Learn vCO

Postman + vRO = HTTP-REST Plug-in Operations

In a previous article, I stepped through the process of working with vRealize Orchestrator’s (vRO) REST API using the RestClient add-on for FireFox. This was before I was introduced to my new favorite REST client: POSTMAN! @postmanclient In this article, I’ll provide a little detail on an approach you can use to improve your work with REST APIs and consuming them with Orchestrator’s REST plug-in. Throughout the article, I will use a FreeNAS 9.

Log plug-ins HTTP communications

A lot of the Orchestrator plug-ins use the Apache HTTP client to communicate with the target hosts. You may want to log the HTTP communications for many purposes: Understanding how vCO does the API calls Troubleshoot a problem with a target host Re-engineering an existing call with capturing it, changing it as you like and use it via the REST or SOAP plug-in Brag you have found an “Onyx” like functionality for most Orchestrated products This article will guide you on how to log these calls to a file.

Plug-in Generator v2 advanced techniques

In previous tutorials we created inventory object types, their children objects, workflows to operate these that we packaged for our end users. In this tutorial we are going to create an orchestrator plug-in to list vCO / vRO workflows ! You may wonder why doing so ? This is a good use case for leveraging some of the more advanced features of the plug-in generator v2 to handle complex REST APIs and improving performance when needed.

Create a plug-in for a REST based web service in minutes - Part 4

In part 1 and part 2 we created the inventory objects, in part 3 we created methods for this objects and ran a generic workflow to run these methods. In this article we will create workflows for calling these methods, include them in a package with all the plug-in configuration to ship it to our end users. Creating the workflows The invoke workflows in the plug-in facilitate running REST operations. End users and or external system will expect simpler workflows.

Create a plug-in for a REST based web service in minutes - Part 3

Part 1 of the plug-in generator v2 series covered how to create new plug-in inventory types, part 2 how to create their child object types. This part will focus on how to define object methods and associated workflows. Having Orchestrator inventory types is a necessity to use with vRealize Automation (formerly vCAC) Advanced Service Designer. Once you have these inventory objects you may wonder how to use these in workflows. This is what this article covers.

Create a plug-in for a REST based web service in minutes - Part 2

In the part 1 I walk through step by step to create a plug-in object type leveraging the Plug-in Generator version 2. In this article I will demonstrate one of the new feature of this version 2 : Create a child object type. Having the plug-in inventory organized in a tree view allows to represent most of the objects hierarchies found in applications APIs. Resuming from part 1 I need to create a vNIC object.

Create a plug-in for a REST based web service in minutes - part 1

In a previous article I have explained how Dynamic Types work and how these are very useful to create a vCO / vRO plugin that will enable the XaaS capabilitites of vCAC / vRA. Then explained how to build your own twitter plug-in using the plug-in generator package. I have now extended the capabilities of the plug-in generator and will attempt to demonstrate these in this new series of articles. This article use NSX as the orchestrated endpoint but following the explanation included on this tutorial you should be able to get it to work with many REST web service.

How to use PowerShell to start an Orchestrator Workflow

Okay now I have provided Python and [perl](/articles/learn-vco/296-how-to-use-perl-to-start-an-orchestrator-workflow.html" rel=“alternate) articles to start a vRealize Orchestrator (vRO / vCO) workflow via it’s REST API so now it’s time for a PowerShell script. For this article, I followed the same format as the previous two BUT provided the option to call the script with command line parameters! You may download the script in this article from my vroClientScripts Repository on GitHub. The Script The following code should be saved as something like runWorkflow.

How to use perl to start an Orchestrator Workflow

In a previous article, I taught you how to explore and use the REST API to start a Workflow using a generic browser based REST Client. In this article, I will provide a perl based example of running the “Create a Record” workflow that was created in Part 2 of my SQL Plug-in Dynamic Types Simple CMDB for vCAC article. I have barely more experience with perl than Python so this will be another very short article!

How to use Python to start an Orchestrator Workflow

In a previous article, I taught you how to explore and use the REST API to start a Workflow using a generic browser based REST Client. In this article, I will provide a Python based example of running the “Create a Record” workflow that was created in Part 2 of my SQL Plug-in Dynamic Types Simple CMDB for vCACarticle. Since I’m not even close to being proficient with Python, this will be a very short article!