Usage

Update vRA Reservations

Before configuring the SovLabs DNS module, you first need to configure a way to get an IP address. This would either be from an IPAM or from a vRA Network Profile.

If you have not yet set up the SovLabs IPAM module to reserve IPV4 addresses in your IPAM, you should do so before configuring the DNS module. If you are not planning to implement the SovLabs IPAM module yet, you will need to configure vRA network profile to provide an IP address.

Network Profiles are found in vRA here:

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Infrastructure tab > Reservations > Reservations
  3. Hover over the reservation in association with the DNS configured domain and click Edit
    1. Click on the Network tab
    2. Check the appropriate network path and select the appropriate Network Profile from the dropdown
    3. Click OK
The next provisioned VM will automatically attempt to register with DNS only if the VM is in the configured domain and/or network defined for the DNS Configuration

Repeat for all desired vRA Reservations and network profiles.

Advanced

Register Additional DNS Zones

Use this property if you want to register DNS records to additional zones.

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_AdditionalDNSSuffixes
      3. Value field: Type in a comma separated list of DNS suffixes
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Set Additional NIC Suffixes

Use this if you have a multi-homed VM with more than one nic, and you want to customize the suffix given to DNS records registered for the additional nics (nic 1 - nic 9 only)

For example,

nic0 hostname: prodlinweb.domain.com

Set property SovLabs_AdditionalNicSuffix-nic1 to a value of mysuffix to get

Result: nic1 hostname: prodlinweb_mysuffix.domain.com

Steps:

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_AdditionalNicSuffix-nic# where # is a value 1-9
      3. Value field: Type in a NIC suffix
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

You can also put the Custom Property inside your own Property Group for ease of implementation.

Override Additional NIC Hostname(s)

Register additional DNS addressing to a specific NIC for a VM (nic 1 - nic 9 only)

For example;

nic0 hostname: server1.sovlabs.com

nic1 hostname: server123-nic1.sovlabs.com

Considerations

  1. The property SovLabs_AdditionalNicOverrideHostname-nic# (where # is 1-9) does NOT perform any validation checks against these DNS configuration to determine if the hostname already exists. Please be sure that the name selected is not already in use or the provision may fail.
  2. The property SovLabs_AdditionalNicOverrideHostname-nic# (where # is 1-9) can be created as Custom Property in the Administration tab (Administration > Property Dictionary > Property Definitions) and selected via the dropdown inside the blueprint for ease-of-use.

Steps:

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_AdditionalNicOverrideHostname-nic# where # is a value 1-9
      3. Value field: Type in the NIC# hostname
      4. Click on the button
      5. Optional: Set the Show in Request option to Yes if value needs to be set differently at build time
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3-4 for all desired blueprints

You can also put the Custom Property inside your own Property Group for ease of implementation.

DNS Validation Customizations

There are several property-driven customizations for the DNS module that can help with some common issues during validation of the created DNS records. By default, the SovLabs DNS module does attempt to validate that the new DNS records are resolvable. This is to ensure that downstream processes that require DNS resolution don’t start until resolution is confirmed.

Set Pre DNS Validation Sleep Seconds

Set the number of seconds to pause before validating DNS entries. This helps if negative caching is causing problems with DNS resoultion.

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_preDnsValidationSleepSeconds
      3. Value field: Type the number of seconds to sleep
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Set DNS Validation Timeout

Set the maximum number of minutes to continue attempts to validate DNS entries before it times out. Make this number larger if it takes longer than the default for records to replicate and start resolving.

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_DNSValidationTimeout
      3. Value field: Type the number
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Skip Validation for PTR Record

Set the option to skip validating DNS PTR Records. If you have a split domain or there’s some other reason why you know reverse DNS will not resolve, this will prevent validation from happening and keep the build from failing. (not a typical case)

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_SkipValidateDnsPtr
      3. Value field: Type in true
        • Note: setting the value to false does not re-enable validating PTR records
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Disable DNS on a per NIC basis

Set the option to disable creation of DNS records for a particular NIC

Use this option for non-routable network interfaces on your VM.

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_DisableDNS_nic# where # is a value 0-9
      3. Value field: Type in true
        • Note: setting the value to false will re-enable DNS for the NIC
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Disable

Unpublish the Event Broker Subscriptions for that integration. (Recommended)

Unpublishing the Event Broker Subscriptions is non-destructive and simple way to disable the SovLabs DNS integration from running for all builds. The EBS will go to “Draft” mode and will not execute until you click “Publish” to publish it again.

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Administration tab -> Events -> Subscriptions
  3. Highlight the Event Broker subscription and click Unpublish

Or, set the SovLabs_DisableDNS custom property to true

Steps:

  1. Login to the vRA tenant
  2. Click on the Design tab > Blueprints
  3. Hover over the desired blueprint name and click Edit
    1. Click on the vSphere machine component on the Blueprint Design Canvas
    2. Click on the Properties tab
    3. In the Custom Properties section:
      1. Click on the New Property button
      2. Name field: Type in SovLabs_DisableDNS
      3. Value field: Type in true
        • Note: setting the value to false does not re-enable SovLabs DNS
      4. Click on the button
    4. Click OK

Repeat Step 3 for all desired blueprints

Instead of setting a property on each Blueprint, you can also set this property more globally by creating the custom property on a vRA endpoint, or a Reservation, or even a Business Group. You can set the SovLabs vRA profile properties on any component in vRA that allows Custom Properties to be created. Just remember to keep track of where you set them!