vRealize Automation missing day-2 activities

If you are working with Advanced Service Design (ASD) to enable Day-2 activities you will realized they are missing on vRealize Automation 6.2. 

On the screen bellow, there’s just the default actions available.

Where did my Day-2 tasks that I much love go ? 

 

Just to be safe, I checked the Entitlements, they were properly configured and my ASD was published already.

 

It’s Google time !!!

It turns out vRA 6.2 has a regression issue which does not show ASD anymore.

 

Luckily the fix for that is a piece of cake and well documented on KB2111713

 

- Grab the new dll called DynamicOps.Api.v61.dll from the KB.

- Stop all IaaS Services (Manager Service, DEMs, Proxy Agents).

- Replace this file at: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\vCAC\Web API\bin

 

It’s a good idea to first take a copy of the DLL for rollback purposes. 

Also do not just rename the file inside the folder, move it elsewhere.

 

- Make sure the new DLL date is 3/28/2015.

 

- Repeat this process on ALL IaaS Servers.

- Restart all IaaS services.

- Recycle IIS: iisreset

 

Voilà…. Day-2 activities are back.

 

 

vRealize Automation Branding

One small change on vRealize Automation 6.2 is it’s branding name, prior version still be referenced as vCloud Automation Center.

Files and folder structure still have vcac reference, but don’t worry about it now, we are taking baby steps here.

Why is that important after all?

Is not the small details that make all the difference ?!?!

So, on new systems you will realize that the login page has been updated with the new branding name.

In the other hand, systems that were upgraded from version 6.1 to version 6.2 still have the old branding name.

It’s because there’s an extra step on the upgrade procedure that needs to be taken care of.

- Login to vRA Appliance Management console;

https://vRA-App:5480

- Click vRA Settings and then SSO tab;

- Fill the SSO Admin User with Administrator and type the password;

- Select Apply Branding ;

- Click Save Settings and it’s done.

Wait a few minutes, clear your browser’s cache and voilà….
 

VMware Software Manager

Is It getting harder and harder to keep track of all VMware’s Product Launches, upgrades, hotfixes and new releases these days, right ? 

Luckily VMware launched a new program called VMware Software Manager, that can help you track which is the most recent release of it’s products and more, download them to your compute while checking the integrity of them, nice…. Even nicer is that it’s free.

It does not have a lot of pre-requisites, just a Windows 64bit O.S. version (yes, this first release is just Windows aware). You can check all the details on the User's Guide.

Talking abou the installation, it’s pretty simple, so simple that wont cover here, the only thing that mention to comment is that during installation it will ask you for the depot location, that’s where your downloads will be copied to.

 Don’t worry, it's possible to change the depot location later !!!

On the taskbar there’s an icon for Software Manager

- Right Click on it and select, Settings and then Set Download Location

To start with you will need to login with your MyVMware Account      

Then, you can browser to the available products.

Another caveat here, not all products are available, they will be added soon, so far we do have.

VMware vCloud Suite – 6.0, 5.8 and 5.5

VMware vSphere with Operations Manager – 6.0 and 5.5

VMware vSphere – 6.0, 5.5 and 5.1

If you don’t want to browse through them,  there’s also some cool filter options.

Once you find the one you need just hit the download button and go grab a cup of coffee.

 

Something to mention is that the support of Software Manager is handle by the community on this initial phase.

If you have a problem, drop us a question, I’m sure you will be answered before this cup of coffee get cold ; )

Go ahead, download VMware Software Manager and give it a try.