VCF Automation: Assigning VM DNS Name and VM Display Name in Blueprints

We've discussed VM Names using VCF Automation previously:

• Build and Rename VMs with VMware vRA

• VMware Aria Automation Custom Names

I found a more efficient way to do this via two Blueprint Properties: name and hostname. My Blueprint requires the user to input both values, it looks like this (all screenshots here are taken from VCF Automation 8.18.1).

# Created by Brock Peterson.

formatVersion: 1

inputs:

vm_display_name:

type: string

description: VM Display Name

title: VM Display Name

vm_dns_name:

type: string

description: VM DNS Name

title: VM DNS Name

Later on in the Blueprint I use this input to assign VM Properties.

Cloud_vSphere_Machine_1:

type: Cloud.vSphere.Machine

properties:

image: ${input.os}

cpuCount: ${input.vcpuCount}

totalMemoryMB: ${input.totalMemoryMB}

name: ${input.vm_display_name}

hostname: ${input.vm_dns_name}

vm_snapshot: ${input.vm_snapshot}

notes: ${input.notes}

owner: ${input.owner}

description: ${input.description}

category: ${input.category}

vcpu: ${input.vcpuCount}

memoryMB: ${input.totalMemoryMB}

constraints:

- tag: account:alderstead.vcfops.lab / Datacenter-1

networks:

- network: ${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}

assignment: static

ip_addresses: ${input.ip}

If you want the full Blueprint you can get it here.

Requesting a VM via Service Broker Catalog looks like this.

Notice I ask for both the VM Display Name and the VM DNS Name from the requester. Upon completion, my VM looks like this in vCenter, exactly what I wanted.

Pro-Tip: in order to get the VM Display Name without characters/numbers appended at the end I had to put a Custom Naming template in place on the Project I was deploying into, it looks like this.

Thanks to my teammate Cosmin Trif for the suggestion on Custom Naming within the Project, if you haven't seen his blog I'd highly recommend it here. Hope this was helpful, enjoy!