vRO vCenter 6 Tagging plug-in

vRO vCenter 6 Tagging plug-in

Overview

This is a plug-in to handle vCenter tags.

It works with leveraging vCenter 6 vAPI. vCenter 6 is the first vCenter version providing a public API for tagging. Earlier versions only supported PowerCLI commandlets or private APIs (that James reverse engineered here : Native vRO vCenter Tagging - No Powershell).

See the video to see what it can do.

The plug-in was generated using the Dynamic Types plug-in generator package (check latest version in Flowgrab "All versions") and can be extended with it.

It can be used with vRealize Automation "Anything as a service" (For example attaching a tag to an object that would enable a given service).

Known limitations

The workflows are not checking if you attach a particular object type to a tag that has a parent category not supporting it.

The install workflow may fail to delete the resource element that were imported. It is not affecting the plug-in functionality but may affect a future upgrade. I have a bug opened about this with engineering. You can delete these resource elements with renaming them in the vCO client and deleting them.

I only tested it with vRO 6 + vCenter 6 (since vCenter 6 is required and since passing vCenter objects to the plug-in is likely a requirement if you need to tag vCenter objects).

Use at your own risk. I made this as a first step to learn how to use vAPI and provide native vCenter tag orchestration.

Download and installation instructions

The plug-in can be downloaded from Sample Exchange

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Comments

I've been trying to get this to work for the better part of an hour. It doesn't look as though the package contains the correct config files, that define the REST operation of the vAPI.

Could you check it out for me?

Hi James,

It looks like I have forgot to put the install instructions on version 0.0.2.

I have added these on flowgrab.

Sorry about that.

Christophe.

Hey Christophe,

Thanks! That got me moving.

One problem I did have to overcome was that the dynamic type inventory for tags would not load. I tracked it down, and it appears if the Category description is empty, the plugin throws an exception and fails to load anything. Add a description in, and everything is happy.

Thanks again,

James

I'm having an odd issue when I try and install and get this working.... I've gotten the package imported initially, but when I go to run Plugin gen - 1 - Install plug-in, and select the package I previously downloaded / imported, the workflow errors out in the same exact place every time: Cannot convert ch.dunes.model.fileattachment.MimeAttachment@6f36b666 to java.util.List (Workflow:Import Configuration From Package / Import Configuration (item3)#1)

I'm 100% certain I'm misreading what I'm supposed to do, but I'd appreciate a hand.. I'd like to get both this and the NSX DT plugin functional and see if they'll address some issues I'm having right now that I need to solve.

Thanks guys!!

Hi Steve,

Have you renamed the package you downloaded before selecting it in the workflow ?

"Rename the package to com.vmware.coe.plugin.dynamictypes.vapi.rest.tag.package"


Regards,

Christophe.

I went in and made sure both the package file on my machine was named that, as well as the package within vRO (icluding the .package in the name of it in vRO!). I'm having the same issue with the NSX-v DT plugin, so it's clearly something I'm doing wrong... I'm just not quite sure what that is (sigh). Let me also caveat that this is on vRO 6.0.3, and the DT plugin version is 1.0.1.2984801. Should that matter?

This is very odd since the error happens in a library workflow that takes a mime attachment as input. What version of vCO is this ?

6.0.3 with version 1.0.1.2984801 of the DT plugin (which is what comes with 6.0.3, I think). I agree it's very odd... I didn't think I was doing something off, but either I'm doing something weird, or it's the version...

Hey stvkpln et all,

I'm having the exact same problem trying to run the first workflow:

Cannot convert ch.dunes.model.fileattachment.MimeAttachment@6f36b666 to java.util.List (Workflow:Import Configuration From Package / Import Configuration (item3)#1)

I'm also running vRO 6.0.3 with vSphere 6.0, but no dice. Any more work done on this?


Thanks!

Hello,

Following the installation instructions on vRO 7.0.1,  but workflow "Plugin gen -1- install plug-in" doesn't run, it has this validation error:

Cannot find workflow with ID 'xxxxxxxxxxx" Import Configuration From Package workflow is missing. It is not on the "Dynamic Types plug-in generator package" either.

Can you provide any direction?

Thank you,

Juan.

Has anyone had issues with the install deleting/removing current categories and tags within the associated vCenter?

I am seeing this error as well, on vRO 7.2, both in my home lab and in a customer's environment.

In vRO 7.2, the "Plugin gen -1- Install plug-in" workflow no longer Validates, as the "Import Configuration From Package" from the Dynamic Types plug-in now has an extra input.

Christophe,

Maybe the plug-in needs a little TLC for vRO 7? Also, you mentioned that the install instructions were posted on FlowGrab - what's the best place to find the instructions now that FlowGrab is gone?


Thanks!

vRO 7.2 has version 1.2.0 of DT plug-in and there is a change in the import workflow. I have updated the "Plugin gen -1- Install plug-in" workflow which has my own import ction that should work with any version of the DT plug-in.

Version history
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Last update:
‎06-10-2015 06:40 AM
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