VMware vRealize Suite 8.8.0 Released

VMware has released vRealize Automation 8.8.0, vRealize Automation SaltStack Config 8.8.0, vRealize Orchestrator 8.8.0, vRealize Log Insight 8.8.0, vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.8.0 and vRealize Operations 8.6.3.

vRealize Automation 8.8.0/vRealize Automation SaltStack Config 8.8.0

This release finally fixes the problem with “change owner” on a deployment, so you don’t have to add users explicitly to the Project.

What’s new:

• vRA Migration Assistant supports vRA 7.6 only
  • Changed and Deprecated Functionality:
  • With this release, vRealize Automation supports migrations through the Migration Assistant from vRealize Automation 7.6 only. You can still perform a migration assessment for older versions.
  • Option to migrate vRA 7.5 or below versioned sources is to upgrade the source to 7.6. Once the source upgrade to 7.6 is complete, edit the migration source in the migration tool so that the tool can take into account the change in the version of the source. There’s no need to run assessment again as the update will be picked up automatically.
• Azure properties under protectedSettings is now encrypted
  • The Azure provisioning extension property under protectedSettings is now encrypted.
• Allow global configuration of memory allocation limits
  • A global configuration property has been added that sets the maximum memory allocation amount on an individual host or cluster for the entire org.
• Support change owner Day2 action for single user that is part of an AD group
  • Support changing deployment owner to users that are part of AD groups which are project administrator or project member.
  • Note: If user is a project viewer or supervisor, they are not eligible to be owner of a deployment.
• Enhance day-2 operations for TKGs clusters- Update K8s version, Update Tanzu Cluster VM classes, Scale worker nodes
  • VRealize Automation now supports day-2 operations for TKGs cluster to add further automation . When you have provisioned Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster as Deployment, you can execute one of these operations:
    • Update Kubernetes version – You can choose from the dropdown one of the available version that you can update
    • Update Tanzu Cluster workers count – Update workers count by typing number in the dialog box
    • Update Tanzu Cluster VM classes – Update vm classes of control plane nodes and worker nodes, you can choose the class from available classes in the dropdowns
• Approval policy now includes multi-level approvals
  • Approval policies now include multi-level approvals. Approvals can be set to specific levels, with all matching policies firing sequentially based upon the criteria selected. This includes a revamped approval progress screen to show the levels currently pending or approved, and the approver pending a decision to better inform the end-user of their approval flow status. Learn more.
• Provisioning now supports an approval policy with limit > 2 days
  • The Project’s request timeout value has been disassociated with the allocation timeout for provisioning service objects, and vRealize Automation now sets that to a value greater than the maximum approval policy period. Customers should no longer see errors at provisioning time for objects that were pending approval for more than 2 days.
• Request ID is now displayed in deployment request history
  • Request ID is now displayed for each action on the deployment History tab. You can leverage this information for debugging and billing purposes.
• Disk resizing and VM tagging – Scale and minor feature fixes in vRA/VCD integration
  • Disk resizing and VM updates now:
    • Introduces disk resizing capability
    • Updating the sizing policy of a deployed VM in VCD
    • Supports VM Tagging
    • Supports VMs in vRA tagging and updating
• Custom forms supports workflows with legacy presentations from vRO java client
  • Custom forms in vRA now support workflows with legacy presentations from the vRO java client.
• Ability to provision NSX-T On-Demand VLAN Segments – VCT support
  • You can now provision NSX-T VLAN segments by specifying one or more VLAN IDs on private NSX network type. This can be used in cases where your overall design prohibits you from provisioning overlay networks on NSX-T. As part of this feature, we also collect and display information about VLAN transport zones which should be selected in network profile in order to give ability for VLAN networks to be created. Learn more.
• Custom Naming has been revamped to include expanded functionality.
  • Custom Naming has been revamped to include expanded functionality:
    • Scoping has been expanded to be either single project, multiple projects, or full org
    • Templates can now be assigned at a per-resource level which include: compute, network, storage, load balancer, resource group, gateway, NAT and security group
    • Counters are now configurable for starting and increment value, and will increment sequentially
    • Validation for compute name uniqueness is now available and will check against all objects vRA manages or discovers
    • Matching patterns allow for specific strings within a per-resource naming template to increment independent of one another

See the full release notes here.

vRealize Orchestrator 8.8.0

What’s new:

• vRO 8.x: RESTOperation.createRequest should not automatically translate spaces to the “+” symbol.
  • The java.net.URLEncoder.encode() method is now replaced with org.springframework.web.util.UriUtils.encodeQuery(). This change concerns the encoding of URL addresses and more specifically, the encoding of query parameters when performing a REST operation. The space is now encoded to %20 as opposed to +. Replacing space with %20 is the more common way and is also recommended in the RFC specifications, which should be supported by the majority of REST hosts.
• You can now update the authentication of a scheduled task in the vRealize Orchestrator Client.
  • When a editing a scheduled task, a new field called Starting user is available. You can use this field to change the user who is authenticated to run the scheduled task. This feature is only available while editing a existing scheduled task that you have created previously.
  • Learn more about changing the authentication of a scheduled task.
• Updates and plug-in API compatibility changes for the Auto Deploy plug-in for vRealize Orchestrator.
  • vRealize Orchestrator 8.8 includes an updated and preinstalled Auto Deploy plug-in. The plug-in API compatibility is also updated to support:
  • vRealize Orchestrator 7.6
  • vRealize Orchestrator 8.7.2
  • vCenter 6.7
  • vCenter 7.0
  • NOTE: To use this plug-in in vRealize Orchestrator 7.6, you must first update the vSphere plug-in to version 7.x. Also regarding vRealize Orchestrator 7.6, the Auto Deploy plug-in includes full support for the Java-based Orchestrator Legacy Client while support for workflows created in the HTML5-based vRealize Orchestrator Client is limited.
  • Learn more about using the Auto Deploy plug-in in vRealize Orchestrator 8.8.
• Changes to the input form for Active Directory configuration workflows. The Per user session option is no longer supported.
  • Because LDAP authentication is no longer supported and shared session is the only possible authentication, the useSharedSession checkbox is now removed from the input form of several Active Directory workflows and the username and password fields are now mandatory. This change impacts the Add an Active Directory server, Update an Active Directory server and Configure Active Directory server workflows.
• The New “Create a computer with password in an organizational unit” workflow is now available
  • The new workflow creates a computer in an organizational unit with a default password value equal to computername$. The workflow also enables the configuration of a custom password by checking the choose password different from the default one option.
• REST plug-in support for OpenAPI 3.0 and Swagger 2.0.
  • The Add a REST host by Swagger spec from a URL and Add a REST host by Swagger spec as a string workflows can now create REST hosts from both Swagger 2.0 and OpenAPI 3.0 schemas.
  • For both workflows this is achieved by adding a dropdown in the host properties tab which is called Swagger/OpenAPI version. Depending on which version you choose, you can access an additional tab called Swagger 2.x or OpenAPI 3.0. In this tab you can select the host, basePath and Preferred communication protocols for the former and the preferred URL address for the latter.
  • The following methods were added to the RestHostManager scripting object:
    • createRESTHostFromOpenApiUrl(“restHostName”, “openApiSpecUrl”, authHeaders, “preferredUrl”, extraParams)
    • createRESTHostFromOpenApiSpecString(“restHostName”, “openApiSpecString”, “preferredUrl”, extraParams)
    • getOpenApiServiceUrl(“openApiSpec”, “preferredUrl”)

See the full release notes here.

vRealize Log Insight 8.8.0

What’s new:

• Limit Search to a Specific Index Partition: The new metafield _index lets you limit log search to specified index partitions.
• Left Side Navigation: The UI/UX improvements for left-side navigation provide an experience consistent with vRealize Log Insight Cloud. The left-side navigation lets you easily use both the on-premise and cloud products.
• Alert History: You can now view an alert’s history through the UI and APIs.
• Hybrid Log Management – Content Migration: API improvements now enable seamless content migration.
• Hybrid Log Management – Forwarding: You can now forward logs from vRealize Log Insight to vRealize Log Insight Cloud without using a Cloud Proxy.
• Syslog Forwarding Improvements: The RFC compliance issues related to PRI version and SD part during syslog forwarding have been fixed.
• Webhook Enhancements: You can now use the predefined template provided for vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) webhook configuration.
• Note: Ensure that basic authentication is enabled in the vRO side for sending webhook notifications from vRealize Log Insight to vRO using basic authentication.
• New Content Packs: The following content packs have been added.
  • Jenkins content pack
  • vRO 8.0+ content pack

See the full release notes here.

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.8.0

What’s new:

• Realize Orchestrator Support
  • The lifecycle operations of vRealize Orchestrator are supported in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.8 release.
• vRealize Cloud Connect Support
  • vRealize Cloud Connect is introduced to migrate your vRealize Network Insight on-premises software to vRealize Network Insight Cloud. For more details, see About vRealize Cloud Connect.
• Usability Enhancements
  • You can now deploy the nodes in multiple datacenters or clusters with the same subset when installing a clustered VMware Identity Manager or when performing a scale-out operation.
• Notifications Support
  • Provides notifications about the licenses and certificates that have expired or will be expiring within a specified time period.
• vRealize Automation Enhancements
  • Cloud Extensibility Proxy (CExP) installation is supported. Also, provides zero-downtime customer experience during maintenance and upgrade.
• Content Management Enhancements

See the full release notes here.

vRealize Operations 8.6.3

This is primary a bug fix release, see the release notes here.