Starting with VCF on VxRail 4.3, Dell and VMware co-engineered a new way of submit workflows in VCF on VxRail. The VCF on VxRail 4.3 Release Notes call out this enhancement as workflow improvements for better VxRail integration. It is also commonly referred to as Workflow Optimization or WFO.
There are two types of WFO methods – WFO Script and WFO UI. Dell and VMware are working on feature parity between these two methods while the WFO UI continues to add features. The script can be downloaded from SDDC Manager’s Developer Center under the Code Samples tab. There will be a download option for VCF on VxRail Workflow Optimization where the tar file can be downloaded and then uploaded and extracted into SDDC Manager.
There are times when using the WFO script, where something may interrupt the user from completing the process. That might be a phone call, an accidentally closed SSH session, failed validation, and so on…you get the idea. The good news is, just before validation is about to begin the JSON payload for creating the workload domain will be displayed on the screen. Copy this into your favorite text editor and update the passwords from ****** to the real password. Now, let’s get to the operational (fun) part of the post!
Verify Validation via API
If validation has completed there will be a validation ID associated with it. That validation ID can be used to verify whether or not the validation was successful. Login to SDDC Manager and select Developer Center from the left side of the screen. There will be three tabs at the top of the screen, select API Explorer. In the search field, type Domains and hit enter which will filter the available API calls. Since we are verifying whether or not the validation was successful, we need to navigate to GET /v1/domains/validations/{id} where the {id} is the validation ID provided by the WFO script. Input the validation ID into the id (required) value text box and select the button to continue. The response will provide a JSON formatted payload that will display all the validations that were done and whether they were successful or not.
Note: If the validation failed for some reason and there is no validation ID, then the POST /v1/domains/validations/ API can be used along with the payload that has been copied. To do this paste the JSON payload that was copied, into the domainCreationSpec (required) value text box and select the button to continue. The steps in the previous paragraph can then be used to verify the validation’s success.
Workload Domain API
Assumedly by moving to this section, that means validation was successful! Now we need to submit the domain creation workflow. To do this, navigate to POST /v1/domains and paste the copied JSON payload into the domainCreationSpec (required) value text box, and select the button to continue. The response should return a task ID associated with the domain creation, and the task will now display at the bottom of the screen in the tasks pane. From here all actions can be performed via SDDC Manager’s UI. Once complete the navigation bar will display task status as successful and the newly created workload domain will show as ACTIVE.
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