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Table Of Contents
Automating Management Tasks
Using vRealize Orchestrator 14
VMware™ vRealize Orchestrator is a platform that provides a library of extensible workflows. By using the
workflow library, you can automate and configure processes to manage the vSphere infrastructure, other
VMware technologies, and third-party technologies.
Orchestrator exposes every operation in the vCenter Server API so that you can integrate all these
operations into your own automated processes.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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Concepts of Workflows
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Performing Administration Tasks on the vSphere Objects
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Configure the Default vRealize Orchestrator
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Managing Associations of Workflows with vSphere Inventory Objects
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Working with Workflows
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Workflows for Managing Inventory Objects
Concepts of Workflows
A workflow is a series of actions and decisions that are automated to run sequentially after you initiate the
workflow. Orchestrator provides a library of workflows that perform common management tasks according
to best practices.
Basics of Workflows
Workflows consist of a schema, attributes, and parameters. The workflow schema is the main component
of a workflow as it defines all the workflow elements and the logical task flow of the workflow. The
workflow attributes and parameters are the variables that workflows use to transfer data. Orchestrator
saves a workflow token every time a workflow runs, recording the details of that specific run of the
workflow. This token contains all parameters related to the workflow run. For example, if you run a
workflow three times, three workflow tokens are saved.
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