Deploy VM from template which is located in a content library

[power13]

Hello together,

I would like to deply a new VM from a tempate which is loacted in the vSphere content library.

I have seen there are already prepared workflows in vRealize Orchestrator to deploy a VM from another VM or a VM template.

One prepared workflow for example is under vCenter --> Virtual Machine management --> Clone --> Windows Customizatio --> Clone, Windows with single NIC and credential. To deploy a VM with this workflow, I need to select in the inventory the source VM, which is cloned. Unfortunately, I can not select the VM temlate which was distributed / synchronized from the content library.

Is there a way, how I can deploy a new VM with vRealize Orchestrator from a tempate which is distributed / synchronized from a vSphere content library? All suggestions are welcome.

I am using vRealize Orchestrator version 7.0.1.

[tschoergez]

Hi,

the tasks that involve Content Library do not use the regular vCenter API (which would be exposed through the vCenter Plugin into vRO), but it's a separate, REST based API.

You should be able to use the HTTP-REST Plugin of vRO to develop workflows against the Content Library API.

Check these examples:

https://github.com/vmware/content-library-api-samples‌

http://blogs.vmware.com/developer/2015/05/content-library-blog-series.html

Regards,

Joerg

[iiliev]

In latest vRO releases there is vAPI plug-in which provides a way to access the newer API, including content library API.

[power13]

Thank you for your hint. To use the vAPI plugin, is the vCloud Suite needed?

[iiliev]

Well, vAPI plug-in is a generic plug-in that can communicate with any vAPI endpoint, so technically speaking there is no hard dependency on vCloud Suite.

On the other hand, Content Library is part of vSphere/vCenter. Apart from vCloud Suite there might be also other VMware products that provide access to it, but I don't have a list of these products. You may need to check the documentation or talk with your VMware contact.

[NarendarKT]

Please use below script to get depoy the VM from content library after adding the vapi end point in vmware orachestrator.

input & out put parameters:

                                                                                                                                                    

Name	Type	Description
datastore	VC:Datastore	The datastore to deploy to
endpoint	VAPI:VAPIEndpoint	The VAPI endpoint to use
folder	VC:VmFolder	The folder to deploy to
host	VC:HostSystem	The target host for deployment
hostname	string	Name of the new VM
ovfLibraryItemId	string	id of the content library item
respool	VC:ResourcePool	Resource pool to deploy to

vmObject VC:VirtualMachine VM created details

Script :

// Set the VAPI endpoint to the first endpoint returned

if (endpoint == null) {

throw "Unable to locate a VAPI endpoint";

}

var client = endpoint.client();

try {

var itemSvc = new com_vmware_content_library_item(client)

var findItemSpec = new com_vmware_content_library_item_find__spec()

findItemSpec.name = TemplateName

var results = itemSvc.find(findItemSpec)

if (!Array.isArray(results) || !results.length) {

throw new Error("Content Library template " + TemplateName + " was not found")

}

var ovfLibraryItemId = results.shift()

 

// create a DeploymentTarget

var deploymentTarget = new com_vmware_vcenter_ovf_library__item_deployment__target();

deploymentTarget.folder_id = folder.id;

deploymentTarget.host_id = host.id;

deploymentTarget.resource_pool_id = respool.id;

// create a ResourcePoolDeploymentSpec

var resourcePoolDeploymentSpec = new com_vmware_vcenter_ovf_library__item_resource__pool__deployment__spec();

resourcePoolDeploymentSpec.accept_all_EULA = true;

resourcePoolDeploymentSpec.name = hostname;

resourcePoolDeploymentSpec.default_datastore_id = datastore.id;

// deploy the ovf

var ovfSvc = new com_vmware_vcenter_ovf_library__item(client);

var result = ovfSvc.deploy(null, ovfLibraryItemId, deploymentTarget, resourcePoolDeploymentSpec);

 

// return the vmObject

vmObject = VcPlugin.getAllVirtualMachines(null, "xpath:matches(id, '" + result.resource_id.id + "')")[0];

}

finally {

client.close();

}