Event Subscriptions in vRealize Automation 8

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Posted on July 14, 2024 by Aman Sapra

In vRealize Automation 8 the process of creating an Event Subscription has changed a little bit. In vRealize Automation 8 there are 40 Event Topics already defined under Extensibility Library in Cloud Assembly.

Event topics which you can choose from while creating an Event Subscription vRealize Automation are as follows:

Blueprint configuration EventLog
Blueprint version configuration Kubernetes cluster allocation
Compute allocation Kubernetes cluster post provision
Compute post provision Kubernetes cluster post removal
Compute post removal Kubernetes cluster provision
Compute provision Kubernetes cluster removal
Compute removal Load balancer post provision
Compute reservation Load balancer post removal
Deployment action completed Load balancer provision
Deployment action requested Load balancer removal
Deployment completed Network Configure
Deployment onboarded Network post provisioning
Deployment requested Network post removal
Deployment resource action completed                Network provisioning
Deployment resource action requested                 Network removal
Deployment resource completed Project Lifecycle Event Topic
Deployment resource requested Security group post provision
Disk allocation Security group post removal
Disk post Removal Security group provision
Disk post resize Security group removal

In order to understand an Event topic review the Descripton, Topic ID, Blocakble and Schema of the Event Topic.

If you want to create a Subscription for an Event Topic, just select the Event Topic and click on Subscribe, select the ABX Action or Workflow to trigger, select the Blocking of events and Subscription scope. Schema of an Event Topic can also be reviewed on this screen, Schema (Payload in the previous versions of vRealize Automation) of an Event Topic is a set of Properties which will be passed to Orchestrator when an event of this Topic is triggered.

Test Subscription for Compute provision Event Topic

Important Tip: If you are not sure about the Schema of an Event Topic, create a Blank Workflow with Input Variable of name “inputProperties” & Type “Properties” and Create a Test Subscription using this Blank Workflow. Name of the Input Variable is Important here, if you name it something else it will not receive the Properties from Cloud Assembly.

Schema Properties received by the Orchestrator Workflow

Did you notice that the Workflow ran twice? This is because i have Specified 2 Machine components in the Blueprint and the Workflow ran each time a Machine Component was provisioned for this Deployment request.

2 Workflow Runs for the Test Subscription

The names of the machine components in the Test Blueprint used for this illustration are “Primary_VM” and “Secondary_VM”.

Blueprint for which Event Subscription was triggered

There is one more important thing which you can specify while creating an Event Subscription using Event Topics, which is the Condition. Condition is something which you describe to filter out a specific Event from the list of Events which are triggered when a user requests for Services using Service Broker.

Condition to filter Events for an Event Topic

Condition can only be specified in Javascript Syntax in the current version of vRealize Automation. For Instance if I would like to trigger the same Test Workflow only for the Secondary_VM, i can specify a condition in the Test Subscription as event.data.blueprintId == ‘e9d2abc4-94fa-48f1-a1db-19a31510a375’ && event.data.componentId == ‘Secondary_VM’ Blueprint ID can be copied from one of the previous sample Workflow runs.

Sample Filter Condition for Events in Topic

This condition would ensure that the Workflow is triggered if the Blueprint requested has an id e9d2abc4-94fa-48f1-a1db-19a31510a375 and only for the component with id Secondary_VM. If you request a Deployment now using the same Blueprint, the Workflow will be triggered only once and that is for the Machine Component Secondary_VM.

Single Workflow Run for Secondary_VM Machine Component

Note: I noticed one typo in the examples provided for Condition statement in vRealize Automation 8, there is a space missing after event.data.blueprintId == and the actual id. I had to spend 15 mins figuring out why the event is not triggering a workflow, so make sure that the Syntax for the Condition is correct.

Bad Syntax for the Condition Statement Example

With that you are now ready to create Event Subscription in vRealize Automation 8. Enjoy!!

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Single Sign-On Configuration for VMware vRealize Suite

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Posted on April 4, 2024 by Aman Sapra

In vRealize Automation 8.X, Easy Installer deploys a vIDM appliance which is used for Authentication by vRealize Automation whether you choose a Standalone deployment or a Clustered deployment. As we already have an external vIDM appliance as part of our vRA 8.X deployment, we can use it for configuring Single Sign-On for VMware vRealize Suite products.

Single Sign-On configuration is supported in 7.X versions of vRealize Suite products as well but we need an external VMware Identity Manager which most of the customers do not deploy. vRealize Automation 7.X Appliances also include an embedded version of VMware Identity Manager, even though we can enable the UI for the embedded vIDM using the command vcac–vami horizon ui enable but there is no documentation suggesting that making changes directly to VMware Identity Manager is supported by VMware.

In this post we will discuss the process of configuring Single Sign-On for vRealize Suite 8.X version products. In this article I am assuming that an Active Directory domain has already been configured in VMware Identity Manager.

vRealize Automation:

1. Login to VMware Identity Manager and click on Web Apps under the Catalog section.

VMware Identity Manager Web Apps Section

2. Click on New to configure vRealize Automation Web Application Link.

Creating a New Web Application Link in Identity Manager

3. In the Name section enter vRealize Automation 8.X (vRA) and upload an Icon file for vRealize Automation.

vRealize Automation Web App Configuration

4. Leave the Category section blank and click Next.

5. In Authentication Type select Web Application Link and type https://vRA_FQDN/csp/gateway/portal/#/consumer in Target URL.

Target URL for vRealize Automation Web App

5. Click Next and then click Save.

6. Now the only task left is to assign this App to Active Directory users who already have access to vRealize Automation. Select the newly created Application and Click on Assign.

Assign vRealize Automation Web App to Users/Groups

5. Search the name of Users/User Groups to publish the App, select the Deployment type as Automatic and click Save.

*Assign vRealize Automation Web App Enterprise Admins Group*

6. Next time the user authenticates with vIDM and goes to User Portal, he/she will be able to see the newly published vRA 8.X Application.

Access VMware Identity Manager User Portal

7. Next time the user authenticates with vIDM and goes to User Portal, he/she will be able to see the newly published vRA 8.X Application.

Launch vRealize Automation Web App from vIDM Catalog

8. Once the user clicks on Open on this App, user will be authenticated & re-directed to vRealize Automation portal.

vRealize Log Insight:

1. Before publishing vRealize Log Insight as an App in VMware Identity Manager we need to configure vIDM as an Authentication Source in vRealize Log Insight and we need to obtain the Target URL.

2. Login to vRealize Log Insight. Click on Administration and Under Authentication enter the details of your vIDM.

Configure vRealize Log Insight to use VMware Identity Manager for Authentication

3. Provide access to VMware Identity Manager Users/User Groups in Administration section under Access Control > Users and Groups.

4. In order to obtain the Target URL, logout from vRealize Log Insight & logout from vIDM and select System Domain.

5. Open vRealize Log Insight in a new Tab, select VMware Identity Manager from the Drop-down and click on Login via SSO.

vRealize Log Insight Target URL for VMware Identity Manager

6. You’ll be redirected to VMware Identity Manager for login. Copy the URL from the Address Bar of the browser. URL will look something like:
https://idm01.mydomain.lab/SAAS/auth/login?dest=https://idm01.mydomain.lab/SAAS/auth/oauth2/authorize?response_type%3Dcode%26client_id%3Dbabc6f64a70-2c7c-4c5a-867f-bc631327f5dc%26redirect_uri%3Dhttps://192.168.113.112/login&chainedauthMethods
=%5B%7B%212chainedAuthmethods%212:%5B%7B%22authMethoId%22:15,%212a
uthMethodOrder%22:13%7D%5D%7D,%7B%22chainedAuthmethods%22:%5B%7B%
22authMethoId%22:3,%22authMethodOrder%22:1%7D%5D%7D%5D&ttl=28800

Capture *vRealize Log Insight Target URL for VMware Identity Manager*

7. URL highlighted in red is our Target URL for vRealize Log Insight. Follow the same process as vRealize Automation App and publish vRealize Log Insight for users using the vRealize Log Insight Target URL.

8. Now the users should be able to launch vRealize Log Insight App from vIDM User Portal & Authenticate using vIDM Single Sign-On.

vRealize Operations Manager:

1. For vRealize Operations Manager we need to follow the process similar to vRealize Log Insight. Configure vIDM as Authentication Source, Grant permissions to vIDM Users/Groups in vROps & obtain the Target URL.

2. Login to vRealize Operations Manager as an Admin user. Click on Administration and Under Authentication Sources click Add. Select Source Type as VMware Identity Manager and enter the details of your vIDM Appliance.

Configure VMware Identity Manager as Authentication Source in vRealize Operations Manager

3. Provide access to VMware Identity Manager Users/Groups by Importing them in Administration section under Access > Access Control > User Accounts and User Groups.

Import Users/Groups from VMware Identity Manager for Access Control in vRealize Operations Manager

4. In order to obtain the Target URL, logout from vRealize Operations Manager & logout from vIDM and select System Domain.

5. Open vRealize Operations Manager in a new Tab, select VMware Identity Manager from the Drop-down and click REDIRECT.

*vRealize Operations Manager Target URL for VMware Identity Manager*

6. You’ll be redirected to VMware Identity Manager for login. Copy the URL from the Address Bar of the browser. URL will look something like:

https://idm01.mydomain.lab/SAAS/auth/login?dest=https://idm01.mydomain.lab/SAAS/auth/oauth2/authorize?response_type%3Dcode%26client_id%3D0246fe54-d0a5-42ff-b3c1-f3d144b64519%26redirect_uri%3Dhttps://10.11.12.13/ui/vidmClient/vidm/&chainedauth
Methods=%5B%7B%22chainedAuthmethods%22:%5B%7B%22authMethoId%22:15,%
22authMethodOrder%22:13%7D%5D%7D,%7B%22chainedAuthmethods%22:%5B%7
B%22authMethoId%22:3,%22authMethodOrder%22:1%7D%5D%7D%5D&ttl=28800

We are only interested in Client ID highlighted in RED in the above link.

*Capture VMware Identity Manager* Client ID for vRealize Operations Manager

7. Replace the details of the below URL with your environment details and you’ll get Target URL for vRealize Operations Manager.

https://idm01.mydomain.lab/SAAS/auth/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=3D0246fe54-d0a5-42ff-b3c1-f3d144b64519&redirect_uri=https://idm_ip_address/ui/vidmClient/vidm/

8. Follow the same process as vRealize Automation App and publish vRealize Operations Manager App for users using the vRealize Operations Manager Target URL.

9. Now the users should be able to launch vRealize Operations Manager App from vIDM User Portal & Authenticate using vIDM Single Sign-On.

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager:

1. For vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager the process is fairly easy. We just need to provide users access to vLCM under Identity and Tenant Management and publish the Target URL.

2. Login to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager as an Admin user. Click on dentity and Tenant Management.

Identity and Tenant Management in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

3. In Directory Management section, click on Directories click Add Directory by selecting Active Directory over LDAP.

Add Active Directory in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

4. The process of Adding the Active Directory is same as vRealize Automation 7.X.

Active Directory over LDAP configuration in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

5. Once Active Directory has been configured, provide relevant permissions to Users/Groups under User Management section.

User Management in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

6. Replace the details of the below URL with your environment details and you’ll get Target URL for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

http://lcm01.mydomain.lab/lcm/login/vidm

8. The process of publishing vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager App for users using the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Target URL remains the same.

Note: The current versions of vCenter Server do not support VMware Identity Manager as an Identity Provider. NSX-T does support Single Sign-On configuration using vIDM.
For more details on integrating NSX-T with IDM, check out this blog.

The final catalog of your VMware Identity Manager will have Web Apps for all 4 vRealize Suite Components. Enjoy!!

VMware Identity Manager Signle Sign-On User Catalog

Event Subscriptions in vRealize Automation 8

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Posted on July 14, 2023 by Aman Sapra

Event topics which you can choose from while creating an Event Subscription vRealize Automation are as follows:

In order to understand an Event topic review the Descripton, Topic ID, Blocakble and Schema of the Event Topic.

The names of the machine components in the Test Blueprint used for this illustration are “Primary_VM” and “Secondary_VM”.

With that you are now ready to create Event Subscription in vRealize Automation 8. Enjoy!!

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Export vRA 7.6 Reservation Details

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Aman Sapra

In this post we are sharing a PowerShell script which uses PowervRA Module to export a list of vRealize Automation 7.6 Reservations along with their respective usage.

Script was tested on below versions:

PowervRA 3.7.0
PowerShell 5.1 or later

Script:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$cred = Get-Credential
Connect-vRAServer -Server 'vRA_FQDN' -Username $cred.UserName -Password $cred.Password -Tenant "Tenant_Name" -IgnoreCertRequirements
$BGReserves = Get-vRAReservation | Select CreatedDate, Name, TenantId, ExtensionData
$fetchVMDetails= Get-vRAResource | where {$_.ResourceType -eq "Infrastructure.Virtual"}
$output = @()
    foreach($BGReserve in $BGReserves)
    {

        $ReserveVMDetails = ($fetchVMDetails | where {$_.Data.MachineReservationName -eq $BGReserve.name}).Data  | Select MachineName, MachineMemory, MachineStorage
    foreach ($ReserveVMDetail in $ReserveVMDetails)
    {
        $MachineQuotaUsed = $MachineQuotaUsed + 1
        $MemoryUsedinMB = $MemoryUsedinMB + $ReserveVMDetail.MachineMemory
        $StorageUsedinGB = $StorageUsedinGB + $ReserveVMDetail.MachineStorage
    }
    $MemoryUsedinGB = $MemoryUsedinMB/1024
        $fetchReserveDetails = $BGReserve.ExtensionData.entries
        $fetchQuotavalue = ($fetchReserveDetails |  where {$_.key -eq "machineQuota"}).value.value
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MachineQuota -NotePropertyValue $fetchQuotavalue
        $fetchMemoryReserve = (($fetchReserveDetails | where {$_.key -eq "reservationMemory"}).value.values.entries | where {$_.key -eq "memoryReservedSizeMb"}).value.value/1024
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MemoryReservedinGB -NotePropertyValue $fetchMemoryReserve
        $fetchStorageReserve = (($fetchReserveDetails | where {$_.key -eq "reservationStorages"}).value.items.values.entries | where {$_.key -eq "storageReservedSizeGB"}).value.value
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName StorageReservedinGB -NotePropertyValue $fetchStorageReserve
        $MachineQuotaAllocated = $MachineQuotaAllocated + $fetchQuotavalue
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MachinesAllocated -NotePropertyValue $MachineQuotaUsed
        $MemoryAllocatedinGB = $MemoryAllocatedinGB + $fetchMemoryReserve
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MemoryAllocatedinGB -NotePropertyValue $MemoryUsedinGB
        $StorageAllocatedinGB = $StorageAllocatedinGB + $fetchStorageReserve
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName StorageAllocatedinGB -NotePropertyValue $StorageUsedinGB
        $MachineQuotaAllocated = 0
        $MemoryAllocatedinGB = 0
        $StorageAllocatedinGB = 0
        $MemoryUsedinMB = 0
        $MemoryUsedinGB = 0
        $StorageUsedinGB = 0
        $MachineQuotaUsed = 0
    }

$output = $BGReserves | Select Name, CreatedDate, TenantId, MachineQuota, MachinesAllocated, MemoryReservedinGB, MemoryAllocatedinGB, StorageReservedinGB, StorageAllocatedinGB
$output | FT -AutoSize -Wrap

$output | Export-Csv "Path_To_Target.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Disconnect-vRAServer -Confirm:$false

Just replace the vRA_FQDN, Tenant_Name, Path_To_Target.csv and TenantAdmin Credentials to run the script & to generate a report of vRealize Automation 7.6 Reservations in your environment. BOOM!!

Happy Scripting!!

Export vRA 7.6 Reservation Details

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Aman Sapra

In this post we are sharing a PowerShell script which uses PowervRA Module to export a list of vRealize Automation 7.6 Reservations along with their respective usage.

Script was tested on below versions:

PowervRA 3.7.0
PowerShell 5.1 or later

Script:

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$cred = Get-Credential
Connect-vRAServer -Server 'vRA_FQDN' -Username $cred.UserName -Password $cred.Password -Tenant "Tenant_Name" -IgnoreCertRequirements
$BGReserves = Get-vRAReservation | Select CreatedDate, Name, TenantId, ExtensionData
$fetchVMDetails= Get-vRAResource | where {$_.ResourceType -eq "Infrastructure.Virtual"}
$output = @()
    foreach($BGReserve in $BGReserves)
    {

        $ReserveVMDetails = ($fetchVMDetails | where {$_.Data.MachineReservationName -eq $BGReserve.name}).Data  | Select MachineName, MachineMemory, MachineStorage
    foreach ($ReserveVMDetail in $ReserveVMDetails)
    {
        $MachineQuotaUsed = $MachineQuotaUsed + 1
        $MemoryUsedinMB = $MemoryUsedinMB + $ReserveVMDetail.MachineMemory
        $StorageUsedinGB = $StorageUsedinGB + $ReserveVMDetail.MachineStorage
    }
    $MemoryUsedinGB = $MemoryUsedinMB/1024
        $fetchReserveDetails = $BGReserve.ExtensionData.entries
        $fetchQuotavalue = ($fetchReserveDetails |  where {$_.key -eq "machineQuota"}).value.value
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MachineQuota -NotePropertyValue $fetchQuotavalue
        $fetchMemoryReserve = (($fetchReserveDetails | where {$_.key -eq "reservationMemory"}).value.values.entries | where {$_.key -eq "memoryReservedSizeMb"}).value.value/1024
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MemoryReservedinGB -NotePropertyValue $fetchMemoryReserve
        $fetchStorageReserve = (($fetchReserveDetails | where {$_.key -eq "reservationStorages"}).value.items.values.entries | where {$_.key -eq "storageReservedSizeGB"}).value.value
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName StorageReservedinGB -NotePropertyValue $fetchStorageReserve
        $MachineQuotaAllocated = $MachineQuotaAllocated + $fetchQuotavalue
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MachinesAllocated -NotePropertyValue $MachineQuotaUsed
        $MemoryAllocatedinGB = $MemoryAllocatedinGB + $fetchMemoryReserve
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName MemoryAllocatedinGB -NotePropertyValue $MemoryUsedinGB
        $StorageAllocatedinGB = $StorageAllocatedinGB + $fetchStorageReserve
        $BGReserve | Add-Member -NotePropertyName StorageAllocatedinGB -NotePropertyValue $StorageUsedinGB
        $MachineQuotaAllocated = 0
        $MemoryAllocatedinGB = 0
        $StorageAllocatedinGB = 0
        $MemoryUsedinMB = 0
        $MemoryUsedinGB = 0
        $StorageUsedinGB = 0
        $MachineQuotaUsed = 0
    }

$output = $BGReserves | Select Name, CreatedDate, TenantId, MachineQuota, MachinesAllocated, MemoryReservedinGB, MemoryAllocatedinGB, StorageReservedinGB, StorageAllocatedinGB
$output | FT -AutoSize -Wrap

$output | Export-Csv "Path_To_Target.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Disconnect-vRAServer -Confirm:$false

Just replace the vRA_FQDN, Tenant_Name, Path_To_Target.csv and TenantAdmin Credentials to run the script & to generate a report of vRealize Automation 7.6 Reservations in your environment. BOOM!!

Happy Scripting!!

Single Sign-On Configuration for VMware vRealize Suite

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Posted on April 4, 2022 by Aman Sapra