VM Custom Attributes with VCF Automation

We recently discussed several post-provision Orchestrator Workflows in VCF Automation:

• Adding Notes to your VM in VCF Automation

• Post-Deployment Actions with VCF Automation

• Adding Tags to your VMs in VCF Automation Blueprints

Adding Notes and Tags to your VMs at build time with your VCFA Blueprints can be quite useful, but I'd also like to add Custom Attributes which are presented in a very consumable fashion in VCF Operations. This is what I want to use them for, let's see what we can do.

The approach I took here was very similar to what we did for adding Notes and Tags to VMs once they've been provisioned. First, my Blueprint Inputs look like this.

These are the inputs I'll take from the requester and add them as Properties on the VM.

If you'd like this entire Blueprint you can get it here. Once published it'll look like this in Service Broker Catalog.

Once the VM has been deployed you can see the Custom Properties we will use in our post-provision Orchestrator Workflow which will add them as Custom Attributes on the VM.

The Orchestrator Workflow that we will call from a Subscription looks like this.

The first Scriptable Task takes inputProperties as input, finds that VM in vCenter, and outputs the VM.

The second Scriptable Task takes that VM and the inputProperties as input, specifically the Owner, Category, and Description Custom Properties and makes them Custom Attributes on the VM.

The Subscription calling this Orchestrator Workflow looks like this.

Once deployed, we have this in vCenter!

We can now use these Custom Attributes in VCF Operations, they are presented there as Properties.

Hope this was helpful, enjoy!