VCAP6-CMA (Beta) Objective 5.2 – Modify a blueprint to invoke a workflow during a lifecycle change

This section has 3 sub-objectives

· Configure vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vRA
· Associate a vRO workflow with a specific lifecycle state change for a machine blueprint
· Associate a vRO endpoint with a machine blueprint

Before you start, you need to have your vRA and vCO configured and ready

Configure vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vRA

All the configurations are done with the out of box workflows of vRA which are available after installing the vCO plugin for vRA.

There are 2 Workflows needed to run, one for vCAC(vRA) host and the second IaaS host of a vCAC host.

1. Add a vCAC host

a. Login to your vRO and run the workflow at Library>vCloud Automation Center > Add a vCAC Host

b. Enter the vRA details

c. Enter the details of Tenant and credentials

d. Wait till the Workflow finishes successfully

2. Add the iaaS host of vCAC host

a. Now run the workflow at  Library>vCloud Automation Center > Add the IaaS host of a vCAC host

b. Select the vCAC host just added and click next

c. Enter the Host properties and click on next

d. Enter the credentials and click next

e. Enter the domain details and click on submit

f. Wait till the workflow completes successfully

Make sure you click on Inventory tab on top and see 2 entries named vCloud Automation Center and vCAC infrastructure Administration.

Associate a vRO workflow with a specific lifecycle state change for a machine blueprint

Make sure you have at least one blueprint in vRA and completed the above task. You can call a customization workflow during the state change of a Virtual Machine being provisioned from vRA. VM goes through 6 state changes in its life cycle. 

1. Run the workflow at  Library>vCloud Automation Center > Infrastructure Administration > Assign a state change workflow to a blueprint and its virtual machine

2. I will select the "BuildingMachine" stub for this example, (calling the WF before the VM starts cloning)  and select the vCAC host and click on next

3. Browse and select single or multiple Blueprints and leave default and click on next

4. Select the WF you wish to run during this state change, for this, I have created a simple WF (which just logs a line for this example), and click on Submit 

5. Now login to vRA and go to Infrastructure>Blueprints>Blueprints and click on the Blueprint which you selected in the above step and click on the Properties tab

you should see a new custom property named "ExternalWFStubs.BuildingMachine" and the value should be the workflow ID 

Similarly, you can add any workflow during the state changes of vRA VM lifecycle

Associate a vRO endpoint with a machine blueprint

when you have multiple vROs or multiple tenants which has their own vRO clusters which is in most of the distributed environments, you can associate a vRO endpoint with a machine blueprint. vRA has a Custom Properties Reference guide for all the advanced custom properties and there is a property called "VMware.VCenterOrchestrator.EndpointName"

1. Login to vRA and go to Infrastructure>Blueprints>Blueprints and click on the Blueprint in question and click on the properties tab

2. Click on the green plus for New Property of custom properties and enter the property name "VMware.VCenterOrchestrator.EndpointName" and under value enter the name of the vRO which is added as Endpoint and click on the green check to save. And then click on OK to update the Blueprint.

This will make sure all the VMs deployed from this Blueprint will always go to the associated vRO.

Installing and Configuring vCenter Orchestrator Appliance 5.5

The Orchestrator Appliance is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Orchestrator.

The Orchestrator Appliance package contains the following software:

1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware, 64-bit edition

2. PostgreSQL

3. OpenLDAP

4. Orchestrator 5.5

As we know vCenter Orchestrator installs silently with the vCenter Server installation in Windows Machine, this is just an alternative for that and could be deployed separately. There is no change in features or configuration maximums. The bundled database PostgreSQL and directory services OpenLDAP is very much suitable for small to medium environments and for bigger environments external database and supported directory services could be configured.   This appliance comes with 90 days evaluation license, which starts when you power on the appliance for the first time, later just import the vCenter Server license to continue using it. Below is the step by step demonstration to install and configure vCenter Server Orchestrator Appliance:

1. Download VCO appliance and login to the vCenter server.

2. Click on file and point the VCO applinace.

3. Confirm OVF details and accept the  license agreement.

4. Give a name and select the cluster and host.
5. Select the appropriate Datastore.

6. Setup the Password (root and configuration) and configure static network setting or leave blank if using DHCP.
   

7. Confirm the settings and click on finish to start the deployment.
8. After successful deployment, appliance shows this:
   
9.  The default appliance user name is "root" and Password is "vmware".
10. Open browser and enter the vCO IP or FQDN name and select the Orchestrator Configuration.
11. Enter username "vmware" and password "configuration password" created during deploying in step# 6.
    
12. Import vCenter Server SSL Certificate, Click on Network>>SSL Trust Manager, enter vCenter Server IP or FQDN and click on import.
    
13. Similarly vCenter Server license could be imported by going to the "Licenses" tab. In my case I would continue using the evaluation license.
14. Click on Plug-ins tab and select the Plug-ins which you need and click on "Apply Changes". Any new plug-in can be installed from the same location.
    
15. Now click on Authentication tab, you may continue using LDAP or select "SSO Authentication" from the dropdown menu and enter the vCenter Server SSO details. For this SSO SSL needs to be imported, which can be done as mentioned in step # 12 by adding port number 7444, i.e., SSO_ip/FQDN:7444. After the successful configuration select "vsphere.local Administrators" for "vCO Admin - domain and group".
    

Important: If you want to use vCenter Orchestrator through the vSphere Web Client for managing vSphere inventory objects, you must configure Orchestrator to authenticate through vCenter Single Sign On.

16. Click on the "vCenter Server" tab and enter the vCenter Server details to register.

This concludes the configuration of vCenter Orchestrator Appliance and for the rest of the configuration like external Database, customer SSL certification please  refer the below guide

 http://goo.gl/gyDkhl 

Now, you can download the vCenter Orchestrator Client or connect directly by going to the IP address of Orchestrator Appliance. The default username is "vcoadmin" and password is "vcoadmin". Hope this post was helpful.