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blueprint with dhcp and dns privisioned

Hi,

I'm starting with VMware vRA Enterprise. I'm learning it, so sorry for question if already answered somewhre.

I have simple task I want to achieve with integration of Microsoft DNS and DHCP:

  • create blueprint for Windows 10 VM (already done and able to provision)
    • VM has prefix "vm011" - "vm240" pool
    • VM has predefined network profile and IP pool in reservation
  • during blueprint provision I need to do following:
    • during provision VM gets name from default prefix automatically (i.e. vm123) (users cannot change prefix, it will be lab VMs strictly defined by resources and names)
    • customization specification reconfigure VM to this name and set networking to DHCP
    • I need that during lease time of VM existence - 2 ways, don't have preferrence:
      • 1 - register DNS A record in predefined MS DNS zone based on name - here vm123.something.domain.com - and creates DHCP reservation for it (again MS DHCP)
      • 2 - parse name vm123 and create DHCP reservation in predefined DHCP range as IP .123 (I can precreate DNS names which represents exact IP like vm123.domain.com = 10.10.10.123)

As Im learning I do not know how to achiev this - if it's possible to be done directly in vRA web or I need to implements embedded Orchestrator

also I do not know if it's better to have standalone orchestrator or embedded, but as release 7.6 in docs is said that embedded is recommended.

Could you please point me to right direcion?

Much appreciated

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Little bit of helpful advice:  Don't use DHCP when you're provisioning from vRA. You need to use static IPs from either a network profile or an external IPAM (if applicable).

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zoomprofile
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

and if static IP is used... how to map it to DNS records? I would like to have it as easy as possible for users = if they see name of VM as vm123 they will know it's vm123.domain.com with IP 10.10.10.123

thanks

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

There are several blogs out there that can show you how to integrate vRA with DNS, but it's largely a manual effort to provide all the "plumbing" to vRO and create the subscriptions. If you do a couple Google searches, you will see what I mean. Alternatively, if you want to go the "easy" route and not mess with vRO, you can use SovLabs to integrate with DNS for you.

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zoomprofile
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

any URL? I did not find anything like I need. maybe terminology used in search is different than used in vRA world.

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zoomprofile
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

New not, but really i missed that :smileygrin: maybe it's because of extreme hot weather in europe :smileygrin: wasn't finding word "integrate" :smileygrin: thanks... going to read

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zoomprofile
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Any idea how to pass deployment properties and parse IP address assigned in vRO script?

When I create workflow and put there input variable of "Properties" type I'm able to parse VM name, etc... but not IP.

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

You're going to have to be much more specific with what you're trying to accomplish. Did you read those blog posts? If you're just starting with vRA and want to limit the amount of technical debt you're about to spend, I'd strongly recommend you at least get a trial of some of the SovLabs modules to cut down on some of the work you're saddling yourself with.

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