The vRA virtual appliance is SUSE Linux-based. This appliance runs the common services, such as authorization, approvals, notifications, and the component registry service, which allows all the other services in the distributed system to be discovered. The appliance also has several integration points that interface to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and vCenter Orchestrator. The vRA appliance also contains an embedded Postgres database.

The service catalog holds all the configured services and catalog items. This is a common catalog and can be used by vRA and other solutions such as the application director to populate items and services, such as machine blueprints, application services, and services based on vRealize Orchestrator workflows. The most common services are hosted by the vRA virtual appliance. The advanced service designer (custom service designer) exposes vCenter Orchestrator workflows as catalog items, and the IaaS component is the Windows component, which handles the functionality related to reservations, blueprints, endpoints, workflows, and so on. The following configuration will be initiated in a vRA virtual appliance:

• Component registry-service, which allows other services to be discovered
• Authentication-user authentication
• Authorization-controls access
• Approvals-approval policy