skip initial power on for vms / on demand private network

[trumpf_tobias]

Hey

anyone knows a way skip initial power on for deployed vshpere vms?

We have a multi machine blueprint with 2 vsphere vms, the provisioning workflow is set to "cloneworkflow".

Target: Creating an on-demand private network for those vms.

• first vm has 2 nics (private net + public net)
• second vm has 1 nic (private net only)
• small overhead
  • we know about creating an app isolated on-demand routed network, but we don't need the edge device nor security groups in any way.

Today we create virtual wire via nsx and connect those vms during machine provisioning.

To be more detailed:

vRO workflow via ebs pre "VMPSMasterWorkflow32.BuildingMachine"

     -> when first vm : create vwire and set "VirtualMachine.Network0.Name" (autom. used on vm creation)

     -> when second vm: find vwire and set "VirtualMachine.Network0.Name" (autom. used on vm creation)

The virtual wire is labeled with the vRA request id to find matching vwire.

Here is the problem with this: 1 deployment from catalog item is fine, second + n may fail because all virtual wires have the same vRA request id as key. :smileycry:

When the vms are not powered on, we can create and connect on-demand private network after creation. Then we are able to use the deployment id, which seems to be the right key for vwire creation.

Environment: vCenter 6.0, vRA 7.5, NSX 6.4.0

Thanks in advance, I hope my description is not to complicated :smileyblush:
Tobias

[daphnissov]

If you search recent posts, I provide a link where someone has set up an EBS subscription to skip that power on by writing the next state in a vRO workflow and calling that. This may be what you want.

[trumpf_tobias · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your feedback, I found this post: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2812230#2812230 regarding "skip initial power on". But this description is for the "BasicVMWorkflow", we use the "CloneWorkflow".

I have tried both ebs events: "CloneWorkflow.CloneMachine.EVENT.OnCloneMachineComplete" + "BasicVmWorkflow.CreatingMachine.EVENT.OnCreatingMachineComplete"

But those thinks didn't work -> the machines powered on.

A few weeks ago VMware announced vRA 7.6 with on demand private network creation. What completely meets our needs.

vRealize Automation 7.6 Release Notes  - "On-demand private networks for NSX-V"