TomHEMC's Posts

I have a vRO workflow that has an input field of type SecureString. In the vRO Presentation section, I set a default value for this field (set via an Action normally but the same issue happens if... See more...
I have a vRO workflow that has an input field of type SecureString. In the vRO Presentation section, I set a default value for this field (set via an Action normally but the same issue happens if I just hard-code it). This works fine when the workflow is run in vRO. The field is shown with **** values that I can either overwrite or leave alone and the value will be passed to the workflow. If I create an XaaS Blueprint in vRA that points to this workflow, when I request the corresponding catalog item, the input form does not have a default value for the field. This works fine for input fields of other types - default values appear on the form as expected. It just doesn't work for SecureStrings as far as I can tell. Is this just not supported or am I doing something wrong? Thanks
I would like to build a workflow that creates a new workflow. We have a need for a workflow to prompt the user for a large number of values of different types - strings, securestrings, REST:RE... See more...
I would like to build a workflow that creates a new workflow. We have a need for a workflow to prompt the user for a large number of values of different types - strings, securestrings, REST:RESTHost, etc.). We would then save these values in Config Element attributes. The list of values that we need to prompt for can change over time and I don't want to have to manually hand-code the inputs and types in the workflow designer. Ideally, I would like to have a workflow that we could run during development that would iterate over the set of Config Elements and their attributes, determine their name, type, and description, and create a new workflow that would have all those attributes as inputs, of the proper type, hooked up to a task that writes them into their respective attributes. Hope that makes sense. I can do the iteration over the config elements and the writing of values back in - I just can't figure out how to create a workflow programatically. I see that there is a workflow under HTTP-REST called Generate a new workflow from a REST operation. I ran this and it indeed created a new workflow with an input and a scriptable task with code to make the REST call. Very cool but all of that magic is hidden behind the REST plug-in (I think) and I can't really figure out how it does it. I also thought about writing some sort of text file representation of a workflow but didn't get very far on that. I know there is Maven that is used for version control of packages but I'm not totally clear on whether that would be a good route to take - and I'd rather avoid extra tools if possible. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.
Hello, I've just gotten into a situation where, when I'm editing a workflow in the vRO client, if I drop a workflow element on the screen, the picker, which lets me find the actual workflow I ... See more...
Hello, I've just gotten into a situation where, when I'm editing a workflow in the vRO client, if I drop a workflow element on the screen, the picker, which lets me find the actual workflow I want to use, is either fully or partially off screen. This only recently started happening and I can't figure out what I did to cause it. The only thing I did was move my window from one monitor to another which changed resolutions slightly. I've moved things back, restarted, everything I can think of but it doesn't "reset". When the picker is partially visible, I could use it if I could move the darn thing but it can't be dragged into a different position. This is maddening. Is anyone else seeing this or know how to fix it? The picture below shows an example. I went to 25% zoom and dropped a workflow on one of the lower connectors. The picker popped up down in the lower right corner and extends below the window. I can't see the rest of the scroll window and I can't move the picker up. Thanks
Hello, I'm requesting a catalog item using the example in the Request a catalog item with provisioning request which builds a provisioning requests and then modifies the JSON to override value... See more...
Hello, I'm requesting a catalog item using the example in the Request a catalog item with provisioning request which builds a provisioning requests and then modifies the JSON to override values. The example shows setting the number of cpus, which works fine for me, as does setting the memory size. What doesn't work for me is setting the disk size. I'm using these statements json[CatalogItem.name].data.cpu = 2; json[CatalogItem.name].data.memory = 8192; json[CatalogItem.name].data.disks[0].data.capacity = 110; json[CatalogItem.name].data.description = machineDescription; The resulting JSON seems correct and I get no errors on deployment but the disk size stays at the default 100 GB of the blueprint. I can change cpu and memory values and they change accordingly but I can't change the disk size. Any ideas?
Hi, I have a workflow that deploys a set of VMs from a vRA catalog item. I do this with asynchronous workflow calls and wait until they are done.  When vRA deploys the VMs it turns them on but... See more...
Hi, I have a workflow that deploys a set of VMs from a vRA catalog item. I do this with asynchronous workflow calls and wait until they are done.  When vRA deploys the VMs it turns them on but I want to have them off for some additional configuration steps so I call another workflow to turn them off. What I'm seeing is that (sometimes?) vRA appears to be turning the VMs back on right after I've turned them off and I don't know why. This is the event list from vCenter showing the VM being turned on after deployment by vRA, then my workflow turning it off, and then vRA turning the VM right back on again a few seconds later. Customize virtual machine guest OS ora-078      Completed EHC40DEV\app_vra_vcenter VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:47:55 AM  <-- vRA finishing config Power On virtual machine ora-078                Completed                          VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:48:10 AM  <-- vRA turning on Power Off virtual machine ora-078               Completed EHC40DEV\ehc_vro_admin   VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:49:23 AM  <-- my workflow in vRO turning off Power On virtual machine ora-078                Completed                          VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:49:26 AM  <-- vRA turning it back on for some reason Reconfigure virtual machine ora-078             Completed EHC40DEV\ehc_vro_admin   VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:49:30 AM  <-- my workflow in vRO doing additional config Another VM deployed in the same loop gets turned off and stays off. Here is the vCenter log of ora-077 which is deployed in parallel to 78. Customize virtual machine guest OS ora-077      Completed EHC40DEV\app_vra_vcenter VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:47:55 AM Power On virtual machine ora-077                Completed                          VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:48:10 AM Power Off virtual machine ora-077               Completed EHC40DEV\ehc_vro_admin   VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:49:26 AM Reconfigure virtual machine ora-077             Completed EHC40DEV\ehc_vro_admin   VC40Dev.ehc40dev.local 6/6/2016 7:52:43 AM I don't understand why the first machine gets turned on again. Any insight would be appreciated. Tom
I've got a very basic problem in trying to use this package. I've run the Add script configuration and specified a simple bash script. I can run the Edit script configuration and select my script... See more...
I've got a very basic problem in trying to use this package. I've run the Add script configuration and specified a simple bash script. I can run the Edit script configuration and select my script to edit. However, if I try to Run the script, when I try and select the script to run, I can't get anything into the Scripts to run field. When I click the Not set link, I get the array box and click insert value. I get the Resource Element picker but there is nothing listed and nothing I put into the search box returns anything. Am I missing something here? Seems like I should be able to see my script. I do see my script in the COE\guest script configurations Resource element tree so I know it's there. I can also browse to it if I try and set the attribute which holds the resource element as the workflow loops through the array. Confused. Thanks for any help
Thanks for this! I'll take a look and see what I can do. Thank you very much for the help, Tom
Hello, I've got a workflow that calls com.vmware.library.vcaccafe.request.requestCatalogItem to create a Request on a Catalog item that creates a VM. I use the Wait for catalog Item workflow t... See more...
Hello, I've got a workflow that calls com.vmware.library.vcaccafe.request.requestCatalogItem to create a Request on a Catalog item that creates a VM. I use the Wait for catalog Item workflow to wait for the process to complete. At the end, all I have is a Success message. How can I get a reference to the actual VM vCAC:VirtualMachine that was created by the request? I'd like to add additional workflows to this provisioning chain but I need the reference to the created VM in order to do so. Thanks
Thanks! It's working now. Appreciate the help.
I'm using the "Request a catalog item" workflow to request a Catalog item that deploys a VM. When I manually request this item, I can fill in the number of vCPUs, memory, disk, *and* a Descriptio... See more...
I'm using the "Request a catalog item" workflow to request a Catalog item that deploys a VM. When I manually request this item, I can fill in the number of vCPUs, memory, disk, *and* a Description that then shows up in the vCAC Items list that helps me identify what the VM is used for. When using the vRO workflow to make the request, I can pass the VM variables - i.e. provider-VirtualMachine.CPU.Count, etc. - but I can't figure out how to pass in the Description. I've tried tricks of looking at the available variables but all I get is this list. [2015-09-30 11:44:44.775] [I] provider-Cafe.Shim.VirtualMachine.NumberOfInstances [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-Cafe.Shim.VirtualMachine.TotalStorageSize [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineDisposing [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineDisposing.vCACHost [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineDisposing.vCACVm [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineProvisioned [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineProvisioned.vCACHost [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-ExternalWFStubs.MachineProvisioned.vCACVm [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.CPU.Count [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.IsClone [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.StorageReservationPolicy [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.LeaseDays [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-VirtualMachine.Memory.Size [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-blueprintId [2015-09-30 11:44:44.776] [I] provider-provisioningGroupId Any ideas on how I can reference and set the Description? Thanks
Hi, I've built a number of vCO Workflows and hooked them up to Resource Actions in vRA. However, the Workflows I've built all take a VC:VirtualMachine as the input and therefore,they only "hoo... See more...
Hi, I've built a number of vCO Workflows and hooked them up to Resource Actions in vRA. However, the Workflows I've built all take a VC:VirtualMachine as the input and therefore,they only "hookup" to VMs in the Machines list in the Items tab in vRA. Ideally, I want these actions to hookup to the Application Deployments in vRA since that is what my users are deploying - the VM that the App rides on is somewhat secondary. Plus, it's cumbersome for them to find the VM that corresponds to the App they want to run the action on. So, I looked into creating a new Resource Mapping, thinking I could map an Application Deployment to a VC:VirtualMachine so that I could create an Action for the Application. I was able to create a mapping from Application Deployment to VC:VM using the Map to VC:VM existing workflow and I could add that to the Actions menu for the Application Deployment but if I try to run it, it fails. I kind of expected this since I think the Map to VC:VM is expecting an input of IaaS VC:VM to map to vCO VC:VM. I think what I need to do is write a Workflow that will take in the Application Deployment "object" and find the VC:VM inside it but I don't know how to find out the structure of an Application Deployment such that I could parse it and get the VM. Does this make sense? Am I going about this the right way? Thanks for any help, Tom
Thanks for the verification and submission.
Hi, I'm just getting started using the User Interaction Element. In my Workflow, I've defined several Attributes - some strings and a Boolean. I have a Scriptable Task which does some processi... See more...
Hi, I'm just getting started using the User Interaction Element. In my Workflow, I've defined several Attributes - some strings and a Boolean. I have a Scriptable Task which does some processing and ends up setting these Attributes. I then have a User Interaction Element which has these Attributes as External inputs. The User Interaction element shows the proper values of the strings but the Boolean always is shown as false - regardless of what I set the Attribute to in the Scriptable task that immediately precedes it. I'm confused. I've got everything hooked up in the Binding in the same way but it just doesn't seem to reflect the state of that one attribute. I can toggle the boolean in the User Interaction and the attribute is changed as expected. Thanks Edit: I reproduced this issue with a very simple case. Make a new Workflow and put only a User Interaction element in it. In the UI element, create an External input as a boolean attribute of the workflow. Make it default to True/Yes. When you run the Workflow, the UI element shows the value as No. ???
Wouldn't using two string arrays require making two calls to fill them (one each)?
Thanks, I actually thought of creating a composite type but got stuck on how to actually use it in the presentation/workflow. First, I know I can create this type as an attribute of the Workfl... See more...
Thanks, I actually thought of creating a composite type but got stuck on how to actually use it in the presentation/workflow. First, I know I can create this type as an attribute of the Workflow but can I create a more global type so that I can use it in a corresponding Action? I want to return the same type from the action so how does it know about it? Next, assuming I create this composite type as an attribute of my workflow, I can't really fill it until I get some of the input parameters so I can pass those to the Action to get the list of names and values - hope that makes sense. Does that mean I should make it an Input so that I can bind an action to it and use other inputs? To help understand my goals, I'm building a "Restore a Backup" workflow. My input is the Client name, which I present in a picklist bound to an action which returns those names. When the client is selected, I want to show the Timestamps for all the backups I have for that client. To do the restore though, I need the backupId that matches the timestamp. My backup application API returns a JSON object that has all the backups as objects where each object has properties for the timestamp and id. I can solve this with two calls to the backup application and just match the selected timestamp with the timestamp on the second call but I was hoping to not have to make that call twice. I appreciate your help on this.
Hi All, I'm relatively new to vCO but I've got a good handle on setting up my Presentation to provide a picklist via a Property set to a Predefined list of elements and calling an Action that re... See more...
Hi All, I'm relatively new to vCO but I've got a good handle on setting up my Presentation to provide a picklist via a Property set to a Predefined list of elements and calling an Action that returns a string array. Now I need to have the user pick an item from the list but I need to actually *use* a corresponding id for the item chosen. So for example, red:1, blue:2, green:3, etc. I need to show the red, blue, green but I need the corresponding values 1,2,3 to use in the rest of the workflow. The Id's in my case are big hairy URI's that I don't want to show. How do I go about this? It seems like I need to return an arrya of objects with these properties from my action but I'm not sure what to do with it from there and I haven't seen any examples of such a thing. Thanks for any help, Tom