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kallischlauch
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vRA 7.1/7.2 On-Demand LB / NSX integration

Hey all,

a couple of questions here any help would be appreciated

a) i can deploy OnDemandLB no problem. But I cannot find any second day operations at all.

for example: upload and user certificate. modify algorithm (switch from Round-Robin to other). modify monitoring rules ... nothing?

b) Scale-in/OUT using Rest API. I can scale in/out using UI. Works perfectly fine. But I can't do it using cloudclient -- not supported (VMware vRealize CloudClient 4.3 Release Notes)

and i have not found a way to do it per vRA RestAPI (i tried with request action) etc. I come to the same problem. "no data". anyone did this successfully? any documentation?

I don't see the point of using scaling if it can't be triggered from outside the UI (for automation -> automated scaling)

I can easily create my own XaaS action to add or remove machines to pool. but the whole point of that scalein/out feature is so that everythign is held in the same deployment (I know what belongs together)

c) the NSX workflows in orchestrator seem to be wrapped in a plugin. Since NSX is added as RestHost I was hoping to find RestAPI scripts that I can copy etc. But it rather seems its all wrapped. Which makes it nice and easy. But I cannot know what functionality is supported. If a functionality is not suppoorted with this plugin, I need to write it in RestAPI again?!

thanks for any help!

Kalli

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bayupw
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Happy new year too!

Yeah that's my understanding too, one of VMware folks told me that vRA-NSX integration is more for Day 0 provisioning and any Day 2 operations will be XaaS

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw

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bayupw
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Hi

Have you explore vRealize Automation and NSX Extensibility Kit ?

The workflows from the extensibility kit are REST API based so you can duplicate or copy the scripts and modify according to your needs.

As you can see below, there are some workflows to configure LB persistence, create LB application profile which may be the workflow that you are looking for

extensibility.png

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
kallischlauch
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Hey, happy new year and thanks for getting back.

I had a look, it is vRA 6.2 only, but I was able to import the orchestrator package. There are some good workflows in there, but most are already implemented in the NSX plugin.

my biggest problem is not neccessarily writing the workflow (i could possibly check on plugin api), it is rather the complete lack of vRA integration for 2nd day.

(problem is not orchestrator, problem is vra!)

I cannot run a single action on an edge or load balancer.

2017-01-10 13_22_04-vRealize Automation.png

I have enabled all actions available in entitlements.

I have created custom resources in XaaS (i tried each available NSX:Loadbalancer onject available in orchestrator) and created a dummy workflow in orchestrator.

I can create resource actions but no matter what I do, actions is always empty.

There is absolutely no way for me to do any 2nd-day operations on on-demand LB from VRA (apart from scale-in and out)

However this is exactly what operations is asking for (need to upload cert, need to change lb algorithm, need to modify monitoring intervals....)

So the only way I have is to create XaaS workflows that create Edge and LB myself, but that defeats the purpose of having them already integrated in the blueprint ... *sigh*

Kalli

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bayupw
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Happy new year too!

Yeah that's my understanding too, one of VMware folks told me that vRA-NSX integration is more for Day 0 provisioning and any Day 2 operations will be XaaS

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
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kallischlauch
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it seems to be the case. its completely missing. I've connected with VMware, maybe PM can shed some light on a roadmap. if its missing I expect that this would be the next logical step to follow (or at least that PM has thought about it already).

A Self-service LB that cannot be manipulated by self-service is pointless, even if I'd ask all dev teams to redeploy the whole application when a change is needed I'm missing critical things like upload cert etc.

As mentioned earlier, I can't even create my own actions on the LB or edge, which was very surprising.

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