6.2

Table Of Contents
Using custom properties, machine blueprint authors can define additional machine properties or override
their standard attributes for a variety of purposes. For details about the use and configuration of custom
properties, see the IaaS Configuration documentation for the relevant machine type or the Custom
Properties Reference.
Integrating with Third-Party Management Systems
Provisioning or decommissioning a new machine, especially for mission-critical systems, typically requires
interacting with a number of different management systems, including DNS servers, load balancers,
CMDBs, IP Address Management and other systems.
Administrators can inject custom logic (known as workflows) at various predetermined IaaS life cycle
stages. These IaaS workflows can call out to vRealize Orchestrator for bi-directional integration with
external management systems.
For details about machine lifecycle extensibility, see Machine Extensibility .
Adding New IT Services and Creating New Actions
The Advanced Service Designer enables service architects to define new services and new management
operations on provisioned services.
vRealize Automation provides a range of management operations that you can perform on machines.
Your organization may find it valuable to extend the default IaaS machine menus with new options, such
as creating a machine backup or running a security check.
It can also be beneficial to expose entirely new services in the service catalog, so that users can
automate other initiatives directly via the portal. Service architects can create service blueprints for
storage-as-a-service, networking services or virtually any kind of IT service by using the Advanced
Service Designer.
For details about how to create new catalog items or menu options, see Advanced Service Design.
Calling vRealize Automation Services from External
Applications
In some cases, organizations may want to interact with vRealize Automation programmatically rather than
via the vRealize Automation console.
For such scenarios, the vRealize Automation API provides a standardized, secured RESTful interface for
cloud access and interaction, controlled through business-aware policy for consumers such as users,
infrastructure, devices, and applications.
All blueprints, including the ones created via the Advanced Service Designer, are automatically exposed
through the vRealize Automation API. For more details, see the REST API Reference.
Distributed Execution
All core vRealize Automation workflows are executed in a distributed execution environment.
Foundations and Concepts
VMware, Inc. 41