Using automation with Virtual Machine Clouds

You can use automation in Windows Azure Pack to orchestrate and integrate best-practice tasks to drive down the cost of datacenter operations, while improving the reliability of IT processes. You can integrate Service Management Automation with VM Clouds to trigger runbooks every time a specific event occurred in the VM Clouds infrastructure. The topic Register Service Management Automation for Virtual Machine Clouds provides instructions on how to associate VM Clouds with Service Management Automation. This topic provides instructions on how to associate Service Management Automation runbooks with events occurring in the context of VM Clouds. If you want to understand how VM Clouds integrates with Service Management Automation at an architectural level, see How is Service Provider Foundation associated with Service Management Automation?

Note

For VM Clouds to trigger runbooks in Service Management Automation, the Service Management Automation web service certificate must be trusted on the computer running Service Provider Foundation.

To associate runbooks with events in VM Clouds

1.   From the management portal for administrators, click the VM Clouds tab.

2.   From the VM Clouds tab, click the Automation view.

3.   From the Automation view, from the command bar, click Add, and specify the following:

a.   For Object, select a VM Clouds object, an action on which triggers a Runbook. For the list of objects and the descriptions, see Objects that can be associated with runbooks.

b.   For Action, select the action that must occur on the selected object for a Runbook to be triggered.

c.   For Runbook, select the Runbook that is triggered every time the specified action occurs on the selected object.

Note

For a Runbook to be available in this drop-down, it must include the “SPF” tag. For instructions on how to tag Runbooks, see Editing Runbook Properties. If you are using a non-Roman alphabet keyboard, repeat the following steps three times to include the “SPF” tag:

 

i.    Press and hold the ALT key.

ii.    Press the + key on the number pad.

iii.   Type the Unicode value 0053 for the letter S.

iv.   Release the ALT key.

v.   Repeat these steps two more times by typing values 0050 (for P) and 0046 (for F).

d.   Select the Enable checkbox to enable the association between the object, the action, and the Runbook. This check box can be particularly useful in scenarios where you want the association between the runbooks and events in VM Clouds to come into effect at a later date or time.

e.   Click the check mark to save your changes.

Objects that can be associated with runbooks

The following table lists the objects that can be associated with runbooks, and their description.

·      Objects with the MicrosoftCompute prefix are for Azure compatible virtual machine roles.

·      Objects with the SPF prefix are for actions related to admin API/portal.

·      Objects with the VMM prefix are for actions against the tenant API/portal.

·      Object with no prefix denotes the RDFE/portal object for new subscriptions.

 

Object

Description

MicrosoftCompute CloudService

Represents a container for VMRole. Multiple VM roles can be created under a CloudService.

MicrosoftCompute VM

Represents a child VM within a VM role.

MicrosoftCompute VMRole

Represents the scalable tier for peer VM nodes

MicrosoftCompute VMRoleVMDisk

Represents the disks attached to a VMRole.

SPF Orchestrator Event Registration

The object that creates a mapping between an event in the API and the associated automation.

SPF Role

Represents a user role that maps to an SSU (self-service user) in VMM.

SPF Server

Represents any server registered with SPF.

SPF SpfSetting

Represents a connection string for either a database connection or for a portal endpoint connection to an Operations Manager data warehouse.

SPF Stamp

Represents a VMM server or stamp

SPF Tenant

Represents a tenant and is created every time a tenant is created.

SPF TrustedIssuer

Represents a trusted party used for claims-based authentication.

SPF VM

Represents a virtual machine object.

SPF VMRole

Represents a virtual machine role object.

SPF VMRoleGalleryItem

Represents a gallery item object that encapsulates the template using which multi-node VM tiers can be created.

Subscription

Represents a subscription objects that is created every time a tenant subscribes to a plan

VMM BGPPeer

Represents the border gateway protocol

VMM HardwareProfile

Represents the hardware profiles in VMM the define the hardware attributes of a VM

VMM Job

Represents a task in VMM and indicates the status of operation in VMM.

VMM NATConnection

Represents a container of NATRule objects.

VMM NATRule

Represents the inbound port-mapping rule for a VM network.

VMM RunAsAccount

Represents the VMM RunAs account.

VMM Service

Represents a VMM service.

VMM ServiceTemplate

Represents a VMM service template.

VMM StaticIPAddressPool

Represents a VMM static IP address pool.

VMM UserRole

Represents a VMM user role. A user role can be self-service user, tenant admin, or administrator. This object can be used for applying permissions and scopes.

VMM VirtualDiskDrive

Represents a VMM virtual disk drive.

VMM VirtualDVDDrive

Represents a VMM virtual DVD drive.

VMM VirtualMachine

Represents a standalone virtual machine.

VMM VirtualNetworkAdapter

Represents a VMM virtual network adapter (vNIC).

VMM VirtualSCSIAdapter

Represents a VMM virtual SCSI adapter.

VMM VMCheckpoint

Represents a VMM checkpoint.

VMM VMNetwork

Represents a VM network or a virtual network. A virtual machine is connected to a VM network using a virtual network adapter (vNIC).

VMM VMNetworkGateway

Represents a VMM network gateway. A gateway allows border gateway protocol, NAT, and VPN to be configured on a VM network.

VMM VMSubnet

Represents a VM subnet and defines subnet ranges within a VM network.

VMM VMTemplate

Represents a VMM virtual machine template used to create virtual machines.

VMM VPNConnection

Represents a VMM VPN connection. This is mapped to the site-to-site VPN connection in the portal. It allows virtual machines on a VM network to connect remotely to another site.

VMM VPNNetworkRoute

Represents a VMM VPN network route. Routes allow virtual machines on a VM network to be able to locate other computers on the remote network on the other end of the VPN connection.

 

See Also

Administer Virtual Machine Clouds