https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-25899

I “interviewed” Jeremy via email about his solution:

Can you introduce Netapp WFA in 2 sentences?
Jeremy –  OnCommand Workflow Automation (WFA) is NetApp’s automation framework that enables architects to create storage automation workflows and to integrate with third party SDK toolkits like VMware’s PowerCLI.  WFA gives NetApp storage administrators the ability to turn traditional scripts into full blown repeatable workflows that can intelligently provision and manage storage.

What drove you to build an integration of WFA and vCO?
Jeremy – I have had a lot customers tell me that they want to leverage vCenter Orchestrator as the orchestration portal, but needed storage automation as well.  People that have seen WFA’s intelligent storage placement and integration desired to add this to vCO’s already robust features.  We had this grand vision of vCO and WFA working together to build more than just traditional VMware Datastores.  We wanted to give vCO the ability to not only integrate with VMware environments, but also manage and provision NetApp storage .  Now vCO admins can build workflows that provision applications to use NetApp storage, manage CIFS home directories and even manage NetApp Snapshot backups.

When building the solution, what were your biggest challenges?
Jeremy – We wanted this to be simple to use and easy to drop in.  The big challenge was in trying to modularize the entire structure to allow end users to drop the package into their environment and just go.  It was important to me that the WFA package be a complete self-contained plug-in type of solution that required very little customization.

When you now (proudly ) review the solution, what do you like most about it?
Jeremy – Ok, I might be bragging a little here but honestly, I am proud of how simple it is to use.  A NetApp Storage Architect can now create fully intelligent and structured WFA workflows while enforcing NetApp and the customer’s best practices.  The architect can have the workflow build entire tenancies or application stacks and then share the workflow with the VMware team.  Within minutes, the VMware team can literally pull the workflow into vCO and be off the ground.  It really is that simple.

So, watch the videos, download the package, and enjoy the power of automation!

For those who understand German the Webinar was recorded and can be found here:

http://www.veeam.com/de/videos.html?ad=de-topmenu

Before you start some really important notes on the combination of vCO and Veeam B&R.

Some Veeam B&R commands need a connection to the vCenter Server. When you invoke your commands in a PowerShell Window on your Backup host, the PowerShell uses CredSSP to provide the vCenter Server Login Information’s from Veeam B&R to the vCenter Server. If you do the same in a vCO Workflow, this does not work! The reason why it not work is because the vCO PowerShell plugin only Supports Basic- and Kerberos Authentication. In every Environment I used so far, the Servers where in a Windows AD. This allowed me to use the Kerberos Authentication in the vCO PowerShell Plugin. In the last time, I did many tests with the Basic Authentication and had a lot of problems and errors with that type of Authentication. So my recommendation for the Authentication is “use the Kerberos Authentication to avoid a lot of trouble and problems!”

Prepare the Backup Server

At the moment Veeam Backup&Replication has no SOAP or REST API Interface. The only available interface is PowerShell.  To use the Power Shell from vCO some necessary preparations has to be done.

First of all Veeam Backup&Replication must be installed with the PowerShell Extension. This is done during Installation or if you already installed it without PowerShell  to just start the Installation again and add the PowerShell feature.

After you have installed the PowerShell Extension, you can start it from the Management Console.

This Button starts a PowerShell shell with an already loaded Veeam Extension. The Files for this Veeam PowerShell Extensions reside here:  “C:\Program Files\Veeam\Backup and Replication” in this path the file ”Install-VeeamToolkit.ps1” is important to load the extension automatically. We will use this file later in our vCO Workflows.

The next we have to do is to check if the Veeam Backup Server has the PowerShell in the Version 3.

For the first workflows and test I recommend to change the Host execution Policy to unrestricted. When everything goes fine, you can change the execution Policy to remote-signed

Set ExecutionPolicy (RemoteSigned / Unrestricted )

After that, we need a command Window on the Backup server. Here we have to insert the following commands:

Run the following command to set the default WinRM configuration values.


c:\> winrm quickconfig

(Optional) Run the following command on the WinRM service to check whether a listener is running, and verify the default ports.

c:\> winrm e winrm/config/listener The default ports are 5985 for HTTP, and 5986 for HTTPS.

Enable basic authentication on the WinRM service.

Run the following command to check whether basic authentication is allowed.

c:\> winrm get winrm/config

Run the following command to enable basic authentication.

c:\> winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{Basic="true"}

Run the following command to allow transfer of unencrypted data on the WinRM service.

c:\> winrm set winrm/config/service @{AllowUnencrypted="true"}

Enable basic authentication on the WinRM client.

Run the following command to check whether basic authentication is allowed.

c:\> winrm get winrm/config

Run the following command to enable basic authentication.

c:\> winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{Basic="true"}

Run the following command to allow transfer of unencrypted data on the WinRM client.

c:\> winrm set winrm/config/client @{AllowUnencrypted="true"}

Run the following command to enable winrm connections from vCO host.

c:\> winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts ="vco_host"}

After we have executed the commands, we are ready with the Backup Server. Let’s now switch to the vCO Server.

Prepare the vCO

From the view of the vCO the first and important thing is, that the PowerShell Plugin is installed and activated in the vCO Server. If you are not familiar with this, the documentation can be found here:

http://pubs.vmware.com/orchestrator-plugins/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.using.powershell.plugin.doc_10/GUID-8AE1CFF2-F6F0-4233-BDD9-F318E461AB2F.html

When the PowerShell Plugin is ready, we can start to add the Backup Server to our repository. This could be done be starting the PowerShell Workflow to “Add a new Server”. The needed information’s are self-explaining.

On the second site we have to choose as PowerShell remote host type “WinRM”. As Protocol we use “HTTP” or “HTTPS”. The last point is Authentication. Here we choose “Kerberos”.

On the last page we have to choose if we use a “Shared session” or a “User Session”. When you chose the shared session you have to insert User credentials. When you decide to use “User Session” you have to insert the Authentication Details in every PowerShell call.

After we are finished with the pre requirements we can start with our first Workflow. Let’s us a simple one…..

Develop the vCO Workflows

If we want to figure out which Veeam Jobs exist on our Backup Server we need the command Get-VBRJob.

The easiest way to start is to copy the Workflow “Invoke a PowerShell Script” into a folder of your choice.

There you have to insert a second scripting element and move the host and script Inputs as Attributes.

In this scripting element we put our script which includes the PowerShell code.

To use a Veeam PowerShell command in a vCO Workflow we need somewhat more input then just the command. We have to load the Veeam Extension into our PowerShell Session which we invoke from the vCO Server. Here is the complete code for the call:

script = "# Load Veeam Powershell Extension into the actual session \n"
+ "'C:/\Program Files/\Veeam/\Backup and Replication/\Install-VeeamToolkit.ps1' \n"
+ "add-pssnapin VeeamPSSnapin \n"
+ "# Veeam is loaded \n"
+ "Get-VBRJob";

For us the full example looks like this.

Now you can use this command in your own workflows. Now that command isn’t really useful by now. Let insert a virtual machine into a Backup Job after creation. For that we have to use the Veeam Command Add-VBRJobObject. For this command we need some information which we can collect during the Session. A full command to insert a VM into a workflow looks like this:

Add-VBRJobObject -Job $(get-VBRjob -Name "+ JOBNAME+ ") -Server $(get-VBRServer| Where {$_.Type -eq 'VC'}) -Objects " + VMNAME + " }"

The Values JOBNAME and VMNAME must be specified as vCO Attributes or Inputs.

When you now try to execute this like the command before:

You will get an error like this one:

Failed to login to “vcenter.example.com” by SOAP, port 443, user „root”, proxy srv: port:0 +   CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Veeam.Backup.Po…FindVBRViEntity:FindVBRViEntity)         [Find-VBRViEntity], Exception + FullyQualifiedErrorId :   Backup,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Command.FindVBRViEntity

Why this happens?  Here we get into trouble with the Authentication against the vCenter Server. If everything was fine before and you can execute the command from a PowerShell shell the problem is in your workflow. Like described before we have to Authenticate against the vCenter Server from our Workflow.  vCO has no option to do this automatically . We have to change our Workflow to this:

script = "invoke-command -session $(New-PSSession <strong>BACKUPSERVER</strong> -Authentication Kerberos -Credential $(new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist<strong> USER@DOMAIN</strong>, $(convertto-securestring -string '<strong>PASSWORD</strong>' -asplaintext -force))) -scriptblock{ set-item wsman:localhost\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 1024"
      + "\n Add-PSSnapin -Name VeeamPSSnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"
      + "\n Add-VBRJobObject -Job $(get-VBRjob -Name "+ <strong>JOBNAME</strong> + ") -Server $(get-VBRServer| Where {$_.Type -eq 'VC'}) -Objects " + VMNAME + " }"

This script looks really different then the script before. What do we do here? We generate a new Powershell session on the Backup Server (New-PSSession).  For this session, we define a Username (USER@Domain) and a Passwort (PASSWORD). For the Username it is very important that the user is written as user@domain. Otherwise the Kerberos Authentication will not work and the Workflow will fail! At last we set the Memory for the new Shell to 1024 MB (set-item wsman:localhost\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 1024) If we doesn’t exceed the Memory the workflow will also fail! At last we load the Veeam Snapin and execute the Script job…..

That’s easy or?

With this Background Knowledge you can start to implement your own Automation Workflows with included Backup of your virtual machines with Veeam. It is also possible to integrate the Replication….you have just to implement the replication command and start your Automation….

In the Veeam Community there is a good PowerShell forum. So if you have trouble with your Veeam PowerShell commands, get a look there:

http://forums.veeam.com/viewforum.php?f=26

Have fun with the Power of vCO

Make sure to attend our bootcamp session “TEX1150 Workflow Development with vCenter Orchestrator“!
Brian Watrous (you know him from the great free vCO training videos on www.vmwarelearning.com!) and myself will teach you vCO, from your first “Hello World” workflow to great integration use-cases…

Watch the promotion…

Aaaand, there is more: Other sessions talking about vCO are…

CI1285 - Building Integrated Software Defined Datacenters with vCloud Director by Chris Knowles and Thomas Kraus

TEX1403 - Keep It Simple with Automation Development Best Practices with Savina Ilieva

TEX1911 - The vCenter Orchestrator Adapter Program – Extend VMware’s Cloud Service Provisioning Solution with Terry Lyons and Meenakshi Nagarajan

So, Wir sehen uns in Las Vegas wieder  !

And some highlights:
• Upload OVF Templates via vCenter Orchestrator
• Download OVF Templates via vCenter Orchestrator
• As Source and Destinations the following places are available: Local file, HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. With the Windows installable version you can also use File share (CIFS)
You can download the Plugin from the VMware Solution Exchange here:  https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/products/ovf-transfer-plug-in

Many thanks to my colleague Carsten Schaefer who wrote and maintains the Plugin!

Short version: Selenium can be used to automate browsers, i.e. to perform 1000 Google searches, or to comment on a friend’s picture on Facebook 10000 times  (I guess so, didn’t try yet ).

Why integrating Selenium into WaveMaker?

The reason for me has been: Performance and Load testing of an existing WaveMaker application, by using almost the same conditions as the future customer.

That meant for me: Creating hundreds of new database entries manually by using the graphical user interface…

And that meant for me: FIND ANOTHER WAY!!!

And luckily I did. After reading some tutorials and writing some simple programs I decided to automate a WaveMaker application… and I failed miserably!

I describe the problem later… now it’s your turn

Preparations

1. Download the Selenium java driver

2. Install the Selenium IDE plugin

3. Install Firebug

4. Create a new project in WaveMaker without using any template. Save and close it.

5. Now open the zip file you have downloaded in step 1 and copy all the 38 jar files to your WaveMaker project’s lib folder.

6. Open your WaveMaker project again.

Part 1 – GUI

Part 2 – Source

dojo.declare("Main", wm.Page, {
"preferredDevice": "desktop",
start: function() {

this.varTheEntries.addItem({item: "demo1", amount: "one"});
this.varTheEntries.addItem({item: "demo2", amount: "two"});
this.varTheEntries.addItem({item: "demo3", amount: "three"});
},

buttonAddItemClick: function(inSender) {
try {
// Add new item to varTheEntries
this.varTheEntries.addItem({item: this.inputItem.dataValue, amount: this.inputAmount.dataValue});
// clear input fields
this.inputItem.clear();
this.inputAmount.clear();

} catch(e) {
console.error('ERROR IN buttonAddItemClick: ' + e);
}
},

buttonRemoveItemClick: function(inSender) {
try {
// Remove selected item from varTheEntries
this.varTheEntries.removeItem(this.dojoGridEntries.selectedItem);
// disable button
this.buttonRemoveItem.disable();

} catch(e) {
console.error('ERROR IN buttonRemoveItemClick: ' + e);
}
},

_end: 0
});

Part 3 – Services

1. Type Definition

To keep it simple, the shopping list will contain entries with just two attributes: item and amount.

To save this data in a single Variable, you need to create a new Type Definition first.

Insert a new Type Definition

Close that confusing window

Type "myEntry" for name

Right-click the new definition to add a new field

Type fieldName "item" and leave fieldType to "String". Then click addField

Type in “amount” for the second field’s name and leave the fieldType to “String”.

A little bit confusing: After typing “amount” and hitting Enter, the field is created but it doesn’t appear in the navigator view on the upper left hand side.

But if you close and open your project again, it will be displayed correctly.

2. Variable

Now you can create a Variable which uses the new Type Definition. Be sure to check “isList”.

Insert a new Variable

Enter "varTheEntries" for name, choose your Type Definition as type and check the "isList" checkbox

Now you can bind the dojo grid’s dataSet to varTheEntries

At this point, the application should be functional, but also quite boring…

Part 4 – Selenium

Create a new JavaService

Replace the created code with the one shown below.

package com.selenium;

import com.wavemaker.runtime.javaservice.JavaServiceSuperClass;
import com.wavemaker.runtime.service.annotations.ExposeToClient;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.WebDriverWait;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.ui.ExpectedConditions;

@ExposeToClient
public class SeleniumTest extends JavaServiceSuperClass {

public SeleniumTest() {
super(INFO);
}

public void createEntries(int numberToCreate) {

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 20);

driver.get("http://localhost:8094/Selenium_Integration_01/");

for(int i=0; i<numberToCreate; i++)
{
// click the textBox and enter text for item
WebElement textBoxItem = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//input")));
// alternative
//WebElement textBoxItem = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("/html/body/div/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div[2]/div/input")));
textBoxItem.click();
textBoxItem.sendKeys("awesomeItem " + i);

// click the textBox and enter text for amount
WebElement textBoxAmount = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("/html/body/div/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/input")));
textBoxAmount.click();
textBoxAmount.sendKeys("some");

// click button "Add Item"
WebElement buttonAddItem = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.id("main_buttonAddItem")));
buttonAddItem.click();
}
}

public void deleteEntries(int numberToDelete) {

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, 20);

driver.get("http://localhost:8094/Selenium_Integration_01/");

try {

for(int j=0; j<numberToDelete; j++) {

// Select first dojoGrid column
WebElement dojoColumnFirst = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//td")));
dojoColumnFirst.click();

// Click button Remove Item
WebElement buttonRemove = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.id("main_buttonRemoveItem")));
buttonRemove.click();

}

} catch (Exception e) {
log(ERROR, "Error in deleteEntries: " + e);
}
}
}

The JavaService now has two methods: createEntries and deleteEntries.
Create two serviceVariables and bind them to those methods.
Don’t forget to bind the inputs. svCreateEntries expects an Integer for numberToCreate, svDeleteEntries expects an Integer for numberToDelete.
So you have to bind those inputs to the corresponding text boxes on the canvas.

Finally, you have to tell the two “Let’s go” buttons what to do when they are clicked.

And that's it, the application should now do the following:

You: “Now I’m clicking Let’s go”

WebDriver: “Hey Firefox, give me a new window and open “http://localhost:8094/Selenium_Integration_01/”

Firefox: “Ok!”

WebDriver: “Wow, nice website! There should be an element at position “//input”. Let’s check if I can click it. If not, let’s wait 20 seconds for it. Ah, there it is! Now I click it and send some text.”

WebDriver: “Another element at position “/html/body/div/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div[2]/div[2]/div/input”. Waiting… got it! Click, send text.”

WebDriver: “Me again? A button with id “main_buttonAddItem”? There it is. Click it!”

…and a second time…

Quite the same procedure as for createEntries…

But now, we simply tell the WebDriverWait to select the first column of the dojo grid (“//td”) and click the Remove Item button – in this case both actions three times.

If would like to delete column x, you can do the following:

While recording with the Selenium IDE, click the second column of the grid, then the third column. When selecting “xpath:position” as target, you will get:

As you can see, the difference is the number of the first div. To delete column x, you would write something like this:

if(position == 1)
{
WebElement dojoColumnFirst = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//td")));
dojoColumnFirst.click();
}

else
{
WebElement dojoColumnX = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath("//div["+position+"]/table/tbody/tr/td")));
dojoColumnX.click();
}

Problem:The id’s

The text box for the item’s name is called “inputItem” within the project. But if you run the application and analyze the item with Firebug, you will realize, that it’s now called “dijit_form_TextBox_0″.

Wouldn’t be a problem, if it would keep this id all the time, but it doesn’t! Every item, which’s id has a number in it, can change at runtime.

So the best way to identify those elements is using xpath. (I didn’t have problems with button id’s)

1. Using the Selenium IDE to get xpath or id of an element

• Run the application and hit CTRL + ALT + S to open the Selenium IDE

• The Selenium IDE should now use the project’s URL and be in record mode
• Click the Item text box, enter some text and hit Enter
• The Selenium IDE should now show two commands

• Click the type command to show it’s details.

• You see, the type command uses the id “dijit_form_TextBox_0″, which we don’t want to use.

• Click the Target select menu to show all available methods for identifying the text box element. You will see, except of one, they are all containing “…TextBox_0…”. So let’s trust that single one which doesn’t 
• Code line in Java Service: WebElement textBoxItem = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath(“//input“)));

• Close Selenium IDE

2. Using Firebug to get xpath of an element

• On the running application’s window, right-click the Item text box and “Inspect Element with Firebug”

• Now the console will open and highlight the part of code which was generated for the text box’s input field

• Now just hover your cursor over the text in that highlighted area and you will see the complete xpath expression

• Unfortunately, I didn’t find a way to copy & paste that expression, so you have to write it down
• Code line in Java Service: WebElement textBoxItem = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.xpath(“/html/body/div/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div[2]/div/input“)));

Ok, that’s it so far. I will keep trying some other cool stuff and hopefully I soon have something more to share

Have fun, kindest regards

Tobi

Download the sample project

Selenium Sample Project
Selenium_Integration_01.1.Alpha1.zip

Languages:	Englisch
Author:	Tobias Siegl
Platforms:	vCO 4.x
Date:	November 11, 2012

22.0 MiB
Details...

To give you a hint what is possible with the vCO, I created my “own” solution based on the load in a given resource pool, see following video:

Some background notes what I did with my Workflow:

• I monitor a resource pool for the load in the RP. It is also possible to do so in a folder
• I can define a minimum amount of VMs with must be run in the RP. A deletion below this minimum point is not possible from the Workflow
• I can define a maximum amount of running virtual machines in the RP. The workflow cannot provision VMs above the maximum amount.
• My virtual machines witch were provisioned are all Linux based (I use a CentOS). The data for the machines (for example a Website) must be located outside the VMs. I connect them via NFS or iSCSI. The machines are an ideal example for vApps
• The load is captured over a time interval of 5 minutes. Short peaks will not result in any action (create new VMs or delete existing VMs)

So have fun with the Video and get a look what is possible with the vCO. If you have questions feel free to ask (cs@vcoportal.de).

Load based generation of virtual machines from Christian Strijbos on Vimeo.

VMware Partner University provides a free two-session QuickStart series for vCenter Orchestrator, running on October 17th and 18th 2012.
If you are a VMware Partner (AFAIK no matter what Partner Program/Level): Login to PartnerCentral, browse to Partner University and select “Programs/QuickStart Series”.

Regardless if you are a Consulting Partner or an Software vendor or an hardware Vendor:
vCenter Orchestrator becomes a more and more important piece in VMware’s portfolio, so it’s about time to get started!
NOW!

Regardless if you are a Consulting Partner or an Software vendor or an hardware Vendor:
vCenter Orchestrator becomes a more and more important piece in VMware’s portfolio, so it’s about time to get started!
NOW!

Auto-Create a new Backup Job, whenever a new vApp is deployed in vCloud Director

vCloud Director Backup driven by vCenter Orchestrator from Joerg Lew on Vimeo.

For that I used the AMQP-Plugin, so that the “Create VM“-Event in vCD triggers the Generate Backup Job-Workflow. This workflow calls out to a Powershell-Script to create a new Backup Job using the vendor’s snapin. I used Veeam Backup&Recovery, because they provide a lot of helpful Cmdlets to automate their backup solution.

What to learn?

• For vCloud Administrators: vCO allows you to integrate vCD with the rest of your IT-world
• For Backup Vendors: Provide a Plugin for vCO (or at least a basic API), and your customer can integrate your backup product with the rest of their IT-world.
  (Then you don’t even have to develop the integration for vCloud Director from scratch )
• For every VMware User: Even without vCloud Director you can use vCO for a lot of cool stuff to integrate your IT-world (what about to create a new Backup Job whenever anybody deploys a Template in vCenter…?)
• For all: Be creative! Everything is possible with vCO!

References (in case I kicked your mind )

• http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/backup-design-for-vcloud-director-tenant-vapps-whitepaper.html
• http://forums.veeam.com/viewforum.php?f=26
• http://blogs.vmware.com/orchestrator/2011/09/this-month-started-with-showing-a-great-example-of-vco-providing-process-automation-using-active-directory-email-and-webvie.html
• http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-18002
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXg2GmPGRW0
• http://www.vcoportal.de/2012/08/adventures-with-the-vco-amqp-plugin/

For me, that was a good starting point but I want to integrate the SNMP Trap with an existing workflow. The creation of a Workflow to deal with snmp traps is not a big problem. The bigger problem is the “automatic” processing via Policy’s because there is no documentation (or I didn’t find it) . So I started to talk with Jörg and made some research in the web.  There I found this excellent post from William Lam about “Automatically Securing Virtual Machines Using vCenter Orchestrator”  http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/07/automatically-securing-virtual-machines-using-vcenter-orchestrator.html

This post from William (and his package) has everything inside we need.

First we have to create the preconditions like the SNMP installation in the vCO and the configuration in the vCOPS and the vCO. Jörg has this already documented here: http://www.vcoportal.de/2012/05/integrate-vcops-and-vco/ so I will not repeat this steps here.

Let’s start with the Workflow development. First, we have to create a new workflow. I will call it “Execute Host Maintenance after trap” and I insert the following description “Waits to receive an SNMP trap from a vCenter Server instance, then set the host in maintenance mode or exist the maintenance mode “

After we created the Workflow, we go to the “Schema” tab

Here we insert some Elements. We need:

• One Scriptable Task
• One Decsion
• The Workflow Enter Maintenance Mode
• The Workflow Exit Maintenance Mode
• And a Workflow End.

When you are ready your order should look like mine.

Now, let’s start with the Scriptable Task. I name it “Retrieve Host”. We want to extract the information out of the SNMP Message, for that we need some variables and SNMP Trap information. Let’s start with the SNMP Trap Information. The SNMP Messages comes with OID Numbers. Each OID Number has a different meaning and stands for a other component or message. The values of this OID Number can be found in the SNMP MIB Files which can be downloaded from the VMware Website. Every trap data has more than one OID Number

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0

type: Number

snmp type: Timeticks

value: 1743301911

Element 2:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.4.1.0

type: String

snmp type: OID

value: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.0.25

Element 3:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.1

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: localhost

Element 4:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.2

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: 10.10.120.183

Element 5:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.3

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: Resource

Element 6:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.4

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: 1346068003943

Element 7:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.5

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: Critical

Element 8:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.6

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: New alert by id 36 is generated at Mon Aug 27 11:46:43 UTC 2012; Root Cause : (2 SYMPTOMS)

1. MESSAGE EVENT    (1 OF 3)

33% - FAULT -

33% - CHANGE EVENT -

Element 9:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.7

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: https://10.10.120.166/vcops-vsphere/?alert=36

Element 10:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.8

type: Number

snmp type: Integer

value: 36

Element 11:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.9

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: Verbindungsstatus der physischen Netzwerkkarte vmnic1 ist nicht bereit.

Element 12:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.10

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: Health

Element 13:

=============

oid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.19004.2.11

type: String

snmp type: Octet String

value: Faults

For us, we want to search for the OID Number of the hostname and the error Message.

With this background information, we can create our needed In- and Outputs for our Workflow.

One important thing here: The trapData must be defined as Input Parameter not as attribute!

After we have created our variables, we can start with our scripting. I made a lot comments in the script, so everybody should understand what there happens….

// We extract the host name out of the SNMP TrapData
var HostName;
for (var x = 0; x < trapData.length; x++) {
var prop = trapData[x];
if (prop.get("oid") == HostOID) {
HostName = prop.get("value");
break;
}
}

// We compare the extracted Hostname with the Hosts registred in the vCenter Server.
// when we hava a match, we have the managed object ID of the Host
var hosts = VcPlugin.getAllHostSystems();
for (var i = 0; i < trapData.length; i++) {
var tempHost = hosts[i];
if (tempHost.name == HostName) {
Host = tempHost;
break;
}
}

// We search for the OID in the Message to get the Field with the recieved error Message
var SNMPTrap;
for (var y = 0; y < trapData.length; y++) {
var prop = trapData[y];
if (prop.get("oid") == MessageOID) {
SNMPTrap = prop.get("value");
break;
}
}

// Our search values in the Value Field of the Message
// When the Field contains the search string we beome the position. Otherwise be become a -1 value back.
var SNMPAlert = SNMPTrap.indexOf("New alert");
var SNMPCancel = SNMPTrap.indexOf("is cancelled");

// We check if the SNMP Trap has "New Alert" in the value field. Is so, we have a new alert.
if ( SNMPAlert != -1) {
NewAlert = true}
else {
NewAlert = false
};

Then we go to the Decsion. I name it “New Alert”. As Input we only need “NewAlert”. In the Decision field itself we set “NewAlert is true”.

After that, we go to the Enter Maintenance Mode. Here we only need to input variables:

Our Visual Binding has to look like this:

The same Variables and the same Visual Binding is required for Exit Maintenance Mode Workflow.

At last, we have to connect our Elements.  For the connections we Connect the start to “Retrieve Host” from there we connect the “New Alert”. From the “New Alert” we go with the Green line to “Enter Maintenance Mode” and with the red line to “Exit Maintenance Mode”.

Both Elements were connected to the End.

At last, we validate our Workflow and save our work.

After we have finished our Workflows, we create a Policy Template. For that, go to “policy Template” and create a folder with a name of your choice. I have a folder with the Name “vcoportal.de”.

With a “right click” on the folder you can open a context menu and choose “ Add policy template..:”

First we have to insert a name and a description. I choose “SNMP Trap with data” as name.

Then we go to the Scripting tab

There we have to insert the Device from with we want to catch our data. You can insert the device by clicking on the first button.

In the Dialog we choose SNMP:SnmpDevice

Then we check the SNMP Device and then click on the Second button.

As trigger we choose “onTrap”

At last, we have to insert this Scripting in “Script” field from the “OnTrap” Trigger.

// Author Christian Strijbos (cs@vcoportal.de)
// based on Examples and a Blog Post of  William Lam
// SNMP Policy to Check for Host Maintenance in case of an host error

// Execute Host Maintenace after trap ID
// To catch the Workflow ID, just go to the Workflow, type CTRL-C, open Notepad and Type CTRL-V
// You will get the ID of the Workflow in the id. Field.
var wfId = "83808080808080808080808080808080AA8A808001345464207298aebf2a6a5a5";

// process SNMP trap
var key = event.getValue("key");
var snmpResult = SnmpService.retrievePolicyData(key);
var trapData = System.getModule("com.vmware.library.snmp").processSnmpResult(snmpResult);
runWF(wfId,trapData);

// function to launch WF
function runWF(wfId,trapData) {
var workflowToLaunch = Server.getWorkflowWithId(wfId);
if (workflowToLaunch == null) {
throw "Workflow not found";
}
var workflowParameters = new Properties();
workflowParameters.put("trapData",trapData);
System.log("Launching Execute Host Maintenace after trap WF: " + wfId);
var wfToken = workflowToLaunch.execute(workflowParameters);
}

Some special notes here: In the Policy tab, variables are not highlighted. So if you write scripts on your own, make sure you write your variables well. Also there is no validation available, so there are a lot of possibility’s to make things go wrong

Save and close the template.

Next we want to apply out policy. Make a “right click” on the Policy Template and choose “Apply Policy..” in the Context menü.

In the menu you have to choose our SNMP Device

You can find your Policy under the “policy” Tab.

Right Click on it and choose “Edit”.

There you can choose our Startup Policy.  I choose “on Server Startup, start the Policy”. Save and  close the Policy.

At last, “right click” on the policy and start it.

After that, your policy is active and wait’s for SNMP traps from the vCOPS.

My setup follows the same principle like the integration with the SNMP Plugin with the vCenter Server like described in this Link:

http://blogs.vmware.com/orchestrator/2011/09/snmp-plug-in-integration-with-vcenter.html

vCO_Package_SNMP_vCOPS
de.vcoportal.snmp.vcops.package

Author:	Christian Strijbos
Category:	Workflows, Actions and Packages
Date:	August 27, 2012

35.8 KiB
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