Hi All,
This post is about the automation that we can achieve with Windows Azure Pack when deploying virtual machines via the Windows Azure Pack VM Clouds service. This post is just a quick start to help you understand what Automation is about !
So, in one world we can say:
Q = Can i trigger an action when deploying a VM via Windows Azure Pack ?
R = Yes, via the automation service leveraged by System Center SMA (Service Management Automation)
SMA is an Orchestrator like product, it is almost Orchestrator for Windows Azure Pack. You can see more here
SMA is a product that will be installed then integrated to the Windows Azure Pack platform. We can find two main SMA roles: The SMA Automation Web Service Role and the SMA Runbook Workers role
The first one (SMA Automation Web Service Role) is the point that WAP communicates with and send requests and fire runbooks (Start a runbook…)
The second (SMA Runbook Workers role) is the server where the workflows run and are executed (like the Orchestrator Runbook server)
So it’s easy with Windows Azure Pack:
1- Create your workflows: SMA Workflows are pure Powershell, so the finality is to create powershell scripts.
2- Import them into Windows Azure Pack automation (Via the Windows Azure Pack Admin portal)
3 – Create an SMA trigger action: Via the VM Clouds Automation tab in the WAP Admin portal: Example: Run the runbook (ie script) MakeVMbackup when a VM is created
That’s it !
Keep in mind that you need only those three steps to achieve automation, that can be reduced to 2 steps: Create and Link
In the next blog i will explain some SMA triggers that you will certainly use in your WAP word.
buildwindows 