Configuring vCenter Server Orchestrator 5.5

VMware vCenter Server Orchestrator comes along with the vCenter Server Suite and gets installed silently. It's an automation tools with lots of built-in workflows. These built-in workflows could be edited to fulfill any specific requirement. If you have some Java scripting skills then you could create workflows to automate complex tasks. Additional workflows can be added by installing the plugin for products like vCloud Director, vCAC etc. vCenter Server Orchestrator gets installed along with the vCenter Server, but the services aren't  running. To configure vCenter Orchestrator, follow the below simple steps

1. Go the "Services" window on the machine where you have installed vCenter Server.
2. There are 2 services, vmware vcenter server orchestrator configuration and vmware vcenter server orchestrator server in "Manual" start-up type.
   
3. Start both services and set the start-up type to "Automatic".
4. Select vCenter Server Orchestrator Home Page from the programs list or type "IP/fqdn of vcenter:8281" in the browser. Select the Orchestrator Configuration (on port 8283).
   
5. The default username and password is "vmware", after the first login it prompts to set the new password.
   
6. Add the vCenter Server and the green dot on left indicates the respective configuration is good. Error is indicated by red dot and changes could be made under respective tabs. Similarly Database needs to updates, as I'm using bundled DB, selected the "embedded option. Multiple vCenter Server could be added.
   
   
7. Now click on "Start Orchestrator Client" from the home page. Use the vCenter Server admin credentials to login.
   
8. The default logged-in page, lets you run any workflow against any vCenter Server object.
   
9. To create a new workflow, the select the option "Design" from the top drop-down list. The below snapshot shows the vCenter Inventory and the green play button on top runs the  workflow against selected object.
   

Even only vCenter Server Orchestrator can be installed, the setup is located in the vCenter Server setup. Explore the setup and select vCenter Server >> vCO. While installing it gives option to install only Client or only Server or Server + Client. Orchestrator Server requires at least Windows Server 2008.

This type of automation and orchestration can be used by normal users who are not coming from scripting background. I hope this was informative and I would share some working workflows for demonstration in the future posts.