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The following example is of a typical life cycle.
Connie, the consumer of IT services, logs in to the vRealize Automation console. On the Catalog tab, she
browses for the service offerings she needs to do her job. The items that are available in the catalog are
grouped into service categories, which helps her find what she is looking for. After Connie selects a
catalog item, she can view its details to confirm that it is what she wants before submitting a request.
When Connie requests a catalog item, a form appears where she can provide information such as the
reason for her request, and any parameters for the request. For example, if she is requesting a virtual
machine, she might be able to specify the number of CPUs or amount of storage on the machine. If
Connie is not ready to submit her request, she can save it and return to it at a later time.
After Connie submits her request, it might be subject to approval. Connie can look on the Requests tab
to track the progress of her request, including whether it is pending approval, in progress, or completed.
If the request results in an item being provisioned, it is added to Connie's list of items on the Items tab.
Here she can view the item details or perform additional actions on her items. In the virtual machine
example, she might be able to power on or power off the machine, connect to it through Remote Desktop,
reconfigure it to add more resources, or dispose of it when she no longer needs it. The actions she can
perform are based on entitlements and can also be made subject to approval based on flexible approval
policies.
Creating and Publishing Catalog Items
Catalog administrators and tenant administrators can define new catalog items and publish them to the
service catalog. Tenant administrators and business group managers can entitle the new item to
consumers.
Typically, a catalog item provides a complete specification of the resource to be provisioned and the
process to initiate when the item is requested. It also defines the options that are available to a requester
of the item, such as virtual machine configuration or lease duration, or any additional information that the
requester is prompted to provide when submitting the request.
For example, Sean has privileges to create and publish blueprints, including software components and
XaaS. After the blueprint is published, Sean, or a catalog administrator or a tenant administrator
responsible for managing the catalog, can then configure the catalog item, including specifying an icon
and adding the item to a service.
To make the catalog item available to users, a tenant administrator or business group manager must
entitle the item to the users and groups who should have access to it in the service catalog.
Services for the Service Catalog
Services are used to organize catalog items into related offerings to make it easier for service catalog
users to browse for the catalog items they need.
For example, catalog offerings can be organized into Infrastructure Services, Application Services, and
Desktop Services.
Foundations and Concepts
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