vRealize Automation 8 Migration: What to Expect

Ready for the VMware vRealize Automation 8 migration? VMware vRealize Automation 8.0 (vRA 8) has brought with it many improvements and new capabilities. The new version will enhance the ability of organizations to manage and deploy multi-cloud environments.

Overview of the New Architecture

Today, everyone focuses on Kubernetes and containers. The focus of vRA 8 architecture is on container-based microservices. This architecture has significantly simplified the way organizations manage, configure, and upgrade the environment. 

Here’s what to expect:

Flexible Deployment

This time around, VMware has worked to improve the scalability, performance, and deployment options of vRA. Previous versions needed at least two VMs (virtual machines). You also needed to run portions of your architecture on a Windows server. VMware has dropped this requirement in version 8. 

In short:

• You no longer need Windows Server and VMware’s Photos since vRA 8 comes with an underlying OS.
• You’ll be able to run vRA services in a single virtual machine with adequate performance and scale for many customers. If you need high availability and additional resources, vRA 8 can support a three-node cluster configuration. Therefore, you’ll be able to increase VM compute resources for seamless scaling. 
• You can now easily install and configure vRA to deploy networking and compute in less than an hour. 
• vRealize Automation 8 migration is a simple process. The tool comes with an easy installer delivered as an ISO file. It supports installation from macOS, Linux, or Windows. 
• It’s now easier to kick-start the delivery of applications and infrastructure resources in your environment thanks to the in-built Marketplace. Marketplace features numerous applications, operating systems, and blueprint and image samples.
• Installation of vRealize Automation, Workspace ONE Access, and vRealize Lifecycle Manager is now easier. You can install directly from the easy installer for new deployments. You can also leverage the existing Workspace ONE Access and vRealize Lifecycle Manager in your environment to install and manage vRA 8.0 and provide authentication. 

Enhanced Integrations and Extensibility

Here are some highlights:

New HTML 5 User Interface

vRA 8.0 comes with a new HTML 5 interface and enhanced capabilities. 

Multi-Cloud Management

vRA 8.0 comes with improved support and seamless integration with native Amazon Web Services, VMware Cloud on AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. 

API-first Approach 

You get access to a powerful deployment and configuration API that allows organizations to automate interactions with vRA. The API also expands workflows, actions, integrations, and the art of possible scenarios to new levels. 

Ease the Setup and Consumption of Multi-Cloud

Cloud Zones and Projects simplify and enhance governance by reducing the number of actions and interfaces needed for configuration. They also unify governance across multiple clouds and give IT more control over where deployment happens. 

Iteratively Developing Blueprints

Blueprints is one of vRA’s core features. It gives organizations flexibility during the design and deployment of application, OS, and infrastructure resources. vRA 8.0 comes with new blueprints. They enable enterprises to add cloud-agnostic objects and allow for extended granularity. 

Cloud Agnostic Blueprints

You can use Cloud Assembly to create cloud-agnostic blueprints that provision infrastructure to a cloud of your choice. In addition, you can configure and deploy applications using cloud-init within the blueprint. 

Cloud-agnostic blueprints allow you to provision infrastructure and deploy applications to both public and private clouds without the need for additional configuration. 

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