VMware vRealize Automation 8.7.0 Released

VMware has released vRealize Automation 8.7.0 and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.7.0.

vRealize Automation 8.7.0

What’s new:

• Evolution of the ABX On Prem engine
  • ABX On Prem now uses the next generation On Prem engine, which has advanced performance and scalability. The New FaaS is much faster, fixes numerous issues with memory limits, and introduces memory based throttling. You can also troubelshoot action runs easier with additional logging capabilities.
  • The new on prem engine includes these improvements:
    • ABX On Prem actions use a new FaaS engine that is more stable, scalable, and faster. It also fixes numerous issues discovered using the old FaaS engine.
    • ABX On Prem actions have faster deployment times. This enables you to develop actions much faster.
    • ABX On Prem action memory limits are now per action run, instead of shared. As a result, the memory limit of all existing actions is reset to the default value due to memory based throttling. If we allowed existing actions with high memory limits that were created from sharing parallel action runs, they would consume a large amount of the capacity when, which is no longer needed.
    • ABX On Prem action run logs now include additional information for finished action runs. There is an additional log line at the end of the log which shows the approximate memory consumed from the action run, allowing you to set appropriate memory limits.
    • ABX On Prem actions now show logs in case of an action run timeout. This allows for easier investigation of timed out action runs.
    • ABX On Prem now enables better isloation between action runs of the same action, because every action run is now run in a separate container.
• Changing deployment projects for provisioned deployments
• Day 2 action to change project is now enabled for provisioned deployments. Provisioned deployments can contain any number of Machines, Disks, Resource Groups, Load Balancers, Networks, Security Groups, NATs, and Gateways. If a provisioned deployment is updated to either contain a not aforementioned resource, for example, terraform configuration, or an onboarded/ migrated resource, the change project action is not available. If the resource is deleted, then the change project action becomes available again.
  • Day 2 action is restricted to cloud administrators only.
  • Machines’ and Disks’ cloud zones must be present in the target Project and set quota limits are respected. The quota is released from the initial project and reserved in the target project. In case of any failure, the action is automatically rolled back.
  • See Day 2 Actions for more information.
• SaltStack Config available as a resource type within Cloud Templates
  • You can now natively deploy and configure a salt-minion as part of a Cloud Template as a day-0 operation by dragging and dropping directly on to the canvas to attach the SaltStack Config resource type to one or multiple virtual machines. The new resource type is found under SaltStack on the left-hand resource menu.
• Updated vRealize Automation plugin for vRealize Orchestrator with versions 8.4.2+
  • Updated plugin version is now available on the VMware Marketplace.
  • The plugin now supports:
    • Iaas Inventory and scripting objects for Machines
    • CRUD for Machines
    • EntityFinders
  • Learn more about the vRealize Automation plug-in. For complete functionality description, please check the “Documents” section in our new vRealize Orchestrator community page.
• Custom validation for catalog item by custom forms now supported via API
  • vRealize Automation now supports custom validation with API. With this new feature, you can design a catalog item with a custom form and external validation via the API. When the user creates a deployment from the catalog item via API, the validation is executed. In the case that the validation fails, the api response would contain validation error messages.
• Custom Remediations for SaltStack SecOps
  • You can now import advisories that aren’t supported by SaltStack SecOps. Custom remediation files can be attached to an advisory for automated remediation. Learn more about custom remediation.
• Dynamic Job Inputs for SaltStack Configuration Jobs
  • Reduce, reuse, and delegate your IT automation and configuration management outcomes with Dynamic Jobs.
• Optional inputs in property groups
  • Input property groups now support optional input. In a property group, all properties are optional by default. In order to mark all non-Boolean properties without a default value as required, add the following cloud template property to the desired property group: populateRequiredOnNonDefaultProperties: true If the above property is omitted / set to false, then all properties will be treated as optional (which is the default behavior).
• Retain deployment creation date for migrated deployments
  • Deployments moved by the migration tool now retain the original creation date.
• Deployment Limit Policy support for storage
  • Deployment Limit Policy now supports storage constraints on both day-0 provisioning and day-2 actions including: resizing, adding, and deleting disks. Learn more about deployment limit policies.
• Removal of infrastructure machines and volumes view
  • The infrastructure machines and volumes view has been replaced with the virtual machines and volumes view in the Resource Center under the Resources top level tab. The permission for machines view is no longer available.
• Marketplace Retirement
  • The Marketplace integration within vRealize Automation has been retired.

See the full release notes here.

See the noncement blog here.

vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.7.0

What’s new:

• Previously, vRealize Cloud Universal subscription licenses were supported for certain vRealize products, such as vRealize Automation, vRealize Operations Manager, and vRealize Log Insight. Starting with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.7 release, you can activate your vRealize Cloud Universal subscription licenses for vRealize Network Insight version 6.5.
• Azure DevOps GIT is supported as content source control in Content Management.

See the release notes here.