Upgrading vROPs Tenant App for VCD via CLI

In this post I will walk through how to upgrade vROPs Tenant App for Cloud Director via CLI.

Although upgrade can be performed directly from TA vami interface by logging in to https://<vrops-ta-fqdn>:5480/, but having knowledge of CLI is important specially when you are looking for automating the upgrade.

Note: Vami credentials of vROPs TA defaults to root/vmware.

Below are high level steps of upgrading the TA appliance via CLI.

Note: I have tested below steps to upgrade Tenant App from v2.3 to 2.4

Step 1: Enable SSH on TA: Login to TA appliance via vCenter console (credentials: root/vmware) and enable ssh by typing below commands:

# systemctl start sshd

# systemctl enable sshd

Step 2: Download TA Upgrade Package: Upgrade package for appliance can be downloaded from VMware Market Place under Resources tab.

vROPs-TA-MP

Extract the downloaded iso. We need to upload the content of iso on TA in next step

Step 3: Create Upgrade Repo on TA appliance: Connect to TA appliance over ssh and run following command:

# mkdir -p /data/repo

# chmod 755 -R repo/

Now upload the extracted content in /data/repo directory via winscp or similar utility.Read More

Automating vROPs Tenant Appliance Deployment & Configuration via API

In my previous post on vROPs Tenant Appliance for vCD, I covered steps of manual deployment & configuration. In this post I will cover how we can achieve this via CLI/API.

These API’s can be leveraged via any scripting language to automate the deployment of vROPs TA.

Step 1: Deploy vROPs Tenant Appliance via ovftool

As of now there is no API for automating deployment of appliance via API, so we will use ovftool for this purpose.

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Installing & Configuring vCD Content Pack in vRLI via API

In this post we will learn how to install vCD content pack in vRealize Log Insight via API. 

What is vCD Content pack?

As per VMware official documentation:

The VMware vCloud Director content pack provides you unparalleled visibility into your vCD environment from 5.5 to the new 9.x SP. Providing graphical representations of important log data, metrics of your vCD workloads and a robust set of alerts this content pack will allow you to better manage vCD utilizing Log Insight’s capabilities.

Installing content packs in vRLI is one of the day 2 operations that most VMware Admins do in their day to day job. In large datacenters where there are several instances of vRLI, configuring content packs & agents via UI is a very tedious and time consuming process. You can use API’s to automate these day 2 tasks to reduce time and to minimize human errors. So let’s get started.Read More

Integrating vSphere & vROPs with vRLI via API

In this post I will walk through steps of integrating vSphere and vROPs in vRLI via API.

Note: All GET & POST calls are done over port 9543 with JSON payloads. 

1: Obtain Auth Token: 

Response output is a sessionId  which is a opaque bearer token valid for a limited time, indicated by the ttl value in the response.

Note: Post obtaining Auth Token, sessionId is passed as type “Bearer Token” under Authorization for all subsequent requests.

2: Test vSphere Connection

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Install & Configure vCD Management Pack in vROPs via API

In this post, I will walk through the steps of installing vCD Management Pack in vROPS via API. Installation of the management pack is leveraged via vROPS CaSA API. The adapter configuration is done via regular suite-api. 

What is vROps CaSA API?

CaSA stands for Cluster and Slice Administration. The CaSA API manages the internal working of vRealize Operations Manager and runs on a standalone vFabric tcServer. CaSA API can be explored directly from vROPs by typing https://<vrops-fqdn>/casa/api-guide.html

Install and Configure vCD Management Pack & Adapter

1: Upload vCD Management Pack: First we need to upload vCD MP to vROPs via POST call. 

Note: I am executing all API calls via Postman. If you have never used postman to upload files to the server, then please read this post for instructions.

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Configuring vCenter Adapter in vROPs via API

In this post we will learn how to install Management Packs in vROPs via API. 

For vCenter we don’t have to install any management pack as its shipped with vROPs by default and we just have to create vCenter credentials and configure adapter. Below steps can be followed to configure VC adapter.

1: Obtain Session Token: vROPs session token is obtained via POST call. 

Sample Output:

The token id obtained in output is passed as “Authorization: vRealizeOpsToken token_value” header in all subsequent GET and POST calls.Read More

Configuring MYVMware Account in vRSLCM via API

One of the method of installing vRealize products via vRSLCM is to configure myvmw repository first and then pulling available product binaries via internet. In this post I will walk through steps of configuring the same via API.

1:  Add myvmw credentials to password Store

2:  Fetch vmid associated with alias created in step-1: When a new password is added to locker store, vRSLCM assigns a unique vmid to that password and all future references to this password is made via assigned vmid. 

Sample Output

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vRLI Distributed Install/Upgrade via vRSLCM API

In my last Post I demonstrated how to install and upgrade a distributed vROPs via vRSLCM API. In this post I will walk through how to perform install/upgrade a distributed vRLI environment.

Steps for deploying/upgrading any vRealize product via vRSLCM API are pretty much same, only the json payload varies. 

vRLI Deployment Procedure

Step 1: Pre-Validate Environment Creation

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vROPs Distributed Install/Upgrade via vRSLCM API

vRSLCM is such a great tool that it lifts all the complexity of deploying vRealize suite in just few clicks. Whether you are looking for standalone deployment or a distributed one, you are shielded from all the complexity that goes behind in setting up an environment.

Recently while working on my new project, I was tasked to find out a way where all the UI operations related to vRSLCM can be automated. In my last post I listed all the API’s that are needed to perform end to end vRSLCM configuration. We need to fetch few details before starting install/upgrade of any vRealize product.

This post is extension to my last post and I will be demonstrating how to deploy/upgrade various vRealize products using vRSLCM API. The first in this list will be vROPs. So lets get started.

At this point, I assume you have already fetched details about:

  • Certificate Name/UUID (From Locker)
  • Default Password Name/UUID (From Locker)
  • License Name/UUID (From Locker)
  • Infra details (DNS, NTP, Datacenter name, cluster name etc)
  • Local Repo configured and all product install/upgrade binaries uploaded there.
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Automating vRSLCM 8.x End to End Configuration via API

In this post we will learn how to leverage vRealize Suite Life Cycle Manager (vRSLCM) API to automated deployment & configuration. 

With release of vRSLCM 8.x, VMware introduced simple installer (similar to vCSA) for deployment of vRSLCM. Below is screenshot of how the simple installer looks like. 

As of now we don’t have any API which can be leveraged to automate appliance deployment, so we will perform this task via ovftool.

Deploying vRSLCM via ovftool

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