7.2

Catalog Items
Users can browse the service catalog for catalog items that they are entitled to request.
Some catalog items result in an item being provisioned that the user can manage through its life cycle. For
example, an application developer can request storage as a service, then later add capacity, request backups,
and restore previous backups.
Other catalog items do not result in provisioned items. For example, a cell phone user can submit a request
for additional minutes on a mobile plan. The request initiates a workow that adds minutes to the plan. The
user can track the request as it progresses, but cannot manage the minutes after they are added.
Some catalog items are available only in a specic business group, other catalog items are shared between
business groups in the same tenant.
Actions
Actions are operations that you can perform on provisioned items.
Users can manage their provisioned items on the Items tab. The View Details option is always present in
the Actions menu. Additional options might be available depending on the type of item and the user's
entitlements. For example, Power On can be available for machines but not for HR services such as
provisioning a new hire.
You can perform request actions and immediate actions. Request actions initiate requests, which you can
track on the Requests tab and which can be made subject to approval. Statuses shown on the Requests tab
indicate the success or failure of the request, and do not indicate the successful completion of an action.
Immediate actions do not create requests and are always run immediately.
Built-in actions are available to all tenants and cannot be edited, although they can be enabled or disabled.
Custom actions can be created at a per-tenant level and shared across all business groups in that tenant.
Entitlements
Entitlements determine which users and groups can request specic catalog items or perform specic
actions. Entitlements are specic to a business group.
Business group managers can create entitlements for the groups that they manage. Tenant administrators
can create entitlements for any business group in their tenant. When you create an entitlement, you must
select a business group and specify individual users and groups in the business group for the entitlement.
You can entitle an entire service category, which entitles all of the catalog items in that service, including
items that are added to the service after you create the entitlement. You can also add individual catalog
items in a service to an entitlement. Services do not contain actions. You must add actions to an entitlement
individually.
For each service, catalog item, or action that you entitle, you can optionally specify an approval policy to
apply to requests for that item. If you entitle an entire service and a specic catalog item in that service in
the same entitlement, the approval policy on the catalog item overrides the policy on the service. For
example, you can entitle the Cloud Infrastructure service to members of a business group and allow them to
request any of its items with no approval policy. For a select number of catalog items that require more
governance for their provisioning, you can entitle those in the same entitlement and apply an approval
policy on just those items.
The actions that you entitle to users apply to any items that support the entitled action and they are not
limited to the services and actions in the same entitlement. For example, if Connie, a consumer of
infrastructure services, is entitled to Machine Blueprint 1 and the action Recongure in one entitlement, and
she is also entitled to Machine Blueprint 2 in a dierent entitlement, then she is entitled to recongure
machines provisioned from Machine Blueprint 1 and Machine Blueprint 2, as long as both blueprints allow
that action to be performed.
Foundations and Concepts
24 VMware, Inc.