WilliamLam.com

Automated Initial Configuration of VCF Operations 9 using CASA API

by // 1 Comment

If you have recently followed my automated deployment of the VCF Operations 9.0 OVA, you might also be interested in automating the initial setup wizard that appears when you first access the appliance in a browser, as shown in the screenshot below.


Funny enough, this was a topic I had originally planned to cover back in 2014 using the vRealize Operations Cluster and Slice Administration (CASA) API, but I never got to Part 3 of the blog post. 😅

The CASA APIs are still applicable in VCF Operations 9.0 and are now better documented. You can access the built in API documentation by navigating to https://vcf02.vcf.lab/casa/api-guide.html (replace the FQDN with your deployment) which includes example requests, which are always helpful when learning how to use a new API!


To demonstrate the use of the VCF Operations CASA API to automate the initial configuration, I have created a simple PowerShell script that you can use and extend.

[Read more...]

Automated Deployment of VCF Operations 9 OVA

by // 1 Comment

After receiving an email asking about automating the deployment of VCF Operations 9.0 using the OVA image, I remembered that I had previously written a blog post on this topic back in 2014. Revisiting that article, it was clear the content needed to be refreshed, especially the OVF properties used within the script.

Since I have a written (not using AI) numerous deployment scripts over the years, I was able to quickly adapt the VCF Operations 9.0 changes and also enhance it a bit further.

Here is both PowerShell (using PowerCLI) and Bash Script (using OVFTool) to automate the deployment of VCF Operations 9.0 OVA


In addition to deploying the VCF Operations OVA, it will power on the appliance and wait for the /admin URL endpoint to be ready before completing.

Note: Since the bash script uses OVFTool, there is a hidden OVF property that allows you to enable SSH if you need. This option is not available with the PowerShell script.

For additional VCF Operations configurations post-deployment, you can refer to the VCF Operations API.

Automating the Retrieval of VCF Installer Deployment Milestones

by // Leave a Comment

When deploying a new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) instance, whether converting an existing vSphere based environment or deploying a net new setup, the VCF Installer provides a graphical view of the current milestones and the individual tasks within each milestone.


While you likely will not sit and watch the progress of each step, you may want to retrieve the the progress programmatically, which can be accomplished by using the VCF Installer API.

Similar to the VCF Installer UI, we can also retrieve the individual milestones and get some additional useful information such as the start and end time for a given milestone. This can be handy if you want to understand how long each milestone is taking, which is not a view you can quickly find in the UI. To understand the duration for a given milestone with the UI, you need to look at the first and last task to understand the milestone duration.

[Read more...]