Category Archives: Windows Server Build Automation

Summary/Use Cases:

This workflow can be used to automatically choose the appropriate ESXi cluster to deploy your virtual machine.  Using a switch statement for “environment’, different cases are defined for each environment within vCenter.  In this workflow, there are DEV and QA cluster examples.  When the environment input equals “ninja_Dev”, the host, folder, resource pools, etc will be populated with the values you defined in the cases.

Inputs:

• environment: Type = String

Outputs:

• network: Type = VC:Network
• host: Type = VC:HostSystem
• datastore=VC:Datastore
• resourcePool=VC:ResourcePool
• folder=VC:VmFolder
• dnsServers=Array/string
• dvPortgroup=VC:DistributedPortGroup
• domainCreds=Credential

The Workflow:

The Code:

As you can see there is only a scriptable task within the workflow using the switch statement

switch(environment) {

//------Ninja Dev Environment------
case "ninja_Dev":
host = ninjaDEV_Host;
folder = ninjaDEV_Folder;
datastore = ninjaDEV_Datastore;
resourcePool = ninjaDEV_ResourcePool;
network = ninjaDEV_Network;
dnsServers = ninja_Dev_QA_Prod_DNS;
dvPortGroup = ninjaDEV_PortGroup;
domainCreds = ninjaComCreds;
System.log("Host is: " + host);

break ;
//------End of Ninja Dev Environment------

//------Ninja QA Environment------
case "ninja_QA":
host = ninjaQA_Host;
folder = ninjaQA_Folder;
datastore = ninjaQA_Datastore;
resourcePool = ninjaQA_ResourcePool;
network = ninjaQA_Network;
dnsServers = ninja_Dev_QA_Prod_DNS;
dvPortGroup = ninjaQA_PortGroup;
domainCreds = ninjaQaCreds;
System.log("Host is: " + host);

break ;
//------End of ninja QA Environment------

}

System.log(host);

Summary/Use Cases:

This workflow can be used to automatically generate a server name in your environment.  With the inputs given, it generates the next unused name available.  In my case, I used partial name because we have different environments (Prod, Dev, QA).

Inputs:

• partialname: Type = String
• domainSuffix: Type = String

Outputs:

• vmName: Type = String
• fqdnout: Type = String

The Workflow:

The Code:

As you can see there is only a scriptable task within the workflow.

// Read temp server name list - prepare to invoke file writing capabilities if needed
var fr = new FileReader("D:\\VCOInstallationPath\\Windows\\IPReservation\\NamesReserved.txt");
var fw = new FileWriter("D:\\VCOInstallationPath\\Windows\\IPReservation\\NamesReserved.txt");

fr.open();
var content = fr.readAll();
fr.close();

// Initialize variables
var number = 1 ;
var temphost = 0 ; // If we don't set temphost to zero, we break out of for loop imediatley
// Function to pad zeros on number that we increment while number is less then 10
function padzero(number) {
return (number < 10 ? '0' : '') + number
}

// increment through hostnames unitil we find a hostname that does not exist

System.log("Your partial name is: " + partialname) ;
System.log("Starting loop --- ") ;

for (number=1; temphost != null; number++)
{
var padded_number=padzero(number) ;
var vmName = partialname + padded_number;

if(content.search(vmName) <0)
{
System.log("Server name: " + vmName + " not found in master list. Recording new name and continuing.") ;
fw.open() ;
fw.writeLine(" " + vmName) ;
fw.close() ;
var fqdn = vmName + "." + domainSuffix ;
var temphost = System.resolveHostName(fqdn) ;
System.log(temphost);
System.log("A host by the name of " + fqdn + " exists with the IP address of: " + temphost) ;
System.sleep(500) ;
}
else
{
System.log("Server Name: " + vmName + " found in master list - Incrementing with next number and starting over") ;
temphost != null ;
}
}

// Log for debuging purposes
//Output FQDN
fqdnout = fqdn;

System.log("") ;
System.log("The vmName to pass as output is: " + vmName);
System.log("The FQDN to use is: " + fqdn) ;