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How to Create T-Shirt Size Blueprint in vRealize Automation 7.3

Atul Sharma — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 07:01:39 +0000

We get T-Shirt sizing task very often these days. It used to require lot of work in the past to design T-Shirt sizing but It is nice to see this coming as new feature with an easy way to setup and use in vRealize Automation 7.3

T-Shirt Sizing service is a compound service composed of multiple machine sizes and machine types that can be provisioned and managed through vRealize Automation 7.3 as a single entity. Here I will show you how to create T-Shirt sizing blueprint in vRealize Automation 7.3.

Environment Details and Prerequisites

Before going ahead let me give you details about my environment and all the prerequisites that should be there before starting t-shirt size setup.

VRA 7.3 environment in place
VSphere 6.0
Windows 2016 VM Template
Customization specifications
VCenter added as endpoint
AD integrated
Service created
Entitlements created
Approval policies to be in place (for testing not required)
Reservation and reservation policy mapped (Network part of Reservation via VRA IPAM or third party IPAM)

Setup T-Shirt Size Blueprint

Component Profiles is a new feature introduced in vRealize Automation 7.3. It will define both size and image attributes, enabling “T-shirt sizing” as a request item. Component profiles provided for image and virtual machine size including CPU, memory, and storage size.

Let’s see how to create a T-Shirt Size blueprint and how it is seen by the end users who are entitled for service.

Step 1- Login to the vRealize Automation tenant and Click on Administration -> Property Definitions -> Component Profiles.

In the component profile, there are two profiles under which multiple values are to be created.

First is Image where we shall select VM templates from the endpoints (whether V-Sphere or SCVMM or some other). In this case, we shall mention VCenter images.
Step 2- Click on Image and click on value Sets and Click on “+ New” button showing with plus sign.
Step 3- Add two value sets for Windows 2016 and RHEL-Linux based images in VCenter. Below image is showing for Windows 2016 Image Values.

In the above figure, clone is the VM template in VCenter and Customization Spec is Customization specification which are being setup for a particular VM (Windows, Linux etc.) in VCenter.

In the same way Setup for RHEL VM Image. Now there would be two value sets for images as mentioned in below figure.

Step 4- Now, navigate to Property Definition-> Component Profiles-> Click on “Size”

Step 5- Add below VM Sizes in this component profile

Below are sizes that have been defined in as a sample for the value sets.

Sizes	CPUs assigned	RAM Assigned in GB	Virtual Disk in GB
Small	2	4	40
Medium	4	8	80
Large	8	16	120

For example: Below is the screenshot for Value Set Small. In the similar way the value sets need to be created for Medium and Large.

Step 6- Now, the last step comes to create a blueprint. Click on Design tab and click on New VCenter VM BP. Here we will select Windows as an Image but with T-Shirt Sizing. You can select whatever image sets you want. Please make sure, prerequisites such as reservation policy mapped to reservation, Business groups, and approval policies are in place before you create a blueprint.

In case you have any Windows Blueprint already in place, you can copy and create a new BP and make changes to it so that it can show options of T-Shirt sizing to the users

Step 7- Click on Profiles tab and select Win-2016 as the image and select all the sizes under size value sets.

Step 8- Now the next step is to publish the blueprint and set it as a service for the entitled user.

Go to Administration -> Catalog Management -> Catalog Items -> Select blueprint ‘Win-T-Shirt-BP’ and click on configure. On configure Catalog Item page, select the required configuration and specify the service to which Blueprint should be visible.

At this point, Blueprint is created, published and attached to the catalog. Entitle user can request the catalog as below

Below service shall be seen by user and he/she can request the same

You can monitor the provision progress, Go to Requests -> and select the request. You are done with T-Shirt sizing creation now. You can also learn how to create blueprint to provide appropriate rights to new users in vRA in attached article.

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How to Create vRealize Automation Blueprint to Provide Appropriate Rights to New Users

Atul Sharma — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 07:19:56 +0000

Let’s assume a scenario that a new user joins the department and he needs access to some set of applications. To achieve this he needs to be added to a particular Active directory group. User can do it himself via a Self-service catalog item in vRealize Automation URL.

User can raise the request via portal. The request will go to a particular approver (can be business group manager). Approver approves the request and that’s it. User gets rights by himself which un-necessary time going to IT Team and then waiting for them to cater the request. We can automate whole process using vRealize Automation Blueprints.

vRealize Automation Blueprint

A vRealize Automation Blueprint can be described as the specification of the resources that should be deployed, including the respective lifecycle information. Blueprints are categories into multiple types. One of them is XaaS Blueprint. XaaS blueprints allow you to publish Orchestrator workflows within the service catalog. A typical example is the creation of Active Directory users in an Active Directory group.

I will show you how to create vRealize Automation Blueprint to provide appropriate rights to new users for an application in this article.

I am dividing above requirement into three parts that makes you understand this article.

Create a XaaS Blueprint using Default Active Directory workflow for VRA
Add this blueprint to a Service catalog in VRA
Validation or Testing

Create a XaaS Blueprint using Default Active Directory workflow for VRA

1. Login to vRA Console-> Go to Design tab-> Click on XaaS Blueprints -> Click +New.
2. Click on Workflow tab and select “Add a user to a user group” workflow (You can get this workflow in the following path Library->Microsoft-> Active Directory -> User). Click Next

3. Keep all the default options and click Next

4. Again click Next button to proceed.

5. Keep on Clicking Next and Click Finish at the below mentioned tab “Component Lifecycle”.

6. The Blueprint will look like below image under XaaS blueprints. In order to use the blueprint, it needs to be published. Select the blueprint and publish it.

Add this blueprint to a Service catalog in vRealize Automation

7. Now blueprint has been created, next we need to add this blueprint to a Service catalog in vRealize Automation.

Navigate to Administration tab-> Catalog Items -> Select blueprint. Click on Configure.

8. Now select Service Catalog in which the blueprint shall be presented to the end user.

9. Now entitle the user to view the catalog item in the service. Under Administration tab, navigate to Entitlement and select respective Entitlement. Edit the entitlement and then Click on “Items and Approvals” Tab. Click on + icon (Entitled Items) and add “Add User to AD Group” Catalog

Validation/Testing

10. Now entitled users can use this service catalog. Below is how this will present to the user.

User clicks on request and provide group name in the text box. It shall search in AD in the background. Once group has been found, enter your AD username and click on Submit

The request then goes to the approver to take action as approve or reject it. Once approved the request is termed as successful.

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