VMware vRealize Automation 7.0 released
VMware finally has a new Private Cloud Solution and Product with the launch of vRealize Automation 7.0, that delivers a much easier and user friendly deployment method using the new slick vRealize Automation Installation Wizard. This new installation and configuration wizard enables a simplified and centralized deployment unlike anything you have seen in vRealize Automation before. The challenges of the installation and configuration are a thing of the past, having been solved in a whole new way with this new release of vRealize Automation.
What’s New
This section contains information about what’s new in vRealize Automation 7.0.
Streamlined and Automated Wizard-based Installation
- Introduced using the management agent to automate the installation of Windows components and to collect logs
- Automates the deployment of all vRealize Automation components
- Installation wizard based on deployment needs: Minimal (Express) and Enterprise (Distributed and High Availability) Installations
Simplified Deployment Architecture and High Availability Configuration
- Embedded authentication service by using VMware Identity Manager
- Converged Application Services in vRealize Automation Appliance
- Reduced minimal number of appliances for HA configuration
- Automated embedded PostgreSQL clustering with manual failover
- Automated embedded vRealize Orchestrator clustering
Enhanced Authentication Service
- Integrated user interface providing a common look and feel
- Enabled multiple features by new authentication service:
- Support native Active Directory for all tenants
- Multiple domains to single tenant
- Single domain to multiple tenants
- Full branding capabilities
- Third-party SAML token support
- Smart card support
- Multi-factor authentication
- Login auditing
- Major scalability improvements
- High availability support
Simplified Blueprint Authoring for Infrastructure and Applications
- Unified graphical canvas for designing machine and application blueprint with dependencies and network topology
- Software component (formerly software service in Application Services) authoring on vSphere, vCloud Air, vCloud Director, and Amazon AWS endpoints
- Extend or define external integrations in the canvas by using XaaS (formerly Advanced Service Design)
- Enable team collaboration and role segregation by enhancing and introducing fine-grain roles
- Single unified model for both machine and application blueprints:
- Blueprint as code and human-readable
- Create in editor of choice and stored in source control
- Import and export in the same or multiple vRealize Automation 7.0 instances
- Customer-requested machine and application blueprints provided
- Additional blueprints available on the VMware Solutions Exchange
Simplified and Enhanced NSX Support for Blueprint Authoring and Deployment
- Dynamically configure NSX Network and micro-segmentation unique for each application
- Automated connectivity to existing or on-demand networks
- Micro-segmentation for application stack isolation
- Automated security policy enforcement by using NSX security policies, groups, and tags
- On-demand dedicated NSX load balancer
Simplified vRealize Automation REST API
- Simplified schema for API requests by switching to normal JSON model
- Follow-on request URIs and templates exposed as links in response bodies (HATEOAS)
- New APIs to support business group and reservation management
- Improved documentation and samples
Enhanced Cloud Support for vCloud Air and AWS
- Software component authoring for vCloud Air, vCloud Director, and Amazon AWS
- Simplified blueprint authoring for vCloud Air and vCloud Director
- Improved vCloud Air endpoint configuration:
- First class endpoint with URL: https://vca.vmware.com
- Single endpoint for all resources under the same account (subscription or on-demand)
- Optional proxy configuration
Enhanced Management for Tenant, Business Group, Approval, and Entitlements
- Multi-tenancy support for custom property and property group (formerly build profiles)
- Business group managers can add managers, support roles, or users to their groups
- Assign approvals to software and machine components, which will be assessed when the catalog item is requested
- Dynamically assign approvals to the manager of the user
- Deletion of inactive approvals
- Entitlements can be more specific on catalog item and their actions
Event-Based Extensibility Provided by Event Broker
- Use vRealize Orchestrator workflows to subscribe any events triggered by any of the following events:
- IaaS life cycle state and entity changes
- Business groups management operations
- Approval policy and pre- or post-approval actions
- Blueprint operations
- Other system operations
- Support custom events
- Support blocking and non-blocking subscriptions
- Provide administrative user interface for extensibility configurations
- Obsolete .NET based lifecycle callouts and provide upgrade proof extensibility and configurations
New CloudClient
- Content management (import and export blueprints between instances or tenants in vRealize Automation 7.0)
- Existing functionality updated for vRealize Automation 7.0 APIs
Enhanced Integration with vRealize Business
- Unified location in vRealize Business to define flexible pricing policies for:
- Infrastructure resource, machine, and application blueprints
- All type of endpoints in vRealize Automation
- Any operational cost, one time cost and cost on custom properties
- Role-based showback reports in vRealize Business
- Fully leverage new features in vRealize Business
vRealize Orchestrator 7 New Features
- Introduce vRealize Orchestrator Control Center for easy monitoring and troubleshooting
- Centralized Server administration and easy cluster setup
- Workflow troubleshooting and enhanced log monitoring
- Significant Smart Client improvements including Workflow tagging UI, Client reconnect options and enhanced search capabilities
- vSphere 6.X vAPI endpoint support providing graphical debugging of plug-ins and embedded Code development support
Other Improvements
- Customizable columns in the table for a given type of custom resource defined in XaaS
- Accept a mix of license input, including vRealize Suite, vCloud Suite, and vRealize Automation Standalone
- Improved stability, quality, and performance