How to Create T-Shirt Size Blueprint in vRealize Automation 7.3
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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Read More:
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- vRealize Automation Interview Questions and Answers - December 11, 2017
- How to Create T-Shirt Size Blueprint in vRealize Automation 7.3 - September 19, 2017
Have you worked on vRo workflow creation for customized blue prints ? If you worked on it.can you help me with sample task in your blog , to understand how we can generate customized blue print through vro and mentioned what are the possibilities that can be created or develop a blue print.