VMware has released the new version of vRealize Automation. In this version they have made the installation much easier, and have integrated Applications Services.

This is what's in this release:

Streamlined and Automated Wizard-based Installation

• Introduced using the management agent to automate the installation of Windows components and to collect logs
• Automates the deployment of all vRealize Automation components
• Installation wizard based on deployment needs: Minimal (Express) and Enterprise (Distributed and High Availability) Installations

Simplified Deployment Architecture and High Availability Configuration

• Embedded authentication service by using VMware Identity Manager
• Converged Application Services in vRealize Automation Appliance
• Reduced minimal number of appliances for HA configuration
• Automated embedded PostgreSQL clustering with manual failover
• Automated embedded vRealize Orchestrator clustering

Enhanced Authentication Service

• Integrated user interface providing a common look and feel
  
• Enabled multiple features by new authentication service:
  
  • Support native Active Directory for all tenants
    
  • Multiple domains to single tenant
    
  • Single domain to multiple tenants
    
  • Full branding capabilities
    
  • Third-party SAML token support
    
  • Smart card support
    
  • Multi-factor authentication
    
  • Login auditing
    
  • Major scalability improvements
    
  • High availability support
    

Simplified Blueprint Authoring for Infrastructure and Applications

• Unified graphical canvas for designing machine and application blueprint with dependencies and network topology
  
• Software component (formerly software service in Application Services) authoring on vSphere, vCloud Air, vCloud Director, and Amazon AWS endpoints
  
• Extend or define external integrations in the canvas by using XaaS (formerly Advanced Service Design)
  
• Enable team collaboration and role segregation by enhancing and introducing fine-grain roles
  
• Single unified model for both machine and application blueprints:
  
  • Blueprint as code and human-readable
    
  • Create in editor of choice and stored in source control
    
  • Import and export in the same or multiple vRealize Automation 7.0 instances
    
• Customer-requested machine and application blueprints provided
  
• Additional blueprints available on the VMware Solutions Exchange
  

Simplified and Enhanced NSX Support for Blueprint Authoring and Deployment

• Dynamically configure NSX Network and micro-segmentation unique for each application
• Automated connectivity to existing or on-demand networks
• Micro-segmentation for application stack isolation
• Automated security policy enforcement by using NSX security policies, groups, and tags
• On-demand dedicated NSX load balancer

Simplified vRealize Automation REST API

• Simplified schema for API requests by switching to normal JSON model
• Follow-on request URIs and templates exposed as links in response bodies (HATEOAS)
• New APIs to support business group and reservation management
• Improved documentation and samples

Enhanced Cloud Support for vCloud Air and AWS

• Software component authoring for vCloud Air, vCloud Director, and Amazon AWS
  
• Simplified blueprint authoring for vCloud Air and vCloud Director
  
• Improved vCloud Air endpoint configuration:
  
  • First class endpoint with URL: https://vca.vmware.com
    
  • Single endpoint for all resources under the same account (subscription or on-demand)
    
  • Optional proxy configuration
    

Enhanced Management for Tenant, Business Group, Approval, and Entitlements

• Multi-tenancy support for custom property and property group (formerly build profiles)
• Business group managers can add managers, support roles, or users to their groups
• Assign approvals to software and machine components, which will be assessed when the catalog item is requested
• Dynamically assign approvals to the manager of the user
• Deletion of inactive approvals
• Entitlements can be more specific on catalog item and their actions

Event-Based Extensibility Provided by Event Broker

• Use vRealize Orchestrator workflows to subscribe any events triggered by any of the following events:
  
  • IaaS life cycle state and entity changes
    
  • Business groups management operations
    
  • Approval policy and pre- or post-approval actions
    
  • Blueprint operations
    
  • Other system operations
    
• Support custom events
  
• Support blocking and non-blocking subscriptions
  
• Provide administrative user interface for extensibility configurations
  
• Obsolete .NET based lifecycle callouts and provide upgrade proof extensibility and configurations
  

New CloudClient

• Content management (import and export blueprints between instances or tenants in vRealize Automation 7.0)
• Existing functionality updated for vRealize Automation 7.0 APIs

Enhanced Integration with vRealize Business

• Unified location in vRealize Business to define flexible pricing policies for:
  
  • Infrastructure resource, machine, and application blueprints
    
  • All type of endpoints in vRealize Automation
    
  • Any operational cost, one time cost and cost on custom properties
    
• Role-based showback reports in vRealize Business
  
• Fully leverage new features in vRealize Business
  

vRealize Orchestrator 7 New Features

• Introduce vRealize Orchestrator Control Center for easy monitoring and troubleshooting
  
  • Centralized Server administration and easy cluster setup
    
  • Workflow troubleshooting and enhanced log monitoring
    
• Significant Smart Client improvements including Workflow tagging UI, Client reconnect options and enhanced search capabilities
  
• vSphere 6.X vAPI endpoint support providing graphical debugging of plug-ins and embedded Code development support
  

Other Improvements

• Customizable columns in the table for a given type of custom resource defined in XaaS
• Accept a mix of license input, including vRealize Suite, vCloud Suite, and vRealize Automation Standalone
• Improved stability, quality, and performance