I'm working with vRA 6.2.1 and vRO 6.0.1 (as external appliance) creating a single workflow that I can use to reproduce my test environment in terms of the tenant creation and configuration. So far I have an overall workflow consisting of multiple workflows from the vRA plugin that will create the tenant, add identity stores and administrators and then create the fabric group and machine prefixes, this all works fine but I'm stuck at the next stage which is to create my business group. I want the workflow to take the machine prefix created in the previous step as an input into the business group creation stage, the idea being there is no administrator input apart from to start the overall workflow, but out of the box the two workflows have different formats for the machineprefix id attribute (vCACEntity and vCACCAFE:MachinePrefix), and I can't find a way to convert it which correctly passes the value of the id to the create business group workflow.

Searching the web and this forum provided two different leads around using a scriptable task between the create machine prefix and create business group workflows, I've tried both and neither seems to work for me. The first one I tried was a simple one line saying createdMachinePrefix (vCAC:Entity) = convertedmachinePrefix(vCACCAFE:MachinePrefix), and the other was a script based on the vCACCAFEEntitiesFinder (https://communities.vmware.com/message/2453675) but these both result in the error TypeError Cannot call method getId of null (Dynamic Script Module name : createBusinessGroup#3).

The problem is obviously that the machineprefix id is not being correctly converted/passed to the create business group workflow, because if I set that to use an input for the prefix id and manually type it in when I run the overall workflow it works fine, so the scriptable task isn't generating any errors but it's not giving me the end result I need either. Also when I look at the variables tab as the overall workflow executes I can see the MachinePrefix variable in vCAC:Entity format as a guid, but the vCACCAFE:MAchinePrefix shows as Not set which I think shows I've found the correct cause of the problem.

Can anyone help me find the solution, I'm sure it's just me missing something obvious but I'm new to Orchestrator and am learning as I go along.

Hi,

is it possible to change the vRealize Automation Status Details message when a vCO workflow that is called via vRA advanced services ends successfully?

I would like to include some vCO output parameters to vRA instead of just "Status Details = The request was successfully completed" (print screen 01.png)

If defining your error code it gets included in the Status Details when the WF fails (print screen 02.png)

thanks

Using the vCAC plugin with version vCAC Infrastructure Administration 6.2.1.2423478.

Take a scenario where you have retrieved an array of vCAC:Entity objects and wish to remove all of them, for instance vRA Blueprints or Build Profiles. If you embed the 'Delete a vCAC model entity' workflow in a Foreach element and set the Array(s) to be traversed to be the array of vCAC:Entity objects, then the first element in the array will be successfully removed, but the workflow will then blow up with an error similar to the following:

ch.dunes.model.type.ConvertorException: Cannot convert to object , reason : Unable to perform operation 'find('Entity', '%28guid%27aa22fdbd-5700-4fa4-b38a-0db19fca1dc8%27%29%40f8447cca-1d2b-4bd2-bf0e-ca3deb7a2d8b%40ManagementModelEntities.svc%40GlobalProfiles')' on plugin 'vCAC' : com.vmware.o11n.plugin.dynamicops.ServiceException: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found : <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><m:error xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata"><m:code /><m:message xml:lang="en-US">Resource not found for the segment 'GlobalProfiles'.</m:message></m:error>

Debugging the workflow shows the array of vCAC:Entity objects at that point to be empty, prior to that point it contained a number of elements.

Possibly suspecting a fault in my approach, I tried out creating my own Foreach loop, instead of using the builtin Foreach element, by creating a counter and decreasing it by one each time an element from the array of vCAC:Entity objects is deleted. The same thing happens though, the first vCAC:Entity object is deleted, but the second one fails with the same error. Debugging the workflow shows again the array of vCAC:Entity objects at that point to be empty, prior to that point it contained a number of elements.

My current workaround is to retrieve one vCAC:Entity at a time to pass into 'Delete a vCAC model entity', which is successful, but obviously not good for performance.

Anyone else seen this or have an idea what could be the issue?

Hi! I'm doing some testing on importing machines from vCenter to vRA. If I use the Infrastructure Organizer it works fine.

I'd like to do this using vRO though, and when I run the workflow from there, although it runs successfully - it also triggers the other workflow stubs that are assigned to that blueprint (and thus fails).

So my question is - is it possible to:

1) import a machine via vRO without associating with a blueprint?

2) import via vRO without triggering a blueprints state change workflows?

Many thanks in advance for your time

Regards

Steve

I am trying to find out how to the listed owner of a VM in VCAC via a vco/vro workflow.  The property "__Legacy.Workflow.User" does not provide what i need.  I am doing imports and the "__Legacy.Workflow.User" show the user who ran in the import not the user who is listed as the owner of the vm.  I would also like to update the "__Legacy.Workflow.User" so that is actually matches the true owner of the vm.

The problem comes from the fact that the import functions does not seem to set many of the properties that are normal set when the a vm is order through the order.

Morning all,

I am trying to join my Orchestrator Appliance to the SSO domain and I am getting the error above. I'm using VCSA 6 and Orchestrator 6 with the default vsphere.local tenant.

The URL is correct and I have checked it via SSH on the VCSA, so I'm confused as to what the issue is. I initially had a certificate issue which I resolved by importing it manually, I thought I struck gold, only to get a new error.

I want to join it to SSO as I want to use the vRO SRM Plugin which currently doesn't pick up any of the SRM sites. Looking at the Release Notes, there is a dependency on Orchestrator being joined to SSO.

If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated!

thanks in advance

Technical Preview Version of VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware vSphere 6.x

This is a patch release of the plug-in.

Version 6.0.1.2367143

• Fixes related to backwards compatibility with vCenter Server 5.5.x

Version 6.0.2.2849464

• Fix related to the workflow "Upload file to datastore"

Please note, that the attached plug-in is QE verified, but still not a final version.

Hello,

For a personnal training purpose I am looking for the TOP 10 (or more or what ever you can give), of task to optimize in High Scaled Infrastruture.

With VRA, VRO, Powercli,...

Thanks a lot for you help

A workflow I'm creating needs to take a VM and a list of datastores which should be either empty or have a single VMDK on them.  I can use the getAllVMDKFile action to get a list of VMDKs on the datastore, but I can't seem to find a scalable way to determine if that VMDK file is in use / attached to an existing VM.  I know I can query all all VMs in all vCenters to get a list of datastores, but we'll have thousands of VMs and querying for that each time the workflow gets run seems extremely inefficient.  Given a datastore and a VMDK filename, is there a way to determine if it is locked?

Given that I'm expecting a one-to-one VMDK-to-datastore relationship, I guess I can use the getAllVMsOfDatastore?  Just seems odd I can't tell if a particular VMDK is locked...

- 2015-03-24 - The package is now hosted on fowgrab to allow communities contributions

- Updated 2015-01-05 by Daniel Linsley:

• Does not break anymore with UAC but UAC may still prevent some scripts to run.
• Improved sleep for better handling of low script refresh

Running commands or scripts in VM guest is something that has been done with vCO for quite a while using different mechanisms. A popular way was to use the VIX plug-in for vCO. This plug-in is not needed anymore since the VIX functionality is part of the vCenter API since vCenter 5.0 and there are guest operations workflows to copy a script and run it into a VM guest OS since vCO 5.1

Using these library workflows requires to copy scripts from the vCO file system or include the scripts in your workflows. Getting the script output can be tricky and if part of the script include parameters that need to be replaced with your custom workflows inputs it requires a bit more coding.

The Guest Script Manager handle all of this for you so you do not have to reinvent the wheel. You can even create specific workflows to run existing scripts without having to do any vCO scripting !

Features

Script management : Add, edit, delete a script configuration. A script configuration contains:

• Script type (bash, batch, Powershell) : Each type involve a different way of starting the script and getting the output.
• Script content: The script itself. May contain parameters that will be replaced right before running the script.
• Timeout: The time after the script execution is
• Script interactivity: In case the script open a window that requires user interaction.
• Script working directory: Where the script will run. Where the optional file will be copied.
• File to copy: A file to be copied in addition to the script. For example a response file needed for the script.

The script configurations are stored as resource elements in the vCO database. This means :

• Updating a script does not require updating a workflow
• The scripts are in a much safer location compared to the file system
• If you run a vCO cluster, the scripts are available for every vCO nodes
• That you can export / import the script configurations in a package

The script configuration runner : "Run script in VM guest"

• Search replace specified strings in the additional file, copy it to the guest (optional).
• Search replace specified strings in the script, run it in the guest.
• Get output code and output result, display these (including special characters supported by ANSI thanks to the included cmdAnsi.exe), fails the workflow if script failed.

There is also a workflow to run multiple scripts one after the other and a workflow to upload your files as resource elements.

Links

• Guest script manager tutorial
• Batch scripts samples
• PowerShell scripts samples
• Guest script manager package

Credits

• Reuben for the original guest Operations package.
• vCO Engineering to make available guest operations workflows in vCO 5.1
• Benoit for the included / modified "run script in guest" workflow
• Pierre Torris for creating cmdAnsi. Donateware on www.ptorris.com
• Burke / Henrik for testing early releases
• Daniel Linsley for providing enhancements to the original package

Known issues

You must turn off UAC on Windows (2015-01-05) Package updated by Daniel

Use the package with the date to get the latest. The other one was kept for people needing the original.

Disclaimer: These samples workflows are provided AS IS and are not considered production quality and are not officially supported. Use at your own risk. Feel free to modify and expand and share your contributions.

Hello,

Has anybody tried to configure the new vCAC 6.0.1 plugin on vCO 5.5 (appliance)?. I installed the plugin without issues but now I am having trouble running the "Add a vCAC host" workflow against a vCAC 6.0.1 installation.

All the blogs I have seen look like they are using an older version of the vCAC plugin, which do not ask for the tenant information.

I always get the following error:

org/springframework/oxm/UnmarshallingFailureException (Workflow:Add a vCAC host / Add a VCAC host (item0)#58067) - vCAC6.X-XXXX

Thanks,

Juan.

Hi All,

I am looking for assistance with the create external network workflow with the VCloud director plugin.

Basically I am looking for a way to figure out what the portgroup Moref would be of the underlying DVS portgroup.

I can find this information if I manually log into the vCenter API and browse the the DVS portgroup in question. However I was wondering if there is a way to find this information in the form of a workflow or action?

Apologies if this is already available I am relatively new to VCO and still finding my feet.

Regards

Brett

This is a pre-release version of vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Auto Deploy 6.0.2.

It is compatible with vCenter Orchestrator 6.0.2 and VMware vSphere 6.0 versions.

You are welcome to try it out and provide a feedback.

Hello,

I am developing a workflow in which the following tasks are taking place:

1. A datastore cluster is being created to house the new datastore

2. The DS cluster is configured.

3. A NFS Volume is mounted to all hosts

4. The newly mounted volume is added to the cluster.

So far the perfect case is working as intended with the above actions talking place, however I am attempting to implement a bit of error handling.

1. Check to see if the datastore exists and if so exiting from the request.

2. After confirming the datastore does not exist, ensuring the cluster does not already exist. (If it does simply use the existing)

The bolded section above is what I am struggling with I cant seem to find any means of retrieving existing datastore clusters in which I need to iterate through and check.

Could anyone point me in the direction of the API call in which could do this. When inspecting the parent "Folder" object there is no means retrieving these entities.

Thanks,

Workflows to help facilitate OS imaging.

FlowGrab: View Project

General use workflows are:

• Apply a Customization Specification from vCenter to a VM.
• Update a VM's network with a static IP, while applying a Customization Specification.
• Wait for VMware Tools to start running.

vRA-specific workflows are:

• Facilitate 3rd party imaging tools/processes, end-to-end, from within a Blueprint.
  • Will apply static IP info, if present, from a Network Profile or IPAM integration.
  • I tested 3rd party imaging mostly with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 and, and briefly with Windows Deployment Services (WDS).
  • This workflow *should* work with any imaging tool that uses a boot image and can be configured so that no user-interaction needed.
• Use an Imaging network.
  • Let you use switch the VM's network to an Imaging network during OS imaging, then switch it back to the VM Network assigned by vRA as soon as imaging is done.
  • DHCP is required to be present on the Imaging network.  However, PXE is not required, since you can use vRA's Image.ISO.Location and Image.ISO.Name custom properties to attach a boot ISO to the target VM to image.
  • I have yet to test using this Imaging Network workflow in conjunction with the other one (3rd party imaging).  Feel free to test yourself - directions to do so are included in the workflow Descriptions.
  • If you use this with a vRA-supported imaging technology like SCCM, BladeLogic, or HP Server Automation, please let me know how it goes, and if any adjustments/changes are needed!

I wanted to login to the appliance to view logs with putty because the console window was too small but i kept getting access denied.

I turned on the allow ssh and allow admin to login in the appliance config web page but still no good. Is there something else to do?

For something that should be very straight forward, this has had me tearing my hair out for hours now...

We're currently running version 2.0.3 of the Active Directory Plugin.

I found the included workflow "Add Groups to group members".

Upon opening it, I found the following line;

userGroup.addElements(groups);

Easy as pie I thought.  Takes an AD:UserGroup Object, along with an array of AD:UserGroup objects.

So, all I need to do is create a scriptable task that takes in a string and retrieves the associated Active Directory Object...

// SourceGroup is the included group

var srcgrp = ActiveDirectory.search("UserGroup",sourceGroup);

// Target Group (The one we're going to add the groups too)

var taggrp = ActiveDirectory.search("UserGroup",targetGroup);

But here's where the wheels come off...

The search method appears to return an array of "AD_UserGroup" type objects.

For the life of me, I CAN NOT figure out how to convert AD_UserGroup objects into the AD:UserGroup objects that the "Add Groups to group members" workflow requires.

Any help or advice on this would be hugely appreciated!

Hello I am simply running a script and the only line of code is:

var OUs = ActiveDirectory.search('OrganizationalUnit', 'testOU');

This simple line is erroring out. I know the object is there because I can search the AD, I can also go in outside of VCO and do any operation that I need to. Has anyone seen this before or know why this is?

Hello,

I am trying to deploy windows with single nic and credential and I am getting this error:

Task 'CloneVM_Task' error: Cannot complete customization. (Dynamic Script Module name : vim3WaitTaskEnd#20)

I have successfully run the same workflow in a different vCenter, this one just happens to be our production vCenter. Has anyone experienced this or does anyone know the cause? I am trying to deploy a windows 2012 r2 server from template.

thanks,

Hi, I need turn off the redirect http to https. The solution in the KB 2053312 is no applicable to Orchestrator 6.0.2. How can I do?

Regards

Alessio