This guide has now been updated to refer to the latest version of VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator.

What is VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator?

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VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator (Orchestrator) is a a (mostly) GUI based application which can help you automate and orchestrate a wide range of tasks. Originally an application called Dunes Virtual Services Orchestrator, the company Dunes Technologies was purchased by VMware in 2007. Something of a hidden-gem, Orchestrator has since been included as part of vSphere and/or Aria Automation entitlements.

How can Orchestrator help you?

Orchestrator is an automation and Orchestration solution. You write Workflows which can then be executed. There are a number of pre-canned workflows which can be dragged-and dropped onto a new workflow to execute in sequence. Workflows can have multiple inputs, and you can make some reasonably presentable, dynamic and simple-to-use forms.

This allows you to run simple tasks (“Snapshot a machine”) to more complex, layered solutions with a number of external dependencies. Being VMware, it excels at managing vSphere machines, but it also provides a number of other integrations.

What can I automate with Orchestrator?

Out of the box Orchestrator offers functionality to integrate with a number of VMware Products (vSphere, vRealize Aria Automation, NSX) as well as Active Directory. There are also a number of plugins available for other vendor’s products (such as F5 and Infoblox).

If you can’t find a plugin for your exact requirements, Orchestrator also has the ability to execute PowerShell and SSH on hosts, as well as making SOAP/REST calls to anything with an API.

Assumptions

  • I’m going to assume you’ve got as far as having a working Orchestrator server, and you can get logged-in via the web interface.

Your first Orchestrator Workflow

  1. After logging in, you should be on the dashboard. This shows an overview of the various workflows running on your system.
  2. On the panel to the right, select Workflows
  3. Let’s create a folder for your new work. In the right-panel, click + NEW FOLDER. Give your folder a name, and click SAVE. Select your new folder in the navigation pane on the left. + NEW FOLDER
  4. Now we’ll create a workflow inside that folder. Click + NEW WORKFLOW. Name your new workflow Hello World, and click CREATE. + NEW WORKFLOW New workflow dialog
  5. The workflow will now be opened for editing. On the Summary tab. you can see (among some other things) the Workflow name and Description Summary tab
  6. Select the Schema tab. You should see a Scriptable Task in the left pane (if not, search for it). Drag it from that window into the blue line between the green start arrow and the end target
  7. Click the Scriptable Task, and in the panel to the far right, select the Scripting tab Scripting tab
  8. Enter the following: System.log("Hello, world!");
  9. Click SAVE confirm your changes
  10. Click RUN arrow above the editing panel
  11. Click the Logs panel, you should see something like this 
    2023-11-30 13:19:08.388 +00:00INFO __item_stack:/item1
2023-11-30 13:19:08.391 +00:00INFO Hello, world!
2023-11-30 13:19:08.400 +00:00INFO __item_stack:/item0
  12. Click CLOSE, then CLOSE again.

Adding inputs

  1. Back in the Workflows view, click DUPLICATE in the top-right. You should see a new workflow being created called Copy of Hello World
  2. Select Copy of Hello World and click EDIT
  3. Change the Workflow name to Hello you.
  4. Select the Inputs/Outputs tab
  5. Click NEW and create a new Input, set the name to name, leave the type as String. (The Array box should be unchecked).
  6. Click the Schema tab again, click on the Scriptable Task
  7. Expand the Inputs/Outputs section and click the +, select name from the drop-down
  8. Switch to the Scripting tab, update your script to the following: System.log("Hello " + name);. You’ll see that name is in green
  9. Click SAVE and confirm your changes
  10. Click RUN, this time you should get a dialog prompting you to enter your name, type it in, and press RUN.
  11. Click the Logs tab, you should see something like this 
    2023-11-30 13:29:25.450 +00:00INFO__item_stack:/item1
2023-11-30 13:29:25.453 +00:00INFOHello Ben
2023-11-30 13:29:25.464 +00:00INFO__item_stack:/item0
If you're using a shared environment, remember to remove your workflows!

Next steps

I’ll add another post soon where you can get the workflow to do something more interesting/useful.