vRealize Automation & Orchestration

Beginners Talk(Without VMware knowledge)

Have you ever used a computer at your workplace and wondered where it actually comes from? Who is responsible for its setup? How does it come pre-installed with the necessary software?

Behind the scenes, there exists a dedicated team that ensures this process runs smoothly—configuring computers, installing software, connecting devices to the company’s network, and maintaining overall functionality. 

Even for this, you had to wait days for IT to set it up? Maybe you had to fill out a form, send an email, follow up… and then wait some more?

What if I told you there’s a way to skip all that and just click a button and—boom—your machine is ready in minutes and got exactly what you need—automatically? No waiting, no back-and-forth, no confusion.

This is where automation plays a critical role. . Automation refers to the process of delegating tasks to a computer, allowing it to perform functions automatically, so people don’t have to repeat the same boring steps over and over again.

Two tools that facilitate this process are vRealize Automation (vRA) and vRealize Orchestrator (vRO). Don’t worry about the technical names for now—just think of them as smart helpers that make IT work faster, easier, and with fewer mistakes.

In this blog, I will explain what these tools are, how they help, and why they are useful—even if you’ve never worked with Virtual Machines, the cloud, or VMware before. I’ll keep it simple and provide real-world examples to make everything clear.

Beginners Talks(with VMware knowledge)

If you’re managing a vCenter environment(s) and spending too much time by doing things like provisioning VMs, adding them to the domain, setting up DNS entries, configuring backups, or integrating with third-party tools—manually…

You’re not alone. Many organizations are in the same boat(facing same challenges).

Everything works, sure, but it’s a lot of clicking, scripting, tracking, and hoping nothing gets missed. It eats up your time and makes your setup harder to scale.

While these processes may function adequately, they typically require considerable manual effort, including extensive clicking, scripting, and tracking, with a reliance on the hope that no critical steps are overlooked. Such practices can be time-consuming and complicate the scalability of the infrastructure.

That’s where vRealize Automation (vRA) and vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) come in. These tools don’t replace your vCenter instead, they work with it. They sit on top of what you already have and help automate the tasks you’re currently handling manually.

Imagine this:

Need a new VM? Click a button—vRA builds it.

Need it added to the domain? Done Automatically.

DNS and backup integration? Done automatically.

Approvals, tickets, custom workflows? All baked in.

Sounds good, right? You don’t have to fully commit to “cloud” solutions to make this happen. This blog is all about how you can start small, right from your existing setup, and start automating without overhauling everything.

Step-by-Step Basics Before vRA and vRO

☁️ What is Virtualization?

In technical terms, Virtualization is the process of abstracting physical hardware—such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking—to create multiple isolated virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical host. This is managed by a hypervisor, which allocates resources and ensures each VM operates independently from the others. This approach enhances efficiency and scalability.

Sounds pretty complex, right? Let’s break it down into simpler terms.

Virtualization is like creating a virtual version of a computer or server. Instead of using multiple physical machines, you can run several virtual machines (VMs) on just one. Each VM behaves like its own computer, but they all share the same physical hardware. This saves money, makes things more efficient, and helps businesses scale faster.

💻 So, What is VMware?

VMware stands as a global leader in the domains of cloud computing and virtualization technology, offering tools that facilitate the virtualization process. Its software solutions empower organizations to establish virtual environments by enabling the operation of multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server.

This strategy allows businesses to optimize their hardware resources, enhance operational efficiency, and simplify management processes.

Renowned products such as vSphere and vCenter provide enterprises with the capabilities to effectively manage, monitor, and scale their IT infrastructure. Furthermore, these products support critical functionalities, including cloud computing, networking, and storage.

☁️ What is “the Cloud”?

“The cloud” sounds fancy, but it just means someone else’s computer in a data center that you can use over the internet.

Services like Google Drive, Microsoft 365, or Netflix? All cloud-based. You’re using computing power and storage that lives somewhere else—you just access it remotely.

Many companies run their own “private cloud” using tools like VMware. That means they use virtualization and automation in their own data centers, instead of depending on big public clouds like AWS or Azure.

🤔 Why Do Companies Use Virtualization and Cloud?

Without virtualization, you’d need one physical server for each app or service. That’s expensive and hard to manage.

Virtualization helps run more things on less hardware. And cloud-style tools help deliver services faster, more reliably, and with less manual work.

That’s where tools like vRA and vRO come in—but we’ll get to that next. Now that you know the basics, you’ll see how automation fits right into this picture.

🚀 What is vRA (vRealize Automation)?

vRealize Automation, or vRA, is a tool from VMware that helps you automate the process of creating and managing virtual machines (VMs) and other IT resources.

Think of vRA like an IT vending machine. Instead of sending an email to the IT team asking for a new server, you just log in to a portal, choose what you need (like a Windows server with specific software), and click a button.

Behind the scenes, vRA talks to vCenter (which manages your virtual machines) and automatically does all the work—creating the VM, setting it up, and even connecting it to the right network or backup system.

It saves time, reduces mistakes, and makes IT feel faster and easier for everyone.

🔧 What is vRO (vRealize Orchestrator)?

vRealize Orchestrator, or vRO, is like the brain behind vRA. It’s a tool that lets you build workflows—which are step-by-step instructions that the system follows automatically.

Welcome to Aria Automation

Getting Started

Many organizations today utilize VMware vSphere to power their private cloud infrastructure. This platform is recognized for its robustness and its extensive array of features and capabilities tailored for enterprise needs.

At the same time, numerous organizations are enthusiastically embracing public cloud environments, unlocking new opportunities and efficiencies.

VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) is part of the vRealize Cloud Suite, providing a platform for automating infrastructure tasks to improve productivity and agility beyond VMware vSphere into public cloud services. It automates manual administrative processes, influencing business practices towards automation in infrastructure provisioning. Organizations can use vRealize Automation to create workflows that deliver a public cloud-like experience for provisioning environments and resources.

VMware vRealize Automation has been rebranded as VMware Aria Automation. This transformation is part of a comprehensive rebranding initiative concerning the VMware vRealize suite, which is now designated as the VMware Aria Suite. Furthermore, VMware Cloud Foundation Automation was formerly known as VMware Aria Automation.

Key Components of VMware vRealize Automation

vRealize Automation consists of four main components:

1. Assembler
2. Orchestrator
3. Pipelines
4. Service Broker

VMware Aria Automation Assembler enables the creation and deployment of machines, applications, and services in your cloud infrastructure. As a cloud administrator, you can configure cloud vendor infrastructure, set up projects linking users to resources, and delegate management tasks to project managers. As a template developer, you can create and refine templates, deploy them based on project membership, and manage resources throughout their lifecycle.

VMware Aria Automation Pipelines offers CI/CD capabilities for deploying legacy applications and containerized applications across multiple clouds. You can automate the DevOps lifecycle, utilizing tools like Git and Jenkins, to improve the efficiency of building, testing, and deploying applications.

VMware Aria Automation Service Broker centralizes the request and management of catalog items. As an administrator, you can create catalog items from Automation Assembler and Orchestrator workflows(expose as catalog) for user deployment. Users can request, monitor, and manage these items throughout their lifecycle.

Automation Orchestrator is a platform for developing and automating processes, providing a library of workflows. It automates management tasks for VMware and third-party applications, including service desks and asset management systems.