7.4

Table 3‑50. Life Cycle Actions (Continued)
Life Cycle Actions Description
Start Start your software. For example, you might start the Tomcat service using the start command in the
Tomcat server. Start scripts run after the configure action completes.
Update If you are designing your software component to support scalable blueprints, handle any updates that
are required after a scale in or scale out operation. For example, you might change the cluster size for
a scaled deployment and manage the clustered nodes using a load balancer. Design your update
scripts to run multiple times (idempotent) and to handle both the scale in and the scale out cases.
When a scale operation is performed, update scripts run on all dependent software components.
Uninstall Uninstall your software. For example, you might perform specific actions in the application before a
deployment is destroyed. Uninstall scripts run whenever software components are destroyed.
Select the Reboot checkbox for any script that requires you to reboot the machine. After the script runs,
the machine reboots before starting the next life cycle script. Verify that no processes are prompting for
user interaction when the action script is running. Interruptions pause the script, causing it to remain in an
idle state indefinitely, eventually failing. Additionally, your scripts must include proper exit codes that are
applicable to the application deployment. If the script lacks exit and return codes, the last command that
ran in the script becomes the exit status. Exit and return codes vary between the supported script types,
Bash, Windows CMD, PowerShell.
Script Type Success Status Error Status Unsupported Commands
Bash
n
return 0
n
exit 0
n
return non-zero
n
exit non-zero
None
Windows CMD
exit /b 0 exit /b non-zero
Do not use exit 0 or exit non-zero codes.
PowerShell
exit 0 exit non-zero;
Do not use warning, verbose, debug, or host calls.
Designing XaaS Blueprints and Resource Actions
The XaaS blueprints can be published as catalog items or used in the blueprint design canvas. The
resource actions are actions that you run on deployed items.
XaaS uses vRealize Orchestrator to run workflows that provision items or run actions. For example, you
can configure the workflows to create vSphere virtual machines, Active Directory users in groups, or run
PowerShell scripts. If you create a custom vRealize Orchestrator workflow, you can provide that workflow
as an item in the service catalog so that the entitled users can run the workflow.
You can use an XaaS blueprint as a component in a blueprint that you create in the design canvas, or you
can publish it directly to the service catalog.
If you use a blueprint as a component in another blueprint, you can configure it to scale when the
deployed blueprint is scaled in or out.
vRealize Orchestrator Integration in vRealize Automation
vRealize Orchestrator is the workflow engine integrated in vRealize Automation.
Configuring vRealize Automation
VMware, Inc. 447