Behind the Scenes : Installing vRealize Automation 7.4
Updated: Apr 24, 2022
This article is being written to help my team to understand what goes on behind the scenes when you install vRealize Automation 7.4
My environment consists of 3 vRA appliances with 1 IAAS node.
vRA
nukesvra01.nukescloud.com
nukesvra02.nukescloud.com
nukesvra03.nukescloud.com
IAAS
nukesiaas.nukescloud.com
I am using NSX Load Balancer in my Lab , so let me show you the configuration which goes into it before we begin vRA installation
Configure Edge with the VIP's used for vRA Web , IaaS Web , IaaS Manager and vRO Control Center
Then , create application profiles
Post that configure Health Monitors or Service Monitoring
Then create pools , which has only primary appliance for vRA and IaaS node as it's members. We would be adding other vRA appliances , post installation
After pools , then create virtual servers by selecting VIP and mapping them to appropriate pools
Now that we have completed all configuration with respect to load balancer , let's kick in the installation part.
After deploying vRA and IaaS VM's let's now login to primary appliance's VAMI , you would be now presented with the installation wizard
Accept EULA
Select the type of installation you would like to perform in your environment
Download IaaS ManagementAgent and install it on all of the IAAS nodes present. I have only one of them so , once installed that would be displayed as shows below.
Now define all vRA appliances which are supposed to be in a cluster
Accept the certificate fetched from second and third appliance by the first or the Master appliance
Define roles for various IAAS nodes in the environment. I am using only one IAAS node as i stated above hence all Web , Manager Service , DEM's and Agent's would all go into one box
Run Pre-Requisite checker , this would fail as we have not performed any manual configuration in the IAAS node. So let the pre-req-check fail and then click on Fix to automatically fix the IAAS machines thorough script
Looks like I did miss taking screenshot of two steps vRA host and SSO , that's where you define vRA LB and SSO default tenant password.
Post that you would then configure IaaS Web and IaaS Manager LB's
Mention Database information on the page. Perform validation here itself so that you would not have any surprises later during installation
In the next pane , we have to provide IIS Website name and port for Web components. Also , we got to mention credentials for the IIS application pools which would be used during deployment.
As there is only one IAAS node that would be the active one. Mention the credentials which would be used for the service startup and configuration.
Configure DEM's
Configure Agent's and mention endpoint information. This same information must be used while configuring in UI , post installation.
Configure vRA , Web and Manager certificates
Next pane would give you the information on what are the LB addresses being used in the installation and the nodes which has have to present or configured on LB.
As stated in the UI , during installation process only the Load Balancer Members shown in this pane must be added to LB. Other's can be added post installation which i would show later.
Once done , validation of all configurations performed till now would occur and then wizard would remind you to take snapshots of all vm's and appliances involved in installation.
Once snapshots are taken , by clicking on the "Install" option below installer would begin a series of steps.
Below are the steps involved during installation. Remember, installation steps would vary depending on the scale of the environment.
Configure SSO
It would first check if there are any horizon services running
Since this is a greenfield installation , it will not be able to find the pid for horizon and i