Important Notes

vRA 7.3 Notice

If using vRA 7.3.0, please upgrade to VMware’s vRA 7.3.1.

  • If on vRA 7.3.0, please login to the vRA Appliance and verify Appliance Version is 7.3.0.537 Build. If not on the 7.3.0.537 Build, please upgrade to vRA 7.3.1.  If on the 7.3.0.537 Build, the VMware vRA Hotfix has been applied that is required for SovLabs.

VMware fixed an issue with form field validations that affects all of SovLabs’ provided XaaS forms.  VMware also fixed a vRA 7.3.0 vRO CAFE bug related to VMware vRA plug-in for vRO.

 

vRA 7.4 Notice

The minimum SovLabs plug-in version compatible for VMware’s vRA 7.4 is 2018.1.4.

 

vRA 7.5 Notice

The minimum SovLabs plug-in version compatible for VMware’s vRA 7.5 is 2018.2.6.

 

*Customers currently on a previous version of the SovLabs Plug-in (e.g. 2018.x, 2017.x)

A new SovLabs 2019.x license key is needed in order to use the SovLabs 2019.x Plug-in.  

If you are interested in upgrading to 2019.x, please GO HERE to request the new SovLabs 2019.x key.

 

SovLabs Documentation

New Install

Prior to performing a new install, please complete all of the pre-requisites via: docs.sovlabs.com – Getting Started

 

Upgrade

Please follow our Upgrade steps when performing an upgrade of our SovLabs Plug-in

 

What’s New?

  • SovLabs Licenses
    • A new SovLabs 2019.x license key is needed in order to use the SovLabs 2019.x Plug-in
    • ServiceNow Connector
      • ServiceNow Connector will need a 2018.x license key
  • SovLabs Plug-in
    • Added in SovLabs Plug-in Version in the SovLabs Plug-in VMOAPP filename
    • Reduced SovLabs Plug-in file size to approximately 30mb with internal improvements
  • SovLabs Backup as a Service for Cohesity
    • Added supported versions for 5.0.2, 6.0.1 and 6.1.1
    • Instant Backup – new Day2 operation available starting in versions 6+
  • SovLabs ServiceNow CMDB and SovLabs ServiceNow Connector
    • Added supported version for ServiceNow London
  • SovLabs Notification default image links have been updated!
    • For any customers using SovLabs images in the SovLabs Notification module and experiencing broken image links, please click on Add Notification Configuration and select the appropriate type.  Copy the default Body and update existing Notification Configurations accordingly.
  • F5
    • Added supported version for F5 BIG-IP 14.1

Resolved Issues

  • Ansible Tower (hotfix 2018.3.5)
    • Fixed vRA Property Translation field override not being honored for Ansible Tower Static Inventory
    • Fixed machineProvisioned lifecycle timeout to honor 2hr max per Ansible Job running.  Previously, the pending jobs were counted as part of the max 2hr timeout.
  • BlueCat IPAM (hotfix 2018.3.6)
    • Allowed for enabling an Advanced Setting on the BlueCat Endpoint to disable logout when concurrent calls are made to BlueCat’s API that would cause deployments to fail
    • Advanced Settings, new entry: “DisableLogout” set to “true“, without quotes
  • IPAM machineBuilding (hotfix 2018.3.6)
    • Enable locking for SovLabs IPAM machineBuilding workflows by setting a vRA Property: SovLabs_IPAMEnableLocking set to true
  • Licensing
    • During SovLabs Configuration > Upgrade or adding of a new license, implemented logic to only publish SovLabs vRA Content for unique modules across all SovLabs license keys that exist
  • Property Toolkit
    • Fixed Property Toolkit data collection failing if the Property Group Custom Properties returned a null, instead of empty string
    • Fixed Property Toolkit data collection failing if the Property Group Custom Properties returned a null for the Encrypted? field instead of true/false
    • Fixed Property Toolkit data collection failing if the Business Group’s groupName (e.g. Tenant Name) had mismatched letter casing from the tenant name
  • Puppet Enterprise / Puppet Open Source with Foreman
    • Added pre-check before running any Puppet scripts to verify that the “Environment” field is not empty and if using the SovLabs Template Engine, that the Environment renders to a value and is not empty.  If the Environment field is empty during provisioning, will error quickly and log the error.
  • ServiceNow CMDB
    • Fixed issue with Add/Update ServiceNow CMDB Configuration form failing to load if a ServiceNow Endpoint is not selected and attempting to get Import Sets
  • SovLabs IPAM Framework
    • For NSX Edge scenarios, fixed NSX Load Balances not removing from Infoblox during de-provisioning
  • All SovLabs Configurations/Profiles that created a vRA Property Group
    • Updated a benign error message that occurred when deleting the SovLabs Item by changing it to perform a System.warn and continue.

 

Known Issues

Type
Known Issue + Workaround
All
Failed to get latest version of the resource element {{ name }}
Version inconsistency between cache and db detected in repo for _______ cached version 0.0.__ db version 0.0.___

Workaround: If the issue occurs consistently, please notify SovLabs immediately.  This will be resolved in the upcoming GA release of the SovLabs Plug-in, expected May 2019.
vRA/vRO Clustering for vRA 7.3 and vRA 7.4
vRA does not consistently persist XaaS items to inventory (independent of SovLabs) even though the vRO workflow related to item creation completes successfully.

Workaround: None.  SovLabs is pursuing this issue with VMware GSS at the highest priority.
SovLabs KB Article 6000197373
Custom Naming
Unable to rename deployments in vRA 7.x due to vRA Platform limitation.

The deployment name defaults to the blueprint name appended by a dash and an auto-generated 8-digit number (e.g. blueprintName-12345678)

Workaround: The deployment name can be influenced by adding a vRA Custom Property at the composite blueprint level (versus at the machine component in the blueprint) with:

  • Name: _deploymentName
  • Value: Unique value utilizing the SovLabs Template Engine

*Note: Using the same property value will result in deployments with the same name
Manage Credentials for Puppet Open Source with Foreman
Unable to update a credential that is tied to Puppet Open Source with Foreman

Workaround: Update the Foreman Master or Foreman Agent and create a new credential directly inline and submit.
F5
Issue: A nested vRA blueprint with the F5 virtual component in the child vRA blueprint that defines the value for Pool Health Monitors field fails with a: Status Code 400 ‘The value for the ‘poolHealthMonitors’ field should be among the permitted value’ for vRA 7.2.  This issue does not occur for vRA 7.3 nor for a single (non-nested) blueprint.

Workaround: Do not define (pin) the value for Pool Health Monitors (or any field that is Array/String) on the F5 Virtual component in the child blueprint for a nested blueprint.

vRA 7.4, 2018.1.4
During provisioning for vRA 7.4, vRO server.log will log errors when the SovLabs RESTipe executes a vRO workflow. The error logs are benign and can be ignored. vRO workflows are executed successfully via SovLabs RESTipes.

Issue: When defining multiple F5 virtual components and different VIPs are tied to use the same Pool Name (often when manually defining the Pool Name), the VIPs and the Pool is not removed from F5 when destroying the deployment even though the Pool is empty.

Workaround: Please try to keep a 1:1 relationship between a VIP and Pool.  A circular dependency exists when trying to remove the VIPs tied to the same Pool and proper disposal cannot take place.
Notifications
Updating a Notification Configuration’s Configuration label will create a duplicate vRO Inventory item with the previous name.  Not allowing the customer to create another Notification Configuration with the previous name.

Temporary Workaround: Please run the vRO Workflow: SovLabs > Notifications > vRA ASD > Notification > Delete Notification Configuration and choose the Notification Configuration with the previous name to delete.
vSphere Snapshot Management
If using vSphere Snapshot Management with any of the Backup as a Service modules (Cohesity, Rubrik, Veeam) may result in an email notification of a Backup as a Service snapshot.

If the Backup as a Service snapshot lives beyond deletion time set in Snapshot Configuration, will get deleted.
Property Toolkit
Day2 on vRA VM “Manage Properties (SovLabs Property Toolkit) does not have a correct reflection of the fields: Hidden, Encrypted, Show in Request for a Property when the Action field is Update Existing Property.

Workaround: Please check the checkbox during an Update of a Property on a VM for any of the applicable fields: Hidden, Encrypted, Show in Request and then Submit.

Property Toolkit vRA Catalog Item: Entity Property Assignment and Reporting has an issue when creating a new vRA Blueprint Custom Property and setting it to “Overridable = false” will create the vRA Blueprint Custom Property as “Overridable = true”
Workaround: Please manually set “Overridable = false” on the vRA Blueprint

Property Toolkit dynamically setting an Encrypted property via “SVL_” vRA Property Group will error out.
Workaround: Please set the Encrypted property on an appropriate vRA Entity.  Currently, unable to set Encrypted properties dynamically on the machine.
Puppet Open Source with Foreman (starting from release 2018.2.4)
The Host Parameters field is optional.  When no Host Parameters are defined, an error stack trace for null pointer exception is in the vRO logs.

Workaround: None, the error stack trace is benign.  The provisioning succeeds and the machine is added correctly into Foreman.

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