Azure has been available since vRA 7.2 release with OOTB support for building, delivering and lifecycle management of Azure-based workloads. Some features to take note of:

• Adds native Azure support for hybrid cloud and provisioning use cases
• First Endpoint to be built on top of extensibility platform (XaaS vs .NET)
• Incorporate key vRA functionality, such as approvals, extensibility, and CBP
• Azure services built in CBP, provides config granularity per component
• Supports Azure Networking (subnets, load balancers)
• OTB Day2 lifecycle operations include start, stop, restart, delete
• Leverages new Azure vRO plugin (included OOTB)

As mentioned in bullet point 2 the Azure endpoint is not configured from the traditional Infrastructure tab location because it is not managed by the IaaS engine of vRA but presented via vRO and XaaS.

So how do get this all of this to install and configured?  Let’s start with vRA.

Azure installation steps for vRA 7.2 with external vRO

When using an external vRealize Orchestrator server with vRealize Automation, Microsoft Azure integration is not available so in order to make that work we need to export the Azure plug-in from the internal vRO, that resides on your vRA server, and then import the plugin to the external vRO server.  It sound complicate but not that bad.

• Log in to the vRO Control Center for the internal vRealize Orchestrator on your vRealize Automation virtual appliance.
  • The services will probably not be started so SSH with root to the vRA appliance and run  #service vco-configurator start
  • https://vra-va-hostname.domain.name:8283/vco-controlcenter
• Under Plug-Ins -> click Manage Plug-Ins.
• Find the Azure plug-in
  • Right-click Download plug-in in DAR file.
  • Save the file to your desktop.
• Log in to the vRO Control Center for your external vRealize Orchestrator.
  • Follow same steps as in step 1, except point http address to external vRO server.
• Under Plug-Ins -> click Manage Plug-Ins.
• Under Install plug-in -> click Browse
  • Point to DAR file downloaded from internal vRO
• Click Install.
  • If prompted to confirm
  • Click Install again.
• In the Control Center under Startup-Options, click Restart to finish installing the new plugin.
• Reboot all your vRealize Automation virtual appliances at the same time.
  Microsoft Azure integration functionality should be restored.

Verify Azure plugin:  (Remember this will not be under your regular Infrastructure endpoint)

1. Login to vRA.
2. Administration -> vRO configuration -> Endpoints
3. Select New
4. Open Plug-in drop down box
5. Verify that you can see “Azure”
6. 
7. Good to go!

If the integration does not function properly after the reboot, verify that the Azure package, com.vmware.vra.endpoint.azure, is present in the external vRO. If the Azure package is not present, complete these steps.

1. Log in to your internal vRO client on your vRA virtual appliance.
2. Export the Azure package, com.vmware.vra.endpoint.azure. For instructions, see, Export a Package.
3. Log in to the vRO client for your external vRO.
4. Import the Azure package, com.vmware.vra.endpoint.azure, to your external vRO. For instructions, see Import a Package.

Create Azure Endpoint:

1. Login to vRA.
2. Administration -> vRO configuration -> Endpoints
3. Click New
4. Select Azure from Plug-in drop down box
5. Click Next
6. Give the Endpoint a name
7. Click Next
   1. If you get an error “Service Workflow cannot be found”, then make sure the package is present with steps provide above.
8. Fill in the detail settings
   1. You need to Azure Subscription ID, Tenant ID, Client ID as well as client secret.
   2. This information is available under https://account.windowsazure.com/Subscriptions

Before continuing with vRA configuration you have to prep your Azure environment, which is out of scope for this article, and make sure have the following information available:

1. Subscription ID
2. Tenant ID
3. Resource Group name
4. Storage account name
5. Location
6. Virtual Network name
7. Client application ID
8. Client application secret key
9. Virtual Machine image URN

Create Azure resource reservation:

1. Administration -> Users and Groups -< Business Groups
   1. Create Business Group if required or use existing
2. Infrastructure -> Reservations -> Reservations
   1. Create Reservation
   2. Provide Name
   3. Select Business Group
   4. Optionally set Reservation Policy
   5. Set priority
   6. Very check on Enabled
   7. Click Next
      1. Enter Subscription ID
      2. Set Location
      3. Click New on Resource Group
      4. Enter Resource group name
      5. Click New on Storage Accounts
      6. Enter Storage account name
   8. Click Next
      1. Click New on Networks
      2. Enter Network name
      3. If required enter the name for the Load Balancers and Security Groups as well.
   9. Set alerts
   10. Finish

Create Azure Blueprint:

1. Design -> BluePrint
2. Create new
3. Under machine types categories select Azure Machine
4. Drag it to design canvas
5. Select Azure Machine
   1. Set ID
   2. Under Build information tab
      1. Set Location
      2. 
      3. Set Naming Prefix
         1. This can be based on Business group default or Custom
         2. Windows computer name cannot be more than 15 characters long, be entirely numeric, or contain the following characters: ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) = + _ [ ] { } \ | ; : . ‘ ” , < > / ?
      4. Set Image type
      5. Enter Virtual Machine image name
      6. Set Authentication with username and password
         1. Cannot use the username “admin”, yes I tried that first.
         2. Password requires a minimum of 12 characters
      7. Set Instance size
         1. Set series
         2. Set size
      8. 
   3. Under Machine resources tab
      1. Set Resources group by either creating a new or use an existing.
         1. Enter existing resource group name
      2. Set availability set
      3. 
   4. Under Storage tab
      1. Set storage account name, if nothing is set the storage account will be picked from reservation.
      2. 
   5. Under network tab
      1. Enter load balancer name
      2. Set IP address type
         1. I have Dynamic selected
      3. Set networking configuration
         1. I have specify Azure network selected
         2. Optionally, can fill out rest of network names
      4. 

In part 2 I will discuss adding Microsoft Azure to vRealize Business for Cloud