With the update to 8.0.1 and the features it brings (including possible upgrades from 7.6 to 8.0), I’m sure there are those searching for “how to perform this install?”, and “is it really “Easy”?”
Well the answer to the latter question is an emphatic YES. I’m just playing with the minimal installation, but, deploying one ISO with 3 OVAs is much easier than multiple OS deployments and service configurations on windows boxes. Even a minimal deployment in my lab took a couple days. This should be up and running within hours. Its pretty outstanding.
One of the major changes is that this is deployed as a Kubernetes cluster and run with the products as pods. This is actually really fantastic tech that betters our lives as users to the nth degree. I could relay to you all the horrors I’ve had deploying via 7.x in comparison, but I won’t. No one likes to read horror stories right??
Deploying Easy LCM Installer
First things first; the installer your looking for is the “Easy” Installer from VMware.
While that is downloading you should go ahead and create DNS entries for the Identity Manager, Lifecycle Manager, and vRealize Appliance. These all need individual DNS as they are separate VMs.
If you have ever installed vCenter from the UI installer, this is very similar. When it has downloaded, mount the ISO, go into the “VRLCM-UI-installer” folder, and select the OS you are using (FYI, if your using a Mac you will deal with security issues, as the ISO may not show as: “installer” cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” my fix as this will happen through the whole installer on Catalina). Now, You have the installer running.
First step is the basic “I agree” and CEIP agreement.
Second, is connecting it to your vCenter instance. This includes specifying the SAN, the network, and other configurations(PROTIP, Use an NTP for time sync)
The Password page is the master password for everything your deploying. So make sure you know it, or have it.
3rd is the LCM configuration:
4th is the IDM configuration: 
5th is the vRA configuration – Only thing new here is the Licensing key input
Now you wait….
For those you can “tail -f” the log(“get-content *PATH* -wait” for Powershell) underneath to watch everything happening. If your like me it looks like this…
First command received at 7AM Final Completion at 7:57AM Less than an hour for full rollout once the inputs were all received.
Those sharp eyed folks will realize a couple things. First the finish is on windows and i started on MAC. Catalina really screws the easy installer. Outside of the rights that I “Thought” I got around, it still holds something back on the installer. So I went to a windows machine.
Another issue is if you run the installer on the same DNS as a previous installation, it will cache things (on your workstation) and will fail on the post deployment checks. I got around this by changing my IP set for the three machines, and finally got my all green installer.
So, to sum up; easy installer can be great if you follow these three things:
- Dont use a catalina Mac. (I wouldn’t) If you do and you got it working, please tell me what you did to fix the rights, I’d like to fix my mac too.
- Dont re-use IPs from previous “Easy Installer” deployments(This is more a me thing, but heads up)
- Make sure your DNS is setup for IDM, VRA, and LCM and no collision.
Follow that and its pretty smooth sailing.
vNerdyNate #vExpert 