vCenter Inventory Items Unsorted

[stevenbright1]

Has anyone ran into a problem using the Orchestrator 5.1 virtual appliance where the vCenter Inventory objects are not sorted? Whenever I view the inventory either through the Inventory section of the client or while executing a new workflow, all of the objects (hosts, VMs, datastores, VM folders, etc.) are in what appears to be a random order (they aren't sorted by the name or or the id value).

I currently have the Orchestrator 5.1 appliance connecting to a Windows vCenter 4.1 U1 instance and a Windows vCenter 5.0 U2 instance. I also have another copy of the Orchestrator 5.1 appliance connecting to a Windows vCenter 5.1.0b instance which exhibits the same behavior.

[mslavov]

Hi,

The vCenter Orchestrator doesn't not apply any sorting on the objects returned by the vCenter Server. This means the order of the objects depends on the vCenter Server. I can only speculate that vCenter Server returns the objects based on their creation order.

Just one clarification question: does the order changes everytime or if you are looking at the same inventory it is not sorted but it doesn't change everytime you look at it?

Also is this an issue for you?

Thanks,

Milko

[stevenbright1]

Thanks for the response Milko.

I don't believe that I had this issue using the 4.x releases of Orchestrator, so I'm trying to figure out what has changed. The order appears to be the same each time, so my guess is that Orchestrator 5.1 is presenting the data as the vCenter API provided it. I'm pretty sure that the order of the objects returned are not based on creation order as my data stores are all named sequentially via numerical order as they are created and these are also presented as unordered.

As for your second question, not having the inventory sorted is extremely problematic when attempting to find an inventory object (such as a specific VM out of hundreds) for use in a workflow. Our vCenter has all of the VMs separated out into folder based on the various applications systems at our datacenter. With over 70 application systems, finding a specific business system's folder is now quite difficult. As far as I know, there is no method of searching or sorting when using the default dialog to browse/select inventory objects as shown in the attached image.

[mslavov]

I've tried with Orchestrator 4.2.1 and connected it to the same vCenter Server as the Orchestrator 5.1 and saw the same inventory.

So, I'm not sure why you are having this problem, but as a workaround you can try:

1. Duplicate the workflow (Optional if it is part of the library)

2. Edit the workflow

3. Go to Presentation tab

4. Select the parameter of type VC:VirtualMachine or any other vCenter Server type parameter

5. Add Property named "Select value as" and select "list" as a value.

This will bring you a search box with list of results, which will let you filter your VirtualMachines.

Apart from that I would recommend opening a support request to VMware GSS, so this request/issue can be captured and prioritize accordingly.

Thanks,

Milko

[stevenbright1]

Milko,

Thanks for the information. I hadn't attempted to change the presentation on the inventory objects to a list before. I'll see how that goes for the end users as a work around.

I figured I'd ultimately end up opening a SR with VMware for it, but I thought I'd check with the community first. I also have another issue where the Orchestrator appliance doesn't handle a disconnected vCenter nicely (hangs the Orchestrator client whenever you attempt to load any inventory list after one of multiple vCenters disconnect), and it appears that it doesn't pick the vCenter back up until a service restart of Orchestrator.

[qc4vmware]

I see the same problem with Orchestrator 5.1 windows so I don't think it has anything to do with the appliance.  I also have a problem where the inventory of Workflows and Actions are not sorted when I am in the client until I hit the refresh button.  Then my actions and workflows are sorted by name.

To work around this I have been writing actions that request the items then sort the array and using that array as predefined elements or answers in my forms.  I have been meaning to open a case but haven't gotten around to it yet.  And also like suggested using the list usually works ok since you can search... assuming you know what you are looking for.

Paul

[mslavov]

Hi Steven,

You are right for the issue with the disconnected vCenter Server, i.e. it hangs until it connects to the server or network error occurs. The time it waits depends on the type of the error, if it is a socket time out error, then there is some time it tries to connect and I guess it takes a while.

As for the picking the vCenter Server back up, I'm not sure this function is automatic, i.e. you have explicitly refresh(using F5). Did you tried that?

Please note that this behaviour is observed only through the Orchestrator Client, if you go to the Web Operator Web interface (following the link on the Appliance welcome page) and try to browse the inventory by executing a workflow, it won't freeze your browser.

Thanks,

Milko

[stevenbright1]

Milko,

I'll see if I can test it out later today. What I've ran into is that when I'm doing maintenance on a vCenter that is part of the Orchestrator server's inventory, no one is able to access the Inventory or start work flows using the Orchestrator client. The real problem is that it appears that the behavior never changes, even after the vCenter server comes back online. So no matter what I've down or how long I've waited, it still hangs the client. The only thing I've found that has resolved it thus far is a restart of the Orchestrator services.

However, I haven't had much time to really test out various situations while reviewing the logs to be absolutely sure of timing and conditions as I've always been in the middle of some maintenance activities when I've had the end users contact me (which is also why I haven't opened an SR yet with VMware). I'll provide an updated post once I get some testing completed.