Optionally adding disks with vRealize Automation Cloud

One of the common use cases I see is having the ability to optionally add disks to a machine in vRealize Automation Cloud.

For example, one requester may just want a basic machine with just the OS disk, while another may want several to support SQL Server.

In this article I’ll show you how to add up to four additional disks using an undocumented vRA Cloud function. The other available functions are listed on this VMware documentation page.

Now down to details. What we need to do is create some property bindings for the optional disks, then attach them to the machine using ‘map_to_object’. The grey dashed lines indicate an implicit or property binding in the canvas. Additional information about this kind of bind is available at this VMware documentation page.

Four inputs are needed, one for each disk. Each disk that is NOT zero size will be created for the machine.

  Cloud_Machine_1:
    type: Cloud.Machine
    properties:
      name: '${input.hostname}'
      image: Windows 2019
      flavor: generic.medium
      attachedDisks: '${map_to_object(resource.Cloud_Volume_1[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_2[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_3[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_4[*].id, "source")}'

Here is the complete YAML for the blueprint.

formatVersion: 1
name: Optional disks
version: 1
inputs:
  hostname:
    type: string
    default: changeme
    description: Desired hostname
  password:
    type: string
    encrypted: true
    default: Password1234@$
    description: Desired password for the local administrator
  ipAddress:
    type: string
    default: 10.10.10.10
    description: Desired IP Address
  disk1Size:
    type: integer
    default: 5
    description: A SIZE of 0 will disable the disk and it will not be provisioned.
  disk2Size:
    type: integer
    default: 10
    description: A SIZE of 0 will disable the disk and it will not be provisioned.
  disk3Size:
    type: integer
    default: 15
    description: A SIZE of 0 will disable the disk and it will not be provisioned.
  disk4Size:
    type: integer
    default: 20
    description: A SIZE of 0 will disable the disk and it will not be provisioned.
resources:
  Cloud_Machine_1:
    type: Cloud.Machine
    properties:
      name: '${input.hostname}'
      image: Windows 2019
      flavor: generic.medium
      remoteAccess:
        authentication: usernamePassword
        username: Administrator
        password: '${input.password}'
      resourceGroupName: '${env.projectName}'
      attachedDisks: '${map_to_object(resource.Cloud_Volume_1[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_2[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_3[*].id + resource.Cloud_Volume_4[*].id, "source")}'
      networks:
        - network: '${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}'
          assignment: static
          address: '${input.ipAddress}'
  Cloud_Volume_1:
    type: Cloud.Volume
    properties:
      count: '${input.disk1Size == 0 ? 0 : 1 }'
      capacityGb: '${input.disk1Size}'
  Cloud_Network_1:
    type: Cloud.Network
    properties:
      networkType: existing
      constraints:
        - tag: 'network:vsanready_vlan_14'
  Cloud_Volume_2:
    type: Cloud.Volume
    properties:
      count: '${input.disk2Size == 0 ? 0 : 1}'
      capacityGb: '${input.disk2Size}'
  Cloud_Volume_3:
    type: Cloud.Volume
    properties:
      count: '${input.disk3Size == 0 ? 0 : 1 }'
      capacityGb: '${input.disk3Size}'
  Cloud_Volume_4:
    type: Cloud.Volume
    properties:
      count: '${input.disk4Size == 0 ? 0 : 1}'
      capacityGb: '${input.disk4Size}'

Now to test it. I’ll deploy a machine with four additional disks. Here is the request form with the default disk sizes.

After deploying the machines, you may find the disks did not get added in order. This is known issue. The offshore developers told me ordered addition of disks is not supported at this point (July 2020). Here is a screen shot of the deployed machines. Notice the order, they are not the same as my request.

In mid July 2020 they released a new vRA Cloud version with additional data for the block-devices. At the time writing this article, the new properties were not included in the block-device model in the API documentation.

They are neatly stashed under customProperties.

    "customProperties": {
        "vm": "VirtualMachine:vm-880",
        "vcUuid": "b24faac3-b21c-4ee9-99f1-c5436d351ecb",
        "persistent": "true",
        "independent": "false",
        "provisionGB": "10",
        "diskPlacementRef": "Datastore:datastore-541",
        "provisioningType": "thin",
        "controllerUnitNumber": "1",
        "controllerKey": "1000",
        "providerUniqueIdentifier": "Hard disk 2"
    }

As you can see they provide the controller number (controllerKey), unit number (controllerUnitNumber), and the provider generated unique identifier (providerUniqueIdentifier).

The idea was to provide this information for those organizations wishing to reorder the disks or even move them to new disk controllers to support their various server deployments.

These additional properties may make into the next version of vRA 8. But who knows what makes the cut.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy.