Posted by Overview
In this post I’m going to show how to provision vRealize Automation (vRA) catalog items with Ruby. I’ll enter all the commands in the Ruby interactive console (irb) so you can enter them as you follow along and explore the environment. The steps we will take are:
- Log into vRA
- Request all of the catalog items available
- Find the one want to provision
- Extract all of the needed values from the catalog item
- Read a template file from disk and substitute the necessary values
- Request a new item
Ruby setup
If you haven’t already installed Ruby, go here https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/. I’m running Ruby ruby 2.0.0p353 on CentOS 7. Once you have Ruby installed we will need to install a couple of gems. From the command line run:
gem install rest-client
gem install multi_json
Issuing commands using Ruby’s irb
Access irb:
[chris@docker ~]$ irb
This will place you into irb where we will run our Ruby commands. I’m going to paste in the results from my irb session so that you’ll be able to see the input and output. Items in blue are input. The output is the text that follows the => characters. Sometimes the output from the commands can be long, but I’ve decided to include them so you can cross reference. For the long JSON outputs, you may want to paste into http://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/ to make the viewing easier.
Add the modules that we will need
irb(main):001:0> require ‘rest_client’
=> true
irb(main):002:0> require ‘multi_json’
=> true
irb(main):003:0> require ‘erb’
=> true
irb(main):004:0> require ‘pp’
=> true
Log into vRA
Set our login URL
irb(main):029:0> url = ‘https://vra62a.vmware.local/identity/api/tokens’
=> “https://vra62a.vmware.local/identity/api/tokens”
Create a JSON login string that will be the payload we send to the login URL
irb(main):030:0> payload = ‘{“username”:”chris@vmware”,”password”:”super password”,”tenant”:”vsphere.local”}’
=> “{\”username\”:\”chris@vmware\”,\”password\”:\”super password\”,\”tenant\”:\”vsphere.local\”}”
Execute the login request
irb(main):032:0> response = RestClient::Request.execute(:url => url, :method => :post, :payload => payload, :verify_ssl => false, :headers => { :content_type => ‘application/json’, :accept => ‘application/json’} )
=> “{\”expires\”:\”2015-02-28T17:32:57.688Z\”,\”id\”:\”MTQyNTA1ODM3NzY4ODphMzYxNGQzNjFlYmU1OTBiYzdmMzp0ZW5hbnQ6dnNwaGVyZS5sb2NhbHVzZXJuYW1lOmNocmlzQHZtd2FyZTowMzkzOTVkOTNkZTIxODJlZmM5MmU3ZDA5ZWE2ODFlYjlhOGE4ZjBkMDkyNTM0NGIwMzA4Yjg2OWM5YjgxNWUzOGVhNjZjOGQ1YmMyMDNjYzgwMTZjNDhmNzAzY2Q0NzFlMTAzNDM4MzE0Njc0N2RlZmIyOThhNzY3YWE2YjVjNQ==\”,\”tenant\”:\”vsphere.local\”}
The ‘id’ entry is our bearer token that we will need to use on future requests so let’s save it.
Convert the above response into JSON
irb(main):033:0> json_response = JSON.parse(response)
=> {“expires”=>”2015-02-28T17:32:57.688Z”, “id”=>”MTQyNTA1ODM3NzY4ODphMzYxNGQzNjFlYmU1OTBiYzdmMzp0ZW5hbnQ6dnNwaGVyZS5sb2NhbHVzZXJuYW1lOmNocmlzQHZtd2FyZTowMzkzOTVkOTNkZTIxODJlZmM5MmU3ZDA5ZWE2ODFlYjlhOGE4ZjBkMDkyNTM0NGIwMzA4Yjg2OWM5YjgxNWUzOGVhNjZjOGQ1YmMyMDNjYzgwMTZjNDhmNzAzY2Q0NzFlMTAzNDM4MzE0Njc0N2RlZmIyOThhNzY3YWE2YjVjNQ==”, “tenant”=>”vsphere.local”}
Extract the the bearer token
irb(main):034:0> bearer = json_response[‘id’]
=> “MTQyNTA1ODM3NzY4ODphMzYxNGQzNjFlYmU1OTBiYzdmMzp0ZW5hbnQ6dnNwaGVyZS5sb2NhbHVzZXJuYW1lOmNocmlzQHZtd2FyZTowMzkzOTVkOTNkZTIxODJlZmM5MmU3ZDA5ZWE2ODFlYjlhOGE4ZjBkMDkyNTM0NGIwMzA4Yjg2OWM5YjgxNWUzOGVhNjZjOGQ1YmMyMDNjYzgwMTZjNDhmNzAzY2Q0NzFlMTAzNDM4MzE0Njc0N2RlZmIyOThhNzY3YWE2YjVjNQ==”
Retrieve catalog item
irb(main):035:0> url = ‘https://vra62a.vmware.local/catalog-service/api/consumer/entitledCatalogItems’
=> “https://vra62a.vmware.local/catalog-service/api/consumer/entitledCatalogItems”
irb(main):036:0> response = RestClient::Request.execute(:url => url, :method => :get, :verify_ssl => false, :headers => { :content_type => ‘application/json’, :accept => ‘application/json’, :authorization => “Bearer #{bearer}” } )
=> “{\”links\”:[],\”content\”:[{\”@type\”:\”ConsumerEntitledCatalogItem\”,\”catalogItem\”:{\”id\”:\”c25770de-789e-474c-b261-780542cec1a4\”,\”version\”:1,\”name\”:\”RHEL_6.5_Full_Clone\”,\”description\”:\”\”,\”status\”:\”PUBLISHED\”,\”statusName\”:\”Published\”,\”organization\”:{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”tenantLabel\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:null,\”subtenantLabel\”:null},\”providerBinding\”:{\”bindingId\”:\”b374952e-f368-4b45-a8be-8d0aace542b8\”,\”providerRef\”:{\”id\”:\”84e032be-11a6-46a0-a587-16d47ccdaa89\”,\”label\”:\”iaas-service\”}},\”forms\”:null,\”callbacks\”:null,\”isNoteworthy\”:false,\”dateCreated\”:\”2015-02-24T17:47:18.398Z\”,\”lastUpdatedDate\”:\”2015-02-24T17:47:50.666Z\”,\”iconId\”:\”cafe_default_icon_genericCatalogItem\”,\”catalogItemTypeRef\”:{\”id\”:\”Infrastructure.Virtual\”,\”label\”:\”Virtual Machine\”},\”serviceRef\”:{\”id\”:\”a0d245ab-c453-4e48-b0ea-9a1d84b51c8d\”,\”label\”:\”RHEL\”},\”outputResourceTypeRef\”:{\”id\”:\”Infrastructure.Virtual\”,\”label\”:\”Virtual Machine\”}},\”entitledOrganizations\”:[{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”tenantLabel\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”,\”subtenantLabel\”:\”cloudadmin\”}]},{\”@type\”:\”ConsumerEntitledCatalogItem\”,\”catalogItem\”:{\”id\”:\”9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e\”,\”version\”:1,\”name\”:\”RHEL-Linked-Clone\”,\”description\”:\”\”,\”status\”:\”PUBLISHED\”,\”statusName\”:\”Published\”,\”organization\”:{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”tenantLabel\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:null,\”subtenantLabel\”:null},\”providerBinding\”:{\”bindingId\”:\”91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3\”,\”providerRef\”:{\”id\”:\”84e032be-11a6-46a0-a587-16d47ccdaa89\”,\”label\”:\”iaas-service\”}},\”forms\”:null,\”callbacks\”:null,\”isNoteworthy\”:false,\”dateCreated\”:\”2015-02-26T20:28:59.584Z\”,\”lastUpdatedDate\”:\”2015-02-26T20:29:48.753Z\”,\”iconId\”:\”cafe_default_icon_genericCatalogItem\”,\”catalogItemTypeRef\”:{\”id\”:\”Infrastructure.Virtual\”,\”label\”:\”Virtual Machine\”},\”serviceRef\”:{\”id\”:\”a0d245ab-c453-4e48-b0ea-9a1d84b51c8d\”,\”label\”:\”RHEL\”},\”outputResourceTypeRef\”:{\”id\”:\”Infrastructure.Virtual\”,\”label\”:\”Virtual Machine\”}},\”entitledOrganizations\”:[{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”tenantLabel\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”,\”subtenantLabel\”:\”cloudadmin\”}]}],\”metadata\”:{\”size\”:20,\”totalElements\”:2,\”totalPages\”:1,\”number\”:1,\”offset\”:0}}”
irb(main):037:0> catalog_items = JSON.parse(response)
=> {“links”=>[], “content”=>[{“@type”=>”ConsumerEntitledCatalogItem”, “catalogItem”=>{“id”=>”c25770de-789e-474c-b261-780542cec1a4”, “version”=>1, “name”=>”RHEL_6.5_Full_Clone”, “description”=>””, “status”=>”PUBLISHED”, “statusName”=>”Published”, “organization”=>{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>nil, “subtenantLabel”=>nil}, “providerBinding”=>{“bindingId”=>”b374952e-f368-4b45-a8be-8d0aace542b8”, “providerRef”=>{“id”=>”84e032be-11a6-46a0-a587-16d47ccdaa89”, “label”=>”iaas-service”}}, “forms”=>nil, “callbacks”=>nil, “isNoteworthy”=>false, “dateCreated”=>”2015-02-24T17:47:18.398Z”, “lastUpdatedDate”=>”2015-02-24T17:47:50.666Z”, “iconId”=>”cafe_default_icon_genericCatalogItem”, “catalogItemTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}, “serviceRef”=>{“id”=>”a0d245ab-c453-4e48-b0ea-9a1d84b51c8d”, “label”=>”RHEL”}, “outputResourceTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}}, “entitledOrganizations”=>[{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a”, “subtenantLabel”=>”cloudadmin”}]}, {“@type”=>”ConsumerEntitledCatalogItem”, “catalogItem”=>{“id”=>”9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e”, “version”=>1, “name”=>”RHEL-Linked-Clone”, “description”=>””, “status”=>”PUBLISHED”, “statusName”=>”Published”, “organization”=>{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>nil, “subtenantLabel”=>nil}, “providerBinding”=>{“bindingId”=>”91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3”, “providerRef”=>{“id”=>”84e032be-11a6-46a0-a587-16d47ccdaa89”, “label”=>”iaas-service”}}, “forms”=>nil, “callbacks”=>nil, “isNoteworthy”=>false, “dateCreated”=>”2015-02-26T20:28:59.584Z”, “lastUpdatedDate”=>”2015-02-26T20:29:48.753Z”, “iconId”=>”cafe_default_icon_genericCatalogItem”, “catalogItemTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}, “serviceRef”=>{“id”=>”a0d245ab-c453-4e48-b0ea-9a1d84b51c8d”, “label”=>”RHEL”}, “outputResourceTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}}, “entitledOrganizations”=>[{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a”, “subtenantLabel”=>”cloudadmin”}]}], “metadata”=>{“size”=>20, “totalElements”=>2, “totalPages”=>1, “number”=>1, “offset”=>0}}
Find the catalog item that we want to provision
Here I’m going to retrieve the catalog item with the name of ‘RHEL-Linked-Clone’
irb(main):038:0> catalog_item = catalog_items[‘content’].find { |catalogItem| catalogItem[‘catalogItem’][‘name’] == ‘RHEL-Linked-Clone’ }
=> {“@type”=>”ConsumerEntitledCatalogItem”, “catalogItem”=>{“id”=>”9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e”, “version”=>1, “name”=>”RHEL-Linked-Clone”, “description”=>””, “status”=>”PUBLISHED”, “statusName”=>”Published”, “organization”=>{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>nil, “subtenantLabel”=>nil}, “providerBinding”=>{“bindingId”=>”91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3”, “providerRef”=>{“id”=>”84e032be-11a6-46a0-a587-16d47ccdaa89”, “label”=>”iaas-service”}}, “forms”=>nil, “callbacks”=>nil, “isNoteworthy”=>false, “dateCreated”=>”2015-02-26T20:28:59.584Z”, “lastUpdatedDate”=>”2015-02-26T20:29:48.753Z”, “iconId”=>”cafe_default_icon_genericCatalogItem”, “catalogItemTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}, “serviceRef”=>{“id”=>”a0d245ab-c453-4e48-b0ea-9a1d84b51c8d”, “label”=>”RHEL”}, “outputResourceTypeRef”=>{“id”=>”Infrastructure.Virtual”, “label”=>”Virtual Machine”}}, “entitledOrganizations”=>[{“tenantRef”=>”vsphere.local”, “tenantLabel”=>”vsphere.local”, “subtenantRef”=>”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a”, “subtenantLabel”=>”cloudadmin”}]}
Substitute our template values into our request template
irb(main):039:0> @catalogItemId = catalog_item[‘catalogItem’][‘id’]
=> “9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e”
irb(main):040:0> @tenantName = catalog_item[‘catalogItem’][‘organization’][‘tenantRef’]
=> “vsphere.local”
irb(main):041:0> @businessGroupId = catalog_item[‘entitledOrganizations’][0][‘subtenantRef’]
=> “817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a”
irb(main):042:0> @blueprintId = catalog_item[‘catalogItem’][‘providerBinding’][‘bindingId’]
=> “91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3”
irb(main):043:0> @username = ‘chris@vmware.local’
=> “chris@vmware.local”
irb(main):044:0> @cpuCount = 1
=> 1
irb(main):045:0> @memorySize = 512
=> 512
irb(main):046:0> @leaseDays = 30
=> 30
irb(main):047:0> @notes = ‘Provisioned via Ruby’
=> “Provisioned via Ruby”
irb(main):048:0> @disk0Size = ’10’
=> “10”
irb(main):049:0> @disk0Letter = ‘C’
=> “C”
irb(main):050:0> @disk0Label = ‘main’
=> “main”
Insert our request information into the catalog request template
I’m using Ruby’s templating system ERB. I’ve created a file called ‘catalogRequest.erb’ on my filesystem with the contents of:
{
"@type": "CatalogItemRequest",
"catalogItemRef": {
"id": "<%= @catalogItemId %>"
},
"organization": {
"tenantRef": "<%= @tenantName %>",
"subtenantRef": "<%= @businessGroupId %>"
},
"requestedFor": "<%= @username %>",
"state": "SUBMITTED",
"requestNumber": 0,
"requestData": {
"entries": [{
"key": "provider-blueprintId",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @blueprintId %>"
}
},
{
"key": "provider-provisioningGroupId",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @businessGroupId %>"
}
},
{
"key": "requestedFor",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @username %>"
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.CPU.Count",
"value": {
"type": "integer",
"value": <%= @cpuCount %>
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.Memory.Size",
"value": {
"type": "integer",
"value": <%= @memorySize %>
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.LeaseDays",
"value": {
"type": "integer",
"value": <%= @leaseDays %>
}
},
{
"key": "provider-__Notes",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @notes %>"
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @disk0Size %>"
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Letter",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @disk0Letter %>"
}
},
{
"key": "provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Label",
"value": {
"type": "string",
"value": "<%= @disk0Label %>"
}
}]
}
}
Each of the bolded items such as @blueprintId will be replaced by our locally defined variables.
Read in the request
irb(main):051:0> request = File.read(‘catalogRequest.erb’)
Substitute in our values
irb(main):053:0> erb_request = ERB.new(request).result()
Convert the request to JSON
irb(main):054:0> json_request = JSON.parse(erb_request).to_json
=> “{\”@type\”:\”CatalogItemRequest\”,\”catalogItemRef\”:{\”id\”:\”9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e\”},\”organization\”:{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”},\”requestedFor\”:\”chris@vmware.local\”,\”state\”:\”SUBMITTED\”,\”requestNumber\”:0,\”requestData\”:{\”entries\”:[{\”key\”:\”provider-blueprintId\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-provisioningGroupId\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”}},{\”key\”:\”requestedFor\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”chris@vmware.local\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.CPU.Count\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:1}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Memory.Size\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:512}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.LeaseDays\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:30}},{\”key\”:\”provider-__Notes\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”Provisioned via Ruby\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”10\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Letter\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”C\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Label\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”main\”}}]}}”
Make the catalog item request
Set the request URL
irb(main):055:0> url = ‘https://vra62a.vmware.local/catalog-service/api/consumer/requests’
=> “https://vra62a.vmware.local/catalog-service/api/consumer/requests”
Assign our prepared JSON request into the payload variable
irb(main):056:0> payload = json_request
=> “{\”@type\”:\”CatalogItemRequest\”,\”catalogItemRef\”:{\”id\”:\”9f5c66e6-43c1-4a6b-aa9f-d0199b2bd21e\”},\”organization\”:{\”tenantRef\”:\”vsphere.local\”,\”subtenantRef\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”},\”requestedFor\”:\”chris@vmware.local\”,\”state\”:\”SUBMITTED\”,\”requestNumber\”:0,\”requestData\”:{\”entries\”:[{\”key\”:\”provider-blueprintId\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”91493798-353c-43e6-9912-d8e5e328bbc3\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-provisioningGroupId\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”817a772c-6401-4243-84e1-0dc5ae4a074a\”}},{\”key\”:\”requestedFor\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”chris@vmware.local\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.CPU.Count\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:1}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Memory.Size\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:512}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.LeaseDays\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”integer\”,\”value\”:30}},{\”key\”:\”provider-__Notes\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”Provisioned via Ruby\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”10\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Letter\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”C\”}},{\”key\”:\”provider-VirtualMachine.Disk0.Label\”,\”value\”:{\”type\”:\”string\”,\”value\”:\”main\”}}]}}”
Execute the catalog item request. If you receive no response (“”), then the request was valid
irb(main):057:0> response = RestClient::Request.execute(:url => url, :method => :post, :payload => payload, :verify_ssl => false, :headers => { :content_type => ‘application/json’, :accept => ‘application/json’, :authorization => “Bearer #{bearer}” } )
=> “”
You should now be able to see the request in vRA and eventually your VM:
orchestration.io 