The Job Support – vRA 7.2 DIG – 04, Prepare IaaS Hosts
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vRA’s IaaS engine is a .net-based application that is installed on a number of dedicated Windows machines. In the old days, the IaaS components were manually installed, configured and registered with the vRA appliance(s). This included manual installation of many prerequisites. The effort was quite tedious and error-prone, especially in a large distributed environment.
In vRA 7.0 and higher, the installation and configuration of system prerequisites and IaaS components has been fully automated by the Deployment Wizard. But prior to kicking off the wizard, the vRA Management Agent needs to be installed on each IaaS host. Once installed, the host is registered with the primary virtual appliance and made available for IaaS installation during the deployment. While the Deployment Wizard will automatically push most of the prerequisites (after a prerequisite check), you have the option to install any or all of the prereqs ahead of time. However, the wizard’s success rate has improved greatly and is the preferred method for most environments.
Exception: Java (64-bit) is required on all the IaaS hosts and cannot be pushed by the deployment wizard. As a prerequisite to installing IaaS, you must install a supported 64-bit version of Java and add the “JAVA_HOME” system variable on each host.
Complete the following steps on ALL of your IaaS nodes.
Checklist:
- Prepare Windows 2012 R2 hosts for IaaS Services (x4)
- Install vRA Management Agent on each host
- Install supported 64-bit Java JRE
- Configure JAVA_HOME system variable
Video
Detailed Steps
| Configuration Detail | Screenshots |
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| Prepare IaaS Nodes
If you haven’t done so already, deploy 4 Windows 2012 R2 VM’s
Windows Config:
And, finally, be sure each Windows node has been customized, sysprepped, and joined to the target domain. |
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| Download Management Agent
RDP into each of the IaaS Windows nodes using the vRA service account, which should be a local Administrator. Open a browser and navigate to https:// (the /i points to the VA’s IaaS download page) |
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Download Management Agent Click on Management Agent Installer in the IaaS Installation section to download the agent installer to the local machine.
TIP: You can save the installer in a shared folder accessible by all the other IaaS nodes |
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| Install Management Agent
Run the vCAC-IaaSManagementAgent-Setup.msi executable |
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| Install Management Agent
Click Next to begin the installation… |
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| Install Management Agent
Carefully read and accept the EULA, then click Next to continue… |
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| Install Management Agent
Accept the defaults for Destination Folder Click Next to continue… |
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Install Management Agent – Management Site Service Enter the VA host details:
If the SHA1 fingerprint does not load, check to make sure the URL and root UN/PW is property entered. |
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| Install Management Agent – Agent Account Configuration
Enter the vRA service account (e.g. DOMAINusername) and password Click Next to continue… |
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| Install Management Agent – Ready to Install
Click Install to begin the Installation… |
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| Install Management Agent
Click Finish to exit the installer once it successfully completes the installation. |
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Add JAVA System Variable vRA leverages Java for various tasks, mostly during SQL database installation and upgrades. The Deployment Wizard requires the JAVA_HOME system variable to be set to determine JRE’s path. Click Environment Variables in System Properties Advanced tab. In the System Variables section, click New… Add the required System Variable:
NOTE:Since each JRE version will have a unique path, ensure this variable is updated after any JRE updates are preformed. |
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Review
You will need to repeat these steps on the remaining IaaS nodes prior to starting the Deployment Wizard. All the remaining prerequisites will be pushed by the wizard during at install time.
Once all the IaaS nodes have been prepped, confirm all the nodes can communicate (IP / DNS) with each other and each of the vRA VA’s. It’s also a good idea to create a snapshot of each completed IaaS node ahead of starting the deployment wizard.
Next Step:05 – vRA Deployment Wizard
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