Custom Properties Reference VRealize Automation 7.0 V Realize 70

User Manual: Pdf vRealize Automation - 7.0 - Custom Properties Reference User Guide for VMware vRealize Software, Free Instruction Manual

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 89

Download
Open PDF In Browser	View PDF

Custom Properties
Reference
vRealize Automation 7.0

Custom Properties Reference

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:
https://docs.vmware.com/
If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to
docfeedback@vmware.com

VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
www.vmware.com
Copyright © 2008–2018 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.
VMware, Inc.

Contents
Custom Properties Reference
Updated Information

1 Using Custom Properties 7
Adding Custom Properties

Using Properties in Machine Provisioning

Understanding Custom Properties Precedence
Custom Property Types

2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function 12
Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints
Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints

Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints

Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints
Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints

20
23

24
26

Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Blueprints
Custom Properties for vRealize Automation Guest Agent

Custom Properties for Naming and Analyzing Deployments
Custom Properties for Networking

Custom Properties for PXE Provisioning

Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Integration
Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration

3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name 48

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties A Table

Custom Properties B Table

Custom Properties C Table

Custom Properties E Table

Custom Properties H Table

Custom Properties I Table

Custom Properties L Table

Custom Properties M Table

Custom Properties O Table

Custom Properties P Table

Custom Properties R Table

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties S Table

Custom Properties V Table

Custom Properties X Table

4 Using the Property Dictionary 83
Using Property Definitions

Create a Property Definition

Use a vRealize Orchestrator Script Action to Populate a Property Value
Using Property Groups

Create a Property Group

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference
Custom Properties Reference provides information about the custom properties, and their use, that are
available when you use VMware vRealize ™ Automation.
This documentation is intended to be used with the vRealize Automation product documentation available
from the VMware vRealize ™ Automation Documentation page at
https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcac-pubs.html.
Note Not all features and capabilities of vRealize Automation are available in all editions. For a
comparison of feature sets in each edition, see https://www.vmware.com/products/vrealize-automation/.

Intended Audience
This information is intended for IaaS administrators, fabric administrators, and business group managers
of vRealize Automation. This content is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators
who are familiar with virtualization technology and the basic concepts described in Foundations and
Concepts.

VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For
definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

VMware, Inc.

Updated Information
This Custom Properties Reference is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.
This table provides the update history of the Custom Properties Reference.
Revision

Description

001840-02

Removed Amazon.Placement.Tenancy from Custom Properties A Table.

001840-01

Updated the following topics to include a caveat about the VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName property:
n

001840-00

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties V Table

Custom Properties for Networking

Updated Create a Property Definition to add more information about Name and Label.

Added Use a vRealize Orchestrator Script Action to Populate a Property Value.

Updated Custom Properties for Naming and Analyzing Deployments.

Initial release.

Using Custom Properties

You use custom properties to control aspects of the machines that users can provision.
Some properties are determined by standard settings that you must specify for all machines. For
example, memory and disk size values are required for all blueprints. You can specify additional
properties individually or in property groups in blueprints and in reservations. Use custom properties to
add values or override existing or default values for the following information.
n

Machine operating system

Virtualization platform

Build settings such as disk size

Integration with an external system

When you add a property to a blueprint or a property group, you can mark it as a required property. When
a property is specified as required, the user must provide a value for that property when they request a
machine, such as in the following examples.
n

Require information about multiple disks sharing the machine’s allocated storage.

Require information about users or groups to be added to a local group on the machine.

Require the host name of the machine.

The Windows guest agent records property values on the provisioned machine in the %SystemDrive
%\VRMGuestAgent\site\workitem.xml file.
The Linux guest agent records property values on the provisioned machine in
the /usr/share/gugent/site/workitem.xml file.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n

Adding Custom Properties

Using Properties in Machine Provisioning

Understanding Custom Properties Precedence

Adding Custom Properties
You can use custom properties to control machine provisioning. You can add properties and property
groups to overall blueprints, components in a blueprint, and reservations.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

You can add properties and property groups when you create a blueprint, or later when the blueprint is in
the draft or published state. Alternatively you can add custom properties and property groups to individual
components in the blueprint.
Blueprint-level custom properties take precedence over custom properties that are configured at the
component level. You can edit blueprint-level properties by using the blueprint properties page.
A custom property can optionally require that the user specify a property value when they create a
machine request. Property values are typically case-sensitive.
You can add supplied custom properties and also create and add your own properties and property
groups. For information about creating properties and property groups, see Chapter 4 Using the Property
Dictionary.
For information about custom property precedence, see Understanding Custom Properties Precedence.

Using Properties in Machine Provisioning
Custom properties are built-in or vRealize Automation-supplied properties. You can also create your own
properties. Properties are name-value pairs used to specify attributes of a machine or to override default
specifications.
You can use custom properties to control different provisioning methods, types of machines, and machine
options as in the following examples:
n

Specify a particular type of guest OS.

Enable WIM-based provisioning, in which a Windows Imaging File Format (WIM) image of a
reference machine is used to provision new machines.

Customize the behavior of Remote Desktop Protocol when connecting to a machine.

Customize a virtual machine’s system specifications, such as adding multiple disk drives.

Customize the guest OS for a machine, for instance, by including specified users in selected local
groups.

Specify network and security settings.

When you add a property to a blueprint, reservation, or other form you can specify if the property is to be
encrypted and also if the user must be prompted to specify a value when provisioning. These options
cannot be overridden when provisioning.
A property specified in a blueprint overrides the same property specified in a property group. This enables
a blueprint to use most of the properties in a property group while differing from the property group in
some limited way. For example, a blueprint that incorporates a standard developer workstation property
group might override the US English settings in the group with UK English settings.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

You can apply custom properties in reservations and business groups to many machines. Their use is
typically limited to purposes related to their sources, such as resource management or line of business
accounting. Specifying the characteristics of the machine to be provisioned is generally done by adding
properties to blueprints and property groups.

Understanding Custom Properties Precedence
Properly authorized users can specify custom properties for blueprints, endpoints, business groups, and
reservations. When the same property exists in more than one source, vRealize Automation follows a
specific order of precedence when applying properties to the machine.
You can add custom properties that apply to provisioned machines to the following elements:
n

A reservation, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned from that reservation.

A business group, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned by business group
members.

A blueprint, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned from the blueprint.

Property groups, which can be included in a blueprint, to apply all the custom properties in the group
to all machines provisioned from the blueprint.
A blueprint can contain one or more property groups.

A machine request to apply the custom properties to the machine being provisioned.

An approval policy, if advanced approval support is enabled, to require approvers to provide values
for the machine being approved.

The following list shows the order of precedence for custom properties. Property value specified in a
source that appears later in the list override values for the same property specified in sources that appear
earlier in the list.
Note If a conflict exists between a vRealize Automation-supplied custom property name and a userdefined property name, the vRealize Automation-supplied custom property name takes precedence.
1

Property group

Blueprint

Business group

Compute resource

Reservations

Endpoint

Runtime

This order is further clarified as follows:
1

Custom properties and groups at the overall blueprint level

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom properties and groups at the component level

Custom properties for the business group

Custom properties for the compute resource

Custom properties for the reservation

Custom properties for the endpoint

Custom properties at the nested blueprint request level

Custom properties at the component request level

A runtime property takes higher precedence over other properties. A runtime property meets the following
conditions:
n

The property is marked as Prompt User, which specifies that the user must supply a value for it when
requesting a machine. This requires that the machine requestor customize individual characteristics
of each machine, or gives them the option of doing so when a default value is provided for the
property.

A business group manager is requesting a machine and the property appears in the custom
properties list on the Confirm Machine Request page.

Custom Property Types
You can use vRealize Automation external and updated property types for cloned machines. You cannot
use Internal and read-only property types for cloned machines.
The following vRealize Automation custom property types are available.
n

Internal
The specified value is maintained in the database only. For example, the email address of the
manager who approved a machine request is recorded in the VirtualMachine.Admin.Approver
property but the property has no effect on the machine.

Read-only
The specified value is implemented on the machine and cannot be changed. For example,
VirtualMachine.Admin.UUID specifies the UUID of the machine, which cannot be changed.

External
A machine’s external properties are determined when the virtualization platform creates the machine
or during the WinPE phase of the build process. To set these properties, their values must be
provided to the proxy agent, which passes them on to the virtualization platform, or to the guest
agent , which implements them in the WinPE phase.
The specified value is implemented on the machine but is never updated. For example, if the property
VirtualMachine.Admin.AddOwnerToAdmins is set to true, the owner of the machine is added to its
local administrators group. If the owner is later removed from this group, the property is not updated
to false.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Updated
The specified value is implemented on the machine and is updated through data collection. For
example, if the compute resource of a machine is changed, a proxy agent updates the value of the
machine’s VirtualMachine.Admin.Hostname property.

Internal and read-only property types set attributes that the template determines.
You can use the vRealize Automation machine menu to change all reserved custom properties except the
read-only properties VirtualMachine.Admin.AgentID, VirtualMachine.Admin.UUID, and
VirtualMachine.Admin.Name.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Grouped by
Function

You can use custom properties to provide additional vRealize Automation controls.
Custom properties have been grouped here by function. To explore custom properties grouped by name,
see Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n

Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints

Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints

Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints

Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints

Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints

Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints

Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints

Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Blueprints

Custom Properties for vRealize Automation Guest Agent

Custom Properties for Naming and Analyzing Deployments

Custom Properties for Networking

Custom Properties for PXE Provisioning

Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Integration

Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration

Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for basic
workflow blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑1. Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.CDROM.Attach

Set to False to provision the machine without a CD-ROM device.
The default is True.

VirtualMachine.Admin.ThinProvision

Determines whether thin provisioning is used on ESX compute
resources using local or iSCSI storage. Set to True to use thin
provisioning. Set to False to use standard provisioning. This
property is for virtual provisioning.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy

VirtualMachine.Storage.AllocationType

Stores collected groups to a single datastore. A distributed
environment stores disks round-robin style.

VirtualMachine.Storage.Name

Identifies the storage path on which the machine resides. The
default is the value specified in the reservation that was used to
provision the machine.

VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory

Set to True to manage vSwap storage allocation to ensure
availability and set allocation in the reservation. vSwap
allocation is considered when you create or reconfigure a virtual
machine. vSwap allocation checking is only available for
vSphere endpoints.
Note If you do not specify the
VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory custom property
when you create or provision the machine from
vRealize Automation, swap space availability is not ensured. If
you add the property for an already provisioned machine, and
the allocated reservation is full, the storage allocated in the
reservation might exceed the actual allocated storage.

VMware.Hardware.Version

Specifies the VM hardware version to be used for vSphere
settings. Supported values are currently vmx-04, vmx-07,
vmx-08, vmx-09 and vmx-10. This property is applicable for VM
Create and VM Update workflows and is available only for basic
workflow blueprints.

Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for clone
blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑2. Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName

Specifies the name of a network profile from which to assign a
static IP address to network device N or from which to obtain the
range of static IP addresses that can be assigned to network
device N of a cloned machine, where N=0 for the first device, 1
for the second, and so on.
If a network profile is specified in the network path in the
reservation on which the machine is provisioned, a static IP
address is assigned from that network profile. You can ensure
that a static IP address is assigned from a specific profile by
setting the value of this property to the name of a network
profile.
Note that changing this property value after the network is
assigned has no effect on the expected IP address values for
the designated machines.
With WIM-based provisioning for virtual machines, you can use
this property to specify a network profile and network interface or
you can use the Network section of the Virtual Reservation
page. You can also assign the network interface to a virtual
network using the VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name custom
property.
The following attributes of the network profile are available to
enable static IP assignment in a cloning blueprint:
n

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑2. Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

Linux.ExternalScript.Name

Specifies the name of an optional customization script, for
example config.sh, that the Linux guest agent runs after the
operating system is installed. This property is available for Linux
machines cloned from templates on which the Linux agent is
installed.
If you specify an external script, you must also define its location
by using the Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.

Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType

Specifies the location type of the customization script named in
the Linux.ExternalScript.Name property. This can be either
local or nfs.
You must also specify the script location using the
Linux.ExternalScript.Path property. If the location type is
nfs, also use the Linux.ExternalScript.Server property.

Linux.ExternalScript.Server

Specifies the name of the NFS server, for example labad.lab.local, on which the Linux external customization script
named in Linux.ExternalScript.Name is located.

Linux.ExternalScript.Path

Specifies the local path to the Linux customization script or the
export path to the Linux customization on the NFS server. The
value must begin with a forward slash and not include the file
name, for example /scripts/linux/config.sh.

If your administrators installed the guest agent to run scripts that accept custom properties and customize
provisioned machines, you can use custom properties to further customize cloned machines that use the
guest agent.
Table 2‑3. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.AddOwnerToAdmins

Set to True (default) to add the machine’s owner, as specified by
the VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property, to the local
administrators group on the machine.

VirtualMachine.Admin.AllowLogin

Set to True (default) to add the machine owner to the local
remote desktop users group, as specified by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property.

VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent

If the guest agent is installed as a service on a template for
cloning, set to True on the machine blueprint to enable the guest
agent service on machines cloned from that template. When the
machine is started, the guest agent service is started. Set to
False to disable the guest agent. If set to False, the enhanced
clone workfow will not use the guest agent for guest operating
system tasks, reducing its functionality to
VMwareCloneWorkflow. If not specified or set to anything other
than False, the enhanced clone workflow will send work items to
the guest agent.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑3. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Active

Set to True (default) to specify that the machine's disk N is
active. Set to False to specify that the machine's disk N is not
active.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size

Defines the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give a size of
150 GB to a disk G, define the custom property
VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size and enter a value of 150. Disk
numbering must be sequential. By default a machine has one
disk referred to by VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size, where size is
specified by the storage value on the blueprint from which the
machine is provisioned. The storage value on the blueprint user
interface overwrites the value in the
VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property. The
VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property is not available as a
custom property because of its relationship with the storage
option on the blueprint. More disks can be added by specifying
VirtualMachine.Disk1.Size, VirtualMachine.Disk2.Size
and so on. VirtualMachine.Admin.TotalDiskUsage always
represents the total of the .DiskN.Size properties plus the
VMware.Memory.Reservation size allocation.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label

Specifies the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk label
maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be sequential.
When used in conjunction with a guest agent, specifies the label
of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating system.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter

Specifies the drive letter or mount point of a machine’s disk N.
The default is C. For example, to specify the letter D for Disk 1,
define the custom property as VirtualMachine.Disk1.Letter
and enter the value D. Disk numbering must be sequential.
When used in conjunction with a guest agent, this value
specifies the drive letter or mount point under which an
additional disk N is mounted by the guest agent in the guest
operating system.

VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay

Specifies the time to wait after customization is complete and
before starting the guest operating system customization. The
value must be in HH:MM:SS format. If the value is not set, the
default value is one minute (00:01:00). If you choose not to
include this custom property, provisioning can fail if the virtual
machine reboots before guest agent work items are completed,
causing provisioning to fail.

VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete

Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow from sending
work items to the guest agent until all customizations have been
completed.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name

Specifies the descriptive name of a software application N or
script to install or run during provisioning. This is an optional and
information-only property. It serves no real function for the
enhanced clone workflow or the guest agent but it is useful for a
custom software selection in a user interface or for software
usage reporting.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑3. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath

Specifies the full path to an application's install script. The path
must be a valid absolute path as seen by the guest operating
system and must include the name of the script file name.
You can pass custom property values as parameters to the
script by inserting {CustomPropertyName} in the path string. For
example, if you have a custom property named ActivationKey
whose value is 1234, the script path is D:\InstallApp.bat –
key {ActivationKey}. The guest agent runs the command
D:\InstallApp.bat –key 1234. Your script file can then be
programmed to accept and use this value.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName

Specifies the path and file name of the ISO file relative to the
data store root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name.iso. If a value
is not specified, the ISO is not mounted.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation

Specifies the storage path that contains the ISO image file to be
used by the application or script. Format the path as it appears
on the host reservation, for example netapp-1:it_nfs_1. If a
value is not specified, the ISO is not mounted.

Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
FlexClone blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑4. Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑4. Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType

Linux.ExternalScript.Server

Specifies the name of the NFS server, for example labad.lab.local, on which the Linux external customization script
named in Linux.ExternalScript.Name is located.

Linux.ExternalScript.Path

If you installed the guest agent to customize cloned machines, the Custom Properties for Customizing
FlexClone Machines with a Guest Agent table describes the most commonly used custom properties for
your situation.
Table 2‑5. Custom Properties for Customizing FlexClone Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑5. Custom Properties for Customizing FlexClone Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter

VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay

VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete

Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow from sending
work items to the guest agent until all customizations have been
completed.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath

Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for linked
clone blueprints.
Certain vRealize Automation custom properties are required to use with linked clone blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑6. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Storage

Specifies the datastore on which to place the machine disk N,
for example DATASTORE01. This property is also used to add a
single datastore to a linked clone blueprint. N is the index
(starting at 0) of the volume to assign. Enter the name of the
datastore to assign to the volume. This is the datastore name as
it appears in the Storage Path on the Edit Compute Resource
page. Disk numbering must be sequential.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter

MaximumProvisionedMachines

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the maximum number of linked clones for one machine
snapshot. The default is unlimited.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑6. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

Linux.ExternalScript.Name

Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType

Linux.ExternalScript.Server

Specifies the name of the NFS server, for example labad.lab.local, on which the Linux external customization script
named in Linux.ExternalScript.Name is located.

Linux.ExternalScript.Path

If you installed the guest agent to customize cloned machines, you use some custom properties more
often than others.
Table 2‑7. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent

VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑7. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete

Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow from sending
work items to the guest agent until all customizations have been
completed.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath

Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for Linux
Kickstart blueprints.
Certain vRealize Automation custom properties are required to use with Linux Kickstart blueprints.
Table 2‑8. Required Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem

Specifies the vCenter Server guest operating system version
(VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier) with which
vCenter Server creates the machine. This operating system
version must match the operating system version to be installed
on the provisioned machine. Administrators can create property
groups using one of several property sets, for example,
VMware[OS_Version]Properties, that are predefined to
include the correct VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem
values. This property is for virtual provisioning.
For related information, see the enumeration type
VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier in vSphere API/SDK
Documentation. For a list of currently accepted values, see the
vCenter Server documentation.

Image.ISO.Location

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑8. Required Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

Image.ISO.Name

Image.ISO.UserName

Specifies the user name to access the CIFS share in the format
username@domain. For Dell iDRAC integrations where the
image is located on a CIFS share that requires authentication to
access.

Image.ISO.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
Image.ISO.UserName property. For Dell iDRAC integrations
where the image is located on a CIFS share that requires
authentication to access.

Optional custom properties are available.
Table 2‑9. Optional Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.ThinProvision

Machine.SSH

Set to True to enable the Connect Using SSH option, on the
vRealize Automation Items page, for Linux machines
provisioned from this blueprint. If set to True and the Connect
using RDP or SSH machine operation is enabled in the
blueprint, all Linux machines that are provisioned from the
blueprint display the Connect Using SSH option to entitled
users.

Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for SCCM
blueprints.
Certain custom properties are required to use with SCCM blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑10. Required Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

Image.ISO.Location

Image.ISO.Name

Image.ISO.UserName

Specifies the user name to access the CIFS share in the format
username@domain. For Dell iDRAC integrations where the
image is located on a CIFS share that requires authentication to
access.

Image.ISO.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
Image.ISO.UserName property. For Dell iDRAC integrations
where the image is located on a CIFS share that requires
authentication to access.

SCCM.Collection.Name

Specifies the name of the SCCM collection that contains the
operating system deployment task sequence.

SCCM.Server.Name

Specifies the fully qualified domain name of the SCCM server on
which the collection resides, for example lab-sccm.lab.local.

SCCM.Server.SiteCode

Specifies the site code of the SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.UserName

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to the
SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.

Certain custom properties are used most often with SCCM blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑11. Common Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

SCCM.CustomVariable.Name

Specifies the value of a custom variable, where Name is the
name of any custom variable to be made available to the SCCM
task sequence after the provisioned machine is registered with
the SCCM collection. The value is determined by your choice of
custom variable. If your integration requires it, you can use
SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix to remove the
SCCM.CustomVariable. prefix from your custom variable.

SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix

Set to true to remove the prefix SCCM.CustomVariable. from
SCCM custom variables you created by using the custom
property SCCM.CustomVariable.Name.

Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that provide additional controls for WIM blueprints.
Certain vRealize Automation custom properties are required for WIM blueprints.
Table 2‑12. Required Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

Image.ISO.Location

Image.ISO.Name

Image.ISO.UserName

Specifies the user name to access the CIFS share in the format
username@domain. For Dell iDRAC integrations where the
image is located on a CIFS share that requires authentication to
access.

Image.ISO.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
Image.ISO.UserName property. For Dell iDRAC integrations
where the image is located on a CIFS share that requires
authentication to access.

Image.Network.Letter

Specifies the drive letter to which the WIM image path is
mapped on the provisioned machine. The default value is K.

Image.WIM.Path

Specifies the UNC path to the WIM file from which an image is
extracted during WIM-based provisioning. The path format
is \\server\share$ format, for example \\lab-ad\dfs$.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑12. Required Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

Image.WIM.Name

Specifies the name of the WIM file, for example win2k8.wim, as
located by the Image.WIM.Path property.

Image.WIM.Index

Specifies the index used to extract the correct image from the
WIM file.

Image.Network.User

Specifies the user name with which to map the WIM image path
(Image.WIM.Path) to a network drive on the provisioned
machine. This is typically a domain account with access to the
network share.

Image.Network.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
Image.Network.User property.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner

Specifies the user name of the machine owner.

VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem

Optional custom properties are also available for WIM blueprints.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑13. Common Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints
Custom Property

Description

SysPrep.Section.Key

Specifies information to be added to the SysPrep answer file on
machines during the WinPE stage of provisioning. Information
that already exists in the SysPrep answer file is overwritten by
these custom properties. Section represents the name of the
section of the SysPrep answer file, for example GuiUnattended
or UserData. Key represents a key name in the section. For
example, to set the time zone of a provisioned machine to West
Pacific Standard Time, define the custom property
GuiUnattended.UserData.TimeZone and set the value to 275.

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone

For a full list of sections, keys, and accepted values, see the
System Preparation Utility for Windows documentation.
The following Section.Key combinations can be specified for
WIM-based provisioning:
n

GuiUnattended
n

AdminPassword

EncryptedAdminPassword

TimeZone

UserData
n

ProductKey

FullName

ComputerName

OrgName

Identification
n

DomainAdmin

DomainAdminPassword

JoinDomain

JoinWorkgroup

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to the
target domain in Active Directory. Do not include the user
domain in the credentials that you send to vCloud Director or
vCloud Air.

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword

Specifies the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain

Specifies the name of the domain to join in Active Directory.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup

Specifies the name of the workgroup to join if not using a
domain.

SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName

Specifies a machine name, for example lab-client005.

SysPrep.UserData.FullName

Specifies the full name of a user.

SysPrep.UserData.OrgName

Specifies the organization name of the user.

SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey

Specifies the Windows product key.

VirtualMachine.Admin.ThinProvision

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director
Blueprints
You can add certain custom properties to a vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine component definition
in a blueprint.
For machine components that do not have a Network or Security tab, you can add network and security
custom properties, such as VirtualMachine.Network0.Name, to their Properties tab in the blueprint
canvas. However, NSX load balancer properties are only applicable to vSphere machines.
Table 2‑14. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in
the Blueprint Canvas
Custom Property

Description

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to the
target domain in Active Directory. Do not include the user
domain in the credentials that you send to vCloud Director or
vCloud Air.

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword

Specifies the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain

Specifies the name of the domain to join in Active Directory.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.IsFixed

Disables the editing of a specific disk when reconfiguring a
machine. Set to True to disable display of the edit capacity
option for a specific volume. The True value is case-sensitive.
The N value is the 0-based index of the disk.
Alternatively, you can set the
VirtualMachine.DiskN.IsFixed custom property to True in
the VirtualMachineProperties table in the database or use the
Repository API to specify a URI value such
as .../Repository/Data/ManagementModelEntities.svc/V
irtualMachines(guid'60D93A8A-F541-4CE0A6C6-78973AC0F1D2')/VirtualMachineProperties.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy

VirtualMachine.EULA.AcceptAll

VMware, Inc.

Set to true to specify that all the EULAs for the VM templates of
the vCloud Air or vCloud Director endpoints are accepted during
provisioning.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑14. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in
the Blueprint Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name

Specifies the name of the network to connect to, for example the
network device N to which a machine is attached. This is
equivalent to a network interface card (NIC).
By default, a network is assigned from the network paths
available on the reservation on which the machine is
provisioned. Also see
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType.
You can ensure that a network device is connected to a specific
network by setting the value of this property to the name of a
network on an available reservation. For example, If you give
properties for N= 0 and 1, you get 2 NICs and their assigned
value, provided the network is selected in the associated
reservation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to
be specific to blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is performed
before the machine is assigned to a reservation. Because
blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.
You can add this property to a vCloud Air or vCloud Director
machine component in a blueprint.
For related information, see Custom Properties for Networking.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType

Specifies how IP address allocation is supplied to the network
provider, where NetworkN is the network number, starting with 0.
The following value are available:
n

DHCP

Static

MANUAL (available for vCloud Air and vCloud Director only)

This property is available for configuring vCloud Air,
vCloud Director, and vSphere machine components in the
blueprint. Also see VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name.
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu

Set to true to specify that the reconfigure machine action
restarts the specified machine. By default, the reconfigure
machine action does not restart the machine.
Performing a hot add of CPU, memory, or storage causes the
reconfigure machine action to fail and to not restart the machine
unless the Hot Add setting is enabled in vSphere for the
machine or template. You can add
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu=true to a
machine component in a vRealize Automation blueprint to
disable the Hot Add setting and force the machine to restart
regardless of the vSphere Hot Add setting. The custom property
is only available for machine types that support hardware
reconfiguration, which are vSphere, vCloud Air, and
vCloud Director.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑14. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in
the Blueprint Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins

Specifies a threshold integer value for a compute resource such
that lease synchronization between vCloud Director and
vRealize Automation only occur for vCloud Director or
vCloud Air-provisioned machines that are set to expire in
vCloud Director or vCloud Air in that time period. If a conflict is
found, the lease value is synchronized to match the lease length
defined in vRealize Automation. The default
VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins value is 720 minutes,
which is 12 hours. If VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins is
not present, the default value is used. For example, if the default
values are used, vRealize Automation runs the lease
synchronization check workflow every 45 minutes, which is the
workflow default, and only the leases of machines that are set to
expire within 12 hours are changed to match the lease length
defined in vRealize Automation.

VCloud.Owner.UseEndpointAccount

Set to true to assign the endpoint account as the vCloud Air or
vCloud Director machine owner for provisioning and import
operations. For change owner operations, the owner is not
changed on the endpoint. If not specified or set to false, the
vRealize Automation owner is the machine owner.

VCloud.Template.MakeIdenticalCopy

Set to true to clone an identical copy of the vCloud Air or
vCloud Director template for machine provisioning. The machine
is provisioned as an identical copy of the template. Settings
specified in the template, including storage path, supercede
settings specified in the blueprint. The only changes from the
template are the names of the cloned machines, which are
generated from the machine prefix specified in the blueprint.
vCloud Air or vCloud Director machines that are provisioned as
identical copies can use networks and storage profiles that are
not available in the vRealize Automation reservation. To avoid
having unaccounted reservation allocations, verify that the
storage profile or network specified in the template is available
in the reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑14. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in
the Blueprint Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VMware.SCSI.Sharing

Specifies the sharing mode of the machine’s VMware SCSI bus.
Possible values are based on the VirtualSCSISharing ENUM
value and include noSharing, physicalSharing, and
virtualSharing.
The VMware.SCSI.Sharing property is not available for use
with the CloneWorkflow provisioning workflow. If you specify the
CloneWorkflow provisioning workflow when configuring your
machine component in the blueprint design canvas, you cannot
use the VMware.SCSI.Sharing property.

VMware.SCSI.Type

For vCloud Air, vCloud Director, or vSphere machine
components in blueprints, specifies the SCSI machine type
using one of the following case-sensitive values:
n

buslogic

lsilogic

Use BusLogic emulation for the virtual disk.

Use LSILogic emulation for the virtual disk (default).
n

lsilogicsas

pvscsi

Use LSILogic SAS 1068 emulation for the virtual disk.

Use para-virtualization emulation for the virtual disk.
n

none
Use if a SCSI controller does not exist for this machine.

The VMware.SCSI.Type property is not available for use with
the CloneWorkflow provisioning workflow. If you specify the
CloneWorkflow provisioning workflow when configuring your
machine component in the blueprint design canvas, you cannot
use the VMware.SCSI.Type property.

Custom Properties for vRealize Automation Guest Agent
If you have installed the vRealize Automation guest agent in your templates for cloning or in your WinPE,
you can use custom properties to run custom scripts within the guest operating system of a provisioned
machine after the machine is fully deployed.
Table 2‑15. Custom Properties for Customizing Provisioned Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.AddOwnerToAdmins

Set to True (default) to add the machine’s owner, as specified by
the VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property, to the local
administrators group on the machine.

VirtualMachine.Admin.AllowLogin

VMware, Inc.

Set to True (default) to add the machine owner to the local
remote desktop users group, as specified by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑15. Custom Properties for Customizing Provisioned Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Active

Set to True (default) to specify that the machine's disk N is
active. Set to False to specify that the machine's disk N is not
active.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter

VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑15. Custom Properties for Customizing Provisioned Machines with a Guest Agent
(Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete

Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow from sending
work items to the guest agent until all customizations have been
completed.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName

Specifies the path and file name of the ISO file relative to the
data store root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name.iso. If a value
is not specified, the ISO is not mounted.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation

Custom Properties for Naming and Analyzing
Deployments
If provisioning fails, vRealize Automation rolls back all resources included in the catalog item. For
deployments that contain multiple components, you can use a custom property to override that default
and receive information to debug the failure. These properties are best used when applied to the overall
blueprint.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑16. Custom Properties for Analyzing Deployments
Custom Property

Description

_debug_deployment

By default, all resources that are created by a provisioning
process are rolled back if provisioning fails. You can override the
default behavior by setting the _debug_deployment custom
property value to true. If provisioning fails, the debugging
custom property stops the resources from being rolled back so
you can identify which of the components failed to provision
successfully. None of the components in the failed catalog item
are accessible to the user, so this custom property is best used
during development and testing of new application blueprints.
To apply the custom property to an application blueprint, add
_debug_deployment to the Blueprint Properties page using
the Properties tab when you create or edit an application
blueprint.
This property is for blueprints that contain multiple components,
such as composite blueprints, and is ignored if applied to
standalone blueprints.

_deploymentName

Displays or hides the deployment name field from a published,
composite blueprint in the provisioning request details form. To
apply the custom property and display the name of the
deployment in the request details form, add
_deploymentName=true to the Blueprint Properties page
using the Properties tab when you create or edit a blueprint. By
default, the property is set to false, which suppresses the
deployment name.

Custom Properties for Networking
The vRealize Automation custom properties for networking specify configuration for a specific network
device on a machine.
Network assignments are performed during machine allocation. vRealize Automation retrieves network
information from the blueprint. If you want to assign more than one network, use the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name custom property on your machine blueprint. If you do not provide
custom properties, allocation only assigns one network which is picked using a round robin method in
conjunction with the selected reservation.
For machine components that do not have a Network or Security tab, you can add network and security
custom properties, such as VirtualMachine.Network0.Name, to their Properties tab in the blueprint
canvas. However, NSX load balancer properties are only applicable to vSphere machines.
Note This information does not apply to Amazon Web Services.
By default, a machine has one network device configured with the VirtualMachine.Network0.Name
property. You can configure additional network devices by using the VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name
custom property, where N is the network number.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

The numbering of network properties must be sequential, starting with 0. For example, if you specify
custom properties for only VirtualMachine.Network0 and VirtualMachine.Network2, the properties
for VirtualMachine.Network2 are ignored, because the preceding network,
VirtualMachine.Network1, was not specified.
Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address

Specifies the IP address of network device N in a machine
provisioned with a static IP address.
For Amazon, see Amazon.elasticIpAddress.ipAddress.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType

Indicates whether the MAC address of network device N is
generated or user-defined (static). This property is available for
cloning.
The default value is generated. If the value is static, you must
also use VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress to specify
the MAC address.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to
be specific to individual blueprints and machines. When a
machine is requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a
specific reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress

Specifies the MAC address of a network device N. This property
is available for cloning.
If the value of VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType is
generated, this property contains the generated address.
If the value of VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType is
static, this property specifies the MAC address. For virtual
machines provisioned on ESX server hosts, the address must
be in the range specified by VMware. For details, see vSphere
documentation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to
be specific to individual blueprints and machines. When a
machine is requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a
specific reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PortID

Specifies the port ID to use for network device N when using a
dvPort group with a vSphere distributed switch.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to
be specific to individual blueprints and machines. When a
machine is requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a
specific reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes

VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to
be specific to individual blueprints and machines. When a
machine is requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a
specific reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.
You cannot use this custom property to define an on-demand
NAT or on-demand routed network profile name. Because ondemand network profile names are generated at allocation time
(during provisioning), their names are unknown when creating or
editing the blueprint. To specify NSX on-demand network
information, use the applicable network component in the
blueprint design canvas for your vSphere machine components.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

Configures attributes of the network profile specified in
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are designed to

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

be specific to individual blueprints and machines. When a
machine is requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be allocated to a
specific reservation, do not use this property on a reservation.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.name

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security load balancing
pools to which the virtual machine is assigned during
provisioning. The virtual machine is assigned to all service ports
of all specified pools. The value is an edge/pool name or a list of
edge/pool names separated by commas. Names are casesensitive.
Note You can add a machine IP address to an existing load
balancer by using the VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names
custom property. vRealize Automation and NSX use the first
member of the specified edge load balancer pool to determine
the new member port and monitor port settings. However, NSX
6.2 does not require that the member port setting be specified.
To avoid provisioning failure when using
VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names with NSX 6.2 to add a
machine to an existing pool, you must specify a port value for
the first member of the load balancer pool in NSX.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple versions of a
custom property. For example, the following properties might list
load balancing pools set up for general use and machines with
high, moderate, and low performance requirements:
n

VMware, Inc.

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.moderate

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.high

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.low

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.name

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security security group or
groups to which the virtual machine is assigned during
provisioning. The value is a security group name or a list of
names separated by commas. Names are case-sensitive.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple versions of the
property, which can be used separately or in combination. For
example, the following properties can list security groups
intended for general use, for the sales force, and for support:

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.name

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.sales

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.support

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security security tag or
tags to which the virtual machine is associated during
provisioning. The value is a security tag name or a list of names
separated by commas. Names are case-sensitive.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple versions of the
property, which can be used separately or in combination. For
example, the following properties can list security tags intended
for general use, for the sales force, and for support:
n

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.sales

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.support

Custom Properties for PXE Provisioning
PXE is the only provisioning method supported for Cisco UCS Manager. You can use the network
bootstrap program with vRealize Automation custom properties to initiate WIM, SCCM, or Linux Kickstart
provisioning. You can also use custom properties to call your own PowerShell scripts. Linux Kickstart
provisioning does not require custom properties.

Custom Properties for Provisioning With PowerShell Scripts
You can use these properties for calling PowerShell scripts.
Table 2‑18. Custom Properties for Calling PowerShell Scripts
Custom Property

Description

Pxe.Setup.ScriptName

Specifies a custom EPI PowerShell script to run on the machine
before it is started by using the PXE network boot program. The
value is the name assigned to the script when it is uploaded to
the model manager, for example setup.ps1.

Pxe.Clean.ScriptName

Specifies the name of an EPI PowerShell script installed in the
vRealize Automation Model Manager, to run on the machine
after it is provisioned. The value is the name assigned to the
script when it is uploaded to the Model Manager, for example
clean.ps1.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties For PXE and SCCM Provisioning
You can use these properties for PXE and SCCM provisioning.
Table 2‑19. Custom Properties for PXE and SCCM Provisioning
Custom Property

Description

SCCM.Collection.Name

Specifies the name of the SCCM collection that contains the
operating system deployment task sequence.

SCCM.Server.Name

Specifies the fully qualified domain name of the SCCM server on
which the collection resides, for example lab-sccm.lab.local.

SCCM.Server.SiteCode

Specifies the site code of the SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.UserName

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to the
SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.

SCCM.CustomVariable.

Custom Properties For PXE and WIM Provisioning
You can use these properties for PXE and WIM provisioning.
Table 2‑20. Custom Properties for PXE and WIM Provisioning
Custom Property

Description

Image.Network.Letter

Specifies the drive letter to which the WIM image path is
mapped on the provisioned machine. The default value is K.

Image.WIM.Path

Specifies the UNC path to the WIM file from which an image is
extracted during WIM-based provisioning. The path format
is \\server\share$ format, for example \\lab-ad\dfs$.

Image.WIM.Name

Specifies the name of the WIM file, for example win2k8.wim, as
located by the Image.WIM.Path property.

Image.WIM.Index

Specifies the index used to extract the correct image from the
WIM file.

Image.Network.User

Specifies the user name with which to map the WIM image path
(Image.WIM.Path) to a network drive on the provisioned
machine. This is typically a domain account with access to the
network share.

Image.Network.Password

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the password associated with the
Image.Network.User property.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑20. Custom Properties for PXE and WIM Provisioning (Continued)
Custom Property

Description

SysPrep.Section.Key

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone

GuiUnattended
n

AdminPassword

EncryptedAdminPassword

TimeZone

UserData
n

ProductKey

FullName

ComputerName

OrgName

Identification
n

DomainAdmin

DomainAdminPassword

JoinDomain

JoinWorkgroup

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to the
target domain in Active Directory. Do not include the user
domain in the credentials that you send to vCloud Director or
vCloud Air.

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword

Specifies the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain

Specifies the name of the domain to join in Active Directory.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup

Specifies the name of the workgroup to join if not using a
domain.

SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName

Specifies a machine name, for example lab-client005.

SysPrep.UserData.FullName

Specifies the full name of a user.

SysPrep.UserData.OrgName

Specifies the organization name of the user.

SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey

Specifies the Windows product key.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration
Manager Integration
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for BMC
BladeLogic Configuration Manager integration.
Table 2‑21. Custom Properties Required for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
Integrations
Custom Property

Description

VirtualMachine.EPI.Type

Specifies the type of external provisioning infrastructure.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner

Specifies the user name of the machine owner.

BMC.Software.Install

Set to True to enable BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
integration.

EPI.Server.Name

BMC.Service.Profile

Specifies the name of the default authentication profile on the
BMC BladeLogic server.

BMC.Software.BatchLocation

Specifies the location in BMC BladeLogic configuration where
software jobs are deployed. This value must match the
appropriate value of Vrm.Software.IdNNNN. For example, a
valid value could be /Application Deployment.

VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties To Make BMC BladeLogic Configuration
Manager Software Jobs Available
Configure BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager jobs for vRealize Automation integrations. Make all
software jobs available to machine requesters to select from, or specify a software job to apply to all
machines provisioned from the blueprint.
Table 2‑22. Custom Properties to Make Software Jobs Available
Custom Property

Description

LoadSoftware

Set to True to enable software install options.

Vrm.Software.IdNNNN

Specifies a software job or policy to be applied to all machines
provisioned from the blueprint. Set the value to
job_type=job_path, where job_type is the numeral that
represents the BMC BladeLogic job type and job_path is the
location of the job in BMC BladeLogic, for example
4=/Utility/putty. NNNN is a number from 1000 to 1999. The
first property must start with 1000 and increment in numerical
order for each additional property.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

AuditJob
BatchJob
ComplianceJob
DeployJob
FileDeployJob
NSHScriptJob
PatchAnalysisJob
SnapshotJob

Optional Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration
Manager Integrations
You can also use optional custom properties that are commonly used with BMC BladeLogic Configuration
Manager blueprints.
Table 2‑23. Optional Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
Integrations
Property

Definition

BMC.AddServer.Delay

Specifies the number of seconds to wait before adding the
machine to BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager. The default
is 30.

BMC.AddServer.Retry

Specifies the number of seconds to wait before retrying if the
first attempt to add the machine to BMC BladeLogic
Configuration Manager is unsuccessful. The default is 100.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for HP
Server Automation integration. Some custom properties are required for HP Server Automation
integration. Other custom properties are optional.

Required Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Certain custom properties are required for a blueprint to work with HP Server Automation.
Table 2‑24. Required Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Property

Definition

VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem

VirtualMachine.EPI.Type

Specifies the type of external provisioning infrastructure.

EPI.Server.Name

Opsware.Software.Install

Set to True to allow HP Server Automation to install software.

Opsware.Server.Name

Specifies the fully qualified name of the HP Server Automation
server.

Opsware.Server.Username

Specifies the user name provided when a password file in the
agent directory was created, for example opswareadmin. This
user name requires administrative access to the HP Server
Automation instance.

Opsware.BootImage.Name

Specifies the boot image value as defined in HP Server
Automation for the 32-bit WinPE image, for example winpe32.
The property is not required when provisioning by cloning.

Opsware.Customer.Name

Specifies a customer name value as defined in HP Server
Automation, for example MyCompanyName.

Opsware.Facility.Name

Specifies a facility name value as defined in HP Server
Automation, for example Cambridge.

Opsware.Machine.Password

Specifies the default local administrator password for an
operating system sequence WIM image such as
Opsware.OSSequence.Name as defined in HP Server
Automation, for example P@ssword1.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 2‑24. Required Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration (Continued)
Property

Definition

Opsware.OSSequence.Name

Specifies the operating system sequence name value as defined
in HP Server Automation, for example Windows 2008 WIM.

Opsware.Realm.Name

Specifies the realm name value as defined in HP Server
Automation, for example Production.

Opsware.Register.Timeout

Specifies the time, in seconds, to wait for creation of a
provisioning job to complete.

VirtualMachine.CDROM.Attach

Set to False to provision the machine without a CD-ROM device.
The default is True.

Linux.ExternalScript.Name

Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType

Specifies the location type of the customization script named in
the Linux.ExternalScript.Name property. This can be either
local or nfs.

Linux.ExternalScript.Path

Optional Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Certain custom properties are optional for a blueprint to work with HP Server Automation.
Table 2‑25. Optional Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Property

Definition

Opsware.ProvFail.Notify

(Optional) Specifies the notification email address for HP Server
Automation to use in the event of provisioning failure, for
example provisionfail@lab.local.

Opsware.ProvFail.Notify

(Optional) Specifies the HP Server Automation user to whom
ownership is assigned if provisioning fails.

Opsware.ProvSuccess.Notify

(Optional) Specifies the notification email address for HP Server
Automation to use if provisioning is successful.

Opsware.ProvSuccess.Owner

(Optional) Specifies the HP Server Automation user to whom
ownership is assigned if provisioning is successful.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties That Make HP Server Automation Software
Jobs Available
Depending on how your fabric administrator configures HP Server Automation jobs for
vRealize Automation integration, you might have a choice between making all software jobs available to
machine requesters to select, or you can specify jobs to apply to all machines provisioned from your
blueprint.
Table 2‑26. Custom Properties to Make Software Jobs Available
Property

Definition

LoadSoftware

Set to True to enable software install options.

Vrm.Software.Id

(Optional) Specifies an HP Server Automation policy to be
applied to all machines provisioned from the blueprint. NNNN is
a number from 1000 to 1999. The first property must start with
1000 and increment in numerical order for each additional
property.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Grouped by
Name

You can use custom properties to provide additional vRealize Automation controls.
Custom properties have been grouped here by name. To explore custom properties grouped by function,
see Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
Custom Properties A Table
n

Custom Properties B Table

Custom Properties C Table

Custom Properties E Table

Custom Properties H Table

Custom Properties I Table

Custom Properties L Table

Custom Properties M Table

Custom Properties O Table

Custom Properties P Table

Custom Properties R Table

Custom Properties S Table

Custom Properties V Table

Custom Properties X Table

Custom Properties A Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter A.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑1. Custom Properties A Table
Property

Description

AD.Lookup.Department

Specifies the cost center value that is included in a notification email
sent to approvers. This property value must be specified in the blueprint.

amazon.AmazonEC2Config.ServiceURL

Specifies the Amazon configuration service URL for Amazon GovCloud,
for example amazon.AmazonEC2Config.ServiceURL=https://ec2.usgov-west-1.amazonaws.com.

amazon.ElasticLoadBalancingConfig.ServiceURL

Specifies the Amazon load balancer configuration service URL for
Amazon GovCloud, for example
amazon.ElasticLoadBalancingConfig.ServiceURL=https://elasticlo
adbalancing.us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com.

Amazon.ElasticLoadBalancer.Names

Assigns machines that are provisioned by a blueprint to the elastic load
balancers that match the specified values. This property is valid for
vSphere, Amazon, and Hyper-V configurations.

Amazon.Instance.Id

Specifies the Amazon instance ID of a machine provisioned on an
Amazon EC2 endpoint. This property is valid for vSphere and Amazon
configurations.

Amazon.elasticIpAddress.ipAddress

Specifies the Amazon IP address where ipAddress is the specific IP
address to assign to the instance.

Custom Properties B Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter B.
Table 3‑2. Custom Properties B Table
Property

Definition

BMC.AddServer.Delay

Specifies the number of seconds to wait before adding the machine to
BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager. The default is 30.

BMC.AddServer.Retry

Specifies the number of seconds to wait before retrying if the first attempt
to add the machine to BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager is
unsuccessful. The default is 100.

BMC.Service.Profile

Specifies the name of the default authentication profile on the BMC
BladeLogic server.

BMC.Software.BatchLocation

Specifies the location in BMC BladeLogic configuration where software
jobs are deployed. This value must match the appropriate value of
Vrm.Software.IdNNNN. For example, a valid value could
be /Application Deployment.

BMC.Software.Install

Set to True to enable BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager integration.

Custom Properties C Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter C.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑3. Custom Properties C Table
Property

Definition

Cisco.Organization.Dn

Specifies the distinguished name of the Cisco UCS Manager organization
in which Cisco UCS machines provisioned by the business group are
placed, for example org-root/org-Engineering. If the specified organization
does not exist in the Cisco UCS Manager instance that is managing the
machine, provisioning fails. This property is available for business groups
only.

CloneFrom

Specifies the name of an existing machine or virtualization platform object
to clone from, for example a template in vCenter Server such as
Win2k8tmpl.

CloneSpec

Specifies the name of a customization specification on a cloned machine,
for example a predefined SysPrep object in vCenter Server such as Win2k
Customization Spec. The default value is specified on the blueprint.

Command.DiskPart.Options

When you use WIM-based virtual provisioning on ESX server hosts, set to
Align=64 to use the recommended alignment parameters when you format
and partition the machine’s disk. This property is not available for physical
provisioning.

Command.FormatDisk.Options

When you use WIM-based virtual provisioning on ESX server hosts, set
to /A:32K to use the recommended alignment parameters when you format
and partition the machine’s disk. This property is not available for physical
provisioning.

Custom Properties E Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter E.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑4. Custom Properties E Table
Property

Definition

EPI.Server.Collection

Specifies the name of the Citrix provisioning collection to which the machine is to be
registered.

EPI.Server.Name

Specifies the name of the external provisioning infrastructure server, for example,
the name of the server hosting BMC BladeLogic. If at least one general BMC EPI
agent was installed without specifying a BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
host, this value directs the request to the desired server.
If only dedicated BMC EPI agents for specific BMC BladeLogic Configuration
Manager hosts were installed, this value must exactly match the server name
configured for one of these agents.
Specifies the name of the server hosting HP Server Automation. If at least one
general Opsware EPI agent was installed without specifying a server automation
server, this value directs the request to the desired server.
If only dedicated EPI agents for specific HP server automation servers were
installed, this value must exactly match the server name configured for one of these
agents.
If at least one general EPI agent of the appropriate type
(VirtualMachine.EPI.Type) was installed without specifying a server, this value
directs the request to the desired server. If only dedicated EPI agents for specific
servers of the appropriate type were installed, this value must exactly match the
server name configured for one of these agents.

EPI.Server.Port

Specifies the port on which to contact the provisioning server. If you are using a
Citrix provisioning server, omit to specify the default port value of 54321.

EPI.Server.Site

Specifies the name of the Citrix provisioning site that contains the collection and
store identified by the EPI.Server.Collection and EPI.Server.Store
properties, for example site1.

EPI.Server.Store

Specifies the name of the Citrix provisioning store that contains the vDisk identified
by the EPI.Server.VDiskName property, for example store1.

EPI.Server.VDiskName

Specifies the name of the Citrix provisioning vDisk from which to provision, for
example disk1.

Custom Properties H Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter H.
Table 3‑5. Custom Properties H Table
Property

Definition

Hostname

Specifies the host machine name, overriding the generated machine name
contained in the VirtualMachine.Admin.Name property. If Hostname is not used,
the VirtualMachine.Admin.Name value is used as the machine name.

Hyperv.Network.Type

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the network adapter type of the virtual machine. This property is valid for
use with Hyper-V only. The default value is Synthetic. The Legacy value is not
compatible with WinXP or Server 2003 x64 guest operating systems.

Custom Properties Reference

Custom Properties I Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter I.
Table 3‑6. Custom Properties I Table
Property

Definition

Image.ISO.Location

Values for this property are case sensitive. Specifies the location of the ISO image
from which to boot, for example http://192.168.2.100/site2/winpe.iso. The format of
this value depends on your platform. For details, see documentation provided for your
platform. This property is required for WIM-based provisioning, Linux Kickstart and
autoYaST provisioning, and SCCM-based provisioning.
For virtual provisioning with vCenter Server, this specifies the name of a datastore in
the instance that will be accessible to the provisioning compute resource. For virtual
provisioning with XenServer, this specifies the name of a storage repository.
For physical provisioning, this specifies the HTTP URL of the web-accessible location
of the image.

Image.ISO.Name

Values for this property are case sensitive. Specifies the name of the ISO image from
which to boot, for example /ISO/Microsoft/WinPE.iso. The format of this value
depends on your platform. For details, see documentation provided for your platform.
This property is required for WIM-based provisioning, Linux Kickstart and autoYaST
provisioning, and SCCM-based provisioning.
For virtual provisioning with vCenter Server, this svalue specifies the path to the
image in the datastore specified by Image.ISO.Location, for
example /MyISOs/Microsoft/MSDN/win2003.iso. The value must use forward
slashes and begin with a forward slash. For virtual provisioning with XenServer, this
value specifies the name of the image in the storage repository specified by
Image.ISO.Location. In virtual provisioning with Hyper-V, this value specifies the full
local path to the image.
For physical provisioning, this value specifies the file name of the image.

Image.ISO.UserName

Image.ISO.Password

Specifies the user name to access the CIFS share in the format username@domain.
For Dell iDRAC integrations where the image is located on a CIFS share that requires
authentication to access.
Specifies the password associated with the Image.ISO.UserName property. For Dell
iDRAC integrations where the image is located on a CIFS share that requires
authentication to access.

Image.WIM.Path

Specifies the UNC path to the WIM file from which an image is extracted during WIMbased provisioning. The path format is \\server\share$ format, for example \\labad\dfs$.

Image.WIM.Name

Specifies the name of the WIM file, for example win2k8.wim, as located by the
Image.WIM.Path property.

Image.WIM.Index
Image.Network.User

Specifies the index used to extract the correct image from the WIM file.
Specifies the user name with which to map the WIM image path (Image.WIM.Path) to
a network drive on the provisioned machine. This is typically a domain account with
access to the network share.

Image.Network.Password

Specifies the password associated with the Image.Network.User property.

Image.Network.Letter

Specifies the drive letter to which the WIM image path is mapped on the provisioned
machine. The default value is K.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑6. Custom Properties I Table (Continued)
Property

Definition

Infrastructure.Admin.MachineObject
OU

Specifies the organizational unit (OU) of the machine. When machines are placed in
the required OU by the business group OU setting, this property is not required.

Infrastructure.Admin.ADUser

Specifies the domain administrator user ID. This identifier is used to query Active
Directory users and groups when an anonymous bind cannot be used.

Infrastructure.Admin.ADPassword

Specifies the password associated with the Infrastructure.Admin.ADUser domain
administrator user ID.

Infrastructure.Admin.DefaultDomain

Specifies the default domain on the machine.

Infrastructure.ResourcePool.Name

Specifies the resource pool to which the machine belongs, if any. The default is the
value specified in the reservation from which the machine was provisioned.

Custom Properties L Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter L.
Table 3‑7. Custom Properties L Table
Property

Description

Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType

Specifies the location type of the customization script named in the
Linux.ExternalScript.Name property. This can be either local or
nfs.
You must also specify the script location using the
Linux.ExternalScript.Path property. If the location type is nfs,
also use the Linux.ExternalScript.Server property.

Linux.ExternalScript.Name

Specifies the name of an optional customization script, for example
config.sh, that the Linux guest agent runs after the operating system
is installed. This property is available for Linux machines cloned from
templates on which the Linux agent is installed.
If you specify an external script, you must also define its location by
using the Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.

Linux.ExternalScript.Path

Specifies the local path to the Linux customization script or the export
path to the Linux customization on the NFS server. The value must
begin with a forward slash and not include the file name, for
example /scripts/linux/config.sh.

Linux.ExternalScript.Server

Specifies the name of the NFS server, for example lab-ad.lab.local, on
which the Linux external customization script named in
Linux.ExternalScript.Name is located.

LoadSoftware

Set to True to enable software install options.

Custom Properties M Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter M.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑8. Custom Properties M Table
Property

Description

MaximumProvisionedMachines

Specifies the maximum number of linked clones for one machine snapshot.
The default is unlimited.

Machine.SSH

Set to True to enable the Connect Using SSH option, on the
vRealize Automation Items page, for Linux machines provisioned from this
blueprint. If set to True and the Connect using RDP or SSH machine
operation is enabled in the blueprint, all Linux machines that are provisioned
from the blueprint display the Connect Using SSH option to entitled users.

Custom Properties O Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter O.
Table 3‑9. Custom Properties O Table
Property

Description

Opsware.BootImage.Name

Specifies the boot image value as defined in HP Server Automation for
the 32-bit WinPE image, for example winpe32. The property is not
required when provisioning by cloning.

Opsware.Customer.Name

Specifies a customer name value as defined in HP Server Automation, for
example MyCompanyName.

Opsware.Facility.Name

Specifies a facility name value as defined in HP Server Automation, for
example Cambridge.

Opsware.Machine.Password

Specifies the default local administrator password for an operating system
sequence WIM image such as Opsware.OSSequence.Name as defined in
HP Server Automation, for example P@ssword1.

Opsware.OSSequence.Name

Specifies the operating system sequence name value as defined in HP
Server Automation, for example Windows 2008 WIM.

Opsware.ProvFail.Notify

(Optional) Specifies the notification email address for HP Server
Automation to use in the event of provisioning failure, for example
provisionfail@lab.local.

Opsware.ProvFail.Owner

(Optional) Specifies the HP Server Automation user to whom ownership is
assigned if provisioning fails.

Opsware.ProvSuccess.Notify

(Optional) Specifies the notification email address for HP Server
Automation to use if provisioning is successful.

Opsware.ProvSuccess.Owner

(Optional) Specifies the HP Server Automation user to whom ownership is
assigned if provisioning is successful.

Opsware.Realm.Name

Specifies the realm name value as defined in HP Server Automation, for
example Production.

Opsware.Register.Timeout

Specifies the time, in seconds, to wait for creation of a provisioning job to
complete.

Opsware.Server.Name

Specifies the fully qualified name of the HP Server Automation server.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑9. Custom Properties O Table (Continued)
Property

Description

Opsware.Server.Username

Specifies the user name provided when a password file in the agent
directory was created, for example opswareadmin. This user name
requires administrative access to the HP Server Automation instance.

Opsware.Software.Install

Set to True to allow HP Server Automation to install software.

Custom Properties P Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter P.
Table 3‑10. Custom Properties P Table
Property

Description

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.Delete

Set to True to delete the accounts of destroyed machines, instead of disabling
them.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.Execute

Set to True to enable the Active Directory cleanup plug-in. By default, each
machine’s account is disabled when it is destroyed.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.MoveToOu

Moves the account of destroyed machines to a new Active Directory
organizational unit. The value is the organization unit to which you are moving
the account. This value must be in ou=OU, dc=dc format, for example
ou=trash,cn=computers,dc=lab,dc=local.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.UserName

Specifies an Active Directory account user name with sufficient privileges to
perform Active Directory actions such as delete, disable, rename, or move
Active Directory accounts. The value must be in domain\username format, for
example lab\administrator. This property is required if the vRealize Automation
manager service does not have these rights in a domain, which can occur
when you provision machines in more than one domain.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.Password

Specifies the password associated to the
Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.UserName property.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.Domain

Specifies the Active Directory domain name that contains the machine account
to be destroyed.

Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.RenamePrefix

Renames the accounts of destroyed machines by adding a prefix. The value is
the prefix string to prepend, for example destroyed_.

Pxe.Clean.ScriptName

Specifies the name of an EPI PowerShell script installed in the
vRealize Automation Model Manager, to run on the machine after it is
provisioned. The value is the name assigned to the script when it is uploaded
to the Model Manager, for example clean.ps1.

Pxe.Setup.ScriptName

Specifies a custom EPI PowerShell script to run on the machine before it is
started by using the PXE network boot program. The value is the name
assigned to the script when it is uploaded to the model manager, for example
setup.ps1.

Custom Properties R Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter R.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑11. Custom Properties R Table
Property

Description

RDP.File.Name

Specifies an RDP file from which to obtain settings, for example
My_RDP_Settings.rdp. The file must reside in the Website\Rdp
subdirectory of the vRealize Automation installation directory.

Custom Properties S Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter S.
Table 3‑12. Custom Properties S Table
Property

Description

SysPrep.Section.Key

Specifies information to be added to the SysPrep
answer file on machines during the WinPE stage of
provisioning. Information that already exists in the
SysPrep answer file is overwritten by these custom
properties. Section represents the name of the section
of the SysPrep answer file, for example GuiUnattended
or UserData. Key represents a key name in the section.
For example, to set the time zone of a provisioned
machine to West Pacific Standard Time, define the
custom property GuiUnattended.UserData.TimeZone
and set the value to 275.

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword

SysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone

For a full list of sections, keys, and accepted values, see
the System Preparation Utility for Windows
documentation.
The following Section.Key combinations can be
specified for WIM-based provisioning:
n

GuiUnattended
n

AdminPassword

EncryptedAdminPassword

TimeZone

UserData
n

ProductKey

FullName

ComputerName

OrgName

Identification
n

DomainAdmin

DomainAdminPassword

JoinDomain

JoinWorkgroup

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to
the target domain in Active Directory. Do not include the
user domain in the credentials that you send to
vCloud Director or vCloud Air.

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword

Specifies the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑12. Custom Properties S Table (Continued)
Property

Description

Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain

Specifies the name of the domain to join in Active
Directory.

Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup

Specifies the name of the workgroup to join if not using
a domain.

SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName

Specifies a machine name, for example lab-client005.

SysPrep.UserData.FullName

Specifies the full name of a user.

SysPrep.UserData.OrgName

Specifies the organization name of the user.

SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey

Specifies the Windows product key.

SCCM.Collection.Name

Specifies the name of the SCCM collection that contains
the operating system deployment task sequence.

SCCM.CustomVariable.Name

Specifies the value of a custom variable, where Name is
the name of any custom variable to be made available
to the SCCM task sequence after the provisioned
machine is registered with the SCCM collection. The
value is determined by your choice of custom variable. If
your integration requires it, you can use
SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix to remove the
SCCM.CustomVariable. prefix from your custom
variable.

SCCM.Server.Name

Specifies the fully qualified domain name of the SCCM
server on which the collection resides, for example labsccm.lab.local.

SCCM.Server.SiteCode

Specifies the site code of the SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.UserName

Specifies a user name with administrator-level access to
the SCCM server.

SCCM.Server.Password

Specifies the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.

SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix

Set to true to remove the prefix
SCCM.CustomVariable. from SCCM custom variables
you created by using the custom property
SCCM.CustomVariable.Name.

Snapshot.Policy.AgeLimit

Sets the age limit, in days, for snapshots that can be
applied to machines. This property applies to vSphere
provisioning.
When a snapshot exceeds the age limit, the Apply
option is no longer available.
When the snapshot age limit is reached, the snapshot
remains but you can no longer revert to it. You can
delete the snapshot using the vSphere client.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑12. Custom Properties S Table (Continued)
Property

Description

Snapshot.Policy.Limit

Sets the number of snapshots allowed per machine. The
default setting is one snapshot per machine. This
property applies to vSphere provisioning. When set to 0,
the blueprint option to create a snapshot is hidden for all
users except for support and manager roles.
Snapshots are shown in a hierarchical structure.

Snapshot.Policy.Disable

Depth – Maximum is 31.

Width – There is no limit.

When set to true, the ability to create a snapshot is
disabled for all vRealize Automation user roles and the
snapshot option is hidden from the Items tab.

Custom Properties V Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter V.
Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table
Property

Description

VbScript.PreProvisioning.Name

Specifies the full path of a Visual Basic script to
be run before a machine is provisioned. For
example, %System-Drive%\Program
Files(x86)\VMware\vCAC
Agents\EPI_Agent\Scripts\SendEmail.vbs.
The script file must reside on the system on
which the Visual Basic script EPI agent is
installed.

VbScript.PostProvisioning.Name

Specifies the full path of a Visual Basic script to
be run after a machine is provisioned. For
example, %System-Drive%\Program
Files(x86)\VMware\vCAC
Agents\EPI_Agent\Scripts\SendEmail.vbs.
The script file must reside on the system on
which the Visual Basic script EPI agent is
installed.

VbScript.UnProvisioning.Name

Specifies the full path of a Visual Basic script to
be run when a machine is destroyed. For
example, %System-Drive%\Program Files
(x86)\VMware\vCAC
Agents\EPI_Agent\Scripts\SendEmail.vb.
The script file must reside on the system on
which the Visual Basic script EPI agent is
installed.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins

Specifies a threshold integer value for a compute
resource such that lease synchronization
between vCloud Director and
vRealize Automation only occur for
vCloud Director or vCloud Air-provisioned
machines that are set to expire in vCloud Director
or vCloud Air in that time period. If a conflict is
found, the lease value is synchronized to match
the lease length defined in vRealize Automation.
The default
VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins value is
720 minutes, which is 12 hours. If
VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins is not
present, the default value is used. For example, if
the default values are used, vRealize Automation
runs the lease synchronization check workflow
every 45 minutes, which is the workflow default,
and only the leases of machines that are set to
expire within 12 hours are changed to match the
lease length defined in vRealize Automation.

VCloud.Owner.UseEndpointAccount

Set to true to assign the endpoint account as the
vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine owner for
provisioning and import operations. For change
owner operations, the owner is not changed on
the endpoint. If not specified or set to false, the
vRealize Automation owner is the machine
owner.

VCloud.Template.MakeIdenticalCopy

Set to true to clone an identical copy of the
vCloud Air or vCloud Director template for
machine provisioning. The machine is
provisioned as an identical copy of the template.
Settings specified in the template, including
storage path, supercede settings specified in the
blueprint. The only changes from the template
are the names of the cloned machines, which are
generated from the machine prefix specified in
the blueprint.
vCloud Air or vCloud Director machines that are
provisioned as identical copies can use networks
and storage profiles that are not available in the
vRealize Automation reservation. To avoid having
unaccounted reservation allocations, verify that
the storage profile or network specified in the
template is available in the reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.name

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security
load balancing pools to which the virtual machine
is assigned during provisioning. The virtual
machine is assigned to all service ports of all
specified pools. The value is an edge/pool name
or a list of edge/pool names separated by
commas. Names are case-sensitive.
Note You can add a machine IP address to an
existing load balancer by using the
VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names custom
property. vRealize Automation and NSX use the
first member of the specified edge load balancer
pool to determine the new member port and
monitor port settings. However, NSX 6.2 does not
require that the member port setting be specified.
To avoid provisioning failure when using
VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names with NSX
6.2 to add a machine to an existing pool, you
must specify a port value for the first member of
the load balancer pool in NSX.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple
versions of a custom property. For example, the
following properties might list load balancing
pools set up for general use and machines with
high, moderate, and low performance
requirements:

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.name

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.mode
rate

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.high

VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.low

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security
security group or groups to which the virtual
machine is assigned during provisioning. The
value is a security group name or a list of names
separated by commas. Names are casesensitive.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple
versions of the property, which can be used
separately or in combination. For example, the
following properties can list security groups
intended for general use, for the sales force, and
for support:

VMware, Inc.

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.sales

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.support

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.blueprint_name

When using vCloud Networking and Security,
specifies the Edge Pool with which to associate
the blueprint.

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.name

Specifies the vCloud Networking and Security
security tag or tags to which the virtual machine
is associated during provisioning. The value is a
security tag name or a list of names separated by
commas. Names are case-sensitive.
Appending a name allows you to create multiple
versions of the property, which can be used
separately or in combination. For example, the
following properties can list security tags
intended for general use, for the sales force, and
for support:

VirtualMachine.Admin.UseGuestAgent

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.sales

VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.support

If the guest agent is installed as a service on a
template for cloning, set to True on the machine
blueprint to enable the guest agent service on
machines cloned from that template. When the
machine is started, the guest agent service is
started. Set to False to disable the guest agent. If
set to False, the enhanced clone workfow will not
use the guest agent for guest operating system
tasks, reducing its functionality to
VMwareCloneWorkflow. If not specified or set to
anything other than False, the enhanced clone
workflow will send work items to the guest agent.

VirtualMachine.Admin.NameCompletion

Specifies the domain name to include in the fully
qualified domain name of the machine that the
RDP or SSH files generate for the user interface
options Connect Using RDP or Connect Using
SSH option. For example, set the value to
myCompany.com to generate the fully qualified
domain name my-machinename.myCompany.com in the RDP or SSH file.

VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the RDP connection address of the
machine to which an RDP file is downloaded
when the user interface option Connect Using
RDP is used or attached to automatic emails. Do
not use in a blueprint or property group unless
you require the user to be prompted and you
have not supplied a default value.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.ThinProvision

Determines whether thin provisioning is used on
ESX compute resources using local or iSCSI
storage. Set to True to use thin provisioning. Set
to False to use standard provisioning. This
property is for virtual provisioning.

VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay

Specifies the time to wait after customization is
complete and before starting the guest operating
system customization. The value must be in
HH:MM:SS format. If the value is not set, the
default value is one minute (00:01:00). If you
choose not to include this custom property,
provisioning can fail if the virtual machine reboots
before guest agent work items are completed,
causing provisioning to fail.

VirtualMachine.Admin.NetworkInterfaceType

Indicates the network adapter type that is
supported and emulated by the guest operating
system. Use to create a new VM and assign a
specific adapter type to it that an be used by a
template cloning operation. Use to modify the
network settings of a newly provisioned virtual
machine. The following options are available:

VirtualMachine.Admin.Name

E1000 (default)

VirtIO

RTL8139

RTL8139 VirtIO

Specifies the generated machine name for
vSphere, for example CodyVM01. When creating
custom workflows or plug-ins for customizing a
virtual machine name, set this property to match
the name of the virtual machine. This is an
internal input property for the agent to name the
virtual machine.
Note This property is for vSphere only.
The value specified in the blueprint has no effect
on this property. This property is not intended to
be used to prompt the user. Use the HostName
property to prompt the user. If the property is set
at runtime, the container name that is created in
the hypervisor might not match the item record
name.

VirtualMachine.Admin.UUID

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the UUID of the machine. The value is
recorded by the guest agent when the machine is
created, then it becomes read-only. The value in
the blueprint or property group has no effect on
this property.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.AgentID

Specifies the UUID of the guest agent. The value
is recorded by the guest agent when the machine
is created, then it becomes read-only. The value
in the blueprint or property group has no effect on
this property.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner

Specifies the user name of the machine owner.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Approver

Specifies the user name of the group manager
who approved the machine request.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Description

Specifies the description of the machine as
entered or modified by its owner or an
administrator.

VirtualMachine.Admin.EncryptPasswords

If set to True, specifies that the administrator
passwords are encrypted.

VirtualMachine.Admin.AdministratorEmail

Specifies the manager email addresses or Active
Directory accounts for the business group of the
provisioning blueprint. Multiple email addresses
are separated by a comma, for example
JoeAdmin@VMware.com,WeiLeeMgr@VMware.co
m.

VirtualMachine.Admin.TotalDiskUsage

Specifies the total disk space that the machine
uses, including all disks as specified by the
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size properties and
the swap file as specified by the
VMware.Memory. Reservation property.

VirtualMachine.Admin.Hostname

Informs the administrator which host is used for
provisioning the machine on the endpoint. The
specified value is implemented on the machine
and is populated during data collection. For
example, if the compute resource of a machine is
changed, a proxy agent updates the value of the
machine’s VirtualMachine.Admin.Hostname
property.
Note This is an internal output property from the
agent that is populated during the data collection
process and identifies the host on which a
machine resides.

VirtualMachine.Admin.ClusterName

Informs the administrator which cluster contains
the compute resource for the machine to use.
Note This is an internal output property from the
agent that is populated during the data collection
process and identifies the cluster in which a
machine resides.

VirtualMachine.Admin.ApplicationID

VMware, Inc.

List the application IDs that can be assigned to a
machine.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Admin.AddOwnerToAdmins

Set to True (default) to add the machine’s owner,
as specified by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property, to the
local administrators group on the machine.
This property is not available for provisioning by
cloning.

VirtualMachine.Admin.AllowLogin

Set to True (default) to add the machine owner to
the local remote desktop users group, as
specified by the VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner
property.

VirtualMachine.Admin.DiskInterfaceType

Indicates the type of disk drivers. The following
disk drivers are supported:
n

IDE (default)

VirtIO

This property is for virtual provisioning.
VirtualMachine.Admin.ForceHost

Specifies the name of the ESX host. The property
is only honored if
VirtualMachine.Admin.HostSelectionPolic
y is set to EXACT_MATCH.
Note This property is for vSphere only.
When provisioning against a vSphere cluster, you
can use the
VirtualMachine.Admin.ForceHost property to
specify the host on which a machine is to be
provisioned. This property is used only if DRS is
not set to automatic for the cluster. If the cluster
has DRS enabled and is set to Automatic,
vSphere relocates the provisioned machine when
the machine is restarted.

VirtualMachine.Admin.HostSelectionPolicy

Optionally set to EXACT_MATCH to require the
machine to be placed on the host specified by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.ForceHost property. If
the host is unavailable, the request results in a
failure. If a host is not specified, the next best
available host is selected. If set to
EXACT_MATCH, an error occurs if the specified
host does not have enough memory or is in
maintenance mode.
Note This property applies to vSphere only.

VirtualMachine.Agent.CopyToDisk

Set to True (default) to copy the guest agent
executable file to %System-Drive
%\VRM\Build\Bin on the machine’s disk.

VirtualMachine.Agent.GuiRunOnce

Set to True to include guest agent execution in
the SysPrep.inf run once section. Set to False
for the Linux agent to stop the provisioning
workflow.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Agent.Reboot

Set to True (default) to specify that the guest
agent restarts the machine following installation
of the guest operating system.

VirtualMachine.CDROM.Attach

Set to False to provision the machine without a
CD-ROM device. The default is True.

VirtualMachine.CPU.Count

Specifies the number of CPUs, for example 2,
allocated to a machine. The default is the value
specified by the CPU setting on the blueprint.
Note This custom property value is overridden
by the CPU value on the blueprint when the
machine is first provisioned.

VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete

Set to True to prevent the provisioning workflow
from sending work items to the guest agent until
all customizations have been completed.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter

Specifies the drive letter or mount point of a
machine’s disk N. The default is C. For example,
to specify the letter D for Disk 1, define the
custom property as
VirtualMachine.Disk1.Letter and enter the
value D. Disk numbering must be sequential.
When used in conjunction with a guest agent, this
value specifies the drive letter or mount point
under which an additional disk N is mounted by
the guest agent in the guest operating system.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size

Defines the size in GB of disk N. For example, to
give a size of 150 GB to a disk G, define the
custom property VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size
and enter a value of 150. Disk numbering must
be sequential. By default a machine has one disk
referred to by VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size,
where size is specified by the storage value on
the blueprint from which the machine is
provisioned. The storage value on the blueprint
user interface overwrites the value in the
VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property. The
VirtualMachine.Disk0.Size property is not
available as a custom property because of its
relationship with the storage option on the
blueprint. More disks can be added by specifying
VirtualMachine.Disk1.Size,
VirtualMachine.Disk2.Size and so on.
VirtualMachine.Admin.TotalDiskUsage
always represents the total of the .DiskN.Size
properties plus the
VMware.Memory.Reservation size allocation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.IsFixed

Disables the editing of a specific disk when
reconfiguring a machine. Set to True to disable
display of the edit capacity option for a specific
volume. The True value is case-sensitive. The N
value is the 0-based index of the disk.
Alternatively, you can set the
VirtualMachine.DiskN.IsFixed custom
property to True in the VirtualMachineProperties
table in the database or use the Repository API
to specify a URI value such
as .../Repository/Data/ManagementModelEn
tities.svc/VirtualMachines(guid'60D93A8
A-F541-4CE0A6C6-78973AC0F1D2')/VirtualMachinePrope
rties.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label

Specifies the label for a machine’s disk N. The
disk label maximum is 32 characters. Disk
numbering must be sequential. When used in
conjunction with a guest agent, specifies the label
of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating
system.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Active

Set to True (default) to specify that the machine's
disk N is active. Set to False to specify that the
machine's disk N is not active.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.FS

Specifies the file system of the machine’s disk N.
The options are NTFS (default), FAT and FAT32.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Percent

Specifies the percentage of the disk N to be
formatted by a guest agent for the machine’s use.
That machine cannot use the remaining portion
of the disk.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy

Specifies the storage reservation policy to use to
find storage for disk N. Also assigns the named
storage reservation policy to a volume. To use
this property, substitute the volume number for N
in the property name and specify a storage
reservation policy name as the value. This
property is equivalent to the storage reservation
policy name specified on the blueprint. Disk
numbering must be sequential. This property is
valid for all Virtual and vCloud reservations. This
property is not valid for Physical, Amazon, or
OpenStack reservations.
You can use VirtualMachine.Disk
N.StorageReservationPolicyMode to prevent
provisioning from failing in the case of insufficient
space on the datastores in a storage reservation
policy. Use this custom property to allow
vRealize Automation to choose a datastore
outside the specified storage reservation policy in
cases where there is not sufficient space
remaining on the datastores in the policy.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicyMode

Allocates disk N to the best available storage
reservation policy.

VirtualMachine.DiskN.Storage

Specifies the datastore on which to place the
machine disk N, for example DATASTORE01.
This property is also used to add a single
datastore to a linked clone blueprint. N is the
index (starting at 0) of the volume to assign.
Enter the name of the datastore to assign to the
volume. This is the datastore name as it appears
in the Storage Path on the Edit Compute
Resource page. Disk numbering must be
sequential.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.DiskN.VMwareType

Specifies the VMware disk mode of the
machine’s diskN. The following options are
available:
n

persistent

independent_persistent

independent_nonpersistent

If you set this custom property to
independent_persistent or
independent_nonpersistent, users must power off
their machine before using vRealize Automation
to take a snapshot.
Note This property applies to vSphere only.
For details, see
VirtualDeviceDeviceBackingOption data
object help in VMware vSphere Web Services
SDK Documentation.
VirtualMachine.EPI.Type

Specifies the type of external provisioning
infrastructure.
Set to BMC for BMC BladeLogic integration.
Set to CitrixProvisioning for Citrix provisioning
server integration.

VirtualMachine.EULA.AcceptAll

Set to true to specify that all the EULAs for the
VM templates of the vCloud Air or
vCloud Director endpoints are accepted during
provisioning.

VirtualMachine.Host.TpmEnabled

Limits virtual machine placement to hosts that
have a Trust Protection Module (TPM) device
installed and recognized by ESX and vSphere.
The default value is False.
All hosts in a cluster must have a Trust Protection
Module device installed. If no acceptable hosts or
clusters are found, the machine cannot be
provisioned until this property is removed.

VirtualMachine.Memory.Size

Specifies the size of the machine's memory in
MB, such as 1024. The default is the value
specified by the memory setting on the blueprint.
Note This custom property setting is overridden
by the memory setting on the blueprint when the
machine is first provisioned.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address

Specifies the IP address of network device N in a
machine provisioned with a static IP address.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to individual
blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a
reservation. Because blueprints are not
guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType

Specifies how IP address allocation is supplied to
the network provider, where NetworkN is the
network number, starting with 0. The following
value are available:
n

DHCP

Static

MANUAL (available for vCloud Air and
vCloud Director only)

The MANUAL value also requires that you
specify an IP address.
This property is available for configuring
vCloud Air, vCloud Director, and vSphere
machine components in the blueprint. Also see
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType

Indicates whether the MAC address of network
device N is generated or user-defined (static).
This property is available for cloning.
The default value is generated. If the value is
static, you must also use
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress to
specify the MAC address.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to individual
blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a
reservation. Because blueprints are not
guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress

Specifies the MAC address of a network device
N. This property is available for cloning.
If the value of
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType
is generated, this property contains the
generated address.
If the value of
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddressType
is static, this property specifies the MAC address.
For virtual machines provisioned on ESX server
hosts, the address must be in the range specified
by VMware. For details, see vSphere
documentation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to individual
blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a
reservation. Because blueprints are not
guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name

Specifies the name of the network to connect to,
for example the network device N to which a
machine is attached. This is equivalent to a
network interface card (NIC).
By default, a network is assigned from the
network paths available on the reservation on
which the machine is provisioned. Also see
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType.
You can ensure that a network device is
connected to a specific network by setting the
value of this property to the name of a network on
an available reservation. For example, If you give
properties for N= 0 and 1, you get 2 NICs and
their assigned value, provided the network is
selected in the associated reservation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to blueprints and
machines. When a machine is requested,
network and IP address allocation is performed
before the machine is assigned to a reservation.
Because blueprints are not guaranteed to be
allocated to a specific reservation, do not use this
property on a reservation.
You can add this property to a vCloud Air or
vCloud Director machine component in a
blueprint.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PortID

Specifies the port ID to use for network device N
when using a dvPort group with a vSphere
distributed switch.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to individual
blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a
reservation. Because blueprints are not
guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName

Specifies the name of a network profile from
which to assign a static IP address to network
device N or from which to obtain the range of
static IP addresses that can be assigned to
network device N of a cloned machine, where
N=0 for the first device, 1 for the second, and so
on.
If a network profile is specified in the network
path in the reservation on which the machine is
provisioned, a static IP address is assigned from
that network profile. You can ensure that a static
IP address is assigned from a specific profile by
setting the value of this property to the name of a
network profile.
Note that changing this property value after the
network is assigned has no effect on the
expected IP address values for the designated
machines.
With WIM-based provisioning for virtual
machines, you can use this property to specify a
network profile and network interface or you can
use the Network section of the Virtual
Reservation page. You can also assign the
network interface to a virtual network using the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name custom
property.
The following attributes of the network profile are
available to enable static IP assignment in a
cloning blueprint:
n

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWin
s

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuf
fixes

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description
You cannot use this custom property to define an
on-demand NAT or on-demand routed network
profile name. Because on-demand network
profile names are generated at allocation time
(during provisioning), their names are unknown
when creating or editing the blueprint. To specify
NSX on-demand network information, use the
applicable network component in the blueprint
design canvas for your vSphere machine
components.

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix

VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes

Configures attributes of the network profile
specified in
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties
are designed to be specific to individual
blueprints and machines. When a machine is
requested, network and IP address allocation is
performed before the machine is assigned to a
reservation. Because blueprints are not
guaranteed to be allocated to a specific
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
When specifying values for multiple DNS search
suffixes using
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffix
es, you can use commas to separate values for a
Windows deployment.

VirtualMachine.Rdp.File

Specifies the RDP file that contains settings to be
used when opening an RDP link to the machine.
Can be used together with, or as an alternative
to, VirtualMachine.Rdp.SettingN. The file
must be located in the vRealize Automation
server installation directory, for example
%SystemDrive%\Program Files
x86\VMware\vCAC\Server\Rdp\console.rdp.
You must create the Rdp directory.

VirtualMachine.Rdp.SettingN

Configures specific RDP settings. N is a unique
number used to distinguish one RDP setting from
another. For example, to specify the
Authentication Level so that no authentication
requirement is specified, define the custom
property VirtualMachine.Rdp.Setting1 and
set the value to authentication level:i:3. Use to
open an RDP link to specify settings.
For a list of available settings and correct syntax,
see the Microsoft Windows RDP documentation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu

Set to true to specify that the reconfigure
machine action restarts the specified machine.
By default, the reconfigure machine action does
not restart the machine.
Performing a hot add of CPU, memory, or
storage causes the reconfigure machine action to
fail and to not restart the machine unless the Hot
Add setting is enabled in vSphere for the machine
or template. You can add
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCp
u=true to a machine component in a
vRealize Automation blueprint to disable the Hot
Add setting and force the machine to restart
regardless of the vSphere Hot Add setting. The
custom property is only available for machine
types that support hardware reconfiguration,
which are vSphere, vCloud Air, and
vCloud Director.

VirtualMachine.Request.Layout

Specifies the property layout to be used in the
virtual machine request page. The value must
match the name of the layout to be used.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name

Specifies the descriptive name of a software
application N or script to install or run during
provisioning. This is an optional and informationonly property. It serves no real function for the
enhanced clone workflow or the guest agent but
it is useful for a custom software selection in a
user interface or for software usage reporting.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath

Specifies the full path to an application's install
script. The path must be a valid absolute path as
seen by the guest operating system and must
include the name of the script file name.
You can pass custom property values as
parameters to the script by inserting
{CustomPropertyName} in the path string. For
example, if you have a custom property named
ActivationKey whose value is 1234, the script
path is D:\InstallApp.bat –key
{ActivationKey}. The guest agent runs the
command D:\InstallApp.bat –key 1234.
Your script file can then be programmed to
accept and use this value.
Insert {Owner} to pass the machine owner name
to the script.

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName

Specifies the path and file name of the ISO file
relative to the data store root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name
.iso. If a value is not specified, the ISO is not
mounted.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation

Specifies the storage path that contains the ISO
image file to be used by the application or script.
Format the path as it appears on the host
reservation, for example netapp-1:it_nfs_1. If
a value is not specified, the ISO is not mounted.

VirtualMachine.Storage.Name

Identifies the storage path on which the machine
resides. The default is the value specified in the
reservation that was used to provision the
machine.

VirtualMachine.Storage.AllocationType

Stores collected groups to a single datastore. A
distributed environment stores disks round-robin
style.

VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.Enabled

If set to True, the storage cluster automation on
the machine is enabled. If set to False, then
storage cluster automation is disabled on the
machine. The storage cluster automation type is
determined by the
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automati
on.Behavior custom property.

VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.Behavior

Specifies an SDRS behavior type when
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automati
on.Enabled is set to True.
The available behavior type values are
automated or manual.
The
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automati
on.Enabled and
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automati
on.Behavior properties are set after the
machine is provisioned and after inventory data
collection is finished. If automation is disabled,
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automati
on.Behavior is not present on the machine.

VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory

Set to True to manage vSwap storage allocation
to ensure availability and set allocation in the
reservation. vSwap allocation is considered when
you create or reconfigure a virtual machine.
vSwap allocation checking is only available for
vSphere endpoints.
Note If you do not specify the
VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory
custom property when you create or provision the
machine from vRealize Automation, swap space
availability is not ensured. If you add the property
for an already provisioned machine, and the
allocated reservation is full, the storage allocated
in the reservation might exceed the actual
allocated storage.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VirtualMachine.VDI.Type

Specifies the type of virtual desktop
infrastructure.
For XenDesktop provisioning, set to XenDesktop.

VMware.AttributeN.Name

Specifies the name of an attribute in
vRealize Orchestrator. For example, it specifies
the value of the attribute used in the
VMware.AttributeN.Name property. Replace
the letter N with a number, starting with 0 and
increasing for each attribute to set.

VMware.AttributeN.Value

Specifies the value of the attribute used in the
VMware.AttributeN.Name property. Replace
the letter N with a number, starting with 0 and
increasing for each attribute to set.

VMware.Endpoint.Openstack.Release

Specifies the OpenStack release, for example
Havana or Icehouse, when creating an
OpenStack endpoint. Required for OpenStack
6.2 and later IaaS provisioning.

VMware.Hardware.Version

Specifies the VM hardware version to be used for
vSphere settings. Supported values are currently
vmx-04, vmx-07, vmx-08, vmx-09 and vmx-10.
This property is applicable for VM Create and VM
Update workflows and is available only for basic
workflow blueprints.

VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem

Specifies the vCenter Server guest operating
system version
(VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier) with
which vCenter Server creates the machine. This
operating system version must match the
operating system version to be installed on the
provisioned machine. Administrators can create
property groups using one of several property
sets, for example,
VMware[OS_Version]Properties, that are
predefined to include the correct
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem
values. This property is for virtual provisioning.
When this property has a non-Windows value,
the Connect Using RDP user interface option is
disabled. The property can be used in a virtual,
cloud or physical blueprint.
For related information, see the enumeration type
VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier in
vSphere API/SDK Documentation. For a list of
currently accepted values, see the
vCenter Server documentation.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VMware.SCSI.Type

For vCloud Air, vCloud Director, or vSphere
machine components in blueprints, specifies the
SCSI machine type using one of the following
case-sensitive values:
n

buslogic

lsilogic

Use BusLogic emulation for the virtual disk.

Use LSILogic emulation for the virtual disk
(default).
n

lsilogicsas
Use LSILogic SAS 1068 emulation for the
virtual disk.

pvscsi
Use para-virtualization emulation for the
virtual disk.

none
Use if a SCSI controller does not exist for this
machine.

The VMware.SCSI.Type property is not available
for use with the CloneWorkflow provisioning
workflow. If you specify the CloneWorkflow
provisioning workflow when configuring your
machine component in the blueprint design
canvas, you cannot use the VMware.SCSI.Type
property.
VMware.SCSI.Sharing

Specifies the sharing mode of the machine’s
VMware SCSI bus. Possible values are based on
the VirtualSCSISharing ENUM value and
include noSharing, physicalSharing, and
virtualSharing.
If you specify the CloneWorkflow provisioning
workflow when configuring your machine
component in the blueprint design canvas, the
VMware.SCSI.Sharing property is not available.
The VMware.SCSI.Sharing property is not
available for use with the CloneWorkflow
provisioning workflow. If you specify the
CloneWorkflow provisioning workflow when
configuring your machine component in the
blueprint design canvas, you cannot use the
VMware.SCSI.Sharing property.

VMware.Memory.Reservation

VMware, Inc.

Specifies the size of the machine’s swap file, for
example 1024.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VMware.Network.Type

Specifies the network to connect the VM as
specified in the reservation. The network adapter
on the machine must be connected to a unique
network.
The following adapter type values are available:
n

Flexible (default )

VirtualPCNet32 (not compatible with
vSphere).

E1000 or VirtualE1000

VMXNET or VirtualVMXNET

VMXNET2

VMXNET3

Set to E1000 when provisioning Windows 32-bit
virtual machines on ESX server hosts to ensure
that machines are created with the correct
network adapter. This property is not used for
physical provisioning.
VMware.VCenterOrchestrator.EndpointName

Overrides a specified endpoint setting or
specifies that a particular endpoint be used
during the vRealize Automation IaaS provisioning
process. The value of this property can be set to
an applicable vRealize Orchestrator endpoint,
such as external VRO, available in the
environment.

VMware.VirtualCenter.Folder

Specifies the name of the inventory folder in the
datacenter in which to put the virtual machine.
The default is VRM, which is also the vSphere
folder in which vRealize Automation places
provisioned machines if the property is not used.
This value can be a path with multiple folders, for
example production\email servers. A proxy
agent creates the specified folder in vSphere if
the folder does not exist. Folder names area case
sensitive. This property is available for virtual
provisioning.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VDI.Server.Website

Specifies the server name of the Citrix Web
interface site to use in connecting to the machine.
If the value of VDI.Server.Name is a
XenDesktop farm, this property must have an
appropriate value or the machine owner cannot
connect to the machine using XenDesktop. If this
property is not specified, the VDI.Server.Name
property determines the desktop delivery
controller to connect to, which must be the name
of a server that hosts a desktop delivery
controller.
Note If the Citrix Web Interface (WI) has been
replaced with StoreFront (SF), you can use this
property instead of VDI.Server.Name to connect
to the XenDesktop server. An example value is
VDI.Server.Website=sqaxddc-7.sqa.local/Citrix/StoreWeb. See
VDI.Server.Name for more information.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VDI.Server.Name

Specifies the server name, which hosts the
desktop delivery controller, to register with, or the
name of a XenDesktop farm that contains
desktop delivery controllers with which to register.
If the value is a XenDesktop farm name, the
VDI.Server.Website property value must be
the URL of an appropriate Citrix web interface
site to use in connecting to the machine.
If the value is a server name, and at least one
general XenDesktop VDI agent was installed
without specifying a desktop delivery controller
server, this value directs the request to the
desired server. If the value is a server name, and
only dedicated XenDesktop VDI agents for
specific DDC servers were installed, this value
must exactly match the server name configured
for a dedicated agent.
Note For more information about how to make
StoreFront the default page in IIS, see Citrix
documentation. See also VDI.Server.Website.
Note Changes in the Citrix web interface
protocol have impacted how the
VDI.Server.Name default value is recognized.
The value of the VDI.Server.Name property is
used as the default connection string to open the
Citrix web interface when users connect to a
virtual desktop. It is always the DNS/IP of the XD
server. If that value does not connect to the Citrix
interface, you is unable to access your VMs.
However, you can use the VDI.Server.Website
custom property when the Citrix web interface is
hosted on a server other than the XenDesktop
server. When this property is present on the VM,
it is used instead of VDI.Server.Name.

VDI.Server.Group

For XenDesktop 5, specifies the name of the
XenDesktop group to add machines to and the
name of the catalog to which the group belongs,
in the group_name;catalog_name format.
For XenDesktop 4, specifies the name of the
XenDesktop group to which machines are to be
added. XenDesktop 4 preassigned groups are
supported.

VDI.ActiveDirectory.Interval

VMware, Inc.

Specifies an optional interval value in time span
format for virtual desktop infrastructure machine
Active Directory registration check. The default
value is 00:00:15 (15 seconds).

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

VDI.ActiveDirectory.Timeout

Specifies an optional timeout value to wait before
retrying Active Directory registration. The default
value is 00:00:15 (30 minutes).

VDI.ActiveDirectory.Delay

Specifies an optional delay time value in time
span format between successfully adding a
machine to Active Directory and initiation of
XenDesktop registration. The default value is
00:00:05 (5 seconds).

Vrm.DataCenter.Policy

Specifies whether provisioning must use a
compute resource associated with a particular
location, or if any location is suitable. To enable
this feature you must add data center to a
location file. Associate each compute resource
with a location.
Set to Exact (default) to provision a requested
machine on a compute resource associated with
the location specified on the blueprint. The
request fails if no reservations match the
requested location. If the property is not present,
the Exact default is used.
Set to NonExact to provision a requested
machine on a compute resource with sufficient
capacity and associated with the location
specified on the blueprint. If that compute
resource is not available, then use the next
available compute resource with sufficient
capacity without regard to location.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Table 3‑13. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property

Description

Vrm.Software.IdNNNN

Specifies a software job or policy to be applied to
all machines provisioned from the blueprint. Set
the value to job_type=job_path, where

This row is specific to BMC BladeLogic.

job_type is the numeral that represents the
BMC BladeLogic job type and job_path is the
location of the job in BMC BladeLogic, for
example 4=/Utility/putty. NNNN is a number
from 1000 to 1999. The first property must start
with 1000 and increment in numerical order for
each additional property.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Vrm.Software.IdNNNN

—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

AuditJob
BatchJob
ComplianceJob
DeployJob
FileDeployJob
NSHScriptJob
PatchAnalysisJob
SnapshotJob

(Optional) Specifies an HP Server Automation
policy to be applied to all machines provisioned
from the blueprint. NNNN is a number from 1000
to 1999. The first property must start with 1000
and increment in numerical order for each
additional property.

This row is specific to HP Server Automation.

Custom Properties X Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the letter X.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties X Table
Property

Description

Xen.Platform.Viridian

For virtual provisioning, set to False when you provision Windows
virtual machines on a XenServer host or pool. The default is True. This
property is not used in physical provisioning.

VMware, Inc.

Using the Property Dictionary

You can use the property dictionary to define new custom property definitions and property groups.
You define a property to support a specific data type and a display control style within that data type. You
can also create reusable property groups to simplify adding multiple properties.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n

Using Property Definitions

Using Property Groups

Using Property Definitions
Many custom properties are supplied with vRealize Automation. You can also define new properties to
create unique custom properties and provide greater control for provisioning machines.
When you add a property to a blueprint or reservation, you can determine if a user must be prompted for
a property value and if the property value must be encrypted.
You can specify how a property is rendered, for example if should display as a checkbox or as a dropdown menu with values obtained from a custom vRealize Orchestrator workflow.
You can also use properties to control how your custom workflows function. For information about using
vRealize Automation Designer to define and work with custom workflows, see Life Cycle Extensibility.
Note To avoid naming conflicts with supplied vRealize Automation custom properties, use a standard
and meaningful prefix for all property names that you create. Use a prefix such as a company or feature
name followed by a dot for all new property names. VMware reserves all property names that do not
contain a dot (.). Property names that do not follow this recommendation may conflict with
vRealize Automation custom properties. In that event, the vRealize Automation custom property takes
precedence over property definitions that you create.
The following steps describe the general procedure for creating and using new property definitions:
1

Create a new property definition and associate it with a data type that allows for a specific type of
content, such as boolean or integer content. Use a standard naming convention for the new property
name such as my_grouping_prefix.my_property_name.

Associate a property definition with a display type, such as a check box or drop-down menu.
Available display types are derived from the selected data type.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Add the property to a blueprint either individually or as part of a property group.
Add the property to a blueprint and specify if the property value must be encrypted.
Add the property to a blueprint and specify if the user should be prompted to specify a property value.

As a machine requestor, specify any required value if prompted.

You can also populate the property value in a drop-down menu by using vRealize Orchestrator script
actions. Using vRealize Orchestrator script actions also enables you to populate a drop-down menu value
based on the values specified for another property.

Create a Property Definition
You can create property definitions to allow for additional levels of vRealize Automation customization.
When you create a property definition, you specify a data type for the property, for example String, and a
display type, for example Email.
To avoid potential conflict with supplied vRealize Automation custom properties, use a naming format of
my_prefix.my_property_name1. For example, use a standard and meaningful prefix such as company or
feature name, followed by a dot (.), followed by a brief but descriptive name. Properties that you create
that do not follow this recommendation may conflict with vRealize Automation-supplied custom properties.
In that event, the vRealize Automation custom properties take precedence over properties that you
create.
Prerequisites

Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property Definitions.

Click New (

Enter the new property definition name in the Name text box.

Use a standard naming convention for the new property name such as
my_grouping_prefix.my_property_name.
The Name value is stored internally as the property identifier (ID).
4

Accept the generated value in the Label text box.
The Label value is automatically populated with the value that you entered in the Name text box. If
you enter a Label value first, the Name text box is populated with the same value.
The Label value is displayed in the user interface when requesting properties, for example when
adding a property to a blueprint, as the property name.
The Label value can contain a wider range of characters than the Name value.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

In the Visibility section, select All tenants or This tenant to determine where the property is to be
available.
If you are logged in with only tenant administrator privileges, then only This tenant is available. If you
are logged in with only fabric administrator privileges, then only All tenants is available.
You cannot change the All tenants or This tenant setting after you create the item.

(Optional) Enter a property description in the Description text box.
Describe the intent of the property definition and any other helpful information about the property.

(Optional) Enter a value in the Order Index text box.
The number that you enter controls how the property name appears on the request form. The
following ordering rules apply:

The order index applies only to properties that are configured with Prompt User or Show in
Request Form settings.

All properties with an order index appear before properties with no order index.

Properties with an order index are sorted from lowest to highest order index value. Negative
numbers are allowed.

All properties are ordered alphabetically, with all ordered index properties appearing before nonorder-indexed properties.

If two properties have the same order index value, then they are sorted alphabetically.

Select a property definition data type from the Data type drop-down menu.
Table 4‑1. Property Definition Data Types
Data type

Description

Boolean

Allows for a boolean value.
The display advice options are Checkbox and Yes/No.

Datetime

Allows for a value entered in a date and time format.
The display advice option is Date Time Picker.

Decimal

Allows for an integer or decimal value.
The display advice options are Dropdown, Slider, and Textbox.

Integer

Allows for an integer value.
The display advice options are Dropdown, Slider, and Textbox.

Secure String

Allows for secure or encrypted content such as a password.
The display advice option is Textbox.

String

Allows for a string value.
The display advice options are Dropdown, Email, Hyperlink,
Textarea, and Textbox.

If the Required option is available, select Yes or No from the drop-down menu to specify if a value
must be supplied for this property.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

10 If the Minimum value option is available, specify a minimum value.
11 Select a display control type for this property in the Display advice drop-down menu. Available
options are derived from your Data type selection.
Table 4‑2. Property Definition Display Advice Options
Display Advice Option

Description

CheckBox

Provides a single check box control.

Date Time Picker

Provides a date and time control that adheres to a YYYY-MMDD or MM/DD/YYYY format and a time in HH:MM format, 24hour clock or followed by AM or PM.

Dropdown

Provides a drop-down menu control.

Provides an email control.

Hyperlink

Displays a link with the property display name as the link text
and the property value as the URL.

Slider

Provides a slider control for a range of values.

Testarea

Provides a text area in which to enter or display information.

Textbox

Provides a text box in which to enter a value.

Yes/No

Specifies a Yes or No value.

12 Click the Pre-defines values option in the Values area.
Click New in the Pre-defines values area and add a property name and value.
13 (Optional) Optionally select the Enable custom values check box to allow the user to specify custom
values in addition to pre-defined values.
14 Click OK.
The property is created and available on the Property Definitions page.

Use a vRealize Orchestrator Script Action to Populate a Property
Value
You can populate a property value in a drop-down menu by using vRealize Orchestrator script actions.
You can define a relationship between two property definitions if you populate the values of the
dependent property by using a vRealize Orchestrator script action.
You can bind a property definition to a vRealize Orchestrator script action, but not to a
vRealize Orchestrator workflow.
Prerequisites
n

Create a vRealize Orchestrator script action. For information about developing workflows and
creating and using vRealize Orchestrator script actions, see Developing with VMware vCenter
Orchestrator .

Create a new property definition or edit an existing one. See Create a Property Definition.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

The following task sequence differs from the Create a Property Definition task sequence only in how
you specify the Display Advice value.
Procedure

Create a new property definition or edit an existing property definition.
a

Verify that the Name text box contains a value.

Verify that the Label text box contains a value.

Verify that the Data type text box contains either Decimal, Integer, or String.

Click in the Display Advice text box and select Dropdown from the drop-down menu.

Click the External values option in the Values area.
A page opens displaying supplied and user-created vRealize Orchestrator script actions.

Select a vRealize Orchestrator script action and click OK.
Select a user-generated vRealize Orchestrator script action that is appropriate for your property. The
supplied vRealize Orchestrator script actions typically require or generate complex values that are not
supported by vRealize Automation property definitions.
The Input parameters grid displays all the parameters that are available for the script action and that
can be used to assign a value. One of the columns is labeled as Bind. When Bind is not checked,
the action uses the literal value to pass as the value of that parameter. When Bind is checked, the
value becomes the name of the field whose value is used as the value for that parameter.
A drop-down menu displays available property definitions to make it easier to bind to a known field.
You can select an available value or enter a different custom property.

Click OK.

Using Property Groups
You can create property groups to collect properties into a single unit.
Property groups are logical and reusable groups of properties, that can include property definitions that
you create or custom properties that are supplied, that are designed to simplify the process of adding
properties to blueprints or other vRealize Automation elements for which they are available. They provide
a means by which logical groupings of properties can be added more efficiently than by adding the
properties individually.
A property group typically contains properties that are commonly used together. For example, you can
create a property group named WimImagingProperties that contains properties commonly used for WIMbased provisioning:
n

Image.ISO.Location

Image.ISO.Name

Image.Network.Password

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Image.Network.User

Image.WIM.Index

Image.WIM.Name

Image.WIM.Path

You can also create a property group for vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine provisioning that contains
the following properties:
n

VirtualMachine.Network0.Name

VCloud.Template.MakeIdenticalCopy

VMware.SCSI.Type

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin

Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword

Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain

Create a Property Group
You can organize specific custom properties into property groups to more easily add multiple custom
properties to blueprints.
Prerequisites

Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property Groups.

Click New (

Enter the new property group name and ID.

If you enter the Name value first, the ID text box is populated with the same value.
4

(Optional) Enter a description of the property group, for example My_CloningProperties_vSphere.

VMware, Inc.

Custom Properties Reference

Add a property to the group by using the Properties box.
a

Click New (

Enter a property name.

For example, enter VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory.
c

(Optional) Enter a property value.
For example, enter True.

(Optional) Select the Encrypted check box to specify that the property value must be encrypted.
For example, if the value is to be a password or other secure entry, using the encrypted option
hides the value characters.

(Optional) Select the Overridable check box to specify that the property value can be overridden
by the next or subsequent person who uses the property. The next person could be an
administrator, architect, or other user.

(Optional) Select the Show in Request check box to display the property on the request form
when requesting machine provisioning.

Click OK to add the property to the group.

Add additional properties to the group.

Click Save.

VMware, Inc.

Source Exif Data:

File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.5
Linearized                      : No
Author                          : VMware, Inc.
Create Date                     : 2018:01:23 14:31:57-08:00
Modify Date                     : 2018:01:23 14:31:57-08:00
Creator                         : AH XSL Formatter V6.3 MR1 for Windows (x64) : 6.3.2.23978 (2016/03/18 11:26JST)
Producer                        : Antenna House PDF Output Library 6.3.762 (Windows (x64))
Title                           : Custom Properties Reference - vRealize Automation 7.0
Trapped                         : False
Page Count                      : 89
Page Mode                       : UseOutlines
Page Layout                     : SinglePage
Language                        : EN

EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools

Custom Properties Reference VRealize Automation 7.0 V Realize 70

Navigation menu

Versions of this User Manual:

Views

Navigation