Welcome to the world of automation! I am sure you have heard about vRealize Automation product (vRA), formerly vCloud Automation Center (vCAC). In this chapter, we will focus on the use cases and what vRealize Automation solution is. We will further discuss the following topics:
The conceptual diagram of vRealize Automation
CAFÉ Appliance and component deep dive
vPostgres
RabbitMQ
vCAC server
tcServer (Tomcat)
Telemetry
IaaS – architecture and component deep dive
Model Manager Web (a.k.a. repository)
Model Manager Data
MSSQL database
Manager Service
DEM (Orchestrator and Worker)
Proxy agents
Management agents (starting vRA 6.2)
vRealize Automation (a.k.a vRA) is a complete Cloud Management Platform (CMP) that can be used to build and manage a multi-vendor cloud infrastructure. Using an automation solution, end users can self-provision virtual machines in private and public cloud environments, physical machines (install OEM images), applications, and IT services according to policies defined by administrators.
Using a sales pitch definition—it is a self-serviced, policy-driven orchestration and cloud automation engine with integration capabilities built into the core of the product.
Before you move forward, I would like you to take a closer look at the preceding image that depicts how various products in VMware dovetail to complement the automation solution. The automation construct is built upon a layer of management that can automate tasks and activities in compute, storage, and network components that is referred to as Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC).
I have listed a few key capabilities about vRealize Automation. While there could be many more, the following list should cover it all:
A single solution of abstracted service models
Model once, deploy anywhere
Personalization through policies
vRealize Automation provides the ability to create models of services. These services are abstracted from each other within a single solution. For example, application services (PaaS) are abstracted from infrastructure services (IaaS), which are further abstracted from resource pools. I like to think about these as layers of services, layered on top of each other like the layers of an onion. If you think about it, VMware has always been in the business of providing abstraction.
The power of the abstracted service model is that you can treat a model the same irrespective of where the service gets deployed. You can model a service once, and deploy it anywhere; be it production or development or a cloud (private or public) setup.
Governance is considered a high priority item in the world of automation. Even though we want to create models of abstracted services that can be treated the same irrespective of where they get deployed, we do not want to provide each consumer with the same service. Each consumer demands a personalized service for specific business needs. vRealize Automation provides this ability through policies. Fine-grained policies work in conjunction with personalization of a service. For example, if a developer requests a service, they will receive a development environment with a small footprint, without the need for approvals, perhaps deployed into the public cloud. If a business analyst requests the same service, their personalized service may get deployed into the private cloud by placing approvals in place.
These key capabilities of vRealize Automation are unique. They are critical for providing agility by automating the delivery of personalized services.
From my experience, here are the most common use cases of vRealize Automation solution:
Create a catalog of standard operating systems that can be consumed by an organization with a single click
Offer other services beyond infrastructure, for example—PaaS, XaaS
Requirement to integrate with CMDB or ITSM tools to track activities about a machine when it's provisioned
The integration of an IPAM system for an IP address when provisioning a machine
Advanced governance is priority
Hybrid cloud deployments
Many other use cases can be listed here, but I will limit the list since our primary requirement is to make you understand the core capabilities of the product.
Do spend some time to recognize the goodness this product has:
