Manually starting a Workflow... (Discovery)

[Erik_Bussink]

I'm trying to launch manually the LaunchEndpointDataCollection workflow in vCAC 5.1 (or at best modify the Workflow's interval), as having to wait 240 minutes for the vCAC to pickup the (vCenter/vSphere) Endpoint new Resources Pools & Templates is frustrating.

I've gone thru the Operations Guide, Install Guide and the Reference Architecture, and the most interesting paragraph is in the Reference Architecture on the last page

"Workflow Processing Scalability
Average workflow processing time (from the time that the workflow is ready to be preprocessed by the DEM Orchestrator to when it finishes executing) increases with the number of concurrent workflows. Workflow volume is a function of the amount of vCAC activity, including machine requests and some
data collection activities.

Performance Analysis and Tuning
You can use the Distributed Execution Status page to view the total number of workflows that are in progress or pending at any time, and you can use the Workflow History page to determine how long it takes to execute a given workflow.

If you find that there is a large number of pending workflows at any one time, or that workflows are taking longer to complete, the general solution is to add more DEM Worker instances that are available to pick up workflows. Each DEM Worker can process 15 concurrent workflows; beyond this limit, workflows /are queued for execution.

Additionally, you can adjust workflow schedules so as to minimize the number of workflows that are scheduled to be kicked off at the same time. For example, rather than scheduling all hourly workflows to execute at the top of the hour, you can stagger their execution so that they do not compete for DEM resources at once.

Some workflows, particularly certain custom workflows, can be very CPU-intensive. If the CPU load on the DEM Worker machines is high, consider increasing the processing power of the DEM machine or adding more DEM machines to your environment."

"

[Erik_Bussink]

Well I guess for now I have to install the vCAC Designer and try to use the CloudUtil.exe Schedule-Install and CloudUtil.exe Schedule-List to modify the LaunchEndpointDataCollection workflow.

Can I submit my first Feature Request for vCAC.next, allow the admin to execute the LaunchEndpointDataCollection workflow from the vCAC Admnistrator interface. It will make things easier during the provisioning of BluePrints and Reservation (Resource Pools). Thanks a lot for taking this in consideration.

Best regards,

Erik

[AdamBohle · Accepted solution]

Hi Erik

If you are looking to manually kick off the initiation of a vCAC data collection against a vSphere endpoint you can easily do this. You need to go into the Enterprise Administrator menu and navigate to Compute Resource, find the vSphere cluster you want to data collect against, hover the mouse over the cluster and goto Data Collection and then request an Inventory data collection. You can also adjust the frequency for data collection in this menu screen also. I hope that helps.

[Erik_Bussink]

Thanks Adam,

That is exactly what I was looking for. I'll validate it as soon as I can.