How to Deploy vRA 7.6 (vRealize Automation 7.6)

Hello vCommunity,

After a month of availability for vRealize Automation 7.6, might be a bit late to show “How to Deploy vRA 7.6”, as we all know a month in IT literally can change things quite fast.

That’s one of reasons I am publishing this today. About a week ago (20/May/2019) a new release for vRA 7.6 has been launched containing quite important fixes within this release. To read in more details click here.

This Post will be straight forward with a lot of print screens, so in case you are a bit lazy, that will make your life easier.

Download vRealize Automation 7.6

Download page from VMware >> vRealize Automation 7.6

Deploying vRA 7.6 OVF Template

As all configurations are extremely important, I have posted the import part below (IPs / DNS / Passwords / FQDN )

TIP: DO NOT POWER ON YET!

Deploying Windows Server 2016 for Infrastructure as a Service (Minimal Deployment)

In this case I will be using a simple ‘Vanilla’ Windows Server 2016 from template.

Configuration of fixed IPs and Domain join:

TIP:

I have seen a lot of distributed deployment failing because MSDTC ( it can be linked into your Manager Server or your Database Servers) . Avoiding it is so simple and it will save some troubleshooting time .

1- Open a command prompt with administrative privileges

2- Run command “msdtc -uninstall”

3- Run command “msdtc -install”

Installing SQL 2017 Server

Download Microsoft SQL Server 2017 – Trial Version

( you may use the Trial / Express version if you are lacking license)

I like a lot to have the Management Studio to manager my MS SQL Servers ( download is free)

TIP:

In case you have never deployed a IaaS MS SQL for vRA, you may follow more detailed information here
Install 64-bit Java 1.8 update 201 or later. Do not use 32-bit.
Enable TCP/IP protocol for SQL Server
Add your service account <or> administrators groups with “Logon as a service”

Avoiding Installation Errors

The step 3. above is shown on the 1st print screen / In case you miss it – You will see the error on the end of installation/validation. As this take some time ( go back/fwd on deployment wizard = Try to remember about this step ).

Step 4.: Logon as a Service (start> run > gpedit.msc <or> adapt it via Active Directory GPOs)

Logon to the computer with administrative privileges.
Open the ‘Administrative Tools’ and open the ‘Local Security Policy’
Expand ‘Local Policy’ and click on ‘User Rights Assignment’
In the right pane, right-click ‘Log on as a service’ and select properties.
Click on the ‘Add User or Group…’ button to add the new user.
In the ‘Select Users or Groups’ dialogue, find the user you wish to enter and click ‘OK’
Click ‘OK’ in the ‘Log on as a service Properties’ to save changes.

DNS Configuration

Some time ago I read a blog, and the blogger was saying “about 99,99%” of errors is DNS and I tend to agree with him/her 🙂 Let’s make sure you have all your DNS related entries pre-populated before power up the appliance.

Forward Lookup Zones / Reverse Lookup Zones

Let’s Deploy it

Power on the vRealize Applience (it may take 10-20 minutes depending on your infrastructure);

Logon via web browser to console session >> https://vra-fqdn:5480
Start vRealize Automation Installation Wizard

TIP: Start from somewhere else than the IaaS Server ( it will reboot during installation process).

Installing Agent on IaaS server

Execute the saved file you have download on last step and follow prints below:

Preparing IaaS Server Pre-Requisites

This step is one of the most time consuming during deployment. In order to speedup the process of all IaaS components, please install the most wanted ones, leaving only the “fix” for few & faster configurations.

Continuing installation wizard

Continuing the wizard, all the next steps are related with IaaS pre-requisites. In case some configuration is missing, just press the “FIX” button and it should become green rather faster once all pre-requirements went installed priory.

Add Load Balance FQDN or vRA FQDN.

TIP: You may change this value later on, but also will require to fix the SSO credentials. Always a good practice is to have all your Certificates / DNS / Accounts / Load Balancer configurations in place before starting deployment.

Next steps will contain configurations for IaaS Host / vCenter proxy agent / Self Signed Certificates / Snapshots / Validation of all components and finally deployment configuration. ( About 20 screens > end-to-end process )