Lifecycle Toolkit

The term Lifecycle refers to the vRA build phases that execute in the course of provisioning a virtual machine (VM) in vRA. Until now, there has been a prescribed order of execution for the various SovLabs modules, and custom events could be added by creating custom content and invoking that through custom vRA Event Broker Subscriptions. The order of all those SovLabs and non-SovLabs events could be somewhat controlled by modifying priorities in the Event Broker Subscriptions, but this was clunky and inflexible.

The SovLabs Lifecycle Toolkit was developed to:

  • Create a construct in vRA where all these SovLabs and custom components and scripts and the order in which they run could be contained in a profile
  • Provide a simple way to define custom scripts without writing custom vRO workflows

SovLabs Lifecycle Toolkit (LCT) allows administrators to fine tune provisioning for different types of builds and maintain those profiles independently without touching the default vRA Event Broker subscriptions for existing SovLabs integrations.


Highlights

  • Define order of events in the provisioning lifecycles
  • Define custom scripts that use any valid interpreter on the target system
  • Include SovLabs and non-SovLabs Events
  • Save all of the above in a reusable profile
  • Have multiple LCT profiles for different kinds of builds

In short, administrators can enjoy even greater flexibility and control over the already powerful features provided by SovLabs modules. When paired with the SovLabs Template Engine, LCT provides a powerful and efficient way to define the business logic behind VM provisioning with minimal vRA Blueprint management.


Compatibility

VMware vRealize Automation (vRA) 7.2+
VMware vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) 7.2+
EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (EHC) 4.x

Quick Start Process

  1. Define SovLabs vRA CAFE Endpoint (once)
  2. Define SovLabs Lifecycle EBS’
  3. Define Script Definition (optional)
  4. Define Lifecycle Profile
  5. Apply to Lifecycle Profile vRA Property Group to existing blueprint
  6. Provision!