Book excerpt: Learn the fundamentals of vRealize Automation to accelerate the delivery of your IT services About This Book Learn to install the vRealize Automation product in a distributed architecture using a load balancer Plan backup and recovery strategies for every vRealize automation component Use vRealize Automation to manage applications and improve operational efficiency using this simple and intuitive guide Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to start their journey with vRealize Automation. It is your one-stop instruction guide to installing and configuring a distributed setup using NSX load balancer. Regardless of whether or not you have used vRealize Automation before, following the steps provided in each chapter will get you started with the product. What You Will Learn Understand the basic building blocks of vRealize Automation before embarking on the journey of installation Familiarize yourself with the requirements and steps that need to be performed during the first phase of the distributed installation Carry out a functional validation of the first phase of installation before completing the installation Build a blueprint for vSphere endpoint, an essential step for a successful deployment of a service catalog Create, configure, and deploy tenants, endpoints, blueprints, and the service catalog Get to grips with the failover process for all components in vRealize Automation Learn to configure the NSX loadbalancer for vRealize Orchestrator for high availability Leverage ASD to develop XaaS (Anything as a Service) in vRealize Automation to deliver valuable competence In Detail With the growing interest in Software Defined Data Centers (SDDC), vRealize Automation offers data center users an organized service catalog and governance for administrators. This way, end users gain autonomy while the IT department stays in control, making sure security and compliance requirements are met. Learning what each component does and how they dovetail with each other will bolster your understanding of vRealize Automation. The book starts off with an introduction to the distributed architecture that has been tested and installed in large scale deployments. Implementing and configuring distributed architecture with custom certificates is unarguably a demanding task, and it will be covered next. After this, we will progress with the installation. A vRealize Automation blueprint can be prepared in multiple ways; we will focus solely on vSphere endpoint blueprint. After this, we will discuss the high availability configuration via NSX loadbalancer for vRealize Orchestrator. Finally, we end with Advanced Service Designer, which provides service architects with the ability to create advanced services and publish them as catalog items. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach, is explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style, and includes ample screenshots . Each topic is explained sequentially through planning, preparing, installing, configuring, and validating of all vRealize Automation's components.