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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Over 90 recipes to satisfy all your automation needs and leverage vRealize Orchestrator 7.1 for your projects
About This Book
- Unleash the power of VMware vRealize Orchestrator 7 and automate your VMware infrastructure
- Customize and tune your orchestrator by programming and working with plugins
- Work through enticing recipes that can be implemented in your organization
- Explore the new and upcoming plugins of Puppet, Docker, Chef, and VMware Replication for VMware vRealize Orchestrator
Who This Book Is For
This book is for system administrators who are into VMware administration and are looking to automate their infrastructure. Basic knowledge about programming is needed. No previous knowledge of Orchestrator is required.
This book will also be good for you if you have just a basic knowledge with vRealize Orchestrator, as you can pick up any recipe and implement it for your enterprise.
What You Will Learn
- Install, configure, and optimize Orchestrator installations (Windows, Appliance, and vRA integrated)
- Explore all the visual programming elements without needing additional infrastructure
- Work with plugins such as SSH, mail, SQL, PowerShell, AD, SOAP, SNMP, AMQP, and REST
- Discover how to create VMware automation
- Get to know about user management, import/export, and synchronization as well as the packaging application
- Understand policies, resources, and web views
- Troubleshoot vRO Appliance
In Detail
VMware vRealize Orchestrator is a powerful automation tool designed for system administrators and IT operations staff who are planning to streamline their tasks and are waiting to integrate the functions with third-party operations software. This book is an update to VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook and is blend of numerous recipes on vRealize Orchestrator 7.
This book starts with installing and configuring vRealize Orchestrator. We will demonstrate how to upgrade from previous versions to vRealize Orchestrator 7. You will be taught all about orchestrator plugins and how to use and develop various plugins that have been enhanced in Orchestrator 7. Throughout this book, you will explore the new features of Orchestrator 7, such as the introduction of the control center, along with its uses.
You will also come to understand visual programming, how to integrate base plugins into workflows, and how to automate VMware. You will also get to know how to troubleshoot vRealize Orchestrator.
By the end of this book, you will be able to get the most out of your Orchestrator installation, and will be able to develop complex workflows and create your own highly integrated automations of vRealize environments.
Style and approach
This practical guide provides exciting and practical recipes on VMware vRealize Orchestrator 7 for those who are waiting to automate their infrastructure.
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Table of Contents
VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook Second Edition
VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook Second Edition
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: January 2015
Second edition: October 2016
Production reference: 1241016
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Credits
Author
Daniel Langenhan
Copy Editor
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Reviewers
Burke Azbill
Christophe Decanini
Spas Kaloferov
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Cover Work
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About the Author
Daniel Langenhan is a Virtualisation expert with formidable skills in Architecture, Design and Implementation for large multi-tier systems. His experience and knowledge of process management, enterprise-level storage, Linux and Windows operation systems has made him and his business a highly sought after international consultancy in the Asia-Pacific and European regions for multinational clientele in the areas of Finance, Communication, Education and Government. Daniel has been working with VMware products since 2002 and is directly associated with VMWare since 2008. His proven track record of successful integrations of Virtualisation into different business areas while minimizing cost and maximizing reliability and effectiveness of the solution for his clients.
Currently, Daniel is operating in the Europe and Asia-Pacific region with his company vLeet GmbH and Melbourne Business Boosters Pty Ltd.
Daniel's expertise and practical approach to VMWare has resulted in the publication of the following books:
He has also lent his expertise to many other publishing projects as a Technical Editor.
This book would not have been possible without my understanding and loving wife. She not only endured a “tunnel-vision” writer but actively contributed as Editor number 1.
I would also acknowledge Pooja Nair, who helped me out with valuable editing and checking.
About the Reviewers
Burke Azbill has been a technology professional since 1996 and has held certifications from Cisco, Citrix, ITIL, Linux Professional Institute, Microsoft, Novell, and VMware. He joined VMware in 2007 as part of the acquisition of Dunes Technologies from Lausanne, Switzerland where he began his work with Orchestrator. Burke is a founder and contributor of the blog http://www.vcoteam.info as well as a leading contributor to the VMTN Communities for Orchestrator. During his tenure at VMware, Burke has trained hundreds of employees on Orchestrator, built many integrations for customers and partners, and has worked various roles in the VMworld Hands On Labs. Publications include contributing author for VMware vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT), VMware Press 2013 and technical resource for Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator, VMware Press 2012) and VMware vSphere for Dummies, For Dummies 2011.
Christophe Decanini is a Consulting Architect at VMware, Inc., where he started in 2007; currently, he is the technical lead for Orchestration. Based in Gland, Switzerland, Christophe is a global resource supporting customers in their orchestration and automation needs. He has presented orchestration solutions at conferences such as VMworld and is the main contributor of the www.vcoteam.info blog and in the official VMware Orchestrator community. Christophe has reviewed and contributed to books covering vCenter Orchestrator including VMware vCloud Architecture Toolkit. Christophe was awarded the vExpert designation for several years given to the top VMware evangelists in the industry. He has 19 years of experience in IT automation and holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Spas Kaloferov has been a technology professional since 2004 and holds over 30 industry certifications. He studied in Germany and is now living back in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he joined the VMWare family in 2014. While working with many VMware products, his work remains mainly focused on Orchestrator. He has been an Orchestrator contributor not only internally, but also via the VMTN communities and his personal blog: http://kaloferov.com/blog.
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Preface
Several things have happened since the first edition of this book. The most important thing is that vRealize Orchestrator 7.1 (vRO) was released and changed a lot with the Control Center; I can see that the next thing would be Orchestrator being used more, last but not least, I released the vRealize Orchestrator Essentials book. It allowed me to remove a lot of beginner stuff from this book and have a greater focus on the more interesting stuff.
The release of vRealize Automation 7.1 (vRA) bought about a lot of changes too, as Orchestrator is now even more integrated into vRA than before.
Tip
If you're completely new to Orchestrator I would suggest that you start your journey with the vRealize Orchestrator Essentials book.
To do so go to http://bit.ly/1KVVara.
Changes in this edition
The following are the changes from the First edition:
A short history of Orchestrator
Orchestrator is VMware's central effort in Automation and Orchestrator.
Orchestrator started its life as Virtual Service Orchestrator (VS-O) with a small company named Dunes in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2007, VMware bought Dunes, renaming the product as VMware Orchestrator (VMO), and then introduced Orchestrator into vSphere 4.0 as vCenter Orchestrator (vCO). Orchestrator's first stage debut was with VMware Lifecycle Manager, which used Orchestrator to automate the virtual infrastructure life cycle. Orchestrator itself never really received the spotlight until the recent launch of VMware vCloud Automation Center (vCAC). In the beginning, vCAC used Orchestrator only as an extension, but with version 6.1, it became the central tool for automation.
Version 7 replaced the old configuration elements and came up with a fresh and wonderful way to configure things the Control Center. Also, lots of features were reworked on and new ones were made more accessible. The most important step was to reduce the number of Orchestrator installations to two: the Orchestrator appliance and the vRA integrated Orchestrator version.
Note
In October 2014, VMware renamed vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) to vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) to align with their new strategies. vRO is not a new product; it's is just the new name of vCO.
With version 6.2 of vCAC, the product has been renamed to vRealize Automation. We will just refer to it as Orchestrator.
Best approaches to reading this book
As I already said, if you’re a total beginner with Orchestrator, work through the vRealize Orchestrator Essentials book first, which is more like a classroom that starts and develops your starting skills. Also refer to the upgrade link of the vRealize Orchestrator Essentials book (http://langenhan.info/vRO-Essential_update.pdf) for vRO7.
If you plan to use vRealize Automation, it's is best to start with Chapter 13, Working with vRealize Automation , before diving deeper. vRealize Automation just leverages Orchestrator workflows and plugins. Check out Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator .
If you plan to automate your vSphere infrastructure, you can dive straight into Chapter 13, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator , and then check out Chapter 12, Working with vSphere . Then I would start looking at the different plugins.
If you would like to improve your existing skills, check out Chapter 4, Programming Skills , to Chapter 8, Better Workflows and optimized working .
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator , shows you how to install, configure, and access Orchestrator.
Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration , dives into more specialized tasks such as tuning the Orchestrator appliance, changing certificates and dealing with logs.
Chapter 3, Distributed Design, focuses on Clusters, distributed Orchestrator setups and loadbalancing.
Chapter 4, Programming Skills , contains all the little secrets that you need to know to make Orchestrator programming easier.
Chapter 5, Visual Programming , introduces and dives into the visual programming of Orchestrator.
Chapter 6, Advanced Programming , dives into more advanced operations such complex Java objects, JSON and other items that will add value to your workflows.
Chapter 7, Interacting with Orchestrator , focuses on how to interact with Orchestrator. We will use PowerShell, REST, and PHP to interact with workflows.
Chapter 8, Better Workflows and Optimized Working , dives into resources, configurations, packages, and more for optimizing your workflows.
Chapter 9, Essential Plugins , deals with the most plugins used, such as e-mail, files, SSH and REST.
Chapter 10, Built-in Plugins , dives into all the other plugins that are preinstalled in Orchestrator.
Chapter 11, Additional Plugins , takes a look at NSX, Horizon, Replication, SRM and vROPS plugins.
Chapter 12, Working with vSphere , is a full chapter dedicated to all things vSphere (vCenter).
Chapter 13, Working with vRealize Automation , dives into how to use Orchestrator in vRealize Automation.
What you need for this book
This book covers a lot of ground and discusses the interactions with a lot of other infrastructure services such as Active Directory (AD), e-mail, the vSphere infrastructure, and vRealize Automation.
You can use this book with Orchestrator versions 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5 and with the renamed version, vRealize Orchestrator (5.5.2.x, 6.x, 7.x, and newer).
The requirements differ from chapter to chapter. For Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator , and Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration , you just require some space on your virtual infrastructure to deploy Orchestrator and maybe a working vCenter. Chapter 3, Distributed Design , requires more space and a loadbalancer or NSX. For Chapter 7, Interacting with Orchestrator , you may need a web server. Chapter 9, Essential Plugins , requires SSH, e-mail and a REST host; however, in the examples we will use easily accessible methods. Chapter 10, Build-in Plugins , is about SQL, PowerShell (Windows host), Active Directory SNMP, and AMQP, so there is some requirement for these services; again, I will provide some easy ways to handle this. Chapter 11, Additional Plugins , deals with NSX, Horizon, Replication, SRM, and vROPS. I will provide links that will help you set them up, but you will need to provide the infrastructure. Chapter 12, Working with vSphere , is about vCenter, and you should have that already. The last Chapter 13, Working with vRealize Automation , is about vRealize Automation. You will need to install and configure it in order to use it. This is much easier and straightforward in vRA7 than in all the other versions.
Some readers might not have all the resources or infrastructure to rebuild or play with some of the recipes; however, I sometimes have been in the same boat. I used the following little mini lab.
My mini lab is a Shuttle XPC-SZ170R8 with an i7 4 GHz and 64 GB using 1 TB SSD and 3 TB HHD.
My base VMs in my domain Mylab.local look like this:
Name
Content
Virtual hardware
Central
AD, DNS, DHCP, MS-SQL 2k14R2, HMail, NFS, SMB, CA, NTP, RabbitMQ
Windows 2 K12R2, 2 vCPU, 8 GB, 40 GB
vCenter
vCenter Appliance
Appliance, 2 vCPU, 8 GB, ~15 GB
vRO
vRealize Orchestrator Appliance
Appliance, 2 vCPU, 6 GB, 12 GB
vRA
vRA Appliance
Appliance, 4 vCPU, 18 GB, 65 GB
IaaS
IaaS server for vRA
Windows 2 K12R2, 2 vCPU, 8GB, 40 GB
NSX
NSX Manager
Appliance, 2 vCPU,16 GB, 60 GB
vROPS
vROPS Appliance
Appliance, 4 vCPU, 16 GB, 270 GB
vLI
vRealize Loginsight
Appliance, 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 530 GB
For the vSphere Replication, SRM, and Horizon recipes I used extra setups.
Tip
The trick is to choose the minimum number of VMs to power on at the same time.
Who this book is for
This book addresses intermediate and advanced VMware enthusiast. You should have some know-how about Orchestrator. An absolute beginner should take a look at the vRealize Orchestrator Essentials book.
Example workflows
All workflows, actions, and so on that you can find in this book are also available for download. The example package that contains more than 140 workflows and actions is available for download. Simply follow these instructions:
Navigate to https://www.packtpub.com/virtualization-and-cloud/vmware-vrealize-orchestrator-cookbook-second-edition.
Click on Code Files and download the example package.
Follow the recipe, Working with packages, in Chapter 4, Programming Skills , to upload the example package into your Orchestrator.
All example workflows can be found in the Orchestrator Cookbook 2ndEdition folder and the actions can be found in the com.packtpub.Orchestrator-Cookbook2ndEditor modules.
Tip
I have also packed some extras in. Check out the workflow folder Daniels Toolsbox.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail [email protected], and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
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Downloading the example code
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Downloading the color images of this book
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/VMwarevRealizeOrchestratorCookbookSecondEdition_ColorImages.pdf.
Errata
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Questions
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at [email protected], and we will do our best to address the problem.
Chapter 1. Installing and Configuring Orchestrator
In this chapter, we explore how to install and configure Orchestrator. We will be looking at the following recipes:
Introduction
This chapter is dedicated to the configuration of Orchestrator and discusses how to set the tone for your Orchestrator deployment.
Until vRO 7, there were three different Orchestrator versions that one could use. The Windows-based installation (that was also automatically installed along with vCenter), the appliance, and the vRealize Automation integrated one. In vRO7, only the appliance and the vRealize Automation (vRA) integrated Orchestrator versions are left. All other versions have been discontinued.
If you still have a Windows version, you need to think about moving it to the appliance. Check out the recipe Moving from Windows to appliance in this chapter. You can currently still download and use the vRO 6.0.4 appliance or Windows version, however, you should consider updating.
Before the vRO appliance came along, the configuration of Orchestrator wasn't easy; therefore, not many people really used it. Now, the initial configuration is already done out of the box and people can start using Orchestrator directly without too much fuss. However, if one plans to use Orchestrator in a production environment, it is important to know how to configure it properly.
Licensing
One of the questions that I constantly hear from customers is about licensing of Orchestrator.
Orchestrator is licensed with vCenter or with vRealize Automation, if you own one of them, you own Orchestrator.
With vSphere, you need at least a vSphere Standard license to use Orchestrator. For vRO7, this means you either need vSphere 6 or vRA 7 license numbers. Although Orchestrator is available with the Essentials or Essentials Plus licensing, it operates in Player mode only. This limits your usage to executing existing workflows and prevents you from editing or creating them.
If you want to test Orchestrator you just need to get a vSphere trial license, which you can acquire over the VMware webpage.
vRealize Orchestrator 7 changes
There are huge differences between vRO versions 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x. The first and foremost is that in vRO7 the Configurator has been fully replaced by the new Control Center. The Control Center is an easy tool to use that does all the work of the Configurator and more. Trust me you are going to love it.
The other important thing is that LDAP as an authentication source for Orchestrator is now scheduled to be removed. It's still working with vRO7, but if you are currently using LDAP you need to start thinking about a change.
Speaking of authentication, vRO7 fully supports the vSphere Platform Services Controller architecture and the new vIDM that has been introduced with vSphere 6 and vRealize Automation 7.
The other important changes are in the network section:
Orchestrator appliance basics
The vRO 7.1 appliance requires the following virtual resources:
CPU
2 vCPU with at least 2.0 GHz
Memory
6 GB
Disk Space
17 GB (1.5 GB thin)
Network
1 x NIC
1 x IP (DHCP possible)
vHardware
Version 7
The only change from the previous Orchestrator versions is that the memory has increased from 3 GB to 4 GB. Please note that this is the base appliance configuration, we will see how to change and improve the performance in the recipe Tuning the appliance that is in Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration.
The same is true for the following table of Orchestrator limits. These limits are not hard limits and can be changed, we will discuss this in the recipe Control Center titbits in Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration.
Maximal concurrent connected vCenters
20
Maximal concurrent connected ESXi hosts
1280
Maximal concurrent connected VM
35,000
Maximal concurrent running workflows
300
Last but not least, we have to discuss network security in detail and all the ports that need to be opened for Orchestrator to function. We will expand the list of ports when we start working with plugins, but these are the ones most commonly used:
Orchestrator and vRealize Automation (vRA)
The vRealize Automation (formerly vCloud Automation Center or vCAC) appliance is shipped with a preinstalled and preconfigured vRO. Orchestrator installed on vRA is already configured and works the way the normal Orchestrator appliance does.
The vRA integrated vRO is normally only used for small environments or test environments. If you are deploying vRA for a production, large, or even worldwide role, you should consider using a vRO cluster and/or a distributed Orchestrator design. We will discuss distributed design in more detail in Chapter 3, Distributed Design. We also discuss the vRA integrated appliance in more detail in Working with the vRA integrated Orchestrator in Chapter 13, Working with vRealize Automation.
Deploying the Orchestrator appliance
We will now deploy the Orchestrator appliance based on Linux. If you are using the vRA integrated Orchestrator, see the introduction to Chapter 13, Working with vRealize Automation.
Getting ready
We can deploy the Orchestrator appliance on either a vSphere environment or on a VMware workstation (or Fusion if you are a MAC user).
Have a quick look at the requirements in the introduction of this chapter.
How to do it...
In this recipe, we will learn how to download and deploy Orchestrator. We will configure it in a later recipe.
Download
Deploy
Log in to the Orchestrator Client
You are now logged into the Orchestrator Client.
Log into Control Center
Some of the next recipes need us to log into Control Center, here is how to do that:
How it works...
The Orchestrator appliance is a preconfigured Orchestrator installation that uses the following software:
Everything is ready to run; however, no integration with vCenter or any external service is configured. The Orchestrator appliance comes with a 90-day evaluation license installed.
There's more...
If you want to deploy the Orchestrator appliance on VMware Workstation, the process of deploying the Orchestrator appliance differs from the one described in this recipe. Follow these steps instead:
The appliance will start with a DHCP address from the workstation. To set a static IP, you will have to access the admin interface of the appliance.
See also
Important Orchestrator settings
The following is a small collection of things that one should do or at least know how to do. It includes licensing, certificates, and virtual hardware.
Getting ready
We just need a working Orchestrator as well as access to the Control Center.
How to do it...
There are several things you should do or at least know how to do.
Starting, stopping, and restarting the Orchestrator service
These are operations that have to be done quite often, so it's best to know how to do them:
Licensing
You can either enter a license key manually or connect to the vCenter Server or vRealize Automation to acquire the license.
Tip
If you are planning to use vSphere or vRealize Automation as an external authentication, you can skip this step as the licensing will be configured automatically.
If you change the database, you will need to redo the licensing:
Package Signing Certificate
The Packaging Signing Certificate signs all packages or exports. One is automatically generated with the Orchestrator's VMs Hostname. We will now show how to create a custom one:
