VM Datastore Placement using VCF Automation Storage Profiles

I built a VCF Automation Blueprint allowing the consumer to select the Datastore for their VM, but it wasn't landing on that Datastore. Here's how I fixed it. Screenshots here are taken from VCF Automation 8.18.1.

I created a Storage Profile for each Datastore including a Capability tag.

I used the Capability Tag of ds:vsandatastore in this case because that's the name of the Datastore I assigned to this Storage Profile.

You'd do this same thing for each Datastore store being presented in your Blueprint. That is, each Datastore would have its own Storage Profile (with associated Capability Tag).

In the Blueprint, request the Datastore as input from the consumer like this in your inputs stanza.

datastore:

type: string

title: Datastore

default: ds:vsandatastore

oneOf:

- title: vSAN Datastore

const: ds:vsandatastore

- title: Another Datastore

const: ds:anotherdatastore

The title is what the user sees, const is the mapping to the Storage Profile Capability Tag, which maps to the respective Datastore.

Later in the Blueprint, in the resources stanza tell the VM to use that Datastore.

resources:

Cloud_Network_1:

type: Cloud.Network

properties:

networkType: existing

Cloud_vSphere_Machine_1:

type: Cloud.vSphere.Machine

properties:

name: ${input.vm_display_name}

hostname: ${input.vm_dns_name}

imageRef: ${input.os}

cpuCount: ${input.vcpu}

totalMemoryMB: ${input.MemoryMB}

customizationSpec: ${input.customizationspec}

networks:

- network: ${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}

assignment: static

address: ${input.ip}

storage:

constraints:

- tag: ${input.datastore}

Now when a user requests a VM using the Blueprint, it'll look like this.

Notice the two Datastore options, I've selected the vSAN Datastore, which gets mapped to ds:vsandatastore in my Blueprint, which is mapped to the vSAN Datastore Storage Profile via Capability Tag, which is configured to use the vSAN Datastore.

There it is, great way to use Storage Profiles! In summary:

• Storage Profile per Datastore

• Set Capability Tag to ds:datastorename

• Select desired Datastore in the Storage Profile Datastore tab

• Adjust Blueprint as detailed above

If you want the entire Blueprint you can get it here. Hope this was helpful, enjoy!