VCF Automation Network Profiles

VCF Automation Network Profiles are a powerful way to define networks and associated settings to Cloud Accounts and/or Regions. I've recently deployed VCF Automation 8.18.1 (but this also works for VCF Automation 9 VM Apps) and would like to start deploying VMs on an IP Block for testing purposes. Here's how I did it.

I first setup my Cloud Account via Assembler - Infrastructure - Connections - Cloud Accounts. This is your connection to the vCenter you'll be deploying VMs into.

I then configured my Cloud Zone, think of these as a grouping of resources from your Cloud Account (vCenter in this case).

I then configured my Network Profile.

The details look like this.

You'll notice in the MANAGE IP RANGES tab I've defined the IP Block I'd like to use for testing.

Next, over in Assembler - Design we'll instruct our Blueprint to use this IP Block when deploying VMs.

This part instructs the VM to be deployed using an IP from the IP Block configured in your Network Profile. If you'd like this Blueprint you can get it here.

networks:

- network: ${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}

assignment: static

Let's test it.

Click TEST.

Sucessful test, so we'll publish it to the Catalog via VERSION.

Over in Service Broker - Consume - Catalog we now have the Blueprint.

Click REQUEST to deploy a VM using this Blueprint.

Complete the form and click SUBMIT.

Your VM is now being deployed. Clicking on the deployment itself provides more details.

You'll notice the IP being used is from our IP Block. Upon completion it'll look like this.

Over in vCenter you can now see the newly deployed VM with an IP address from the IP Block.

Let's request another VM to confirm it selects a different IP in our configured IP Block.

The deployment details show the next IP in the IP Block being used.

Once completed, over in vCenter you can see our freshly deployed VM with the next IP in the configured IP Block.

This is a great way to use an IP Block for testing purposes, hope it was helpful!