7.4 vCenter Orchestrator
vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is a system for assembling operational workflows. The primary benefit of vCenter Orchestrator is to coordinate multiple systems to achieve a composite operation that would have otherwise required several individual operations on different systems. See Workflow Examples for detailed examples of orchestrated workflows.
In general, if an operation uses only one underlying system, consider providing direct access to that system for efficiency and reduction of complexity. In a vCloud environment, vCenter Orchestrator can automate highly repetitive tasks to avoid manual work and errors.
vCenter Orchestrator consists of the following applications:
vCenter Orchestrator Client – Enables the
workflow developer to author, assemble, test, and package workflows, actions, policies, resources,
and configurations.vCenter Orchestrator Server Web configuration
– Independent application that runs side-by-
side with a web front-end that enables administrators to configure the vCO Server and its plug-ins,
and perform maintenance operations.vCenter Orchestrator Server
– Runtime orchestration service, including its interfaces and its pluggable adapters.
Figure 42. vCenter Orchestrator Architecture
vCenter Orchestrator has a plug-in framework and plug-ins are available for vCenter Server, vCloud Director, and vCenter Chargeback. This enables vCenter Orchestrator to orchestrate workflows at the VIM API, VIX API, vCloud API, and Chargeback API levels.
Main categories of orchestration use cases include the following:
vCloud administration operations.
Organization administration operations.
Organization consumer operations.
