Now since we configured the backend of the environment, it is time to deploy something.
The vCenter I have configured in this environment has currently two virtual machine templates
I will create a blueprint based on one of the templates and then I will deploy one and see if it works 🙂
Navigate to Design > Blueprints
Click New
Give that blueprint a name. As mentioned, I am not using NSX in this environment (yet), so all I need is a name, description and lease.
Welcome to the new Drag-n-Drop canvas
From the left hand side, drag a 
onto the canvas
Give it a name, description, select the newly created Reservation Policy (if applicable) and machine prefix
Navigate to the tab Build Information
Change the Action to Clone and select a template. If you got a customization spec in vCenter – you can add it here
Move over to Machine Resources.
Select minimum and maximum possible resources when deploying this VM
Under Storage add any additional disks if needed
Move over to the network tab and realize I forgot to add a network to the canvas 🙂
Navigate to Network & Security and drag Existing Network onto the canvas
Under Existing Network, select the newly configured network profile
If your network is handled externally, this isn’t needed, but I did configure a pool and want vRA to handle my IP assignments
Click OK
You can also check the details under the tabs DNS/WINS and IP Ranges
Now minimize the network config
and click your VM blueprint again (you may need to maximize the settings pane again)
Under Network – select the newly created network. Here I will be using Static IP. This will assign an IP from the vRA pool.
That is a simple Blueprint done
Click Finish
Click the blueprint you just created and click 
Now I will create a service called Windows – effectively a ‘folder’ of blueprints.
First – Navigate to Administration > Catalog Management
Click Services > New
Give it a name, set it to active, and even upload an icon if you wish
Click OK
Now navigate to Catalog Items
Click your newly created Blueprint
Change the icon (that is the icon of the blueprint, rather than the service – or ‘folder)
Select the newly created Service and ensure it is set to Active
Click Finish
Now move to the side tab Entitlements
Click New
Give the entitlement a name, set the status to Active and select the newly created Business Group
Then add users / groups who should be able to work with this entitlement
Click Next
Now add
- Newly created Service
- Newly created Blueprint
- Day 2 Permissions
- Power on
- Power off
- Shutdown
- etc.
Click Finish
Now log off and log in again with a user who was part of the group specified in the entitlements
Here I logged in with a simple user without any admin permissions
Navigate to the Catalog and you should see your new item you just created
Click Request
Give it a description (optional) and reason (optional) – this is mainly when approval policies are in place (which there aren’t … yet)
Also enter the amount of VMs to be deployed from this template
Click Submit
Under Requests you are now able to watch the progress
When you check your vCenter client you will notice that the deployment eventually kicks off
Note the configured prefix in the name 😉
As admin you can now see that an IP has been allocated to the VM
After watching some progress bars, the deployment should eventually finish
You can also see in vCenter that the VM has been deployed and is automatically being customized
You can also see that the IP reserved in vRA, is now assigned to the VM
From within you can then work with the VM, including opening an RDP connection etc.
That’s it – your first IaaS Blueprint 🙂