vRA 7 Specify IP Address on Deployment

[AllanJohnstone2]

Hi All

I have looked but can not see a question specifically on this as yet.  We are trying to use the IaaS deployment of a VM and specify the IP Address of the VM as part of the form.  When we add the customised property of VirtualMachine.Network0.Address in the Network properties of the VM we are unable to check the "Overridable" option.  When we do and save it the check option is removed when we view the blueprint again.  This is probably something simple that we are missing...

If anyone has suggestions that would be great!

Thanks

Allan

[AlexJudge · Accepted solution]

This is interesting. I see the same behaviour.

To get it to work for me, I placed the VirtualMachine.Network0.Name and Address custom properties, in the blueprint properties, rather than the VM object properties.

My guess is that the Network tab of a VM object in the blueprint is making the assumption that you're going to use DHCP or the vRA managed IP addressing.

[AllanJohnstone2]

Hi Alex

Thanks that worked.  Strange that you have to do it at that level.  It also means that you can only deploy one instance at a time as more would probably all end up with the same IP address...?

[AlexJudge]

Agreed, it is a bit misleading. I suspect this is a result of how things have changed in v7. I will do some research internally and will post back my findings.

[AlexJudge]

There's a bit of a change in thinking here. Ultimately, each single-machine blueprint can be published and re-used as a component of another blueprint. That way, you can keep the custom properties separated (particularly in terms of networking.)

The Network tab for an individual machine within a blueprint is designed more toward the creation of a blueprint with multiple machines, all of which will be connected to a pre-defined network (and hence, a network profile). I believe that's why some of the options to 'override' settings are not available.

[AllanJohnstone2]

Yes I thought this might be the case.  Thank you for following up on this and getting the answer.  I will pass on the details to my colleges.

I should also point out that we have now found if you create a custom property and custom property group you can add it to the virtual machine component directly.

[AlexJudge]

Yeah, if you have the custom properties configured inside a property group, you can set the values and have them as overrideable. If you try applying them individually, you get the error about the properties having to be assigned to the network adapter.