Foundation. See VMware Validated Design Release Notes.

Before You Apply This Guidance

The sequence of the documentation of VMware Validated Design follows the stages for implementing and maintaining an SDDC.

To deploy the SDDC operations and automation solutions by following the prescriptive path of VMware Validated Design, your environment must have a certain configuration. For information on the deployment workflow of the SDDC components, see Deployment of VMware Validated Design in Introducing VMware Validated Design.

Table 1. Required SDDC Components

Workload Domain

Management Component

Deployment Method

Management domain

VMware ESXi™ hosts

Manual deployment

VMware vCenter Server®

Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder™

NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes with a region-specific and cross-region virtual network segments

Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder

VMware vSAN™ as principal storage

Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder

NFS as supplemental storage

Manual deployment

SDDC Manager

Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder

Region-specific Workspace ONE Access instance connected to VMware NSX-T™ Data Center

Manual deployment

Virtual infrastructure workload domain or vSphere with Tanzu workload domain

ESXi hosts

Manual deployment

vCenter Server

Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager

NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes

Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager

Principal storage

Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager

Supplemental storage

Manual deployment

To apply Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation, you must:

  • Complete the Planning and Preparation Workbook with your deployment options included.

  • Deploy the SDDC management domain in Region A. See Deployment of the Management Domain in the First Region.

  • Optionally, deploy one or more SDDC workload domains in Region A. See Deployment of a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain in the First Region or Deployment of a vSphere with Tanzu Workload Domain in the First Region.

  • For a dual-region SDDC, deploy the SDDC management domain in Region B. See Deployment of the Management Domain in the Second Region.

  • For a dual-region SDDC, optionally, deploy one or more SDDC workload domains in Region B. See Deployment of a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain in the Second Region.

  • Optionally, read Architecture and Design for Cloud Operations and Automation.

See Documentation Map for VMware Validated Design.

The same requirement applies if you are following the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation to deploy the operations and automation solutions. See the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation.

Using VMware Cloud Foundation for Cloud Operations and Automation Deployment

VMware Validated Design uses SDDC Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation for automated deployment and life cycle management of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. You also use SDDC Manager to connect a workload domain to vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Log Insight.

VMware Validated Design follows an example naming convention. The naming provides uniqueness of the objects across the SDDC. You can identify managed objects directly if you use many components that are linked together, for example, multiple vCenter Server systems working in Enhanced Linking Mode or management dashboards in vRealize Operations Manager monitoring multiple instances of the same component. For information on the naming convention, see the Planning and Preparation Workbook.

Table 2. Automated and Manual Deployment and Configuration for Cloud Operations and Automation

Operation Type

Automated

Manual

Deployment

By using SDDC Manager, deploy vRealize® Suite Lifecycle Manager™ in VMware Cloud Foundation mode.

By using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode, deploy the following components:

  • Cross-region Workspace ONE Access

  • VMware vRealize® Operations Manager™

  • VMware vRealize® Log Insight™

  • VMware vRealize® Automation™

-

Post-deployment configuration

During the deployment processes, SDDC Manager performs the following configurations:

  • Creates the NSX-T load balancer for cross-region Workspace ONE Access, vRealize Operations Manager, and vRealize Automation.

  • Connects the vRealize Suite components to each other.

  • Connects vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Log Insight to the deployed workload domains.

  • Configure role-based access control in the cross-region Workspace ONE Access deployment for the vRealize Suite components.

  • Connect the vRealize Suite products to the region-specific Workspace ONE Access.

  • Connect vRealize Operations Manager to the NSX-T Manager instances.

  • Connect NSX-T Edge nodes and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to vRealize Log Insight.

  • Connect vRealize Automation to vRealize Operations Manager.

  • Connect vRealize Automation to the workload domain vCenter Server and NSX-T Manager instance.

  • Configure the vRealize Suite components for multiple availability zones.

Update History

This Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.

Revision Description
14 JUL 2021 The custom role for vRealize Automation to vSphere integration now includes the Profile-driven storage view privilege. See Define Custom User Roles in vSphere for vRealize Automation in Region A.
30 MAR 2021 The deployment guidance now provides instructions for a dual-region SDDC.
09 FEB 2021 Initial release.