VMware Aria Automation, formerly known as vRealize Automation, is being used to request and subsequently build VMs. You'd like the requests to first be approved by your Server Team, how do you do it? Aria Automation Approval Policies, let's take a look!
Launch Service Broker from Aria Automation and go to Content & Policies - Policies - Definitions - NEW POLICY. There are six policy types available, select Approval Policy.
I've created an Approval Policy that will apply to all VM builds, it looks like this.
The Name and Description are just that, I've been as descriptive as possible here. Scope allows you to apply the approval policy to one, more than one, or all projects in the Organization. Click the information bubble for more details, but I've scoped this Approval Policy to my entire Organization. Criteria allows you to further filter within Organizations or Projects.
Approval level defines the order in which the Approval Policy is applied, 1 first, 2 second, etc. Approval type is User based or Role based, allowing you to assign approvers based on Users themselves or Roles they have. I've chosen Users, myself and a teammate, by clicking the ADD USERS button which will allow you to add users from vIDM.
Approver mode defines who must approve the request: all of the approvers or just one. Auto expiry decision allows you to either auto-approve or reject the request after the Auto expiry trigger, which is defined next.
Finally, Actions allows you to define the Actions against which this Approval Policy will be applied. This gives you the ability to wrap Approval Policies around everything from VM builds to Day-2 Actions like the addition of vCPU or Memory.
With the Approval Policy in place, let's test it. You can do this a few different ways, but we'll go into Cloud Assembly - Design and select a Cloud Template. In my case, I've chosen one called Small Windows 2012 R2 VM, which will deploy a 4 vCPU x 8GB RAM Windows 2012 R2 VM.
Click TEST, assuming it is successful, click DEPLOY. Once submitted you can monitor progression via the History Tab. Here you can see that my VM request has now hit the Approval Policy.
The Users defined in my Approval Policy should now have emails requesting approval. Note: vIDM defines the email addresses and the SMTP Server used is defined in Service Broker - Content & Policies - Notifications - Email Server. Checking my Inbox I see:
Clicking the link takes you back into Service Broker - Inbox - Approvals.
Click APPROVE or REJECT and you're on your way.
Back on the Deployment History tab.
Details indicate I've approved the request, along with my comment. Once done, the Deployment will indicate as much.
Back in Cloud Assembly - Deployments you can see your new VM, which was formally Approved and built.
Approval Policies are a powerful way Aria Automation can ensure workload creations have been approved by the proper teams! Next time, we'll talk about Lease Policies.