Data collection Catalog Item in VRA

• Thu, Jan 4, 2018
• 2-minute read

One of the tasks, i often en up doing, when i work with vRealize Automation (vRA), is doing a catalog scan. The Catalog scan, checks for changes in my endpoints. This could be new templates, snapshots etc. hat i need in my blueprints.

To do this manually, you have to go to Infrastructure -> Compute Ressources -> Your endpoint -> Data collection -> Request now (under inventory).

Since i’m lazy, I wanted to do this more easy.
Som time ago, my colleague Henrik, made a XAAS service, that did just that, and due to reinstall etc. we lost that option. Today i decided to do this again, and thought i would share how it’s done.

It’s really easy to do, and might show you some of the value around vRA, and how powerfull it can be.

Out of the box, the Orchestrator (vRO) instance in the vRA appliance, has a workflow, that does exactly what i need.

The workflow requires a IAAS host to be configured in vRO, so i started by running the workflow “Add an IaaS host”

I then duplicated the workflow, to my VRA Production folder, so i’m able to edit the workflow, and also so i have the finished workflows, in the same folder, for easier management.

I renamed the workflow to VRA Data Collection, selected edit.

I then selected the input, and changed it to a attribute, since I want this as a static input, that the user don’t have to choose.

I then changed the attribute, to be my Iaas host, and then i closed the workflow.

Back to vRA I selected Design -> Xaas Blueprints and created a new blueprint, selecting the workflow, we just edited.

I hide the request page, since there is no reason to show that, and then I published the blueprint, in my catalog, just like i would do with any other blueprint.

So now i can chose my VRA Data Collection blueprint, every time I want to do a collection, rather than find the option, by clicking thru vRA.