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Configure vRealize Automation to use Platform Services Controller as External Identity Provider

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I was doing some research on an inquiry that I had received from a customer who was interested in configuring their vRealize Automation (vRA) instance to use vCenter's Platform Services Controller (PSC) as an External Identity Provider (IDP) rather than the default VMware Identity Manager (vIDM) which vRA supports natively out of the box. vIDM already supports a large number of websso applications as seen here and it itself can also be used as an External IDP to integrate with things like Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for example.

For some customers who are more familiar with the PSC, this is a convenient way to unify their authentication between the different vRealize products which support vIDM and integrating that directly with PSC. Since both solutions spoke SAML, it was merely figuring out process on setting up the External IDP using the PSC. In reading some of our internal Wikis and working with one of the vIDM Engineers, since I was stuck on a particular step, I was able to finally get this to work which I have outlined the steps below. I also learned that we had officially supported this since vRA 7.0 which was great to hear as well.

I know there are number of customers who would also like to see the reverse of this configuration, where PSC can use vIDM as an External IDP. I know this is something the PSC team is currently looking into for External IDP support. If this is something that you are interested in or would like to see specific External IDP setup/configuration, feel free to leave a comment.

Pre-Requisite: 

  • Join Platform Services Controller (PSC) to Active Directory (instructions here & here)
  • Join vRealize Automation (vRA) Appliance to Active Directory (instructions here)

In my lab environment, I have deployed an Embedded VCSA 6.5 (this also works with an External PSC) and vRealize Automation 7.2 (this was prior to 7.3 getting released but should work as well).

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Maximum number of vCenter Servers per Single Sign-On (SSO) Domain

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This particular question and its variations have been raised quite a bit lately by our field and customers. For me, this was an opportunity to see if we can provide some additional clarification and help explain some of the nuances that may have been causing some of the confusion around the supported maximums for both vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller (PSC).

In the vSphere 6.5 Configuration Maximum, there are three specific maximums that helps us answer our question on the maximum number of vCenter Servers per vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) Domain. I will go through each of the maximums and provide some additional context that will help us derive the answer to our question.

The first is the "Linked vCenter Servers" which defines the maximum number of vCenter Servers that can be supported in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) configuration. What is interesting about this particular maximum is that it actually answers the majority of our question. By definition, an ELM consists of a single SSO Domain. This then means that you can only have a maximum of 10 vCenter Servers per SSO Domain.

vCenter Server Maximum

Configuration Maximum
Linked vCenter Servers (w/External PSC) 10
Linked vCenter Servers (w/Embedded PSC) 15

Note: As of vSphere 6.7, you can have up to 15 Embedded VCSA's within an ELM.

The second is the "Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain" which defines the maximum number of PSC's that can be part of a single SSO Domain, pretty straight forward. The third is the "Maximum PSCs per site behind a load balancer" which just adds an additional constraint when using a load balancer with your PSCs.

Platform Services Controller Maximum

Configuration Maximum
Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain 10
Maximum PSCs per site behind a load balancer 4

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How to split vCenter Servers configured in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM)?

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An interesting question that came up on the VMTN forum the other day (thanks to Andreas Peetz for sharing via Twitter) was how to split two vCenter Servers configured in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM)? Due to an organization changes in the customers environment, they needed to separate out their two vCenter Servers and run them independently of each other. Although this may sound like an rare event, I have actually seen this use case come up several times now which maybe from a business unit restructuring, spinning out or selling off company assets which then requires the customer to split their existing vCenter Servers that is configured with ELM.

Below is a diagram depicting an example where the original source environment (left) which is composed of two vCenter Servers and two external Platform Services Controller (PSC) configured in an ELM and the desired destination environment (right) which are two separate vCenter Server instances no longer configured in ELM.


The solution to this problem is actually pretty straight forward and leverages the existing vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller (PSC) "decommission" workflow. Rather than decommissioning the nodes, we are just simply keeping them around. Below are the instructions on how to achieve this outcome.

UPDATE (05/31/22) - I was recently made aware of the following VMware KB 2106736 article that provides official guidance for splitting/unregistering your vCenter Server from ELM. This should be followed as the officially supported method

UPDATE (01/28/19) - As of vSphere 6.7 Update 1, splitting an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) configuration is now supported by using the repointing workflow provided by the enhanced cmsso-util tool.

Disclaimer: Although this solution uses an existing supported workflow, this particular use case has not been tested by VMware. As such, this would not be officially supported by VMware until the appropriate testing has been done by our Engineering teams. One potential option in the short term if you are looking for support from VMware is to file an RPQ request through your VMware account team.

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