vCO Installing application from host machine to clients

[rishabmehta]

Hi guys i am very new to cloud virtualization vmware tools etc, I have just started using vCO and trying to perform simple tasks. I was wondering if the following task can be automated using a workflow.

say i want to install an application on a VM.

i have the iso file for the application called app.iso on the C drive of my machine.

when i power on a VM i can manually add an iso from "connect/disconnect the cd/dvd devices of VM > cd/dvd device > connect to ISO on local disk"

but is there a way to do it using a workflow?

the workflow should ask for the VM and the location of the iso file on disk

if not can i add the iso from a datastore

and is there an action/workflow to upload a file from local disk to datastore?

after getting the iso how do i make the installer work and how do i automate the options to be selected on the installer. For eg selecting the product keys from a file that contains the list, selecting the location of installation etc.

thanks in advance

[willonit]

I think what you are trying to do is a little out of scope for just vCO. I believe there is a workflow to mount an ISO from datastore such that you could have a repository on a datastore that contained all of your ISOs and mount from here. As far as conducting the installation of the application, there is a run script in guest workflow but that will simply allow you to run a line in a command prompt. If the application can be installed with an answer file you might be able to get away with doing it that way. However, you will have a very difficult time determining the status of the installation.

A more ideal solution would be to use an application installation solution like Application Director, SCCM, Puppet, or Salt and using vCO to make an API calls to that system to orchestrate the application installation. The vCO community might have other ways they have addressed this issue but this is the common way I do it in a vCAC scenario.

[quantum_2]

I work in and environment that I don't have access to all the information but from what we have is a VCAC blueprint  that will call a pre made template that has a custom script also attached to it in the BP , but I also know that there is more on the guest side of things as it installed macafee and other things .

so I am thinking that the install is defined in the template like and exe flie that installs an app on boot.

I am new to this as well and not sure how all this is done

wish I could be more help

[rishabmehta]

Is there a way to upload iso to Datastore using a workflow?