Hi VMware Community,
"Services in a Cloud" per VMware Automation with Mightycare vCOPlugIN
for vCenter
I will here disscus a Vision from us....
Our Goal for the next Time is... To bring "Services in a privat Cloud"
But what means it...?
We defined a Service as a IT-Process that we will bring into the virtual
Infrastructure.
A Service can be:
Order virtual Machines (virtual Server, virtual desktops, Developer
PC, ...)
Deployment of Maschines (Over Cloning or PXE Installation,....)
Deployment of Applications (Serverapplication,
Desktopapllication,...)
Backup of virtual Maschines (Normal Backup, Snapshotbackup,....)
Archiving of virtual Maschines (to Disk, to Tape,...)
.... and many more
And all this Services will be automaticlly running... Triggert over the
VI-Client...
Sounds like a Dream...or sound like our Vision.
And this Vision can be true.
We have develop a native vCO (VMware Orchestrator) PlugIN for the
vCenter VI-Client.
"The Mightycare vCO PlugIN for vCenter"
So it is possible to defined all our needed Services with Workflows,
Actions, ... and so on in the VMware Orchestrator. Ones you have design
your Workflows you can integrate this Workflows into the our vCenter
Plugin and start this Workflows from the VI-Client.
So you can bring all your Administration Tasks or "Services in your
Cloud"
One Managementconsole for all our virtual Infrastructure Envirement -
Our Question is:
What do you think about this?
Does anyone else interested in this approach?
Does anyone want to try our DEMO VCO plugin and give us feedback?
What do you see in the Screenshot:
The First Screen you see the Configuration to the vCO Server. And you
see three example Task we defined in the VMware Orchestrator (Its
limited in that Demo).
Set the RAM of the Virtual Machine with 256 MB
Increase the RAM from the Virtual Machine with 256 MB
Long Dummy is a Workflows that runs 3 Minutes and die
The Name of the Workflows are free to Change. You also see that you can
connect from ths point to the vCO. He reads all Workflows and can
Display a predefined Subset of the Workflows.
You see also that three Task are running.
In the next Screenshot you the the Inventory from the vCenter. Right
mouseclick on the virtual Machines your see YOUR Workflows and you can
Start this Workflows from the this point.
Remember, Workflows can be a complex Service that you bring into your
cloud.
We hope, with this kind of Product we can help you to increase your
Service...
Regards
Peter Rudolf
Mightycare Solutions
vExpert 2009
Very interesting. We're planning to use the vCO to develop workflows for VM deploy/decommission automation along with administrative tasks. Is it possible to start workflows from the web services client? If so, how? We're developing in VB.NET and I created the library files VIM25Service2008.dll and VIM25Service2008.xmlSerializers.dll from the WSDL files. Are there classes for vCO? Any code examples, preferably in VB.NET on how to start a workflow?
Hi William,
Look in the vco_Developers_Guide. There are Examples how the connect via Soap-Client. But sorry no VB.net Examples.
For the vCO you don´t need the VIM25Service.dll because this is the vSphere API. You need to Compile the vco WSDL File.
But why do you want to reinvent the wheel again. Contact me to become and test our Betaversion, say want to you want to have in it and save your Cost of Time Invest for a native vsphere Client Plugin
peter.rudolf(@)mightycare.de
Regards
Peter
Hi Peter, really appreciate the quick response, impressive. I can tell you're passionate about the vCO and we are very interested in using your tool. We've started a project for our web development team to automate the process of deploying a VM to develop solutions for our corporate web sites. Our current process usually takes a week or more to deploy a new VM, they usually want to test something 'right now'. We plan to develop a web front end in VB.NET and leverage the VMware web services/vCO to automate tasks. It looks like we can use the vCO to do the heavy lifting in VMware, we just need to dig in and get our hands dirty. Do you agree the vCO is a good fit for this role or are we headed down the wrong path? We considered having the developers use the web interface to the vCO but we have a lot of process management that needs to be done outside of the VM deploy process such as security authorizations and scheduling the 'take back' of the deployed VM.
We do want to be part of your beta group and will be glad to provide feedback on our experiences. Should be interesting since I've been developing for VMware for about 30 minutes now. We might be able to provide some useful guidance for other shops wanting to spin up efforts using .NET.
I don't understand your reference to reinventing the wheel, mostly because I haven't found the wheel yet.
William Busby, PMP, WIST Team
American Century Investments
4500 Main St.
Bldg 15 Floor 3
Kansas City MO 64111
816.340.3688
From: peter_rudolf <communities-emailer@vmware.com>
To: <bill_busby@americancentury.com>
Date: 07/14/2010 06:07 AM
Subject: New message: ""Services in a Cloud" per VMware Automation with Mightycare vCOPlugIN for vCenter"
Hi William,
Send me an Email with your Emailcontact. You will become the Betaaccess to your Emailaccount.
Yes, i think it is a good way to go over the Orchestrator and we have also have good experience to have a own Webportal in PHP or ASP to connect to the vCO.
It is running fine.But it is a long way from 30 Min. Experiences in .Net and vSphere API and vCO API to have a own running Application...
Have fun ... or think about to buy some Consulting days for programming...
Regards
Peter
Contact me at
bill_busby@americancentury.com
William Busby, PMP, WIST Team
American Century Investments
4500 Main St.
Bldg 15 Floor 3
Kansas City MO 64111
816.340.3688
From: peter_rudolf <communities-emailer@vmware.com>
To: <bill_busby@americancentury.com>
Date: 07/15/2010 12:29 PM
Subject: New message: ""Services in a Cloud" per VMware Automation with Mightycare vCOPlugIN for vCenter"