About Author: Joerg Lew

Posts by Joerg Lew

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Where is the Orchestrator 6.0 client installation file?

By
Joerg Lew
– February 24, 2015Posted in: Uncategorized

Usually you can start the Orchestrator client just via Java WebStart using the link on the welcome page of your vRO server.

However, due to several security restrictions in current Java versions, and OSX versions, that might be quite an effort to configure your system that this actually works (permanently).

In older vCO versions there were direct links to the standalone client installation downloads on the welcome page, but these links disappeared in vRO 6.0 (that comes with vRA 6.2, and the upcoming vSphere release).

So, here’s where you find the installation files: They are zipped in the file


/usr/lib/vco/downloads/welcome-page-resources.zip

on the appliance (it’s about 165MB!). Use for example scp to copy them to your local system (SSH has to be enabled in the appliance configuration):


scp root@your-vro-server:/usr/lib/vco/downloads/welcome-page-resources.zip .

Then you can unzip the file, and voila, find the standalone installation files…

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Fixing SDKTypeConvertor_server related errors in vCenter Orchestrator 5.5.2

By
Joerg Lew
– October 31, 2014Posted in: Uncategorized

In vCO 5.5.2, when you get error messages “ch.dunes.vso.sdk.SDKTypeConvertor_server$1  cannot be cast to XYZ” or “Unable to serialize object of class : ch.dunes.vso.sdk.SDKTypeConvertor_server$1”, you hit a bug in the vCO platform.

This issue for example occurs if you use the vCAC Plugin, to run vCO workflows as part of vCAC lifecycle processes. Then the “workflow runner” workflow in the Library fails with the error (see screenshot)

To solve the problem, you have to install a patch, the description and the patch download you can find in the VMware KnowledgeBase:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2093444

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Import workflow package to your vCO server via command line

By
Joerg Lew
– July 10, 2014Posted in: Best-Practices, Get Started!, Tools

vCenter Orchestrator’s REST API allows not only to start and monitor workflows, but also manage the content of your vCO server. With the Packages manager of the API it’s for example possible to import workflow packages via  the API. Example to do exactly this via command line using curl:


curl --form "name=file" --form "[email protected]"  -X POST -u vcoadmin:vcoadmin -k https://172.16.96.130:8281/vco/api/packages

…with de.vcoportal.someTestPackage is the full filename of the package to upload.

See more details in the API reference documentation on https://your-vco-server:8281/vco/api/docs

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Wavemaker and vCO – The next level

By
Joerg Lew
– May 28, 2014Posted in: Wavemaker, Webviews

Remember these?

http://www.vcoportal.de/2011/11/using-wavemaker-as-web-frontend-for-vco/
http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/12/leveraging-vcd-vco-wavemaker-part-1.html
http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/12/leveraging-vcd-vco-wavemaker-part-2.html
http://mighty-virtualization.blogspot.de/2011/11/vco-wavemaker-your-cloud-webservice.html
http://mighty-virtualization.blogspot.de/2011/11/vco-wavemaker-your-cloud-webservice_24.html

Well, it has been quite a while since then, and a lot happened to Wavemaker in between:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSn7WhX5Wc0 

This week VMware released a new Fling: “Wavemaker Integration with vCenter Orchestrator”

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/wavemaker-integration-for-vcenter-orchestrator

This fling allows you to:

  • Run the included WaveOperator demo project, that provides common tasks (like start and monitor workflow execution), comparable to the weboperator webview in vCO
  • Use the widgets to create your own web interface for your workflows
  • Use the Java Services that expose the vCO API into Wavemaker projects

Sounds cool? Is cool! No more manual getting things together, but predefined wavemaker widgets for your workflows to just drag and drop into yourweb interface!

But wait, there’s more! The project is available open source on Github: https://github.com/vmware/wavemaker_integration

So you can even expand the functionality to your needs, or adopt the code for your projects.

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Must read for all vCO workflow developers

By
Joerg Lew
– May 5, 2014Posted in: Uncategorized

“Lessons in Software Reliability” is an article recently published on www.javacodegeeks.com. It gives some very valid and valuable tips for “What does it take to build reliable and stable enterprise software?”.

The content not only applies to to software development, but also to workflow development in vCO. You do want your workflow to be reliable, aren’t you?

Here’s the link: http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2011/06/lessons-in-software-reliability.html