Hey guys – today I am going to be posting about an absolutely awesome solution recently released by VMware. The product is called the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager – I know, it might have a slightly boring name. However, I assure you this thing is anything but boring. That is, of course, if you are using any of the vRealize products offered by VMware.

What is this thing? One solution to rule them all!

Yeah – good question. If you’ve been around enterprise stuff for any amount of time you’ve heard the term “lifecycle management” tossed around. This product is exactly what it sounds like – it manages the entire lifecycle of your vRealize solutions! This means you can deploy, upgrade, and retire portions of the vRealize Suite from within this one solution.

Picture this – you’re a consultant or shop who deploys vRealize LogInsight, vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Automation, vRealize Business for Cloud, vRealize Orchestrator, and or vRealize Network Insight. Wow, that’s a lot of vRealizing, right? I know – I’ve been there – I am running some/all of these products in various locations both in production and in development. The biggest struggle I have is keeping track, upgrading, and maintaining them. That’s where vRealize Lifecycle Manager comes in. From here on, I will refer to the product as vRLCM. Right now people are calling it all sorts of acronyms but since vRLCM is what VMware is calling it in the OVF deploy screens, I am calling it that, too.

How do you deploy something like vRealize LogInsight or Operations Manager? Of course, you log into your VCSA (you are running VCSA, right?) you download and deploy the OVF since you followed this tutorial… and you’re on your way to sucking in logs or resolving issues within your environment and getting a pat on the back. But then, VMware releases an update and your first thought is, “ugh.” You are a version behind… maybe… or… are you… crap, you don’t remember. It’s easy to get frazzled. Don’t worry VMware has taken care of you!

Let’s deploy the vRLCM!

So, unfortunately, you are going to have to deploy the vRLCM “manually” via OVF. But no worries, soon you’ll be able to deploy with its assistance!

So, download the OVF available at this link if you’re entitled to it, of course. Once downloaded we’ll deploy this appliance like any other. Do yourself a favor and pick an IP address out and create DNS ahead of time.

Right-click your cluster/resource pool/etc. and deploy the OVF while selecting the file:

Agree to the terms as usual:

Next up you need to pick your storage:

After you’ve decided on the storage for the deployment, you’ll need to select the network:

The next window is full of all the juicy stuff – hostname, IP configuration, etc.:

One thing you’ll note that is missing from ordinary vRealize OVF deploys is that you don’t get to set a root or SSH password. More on that later.

Confirm your settings and start the actual deployment:

You’re set. After a few minutes the appliance will be finish deploying and hopefully you can turn it on and access it by IP or DNS. I am using DNS so simply go to https://[fully.qualified.domain.name]/ and you should be able to reach the login page:

Hurray! You’re almost there! In order to log in, specify the username as admin@localhost and the password as, simply, vmware. Once logged in you will be prompted to change the admin@localhost password. Small caveat I found here – I don’t think it tells you, but the appliance has a 16-character maximum for the password (along with the root and SSH user passwords as well). So, keep that in mind:

Once you’re beyond that step you’ll be greeted with a series of tutorial-like slides through the UI:

Nice touch VMware! Now that you’ve got the actual vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance deployed, my next post will talk about connecting it to our existing vSphere infrastructure and checking out new/existing vRealize solutions – stay tuned!

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