Before we start deploying the new vRSLCM, vIDM and vRA Appliances below are some of the considerations which need to make sure that are in place:

  1. Review System Requirements for vRealize Automation 8
  2. Download vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8 Easy Installer
  3. Complete Load Balancer Configuration
  4. Ensure that all DNS Records and IP Reservations are in place
  5. Keep DNS server and NTP server details handy

Now we re ready to deploy to deploy our new appliances, the steps to deploy vRSLCM, vRA and vIDM appliances are as follows:

1. Mount the Easy Installer ISO and Launch installer.exe located under F:\vrlcm-ui-installer\win32\installer.exe

vRealize Easy Installer Launch Screen

2. Please go through the Introduction and Accept the End User License Agreement. Click Next

End User License Agreement Screen

3. Enter the Appliance Deployment Target details like vCenter Server Hostname, Administrator Username and Password.

Appliance Deployment Target Screen

4. Select a Target Location, Target Cluster and Datastore.

Select a Target Location Screen
Select a Target Compute Resource Screen
Select a Destination Storage Location Screen

6. Enter the details of Network Configuration which includes Target Network, IP Assignment Type, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DNS Servers, Domain Name and NTP Servers.

Network: DC_MGMT_VLAN100
IP Assignment: static
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.10.1
DNS Servers: 192.168.10.50, 192.168.10.51
Domain Name: mycloud.lab
Provide NTP Server for the appliance: 192.168.10.70,192.168.10.71

Network Configuration Screen

7. Enter your Password. This password will be used for vRSLCM admin & root account, vRA root account, vIDM admin, sshuser, root user and default configuration user.

Password Configuration Screen

8. Enter Virtual Machine name, IP Address, FQDN, Datacenter Name and vCenter Name for vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Set Increase Disk Size in GB to 20 and Leave FIPS Mode Compliance to deafult.

Virtual Machine Name: VRSLCM
IP Address: 192.168.10.11
Hostname: vrslcm.mycloud.lab
Data Center Name: MYCLOD-DC
vCenter Name: MYCLOUD-VC
Increase Disk Size in GB: 20
FIPS Mode Compliance: Enabled

Lifecycle Manager Appliance Configuration Screen

9. In Identity Manager Configuration, we will initially configure a Single Node VMware Identity Manager deployment which will be expanded to a clustered deployment in next blog in this series. Select Install New VMware Identity Manager and Enter the details of Virtual Machine Name, IP Address, FQDN, Default Configuration Admin, E-mail Address and Node size as per your environment’s requirement. Tick Sync Group Members to the Directory When Adding Group checkbox.

Virtual Machine Name: VIDM1
IP Address: 192.168.10.17
Hostname: vidm1.mycloud.lab
Default Configuration Admin: configadmin
Default Configuration Email: configadmin@vsphere.local
Node Size: Medium
Sync Group Members to the Directory When Adding Group: Enabled

Identity Manager Appliance Configuration Screen

10 a. Under vRealize Automation Configuration section select Clustered Deployment. Enter vRealize Automation Environment Name, License Key, Turn Off FIPS Compliance Mode and Select the Node size.

vRA Environment Name: MYCLOUD-VRA8
License Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
FIPS Compliance Mode: Disabled
Node Size: Medium

vRealize Automation Configuration – Clustered Deployment Screen

10 b. Enter vRealize Automation Load Balancer IP Address, Load Balancer FQDN and leave SSL terminated at Load-Balancer unchecked. In the vRealize Automation Primary Node Details section, enter Virtual Machine Name, IP Address and FQDN for the vRA Primary Node.

Load Balancer IP: 192.168.10.12
Load Balancer Hostname: vra.mycloud.lab
SSL terminated at Load Balancer: Disabled

vRealize Automation Configuration – Primary Node Details

10 c. Enter vRealize Automation Secondary Node-1 and Secondary Node-2 Details, Virtual Machine Name, IP Address and FQDN. Leave Advanced Configuration for vRealize Automation to default.

vRealize Automation Node Details:
Primary Node Virtual Machine Name: VRA1
IP Address: 192.168.10.13
Hostname: vra1.mycloud.lab
Secondary Node-1 Virtual Machine Name: VRA2
IP Address: 192.168.10.14
Hostname: vra2.mycloud.lab
Secondary Node-2 Virtual Machine Name: VRA3
IP Address: 192.168.10.15
Hostname: vra3.mycloud.lab
Internal Pods and Services Configuration: Use Default

vRealize Automation Configuration – Secondary Node-1 and Secondary Node-2 Details

11. Review Configuration details on the Summary screen and click Submit.

vRealize Easy Installer Summary Screen

12. Installation Process goes through 5 stages: Initializing, Installing vRSLCM, Moving Binaries, Initiating install vIDM and vRA and Finish vRA Install.

Installation Process Screen

13. Once the Installation Process has passed the stage of vRSLCM Installation, we can login to vRSLCM UI using the username as admin@local and Password which we entered during the Password Configuration stage.

Installation Process – vRSLCM Services Started Screen

14. In vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager select Lifecycle Operations under My Services and then to the Requests section. You’ll find 2 requests: globalenvironment – Create Environment (IDM Installation) and Create Environment (vRA Installation).

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager – My Services Screen

15. VMware Identity Manager Installation Request goes through 8 Stages before your vIDM deployment is ready.

globalenvironment – Create Environment Request Screen

16. vRealize Automation Installation Request goes through 13 Stages before your vRealize Automation Deployment is setup and ready to use. Our vRealize Automation Installation failed twice during the setup process but the process was intelligent enough to provide intuitive insights into error and to allow us to resume from failed stage.

Create Environment Screen

The entire Deployment and Setup process took us around 1 hour and 35 mins

Source: https://sociallyvirtual7.wordpress.com/2022/10/02/part-2-deploy-a-clustered-vrealize-automation-8/