You might think that depending on which version or installation of Orchestrator you use, things will be different. Well, they're not. Have a look at the following figure:

Orchestrator is the central part of any automation effort.

If you plan to use vRealize Automation, it is best to read the introduction to Chapter 7, Working with VMware Infrastructure, first before diving deeper. vRealize Automation just leverages Orchestrator workflows and plugins. Check out Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator, to understand how to access Orchestrator and then follow the vSphere Automation path.

If you plan to automate your vSphere infrastructure, you can dive straight into Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator, and then check out the introduction in Chapter 7, Working with VMware Infrastructure, as well as the first recipe for vCenter in the same chapter.

You should definitely read all the chapter introductions as they contain valuable information for beginners as well as advanced readers.

If you are new to Orchestrator, start at Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator, and then move on to Chapter 5, Basic Orchestrator Operations, and finally Chapter 3, Visual Programming. This will give you a very good start.

Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator, shows you how to install, configure, and access the various Orchestrator installation types.

Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration, dives into more specialized setups, such as clusters, and how to tune the Orchestrator appliance.

Chapter 3, Visual Programming, introduces and dives into the visual programming of Orchestrator.

Chapter 4, Working with Plugins, showcases how to use the different plugins of Orchestrator with detailed examples.

Chapter 5, Basic Orchestrator Operations, teaches you how to operate Orchestrator, working with user management, packages, and more.

Chapter 6, Advanced Operations, dives into more advanced operations such as language packs, resources, and policies.

Chapter 7, Working with VMware Infrastructure, teaches you how to automate the vSphere infrastructure as well as use Orchestrator workflows in vRealize Orchestrator.

This book covers a lot of ground and discusses the interactions with a lot of other infrastructure services such as AD, e-mail, the vSphere infrastructure, and vRealize Automation.

You can use this book with Orchestrator versions 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5 as well as with the renamed version, vRealize Orchestrator (5.5.2.x, 6.0, and newer).

The requirements differ from chapter to chapter. For Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator, and Chapter 2, Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration, you just require some space on your virtual infrastructure to deploy Orchestrator and maybe a working vCenter. Everything in Chapter 3, Visual Programming, can be accomplished with only the Orchestrator appliance; however, it's more fun with a vCenter around. Chapter 4, Working with Plugins, will require some more infrastructure such as e-mail, AD, REST, SOAP, SNMP, and AMQP. Chapter 5, Basic Orchestrator Operations, and Chapter 6, Advanced Operations, require mostly only Orchestrator and a working vCenter structure. For Chapter 7, Working with VMware Infrastructure, you will require a fully operational vCenter. A vRealize Automation installation is only needed if you are planning to use this product.

Some readers might not have all the resources or infrastructure to rebuild or play with some of the recipes; however, I'm sometimes in the same boat. As a consultant, I travel a lot, so while writing this book, I used this little mini lab. It isn't fast or fancy but it does the trick.

My mini lab consists of a laptop with Windows 7 Pro and VMware Workstation 10 on an Intel i7 quad core (3.4 GHz) with 8 GB RAM. My base VMs look like this:

This book addresses the novice as well as the advanced VMware enthusiast. No previous know-how about Orchestrator is needed. The structure of this book is laid out so that a novice can start at the beginning and work his way through the chapters building up know-how in Orchestrator. An advanced user with knowledge of Orchestrator can just jump into any recipe. Most recipes are linked to other recipes or to external sources for more in-depth understanding or usage of a given concept.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The AD domain is called mylab.local."

A block of code is set as follows:

var current = new Date();
return current;

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

configurationElement.setAttributeWithKey(Key, Value);

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id snmp --allowed-all true --enabled true
esxcli network firewall refresh

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click on Test Connection and make sure it works."

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.