Adding the vCenter server to BMC Server Automation
The following sections provide instructions for adding a VMware vSphere environment to BMC Server Automation:
Before you begin
Ensure that your environment meets the following requirements.
System requirements
Note
The following list of VMware vCenter and vSphere supported versions applies to BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management 4.x and BMC Server Automation 8.5.x. But even though BMC does not automatically certify newer versions of vCenter and vSphere, BMC does support customers running these newer versions as long as backward-compatibility is guaranteed. For more information, review Component BMC product service pack and patch levels.
To employ BMC Server Automation in a VMware vSphere virtual environment, your environment must have the following minimum configuration:
- VMware vSphere Web Services SDK
- VMware tools must be installed on all VMware templates. These tools are used to apply configuration settings to new guest VMs as a part of the provisioning process.
- If you are provisioning Windows Server 2003 machines and want to let the Virtual Center perform sysprep activities, copy sysprep to the Virtual Center server. This is not required for Windows 2008, as the Windows 2008 operating system already includes sysprep.
- The version of the BMC Server Automation RSCD agent installed on the vCenter server or AMO proxy must match the version of the Application Server.
The following VMware versions are supported:
- ESX Host - Supports versions 3.5, 4.0, 4i, 4.1, 4.1i, 5.0i, 5.1i, 5.5i
- vCenter Server - Supports vSphere versions 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5
For more information, see Supported platforms for version 8.6.
Access and privileges
The following sections note the access and privilege requirements for implementing BMC Server Automation in a VMware environment:
Application Server access
The Application Server requires access to the web service on the target (the vCenter server).
Required agent privileges
Required vCenter user privileges
Type of privilege | VMware Resource Privilege Name |
|---|---|
Datastore |
|
| Datastore cluster |
|
Distributed Virtual Switch |
|
| dvPort Group |
|
Host Local Operations |
|
Network |
|
Resource |
The following permissions are required for deploying the VM directly on the Cluster and Host
|
Virtual Machine Configuration | Select all of the privileges for this category. |
Virtual Machine Interaction |
|
Virtual Machine Inventory |
You can create a virtual machine support in:
|
Virtual Machine Provisioning |
|
Virtual Machine State |
|
To add the vCenter server to BMC Server Automation
To set up a VMware environment for management by BMC Server Automation, you can choose between two methods for adding a vCenter server:
- Add a vCenter server as an agent-based managed server. See Adding and configuring an agent-based vCenter server.
- Add a vCenter server as an agentless managed object (AMO) that communicates with some other agent-based Windows proxy server. This method provides support for the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance), or cases where you cannot install the RSCD on the vCenter server. See Adding and configuring a vCenter AMO.
Related BMC Communites videos
The following BMC Communities video series describes the changes required when you replace a VMware vCenter server. This video (Part 2) discusses how to update the associated cloud classes. Part 1 discusses BMC Server Automation configuration.
Changes Required When Replacing a vCenter Server (Part 1) (5:22): https://youtu.be/6JyHqDqdScI
Changes Required When Replacing a vCenter Server (Part 2) (4:43): https://youtu.be/XGMh3QSz2ys
Related BMC Communities blog entry
The following link provides supplemental information available from a blog entry in BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management Communities:
The Pulse: Configurations when switching to new vCenter server
This blog entry provides information to help you configure your existing BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management stack when you introduce a new vCenter server while keeping the naming convention, for Clusters and Data-stores the same.
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