As part of our ongoing enhancements to VMware’s Cloud Automation Services, today we introduce the capability to setup Serverless Extensibility (ABX) and vRealize Orchestrator Workflows (vRO) as Service Broker Content Sources.
First a little refresher on Service Broker
Service Broker is that’s part of Cloud Automation Services that are offered via SaaS. It is a curated catalog (or storefront) for infrastructure and services alike were end users can consume multi-cloud based content. If you are unfamiliar with it, I highly suggest you to review this blog post (https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2018/10/cas-service-broker-technical-overview.html) , my colleague Cody De Arkland outlines the basics the Service.
Getting Started with vRealize Orchestrator Workflows (VRO) as Content Sources
First, we need to download the new SaaS version of vRealize Orchestrator, if you currently use the version that’s included with vRealize Automation or vSphere vRealize Orchestrators you will not be able to use those with Cloud Assembly.
From the Services Page, navigate to Cloud Assembly –> Infrastructure Tab –> Connections –> Integrations. Click the + Add Integration
Here you can see all the integration points to the platform, Click on vRealize Orchestrator
Click on the SaaS-Enabled-Orchestrator to download the OVA. Set it up on your vSphere environment.
Please note that you are also required to have a Cloud Proxy already setup in your environment.
Once the Orchestrator has been setup, navigate back to the Integrations screen and enter all of the details for your vRealize Orchestrator Instance. Verify that the Data Collection Completed Successfully.
Now you are ready to get started publishing vRealize Orchestrator Workflows in Service Broker.
Navigate to Administration and click on Content Sources. Click on NEW
Under type, select the vRealize Orchestrator Workflow, enter a name and a description. Under Workflows Click ADD and select the workflows you want to add to your catalog. Click Save & Import.
Navigate to Content Sharing and Search for your Project. Once selected click on Add Items. Select your vRO server and the Workflows you want to make available for that specific project.
Navigate back to the Catalog and find the workflows you want to execute!
Getting Started with Action Based Extensibility (ABX) as a Content Source
Just like adding the vRealize Orchestrator content, adding a new source is extremely easy. We first need to navigate to Cloud Assembly –> Extensibility –> Library –> Actions and build some new actions. To learn more about how to build Action Based Extensibility (ABX) please read Cody De Arkland Blog post
For this sample, we are going to leverage an out of template that allow us to Tag a VM
Once the action is saved and configured, navigate to it and Click on Version at the bottom of the screen to create a new version of the Action. Click CREATE to build a new version.
Once is version, navigate to the Version History and click the RELEASE to publish the change to Service Broker
Once released, navigate to Service Broker –> Administration–> Content Sources. Click NEW
Enter the details and validate it against the Source Project. Click on Save & Import
Navigate to Content Sharing and Search for your Project. Once selected click on Add Items. Select ABX Functions and the functions you want to make available for that specific project.
Navigate back to the Catalog and find the workflows you want to execute!
Wrapping Up
Cloud Automation Services provides a number of ways to interact across external platforms across multiple clouds. For users who are heavily invested in the vRealize Orchestrator platform; we provide the capability to consume vRO workflows. For something more “Cloud Native”; we offer Function as a Service via ABX. There’s a ton of great capabilities coming to extensibility within the Cloud Automation Services platform, and we’re barely scratching the surface!
Visit https://cloud.vmware.com to sign up for a 30 day trial of Cloud Automation Services today, and see how you can extend your Clouds!
