I had submitted a support request to GSS to try to push for better vRO/vRA-Plugin methods for ownership changes for any Resource Item: both for Machine Resources and Custom Resources.
Even though the mechanisms are less than ideal in my opinion, both actions are *possible* in vRA 6.2, and I wanted to put together a post that explained what I have come across both within the forums (through various smart and dedicated people) and in my dealings with GSS.
MACHINE RESOURCE ITEM
- I haven't tested this one, but it looks like James was able to get it working through this method: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2445578#2445578
- GSS provided me with this capability which works pretty well. I didn't piece it together into a single workflow, but I think you will get the idea and do that yourself.
Prerequisites
- You must have your plugin service account entitled to Resource Actions for the Machine Items in the Business Group in order to see them (particularly the Reconfigure action). This means the service account needs to also be a member of the business group. Validate this by looking in the Plugin Inventory under VCAC Items/Machine/Actions folder. If you see at least "Reconfigure" there, you have your entitlements for the service account correct.
- You must have the UserID of the Owner you want to change the ownership to. I have attached a workflow created by GSS and Engineering that gets that ID. (you must edit the workflow and bind the host Attribute to your VCAC host value)
Method
- Call the Reconfigure Action through the "Request a resource action" Workflow and supply the following Input Values.
provider-operationId =Infrastructure.Machine.Action.Reconfigure
provider-machineId = actual-ID-As-String
provider-MachineName = machineNameString
provider-Cafe.Shim.VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.PropertyBag= []
provider-Cafe.Shim.VirtualMachine.Owner = ownerID (workflow provided)
provider-Cafe.Shim.VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.Networks = []
CUSTOM RESOURCE ITEM
1. If you have ASD and are using Custom Resources (e.g. Business Groups, Dynamic Types, Databases/Tables, or other plugin inventories), you can change the ownership of any item by re-running a "Provisioning" action on the object to take ownership or by running the "Request a resource action on behalf of a user" workflow which runs the same "Provisioning" action on behalf of that user... giving ownership. Unfortunately, due to the entitlement mechanisms... it appears that the user you are granting ownership also has to be able to see the resource action for taking ownership, but it is not required for them to be entitled to be able to see the "giving ownership" action.
Here are a few images to see how that manifests... (if anybody needs more specific assistance here, please let me know)
- Run action against my coworkers Business Group Custom Resource to take ownership of it.
- Now I own it... give it back.
Here is a discussion for further background: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2475773#2475773
THE IDEAL
Those *ways* are workable, but imagine this...
myMachineResource.changeOwner("Bob");
myCustomResource.changeOwner("Bob");
or even better...
myResource.changeOwner("Bob");
I hope for this capability one day.... at least for this action... and maybe for others that require too many hoops to be considered *ideal*.