Get Started with vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in

Get Started with vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in

View vRealize Orchestrator Configuration

After you configure your Orchestrator instance, register it with your vCenter Server Appliance and install the vRealize Orchestrator plug-in, you can log in to the vSphere Client and view the topology of your system.

With the current version of the plug-in you must log in with a user who is a member of the administrators group configured in the vRealize Orchestrator authentication provider.

Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator. The vRealize Orchestrator home screen appears.

The topmost panel shows details and statistics about the vRealize Orchestrator instance: version, build number, list of managed vCenter servers and several useful statistics about the Orchestrator server.

The Managed vCenters panel displays the vCenter servers managed by the Orchestrator. If the vCenter server is part of an Enhanced Linked Mode group, all vCenter servers in the group are listed.

When you expand a vCenter Server, a datagrid with the registered vRealize Orchestrator servers is displayed.

1_vRoHome.png

If you register multiple Orchestrator instances as vCenter Server extensions, each Orchestrator server appears in a separate panel. When expanded, the Managed vCenters panel displays all registered Orchestrator instances. For example, if your system has a single vCenter server managed by two vRealize Orchestrator servers, the Home screen would look similar to this:

2_vROHome_MultipleServers.png

Assign Orchestrator Workflows as Context Actions

You can associate Orchestrator workflows with inventory object types.

When you run or schedule workflow from the vRealize Orchestrator context menu action for an object from the inventory, you can run or schedule only workflows associated with the type of the inventory object.

The vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vSphere Client has 18 Context Actions by default. These are the same context actions which are available by default in the legacy vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vSphere Web Client (Flex-based GUI). You can customise the default list of context actions.

List and Filter Context Actions

Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator and click Context Actions tab.

The list with context actions appears. Each item in the datagrid represents a workflow association to an object type, called Context Action. The first 20 context actions are displayed. You can view the total number of context actions and navigate through the remaining items using the buttons in the bottom right.

If you have multiple vRealize Orchestrator instances registered as vCenter Server extension, a dropdown menu is displayed on top of the screen. Select the Orchestrator server whose context actions you want to view and manage. If you have a single Orchestrator server, the dropdown menu is not shown.

3_ContextActions.png

Batch actions

The Batch action column shows whether the workflow can be run on multiple objects. When batch action is enabled, then you can select multiple inventory objects and run or schedule the workflow from the vRealize Orchestrator menu. To filter context actions by batch action setting, click the filter button in the Batch action column and select a value.

FIlter context actions

You can filter context actions by different properties. Start typing in the upper left text input with a looking glass image. Several different options appear below the text input and you can select one of them.

The first search option filters context actions by any property. The next search options filter context actions by the property name displayed before the colon. For instance if you type "snapshot" and select the search option "workflowName: snapshot", the search results contain only context actions whose workflow name matches "snapshot".

You can enter multiple search options. The list contains the context actions which match all search items entered in the text input with a looking glass image.

Add Context Actions

  • Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator.

  • Click Context Actions tab.

  • Click Add button.

          Assign Workflows as Context Actions dialog appears. The datagrid displays all workflows on the Orchestrator server.

  • Find the workflows of interest.

          You can filter workflows by different properties. Start typing in the text input above the datagrid. Several options appear below the the text input and you can select one of them.

          The first search option filters workflows by any property. The next search options filter context actions by the property name displayed before the colon. For instance if you type "1.1" and select the search option "version: 1.1", the search results contain only workflows whose version matches "1.1".

  • Select the workflows you want to assign.

          From the filtered workflows in the datagrid, select the ones that you want to assign as context actions. Note that the current version of the plug-in allows selection of the currently visible workflows.

  • Select the object types to which you want to assign the workflows.

          Click the Type of object dropdown menu. The inventory object types to which you can associate Orchestrator workflows appear. Select the object type to which you want to assign the selected workflows.

          You can associate workflows to multiple object types. Click the plus button on the left of the Type of object dropdown menu. A new dropdown menu appears where you can select another object type to which the workflows will be associated. Use the plus and minus buttons to further customise the list of inventory object types.

  • Select batch action setting.

          Click Allow multiple selection checkbox if you want the new context actions to have the batch action setting enabled.

  • Click Assign button.

          The dialog is closed. For each selected workflow a new context action is created. The Context Actions datagrid is automatically updated and contains the newly added context actions.

Edit Context Action

  • Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator.

  • Click Context Actions tab.

  • Select a context action.
  • Click Edit button.

          Edit Assignment dialog appears. The Type of object dropdown menus show the existing object type associations. The Allow multiple selection checkbox show whether batch action setting is enabled.

  • Select new object types.

          Using the Type of object dropdown menus in combination with the plus and minus images, you can select the object types to which the context will be assigned.

  • Select batch action setting.

          Click Allow multiple selection checkbox if you want to update the batch action setting of the context action.

  • Click Save button.

          The dialog is closed. The Context Actions datagird is automatically updated and shows the updated context action.

Delete Context Actions

  • Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator.

  • Click Context Actions tab.

  • Select one or multiple context actions.
  • Click Delete button.

          Confirmation dialog is displayed.

  • Click OK button.

          The confirmation dialog is closed. The context actions are deleted.

Export Context Actions

You can export the context actions from an Orchestrator instance to an XML file.

  • Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator.
  • Click Context Actions tab.
  • Click Export button.

          This will create and save a file on your local file system. The file contains the context actions from the current Orchestrator server. You can then import this file to another Orchestrator server, backup this configuration etc.

Import Context Actions

You can import list of context actions from another Orchestrator instance.

  • Navigate to Menu > vRealize Orchestrator.
  • Click Context Actions tab.
  • Click Import button.

          Select an XML file which contains the exported context actions from another Orchestrator server.

          When import completes, the context actions of the current Orchestrator server are overwritten with the contents of the imported file.

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Last update:
‎07-30-2019 01:39 AM
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