4.12 vRealize Orchestrator
vRealize Orchestrator provides service orchestration. It can automate tasks across VMware products leveraging vCloud API, VIM API, NSX API, and so on. Using generic plug-ins (SSH, SOAP, HTTP REST, SQL, PowerShell, Active Directory) or third-party specific plug-ins, VMware vRealize® Orchestrator™ can orchestrate other systems as well.
vRealize Orchestrator has two distinct roles in vCloud Director environments:
• It acts as an extension that is subscribed to RabbitMQ and consumes vCloud Director messages. In this role, vRealize Orchestrator extends vCloud Director by providing additional services (backup, additional controls, CMDB integration, and so on).
• It acts as an orchestrator for common onboarding or tenant lifecycle tasks. The tasks are triggered by an external portal (VMware vRealize Automation™ Advanced Service Designer, or through the vRealize Orchestrator REST API). By utilizing vRealize Orchestrator plug-ins, the tenant service can be configured end-to-end.
For vCloud Availability use cases, the second role can be used to provide tenant onboarding and managing disaster recovery failover for fully provider managed services.
To provide high availability, two vRealize Orchestrator appliances should be deployed in active – standby configuration, with a network load balancer providing access to the active instance behind common virtual IP address. Both appliances must be configured exactly the same way and share a common database. Failover detection is provided through database heartbeats.
Table 11. Load Balancer Configuration Example
Attribute | Specification |
Virtual IP | … |
Port | 8281 |
Protocol | HTTPS |
Pool Members | vRealize Orchestrator node1, vRealize Orchestrator node2 |
Persistence | None |
Application Type | HTTPS |
LB Algorithm | ROUND-ROBIN |
Health check | Interval: 3s Timeout: 9s Max Retries: 3 Type: HTTPS Expected: 200 Method: GET URL: /vco/api/healthstatus Receive: RUNNING |