Deploy vRealize LifeCycle Manager on vCloud Foundation

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Deploy vRealize LifeCycle Manager on vCloud Foundation

This article is work-in-progress

1. Download the required bundles for lifecycle manager using:
   • Download software bundles using Internet access from SDDC Manager
   • OR Download offline bundles and reuse them with SDDC Manager for repeat experiments or air-gapped networks
2. Go to SDDC Manager -> Administration -> vRealize Suite. If a suitable bundle is available then "Deploy" button should get activated. Click Deploy.
3. On first page it is just notifying about the xRegion network used to create current vCF deployment. You should have a forward and reverse DNS entry for vRealize LifeCycle manager in this subnet.

   Reverse and forward lookup for LCM FQDN should match for deployment to succeed.

   Also we need to have a NSX LB service IP in the same subnet.

   If we do not use AVN then for vRealize Suite components Refer KB 80864 at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80864

4. After clicking next enter FQDN for vRealize Lifecycle manager. Also enter IP address for NSX LB service router.

   Note that we only need to enter FQDN for LCM, the IP is figured out automatically. We need to enter IP for NSX-T load-balancer which should be different from LCM.

   If there is warning for IP address being not available or being duplicate. Do not ignore warning. If all parameters are right this should not come. During experiments I mistakenly used to give same IP for LCM and NSX gateway which used to result in this warning.

5. If there is failure there are options to retry in the below tasks menu or rollback at SDDC manager -> Administration -> vRealize Suie

   I have had to retry at least once in nested envrionments for things to work

   If task fails at 'Add vCenter Server and Data Center to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager' Restart task one or two times. Other option is to login into LifeCylemanager as vcfadmin@local and delete the created datacenter. Then restart task so that it can create data-center and vCenter properly for task to succeed. When I used this the packages did not sync between SDDC manager and vLCM. Without this sync deploying Workspace one access and other products does not works.

   You can look at log file at /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log in SSDC manager if vLCM deployment is failing again and again

6. After vRealize Lifecycle manager is deployed successfully, login into it using vcfadmin@local username
7. Generate certificate for workspace one access (wsa.<domain-name>)

   Most articles suggest to create certificate using VMWare CertGenVVD tool - VMWare KB - 78246 at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/78246

8. Add license for vRealize Suite 2019
9. Add passwords for root and admin users
10. Go to Site Home -> lifeycle operations -> Requests
11. Wait for "Synchronize product binaries from SDDC manager" request to finish

    This might take considerable time in nested environments. It copies data from /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle on SDDC manager to /data/VCF on vLCM

    If task hangs (/data/VCF) folder size is not changing. Cancel task. Then go to Lifecycle operations -> Settings -> Binary mapping. Click on "Sync Binaries" to restart sync task.

    1. The below steps only allows binaries to get added to vRealize Lifecycle manager. The vLCM associated with SDDC manager still cannot use this for deploying Workspace one access and other products. For deploying these products the "Synchronize product binaries from SDDC manager" step must finish successfully.
    2. Other option is to create /data/local folder on vLCM machine and then
    3. Enable NFS folder /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount access from vLCM machine by editing /etc/exports
    4. Run 'exportfs -a -v'
    5. Copy data to vLCM machine

       mkdir /data/local
       mkdir /mnt/nfs1
       mount -v -t nfs <sddc-manager>:/nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/ /mnt/nfs1/
       
       #Copy product folders such as
       cp -rp /mnt/nfs1/9a143bf8-160f-42e5-9fd3-fd7bc780db1d/bundle-32927/vrli_install .
       cp -rp /mnt/nfs1/9ba4109a-f426-4397-a54f-62567d8c03f5/bundle-30919/vrops_install .
       
       umount /mnt/nfs1

    6. Go Lifecycle manager -> Life cycle operations -> settings -> Binary mapping -> Add binary. Add local binary by giving folder paths.

       Lifecycle manager will internally upload it to /data/vm-config/vmrepo/productBinariesRepo/ folder

    7. Again restore /etc/exports on SDDC same as before

Refer:

• "VCF 4.0 Deploy vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager" at https://core.vmware.com/deploying-vrealize-suite-vmware-cloud-foundation

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