VCAP6-CMA (Beta) Objective 4.3 - Manage custom properties and build profiles Part01

Objective 4.3 has below 3 sub-objectives and I would cover the first objective in this post

· Add / edit Custom Properties to add new attributes or override default attributes
· Create a Build Profile according to Custom Properties from a deployment plan
· Use Property Dictionary to define new Custom Properties

· Add / edit Custom Properties to add new attributes or override default attributes

VMware has Custom Properties Reference guide which has all the custom properties listed. We would pick some properties in this post

1. Log in to vRA and go to Infrastructure > Blueprints > Blueprints and select any Blueprint where you wish you add Custom Property

2. Click on the Properties tab and there you would find the location to add new Customer Property

3. Click on "New Property" and add the required information

Name = it is case sensitive and you could copy it directly from VMware's Custom Properties Reference guide

Value = Update the respective value, it depends on the custom property name

Encrypted = the value field will be encrypted, which is used for Passwords

Prompt User = If you select yes then during catalog request, the customer will be prompted for input.

In this example, I am using some common Properties like

1. VirtualMachine.Network0.ProfileName = you define this when you have multiple Network profile, this makes sure the vRA VM gets the proper networking under defined reservation.

You can get the name from “Infrastructure > Reservations > Network Profiles"

2. VirtualMachine.Network0.Name = This connects to the respective port group of vCenter. 

This should be the name of vCenter Network Portgroup. This is case sensitive.

3. VMware.VCenterOrchestrator.EndpointName = when there are multiple vCO endpoints and if you wish to dedicate specific vCO for Blueprints.

4. VMware.VirtualCenter.Folder = Specifies the name of the inventory folder in the datacenter in which to put the virtual machine. The default is VRM, which is also the vSphere folder in which vRealize Automation places provisioned machines if the property is not used.

5. Hostname = Specifies the host machine name, overriding the generated machine name contained in the VirtualMachine.Admin.Name property. If Hostname is not used, the VirtualMachine.Admin.Name value is used as the machine name. This property is not valid for multi-machine blueprints.

Note that the value for this property is left blank and Prompt User is checked.

Click on OK to save the changes and update the Blueprint. 

Now when the VM is deployed from this Blueprint, all the Custom Properties will be applied to add new attributes. Also, for Multiple Custom Properties, the best practice is to keep them together in a Build Profile and apply the Build Profile on applicable Blueprints.

To edit the custom property click on the pencil button and make the desired changes and click on green check to save the settings.