5.5.1

Table Of Contents
Introduction to VMware vCenter
Orchestrator 2
VMware vCenter Orchestrator is a development- and process-automation platform that provides a library of
extensible workflows to allow you to create and run automated, configurable processes to manage the
VMware vSphere infrastructure as well as other VMware and third-party technologies.
Orchestrator exposes every operation in the vCenter Server API, allowing you to integrate all of these
operations into your automated processes. Orchestrator also allows you to integrate with other management
and administration solutions through its open plug-in architecture.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Key Features of the Orchestrator Platform,” on page 11
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“Orchestrator User Types and Related Responsibilities,” on page 12
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“Orchestrator Architecture,” on page 13
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“Orchestrator Plug-Ins,” on page 14
Key Features of the Orchestrator Platform
Orchestrator is composed of three distinct layers: an orchestration platform that provides the common
features required for an orchestration tool, a plug-in architecture to integrate control of subsystems, and a
library of workflows. Orchestrator is an open platform that can be extended with new plug-ins and libraries,
and can be integrated into larger architectures through a SOAP or REST API.
The following list presents the key Orchestrator features.
Persistence
Production grade external databases are used to store relevant information,
such as processes, workflow states, and configuration information.
Central management
Orchestrator provides a central way to manage your processes. The
application server-based platform, with full version history, allows you to
have scripts and process-related primitives in one place. This way, you can
avoid scripts without versioning and proper change control spread on your
servers.
Check-pointing
Every step of a workflow is saved in the database, which allows you to
restart the server without losing state and context. This feature is especially
useful for long-running processes.
Versioning
All Orchestrator Platform objects have an associated version history. This
feature allows basic change management when distributing processes to
different project stages or locations.
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