Importing and exporting Orchestrator elements
by Daniel Langenhan
VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook - Second Edition
- VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook Second Edition
- VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook Second Edition
- Credits
- About the Author
- About the Reviewers
- www.PacktPub.com
- Preface
- 1. Installing and Configuring Orchestrator
- 2. Optimizing Orchestrator Configuration
- Introduction
- Tuning the appliance
- Tuning Java
- Configuring the Kerberos authentication
- Configuring access to the local filesystem
- Configuring the Orchestrator service SSL certificate
- Orchestrator log files
- Redirecting Orchestrator logs to an external server
- Backup and recovery
- Control Center titbits
- 3. Distributed Design
- Introduction
- Building an Orchestrator cluster
- Load-balancing Orchestrator
- Upgrading a cluster
- Managing remote Orchestrators
- Synchronizing Orchestrator elements between Orchestrator servers
- 4. Programming Skills
- Introduction
- Version control
- Changing elements in a workflow
- Importing and exporting Orchestrator elements
- Working with packages
- Workflow auto documentation
- Resuming failed workflows
- Using the workflow debugging function
- Undelete workflows and actions
- Scheduling workflows
- Sync presentation settings
- Locking elements
- 5. Visual Programming
- 6. Advanced Programming
- Introduction
- JavaScript complex variables
- Working with JSON
- JavaScript special statements
- Turning strings into objects
- Working with the API
- Creating actions
- Waiting tasks
- Sending and waiting for custom events
- Using asynchronous workflows
- Scripting with workflow tokens
- Working with user interactions
- 7. Interacting with Orchestrator
- Introduction
- User management
- User preferences
- Using Orchestrator though the vSphere Web Client
- Accessing Orchestrator REST API
- Accessing the Control Center via the REST plugin
- Running Orchestrator workflows using PowerShell
- Using PHP to access the REST API
- 8. Better Workflows and Optimized Working
- 9. Essential Plugins
- 10. Built-in Plugins
- Introduction
- Working with XML
- Working with SQL (JDBC)
- Working with SQL (SQL plugin)
- Working with PowerShell
- Working with SOAP
- Working with Active Directory
- Working with SNMP
- Working with AMQP
- 11. Additional Plugins
- 12. Working with vSphere
- 13. Working with vRealize Automation
- Introduction
- Working with the vRA-integrated Orchestrator
- Automating a vRA instance in Orchestrator
- Configuring an external Orchestrator in vRA
- Adding Orchestrator as an infrastructure endpoint
- Adding an Orchestrator endpoint
- Integrating Orchestrator workflows as XaaS Blueprints
- Managing AD users with vRA
- Using the Event Manager to start workflows
In this recipe, we will learn how to import and export elements from one Orchestrator to another using Orchestrator Client.
We need at least one workflow, action, or other element that we can export, delete, and import. If you have two Orchestrator servers, you can export the element on one and import into the other.
In this example, we will use a workflow to import and export an object. However, the same methods apply to all Orchestrator elements.
We will use the 00.00 BasicWorkflow workflow of the example package in this example. Exporting also works for other elements:
- To export a workflow, right-click on it and select Export workflow.
- A window will pop up that shows you your local drives from the computer you are running Orchestrator Client on.
- Select a directory and a name for the workflow (the default name is the name of the workflow). The default file extension is
.workflow. - You can define a name to encrypt the export with, basically an encryption string. This will make it possible for other importers to import the file, but not to edit it. The name is not a password and Orchestrator will not ask for it; encrypting with the name will just create an encrypted file.
- Click on Save.
To import a workflow:
- Right-click on a folder and select Import workflow.
- A window will pop up that shows you your local drives from the computer you are running the Orchestrator Client on.
- Select a directory and a name for the workflow you would like to import.
- If the workflow already exists, a warning will be displayed. You can either select Cancel or continue the import.
- The workflow will now be imported into the folder you right-clicked on in step 1.
You can import and export single Orchestrator objects. This will only import and export the element and not its sub-elements or elements the workflow (or action) depends on. You can use a package (see the Working with packages recipe in this chapter) to export multiple workflows as well as their dependent elements. As workflows are identified by their IDs and actions by their name and module, it is important to realize that a single workflow export/import might not result in a working configuration. You can try this with the 04.03 Export-Package workflow.
When you export an object, then it will be exported along with the SSL certificate of the Orchestrator installation (the one we created in the Package Signing Certificate section of the Important Orchestrator configurations recipe in Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring Orchestrator).
In addition to this, the element will keep its ID when exported and imported. As all IDs are unique (even across Orchestrator installations), this is an important point.
Have a look at the Working with packages recipe in this chapter and the Managing Remote Orchestrator recipe in Chapter 3, Distributed Design.
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