This feature is available only if you have a VMware Aria Universal subscription. As an administrator, you can add existing on-premises vRealize Automation 7.5 or 7.6 catalog items from one or more business groups to the Automation Service Broker catalog. The vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 catalog items are imported and added to the Automation Service Broker catalog.

After the 7.5/7.6 catalog items are added, your users can request the current on-premises catalog items or any Automation Service Broker items from a single cloud catalog.

If you are interested in this feature but you do not yet have a VMware Aria Universal subscription, you can subscribe as you add the integration.


vRealize Automation 7.5 or 7.6 integration workflow.

Review the following considerations to decide if you want to import the vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 catalog items.

  • The only catalog items that are imported are vSphere machines and Amazon EC2 machines. You cannot import catalog items for other machine types. If your imported vSphere and Amazon EC2 catalog items have resource-level custom properties, the custom properties are not displayed in the catalog request form. Although the custom properties are not displayed, the default property values are honored during deployment. Custom properties at the business group level are not imported or honored.
  • Catalog items with custom forms, XaaS forms, and business group custom properties are not imported.
  • During deployment, you cannot cancel a deployment. You must wait for the completion of the provisioning process.
  • The request timeout that is set in each project that is running these imported catalog items should match the deployment time for the cloud template in your VMware Aria Automation instance. The default timeout value is 120 minutes. This might not be sufficient time for a successful deployment. To change the Request Timeout value, select Infrastructure > Administration > Projects, and then click Provisioning.
  • After the catalog item is deployed, you can only run Delete and Change lease day 2 actions. Even if you have other actions entitled in 7.5/7.6, you can only run those two actions. You must create a policy that entitles the project members to run the Deployment.Delete and Deployment.ChangeLease actions. This policy might be at the organization or project level. See How do I entitle deployment users to Automation Service Broker day 2 actions using policies.
  • The vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 lease policies are evaluated and honored. If you create an Automation Service Broker lease policy, it is evaluated and if more restrictive than the 7.5/7.6 lease, it is applied. If the Automation Service Broker policy is less restrictive, then the 7.5/7.6 policy is applied. For more about lease policies, see How do I configure Automation Service Broker deployment leases using policies.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have the hostname URL for your vRealize Automation 7.5 or 7.6 instance.
  • Verify that you have the vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 name and credentials for the business group manager associated with catalog items that you are importing. The user must have the Catalog Administrator role and Infrastructure Architect role. These credentials are used to deploy the catalog items in vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6. They are also used to run day 2 actions on the deployments.
  • Verify that you do not have any third-party certificates installed on your vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 target instances.

Procedure

  1. Configure the vRealize Automation 7.x integration.
    You can configure an integration with on-premises vRealize Automation 7.5 or 7.6.
    1. Select Infrastructure > Connections > Integrations.
    2. Click Add Integration and then click vRealize Automation 7.x.
    3. Enter a name that identifies this instance when you create the content source.
    4. Enter the URL for your vRealize Automation instance.
    5. Select or add a Cloud Proxy.
    6. Enter a user name and password for a business group manager who has the Catalog Administrator role and Infrastructure Architect role in your 7.5/7.6 instance.
    7. To validate the credentials and URL, click Validate.
    8. Click Add.
  2. Import the catalog items.
    1. Select Content and Policies > Content Sources.
    2. Click New, and then click vRA 7.x Catalog Items.
    3. Enter the Name for this content source so that you can identify it when you share the content.
    4. Select the Source vRA integration that you configured in the previous step.
    5. Select the Source vRA Business group that is entitled to the catalog items in vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6.
      If you want to import catalog items for more than one business group, you must create a different content source for that group.
    6. Click Create and Import.
  3. Add a project so that you can share the imported catalog items with Automation Service Broker users.
    If the project includes the users that must be able to deploy the imported catalog items, you can use an existing project.
    1. In Automation Service Broker, select Infrastructure > Administration > Projects, and then click New Project.
    2. Enter the project information on the Summary tab.
    3. Click the Users tab and then click Add Users.
      To add project users, the individuals or the groups must already be active service organization users.

      You are not required to configure any project infrastructure. The requests for these catalog items use the 7.5/7.6 infrastructure that is associated with the business group that you used to create the vRealize Automation integration in a previous step.

    4. Click Create.
  4. Share the imported catalog items with a project.
    The people that you want to have permission deploy the imported 7.5/7.6 catalog items, but be a member of the selected project.
    1. Select Content and Policies > Policies > Definitions, and create a new content sharing policy.
    2. Enter a name for the content sharing policy.
    3. In the Scope list, select the project that includes the users who must have permission to deploy the imported 7.5/7.6 items.
    4. In the Content sharing section, click Add Items and then select one or more catalog items to share with the project members.
      You can select all the items imported from the vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 content source, or you can select individual items. To select only particular items, select All Content in the Content Sources drop-down menu.
    5. In the Users section, select the users and user groups that you want to have access to the content.
      You can share the content with all users and groups in the project, or you can select individual users and groups.
    6. Click Create.
  5. Verify that the imported catalog item is available in the catalog to members of the selected project.
    1. Click the Consume tab.
    2. In the Projects drop-down menu, select the project with which you shared the imported items.

      You can select multiple projects.

    3. On the Catalog page, locate the imported catalog item, and review the projects to ensure that the project you configured is included.
    4. Click Request and provide any required information.
    5. Click Submit.
    The provisioning process begins and the Deployments page opens with your current request at the top.
  6. Monitor the provisioning process to ensure that a catalog item runs successfully.
    vRealize Automation 7.5 or 7.6 deploys the catalog item to the infrastructure allocated in the application.
    1. Select Deployments > Deployments and locate your deployed request.
    2. Monitor the card status until it is successful.
  7. Verify that your users can run a day 2 action on the deployed catalog item.
    Day 2 actions are changes that you can make to deployed catalog items. The deployment level actions might include Delete and Change Lease. Your vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 instance runs the actions on the target system. Your project members must be entitled to run the actions. Review the information at the beginning of this article.
    1. Select Deployments > Deployments and locate your successfully deployed catalog item.
    2. Click the Actions menu on the right.
      Change Lease and Delete are the expected actions. Depending on your intent for the item, run one of the actions.

Results

The vRealize Automation 7.5/7.6 catalog items are imported into Automation Service Broker and shared in the catalog.

What to do next