As a huge fan of Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) I was really excited to learn there is a SPBM plugin for vRA that brings vSphere VM Storage policies to the vRealize Automation service catalog. Oh the possibilities….
Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) is the foundation of the VMware SDS Control Plane and enables vSphere administrators to over come upfront storage provisioning challenges, such as capacity planning, differentiated service levels and managing capacity headroom, whether using vSAN or Virtual Volumes (vVols) on external storage arrays. SPBM provides a single unified control plane across a broad range of data services and storage solutions. The framework helps to align storage with application demands of your virtual machines.
VMware vRealize™ Automation™ empowers IT to accelerate the delivery and ongoing management of personalized, business-relevant infrastructure, application or almost any IT service. Standardized service blueprints combined with automated delivery assures consistency and reliability of the delivered resources. Policy-based governance and logical application modeling assures that multivendor, multi-cloud services are delivered at the right size and service level for the task and that needs to be performed. Full lifecycle management allows infrastructure and applications are maintained at peak operating efficiency. vRealize Automation turns IT into business enablers.
Integrating SPBM into vRealize Automation
VMware recently released a plugin that integrates SPBM into vRealize Automation. This integration enables VM-granular control based on the Storage policy based management framework. The plugin exposes vSphere VM Storage policies to the vRealize Automation service catalog allowing the ability to dynamically assign individual VM storage policies to virtual disks based on their storage requirements characteristics (performance, availability, security, etc).
SPBM Plugin for vRA
There are two versions of the SPBM plugin for vRA. Be sure to check out the VMware Solution Exchange for details.
- vRealize Automation and SPBM Integration Solution 1.0.0 This is the history version 1.0.0 of vRealize Automation and SPBM integration solution. It is suitable for vRealize Automation 6.x.
- vRealize Automation and SPBM Integration Solution 2.0.0 This is the history version 2.0.0 of vRealize Automation and SPBM integration solution. It is suitable for vRealize Automation 7.0.x.
For detailed information on installing and configuring the vRealize Automation and SPBM plugin be sure to check out the Installation and Configuration Guide.
Use Cases
A few examples of using the SPBM plugin for vRA are:
- Applying a SPBM policy when provisioning a VM in vRealize Automation. The policy will be set after VM’s been created.
- Applying different policies to VM disks and VM home when provisioning a VM in vRealize Automation.
- Changing storage policies of existing VM in vRealize Automation. The policies will be changed. VM disks and VM home will be migrated by demands.
- Migrating a VM to different vCenter based on a storage policy change in vRealize Automation.
The following video demonstrates how you can migrate a VM to a different vCenter based on a storage policy change in vRealize Automation. The VM will be moved to the destination vCenter and applied the specified storage policy to both VM disks and VM home.
Integrating SPBM into vRealize Automation is really exciting because it means as an administrator I have one set of policies ruling my underlying storage (vSAN or vVols) as well as my cloud management solution. Simple, just the way it should be.
