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Custom Properties Reference
vRealize Automation 7.1
This document supports the version of each product listed and
supports all subsequent versions until the document is
replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of
this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
EN-002102-01
Custom Properties Reference
2 VMware, Inc.
You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:
hp://www.vmware.com/support/
The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.
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Contents
Custom Properties Reference 5
Updated Information 7
1Using Custom Properties 9
Adding Custom Properties 9
Using Properties in Machine Provisioning 10
Understanding Custom Properties Precedence 10
Custom Property Types 12
2Custom Properties Grouped by Function 13
Custom Properties for Blueprints and Deployments 15
Custom Properties for Naming and Analyzing Deployments 16
Custom Properties for Openstack Endpoints 17
Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints 18
Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints 21
Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints 24
Custom Properties for Basic Workow Blueprints 26
Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints 27
Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints 28
Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints 30
Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Blueprints 32
Custom Properties for Networking 35
Custom Properties for PXE Provisioning 40
Custom Properties for vRealize Automation Guest Agent 42
Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Conguration Manager Integration 44
Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration 46
3Custom Properties Grouped by Name 49
Custom Properties Underscore (_) Table 50
Custom Properties A Table 51
Custom Properties B Table 51
Custom Properties C Table 52
Custom Properties E Table 52
Custom Properties H Table 54
Custom Properties I Table 55
Custom Properties L Table 56
Custom Properties M Table 57
Custom Properties O Table 57
Custom Properties P Table 58
Custom Properties R Table 59
Custom Properties S Table 59
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Custom Properties V Table 63
Custom Properties X Table 83
4Using the Property Dictionary 85
Using Property Denitions 85
Create and Test Custom Property Denitions 86
Conguration Details for the vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denitions 98
Using Property Groups 103
Create a Property Group 104
Index 105
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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
hps://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcac-pubs.html.
N Not all features and capabilities of vRealize Automation are available in all editions. For a
comparison of feature sets in each edition, see hps://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 wrien 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 denitions
of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to
hp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
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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
002102-01 nUpdated information about optional seings in “Create a Property Group,” on page 104.
nUpdated information about the _deploymentName property in “Custom Properties Underscore (_)
Table,” on page 50.
002102 Initial 7.1 release.
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Using Custom Properties 1
You can use vRealize Automation custom properties to add values or override existing or default values for
conguring seings for network, platform, guest agent, and many other deployment parameters.
Some properties are determined by standard seings 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. When you add a property to a
blueprint or a property group, you can mark it as a required property. When a property is specied as
required, the user must provide a value for that property when they request a machine, such as in the
following examples.
nRequire information about multiple disks sharing the machine’s allocated storage.
nRequire information about users or groups to be added to a local group on the machine.
nRequire the host name of the machine.
The Windows guest agent records property values on the provisioned machine in the %SystemDrive
%\VRMGuestAgent\site\workitem.xml le.
The Linux guest agent records property values on the provisioned machine in
the /usr/share/gugent/site/workitem.xml le.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“Adding Custom Properties,” on page 9
n“Using Properties in Machine Provisioning,” on page 10
n“Understanding Custom Properties Precedence,” on page 10
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. You can also add custom
properties to other vRealize Automation items, including some endpoint types.
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 congured at the
component level. You can edit blueprint-level properties by using the blueprint properties page.
Custom property names are case-sensitive. For example, a custom property expressed as hostname and
another custom property expressed as HOSTNAME are considered dierent custom properties.
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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,” on page 85.
For information about custom property precedence, see “Understanding Custom Properties Precedence,” on
page 10.
Using Properties in Machine Provisioning
Custom properties are vRealize Automation-supplied properties. You can also dene your own properties.
Properties are name-value pairs used to specify aributes of a machine or to override default specications.
You can use custom properties to control dierent provisioning methods, types of machines, and machine
options as in the following examples:
nSpecify a particular type of guest OS.
nEnable WIM-based provisioning, in which a Windows Imaging File Format (WIM) image of a reference
machine is used to provision new machines.
nCustomize the behavior of Remote Desktop Protocol when connecting to a machine.
nRegister a virtual machine with a XenDesktop Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC) server.
nCustomize a virtual machine’s system specications, such as adding multiple disk drives.
nCustomize the guest OS for a machine, for instance, by including specied users in selected local
groups.
nSpecify network and security seings.
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 specied in a blueprint overrides the same property specied in a property group. This enables a
blueprint to use most of the properties in a property group while diering 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 seings in the group with UK English seings.
You can apply properties in reservations and business groups to many machines. Their use is typically
limited to purposes related to their sources, such as resource management. 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
specic order of precedence when applying properties to the machine.
You can add custom properties that apply to provisioned machines to the following elements:
nA reservation, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned from that reservation.
nA business group, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned by business group
members.
nA blueprint, to apply the custom properties to all machines provisioned from the blueprint.
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nProperty 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.
nA machine request to apply the custom properties to the machine being provisioned.
nAn 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 specied in a source
that appears later in the list override values for the same property specied in sources that appear earlier in
the list.
N If a conict exists between a vRealize Automation-supplied custom property name and a user-
dened property name, the vRealize Automation-supplied custom property name takes precedence.
1 Property group
2 Blueprint
3 Business group
4 Compute resource
5 Reservations
6 Endpoint
7 Runtime
Property group, blueprint, and business group custom properties are assigned at request time, while other
compute resource, reservation, and endpoint properties are assigned during provisioning.
This order is further claried as follows:
1 Custom properties and groups at the overall blueprint level
2 Custom properties and groups at the component level
3 Custom properties for the business group
4 Custom properties for the compute resource
5 Custom properties for the reservation
6 Custom properties for the endpoint
7 Custom properties at the nested blueprint request level
8 Custom properties at the component request level
In most situations, a runtime property takes precedence over other properties. A runtime property meets the
following conditions:
nThe property option to prompt the user is selected, which species that the user must supply a value for
the property when they request machine provisioning.
nA business group manager is requesting machine provisioning and the property appears in the custom
properties list on the machine request conrmation page.
There are exceptions to the precedence rules. For example, you add the VMware.VirtualCenter.Folder
custom property to a business group, provide a property value, and do not select the option to show the
property in the request. You add the same custom property in a blueprint and specify that the property be
shown in the request. When your designated users request provisioning from the catalog, the property does
not appear in the catalog request form because the property applies to reservation information that is only
available after provisioning begins, and not when you request provisioning.
Chapter 1 Using Custom Properties
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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.
nInternal
The specied 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 eect on the machine.
nRead-only
The specied value is implemented on the machine and cannot be changed. For example,
VirtualMachine.Admin.UUID species the UUID of the machine, which cannot be changed.
nExternal
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 specied 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.
nUpdated
The specied 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 aributes 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.
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Custom Properties Grouped by
Function 2
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,” on page 49.
nCustom Properties for Blueprints and Deployments on page 15
vRealize Automation provides a number of custom properties that are generally applicable to all or
most blueprints and deployments. You can set many of these properties in the vRealize Automation
user interface without using custom properties.
nCustom Properties for Naming and Analyzing Deployments on page 16
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.
nCustom Properties for Openstack Endpoints on page 17
vRealize Automation includes custom properties you might want to use when you congure your
Openstack endpoints in vRealize Automation.
nCustom Properties for Clone Blueprints on page 18
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
clone blueprints.
nCustom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints on page 21
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
linked clone blueprints.
nCustom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints on page 24
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
FlexClone blueprints.
nCustom Properties for Basic Workow Blueprints on page 26
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
basic workow blueprints.
nCustom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints on page 27
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
Linux Kickstart blueprints.
nCustom Properties for SCCM Blueprints on page 28
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
SCCM blueprints.
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nCustom Properties for WIM Blueprints on page 30
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that provide additional controls for WIM blueprints.
nCustom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Blueprints on page 32
You can add certain custom properties to a vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine component
denition in a blueprint.
nCustom Properties for Networking on page 35
The vRealize Automation custom properties for networking specify conguration for a specic
network device on a machine.
nCustom Properties for PXE Provisioning on page 40
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.
nCustom Properties for vRealize Automation Guest Agent on page 42
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.
nCustom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Conguration Manager Integration on page 44
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
BMC BladeLogic Conguration Manager integration.
nCustom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration on page 46
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.
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Custom Properties for Blueprints and Deployments
vRealize Automation provides a number of custom properties that are generally applicable to all or most
blueprints and deployments. You can set many of these properties in the vRealize Automation user interface
without using custom properties.
Table 2‑1. Custom Properties for Blueprints and Deployments
Custom Property Description
_debug_deployment Except for scale operations which allow partially successful
deployments, the default behavior is to destroy the entire
deployment if any of the individual resources fail to
provision. You can override the default behavior by seing
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 a failed catalog item are
accessible to users, so this custom property is best used
during development and testing of new blueprints.
To apply the custom property to a blueprint, add
_debug_deployment to the Blueprint Properties page
using the Properties tab when you create or edit a
blueprint. This property is for blueprints that contain
multiple components, such as composite blueprints, and is
ignored if applied to standalone blueprints. The
_debug_deployment property is consumed at the software
provisioning level, not the guest agent or machine
provisioning level.
_deploymentName When added to a blueprint, this property allows you to
specify a custom name for the deployment by seing the
value of _deploymentName to your custom string. If more
than one instance of this deployment is provisioned in a
single request, your custom name becomes a prex. If you
want users to specify their own deployment names, set this
custom property to allow override. The following two
caveats are required for usage:
nYou must add this property at the blueprint level, not
at the component level. For example, when creating or
editing a blueprint, click the Properties tab and then
select Custom Properties > New to add the
_deploymentName property to the blueprint. Do not
add the property to a machine or other component in
the blueprint.
nYou must add this property as a separate property and
not as a member of a property group.
_number_of_instances When added to a blueprint, this property allows you to
specify the number of instances of the deployment that a
user can provision in a single request.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
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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.
Table 2‑2. Custom Properties for Analyzing Deployments
Custom Property Description
_debug_deployment Except for scale operations which allow partially successful
deployments, the default behavior is to destroy the entire
deployment if any of the individual resources fail to
provision. You can override the default behavior by seing
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 a failed catalog item are
accessible to users, so this custom property is best used
during development and testing of new blueprints.
To apply the custom property to a blueprint, add
_debug_deployment to the Blueprint Properties page
using the Properties tab when you create or edit a
blueprint. This property is for blueprints that contain
multiple components, such as composite blueprints, and is
ignored if applied to standalone blueprints. The
_debug_deployment property is consumed at the software
provisioning level, not the guest agent or machine
provisioning level.
_deploymentName When added to a blueprint, this property allows you to
specify a custom name for the deployment by seing the
value of _deploymentName to your custom string. If more
than one instance of this deployment is provisioned in a
single request, your custom name becomes a prex. If you
want users to specify their own deployment names, set this
custom property to allow override. The following two
caveats are required for usage:
nYou must add this property at the blueprint level, not
at the component level. For example, when creating or
editing a blueprint, click the Properties tab and then
select Custom Properties > New to add the
_deploymentName property to the blueprint. Do not
add the property to a machine or other component in
the blueprint.
nYou must add this property as a separate property and
not as a member of a property group.
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Custom Properties for Openstack Endpoints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties you might want to use when you congure your
Openstack endpoints in vRealize Automation.
Table 2‑3. Custom Properties for Openstack Endpoints
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress.Regex Used by a vRealize Automation administrator to dene a
regular expression to match an IP address for terminal
connections, such as an RDP connection. If matched, the IP
address is saved under the
VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress custom
property. Otherwise, the rst available IP address is
designated.
For example, seing the property value to 10.10.0. allows
selection of an IP address from a 10.10.0.* subnet that is
assigned to the virtual machine. If the subnet has not been
assigned, the property is ignored.
This property is available for use with Openstack.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AdditionAddressMDenes additional M IP address allocated for an Openstack
instance for network N, excluding the IP address set
specied by the VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address.
property. More addresses are displayed on the Network tab
in the Additional Addresses column.
This property is used by Openstack machine state data
collection.
While this property is only data-collected by the OpenStack
endpoint, it is not specic to OpenStack and can be used
for lifecycle extensibility by other endpoint types.
VMware.Endpoint.Openstack.IdentityProvider.Vers
ion
Species the version of Openstack Identity provider
(Keystone) to use when authenticating an Openstack
endpoint. Congure a value of 3 to authenticate with
Keystone version 3 OpenStack Identity Provider. If you use
any other value, or do not use this custom property,
authentication defaults to Keystone version 2.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
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Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for clone
blueprints.
Table 2‑4. Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy Species the storage reservation policy to use to nd
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 specied 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.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName Species the name of a network prole 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 rst device, 1 for the second, and so on.
When you use the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName property, the
network prole it points to is used to allocate an IP
address. However, the provisioned machine is aached to
any network that is selected in the reservation using a
round-robin fashion model.
Changing this property value after the network is assigned
has no eect 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 prole 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 aributes of the network prole are available
to enable static IP assignment in a cloning blueprint:
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
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Table 2‑4. Custom Properties for Clone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Linux.ExternalScript.Name Species 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 dene its
location by using the
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType Species 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 Species 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.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path Species 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 le 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 2‑5. 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
specied 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 specied 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 specied or
set to anything other than False, the enhanced clone
workow sends work items to the guest agent.
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.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
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Table 2‑5. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size Denes the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give a size
of 150 GB to a disk G, dene 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 specied 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 Species the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk label
maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be
sequential. When used with a guest agent, species the
label of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter Species the drive leer or mount point of a machine’s disk
N. The default is C. For example, to specify the leer D for
Disk 1, dene 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 species the
drive leer or mount point under which an additional disk
N is mounted by the guest agent in the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay Species 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 workow from
sending work items to the guest agent until all
customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name Species 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 workow or the guest
agent but it is useful for a custom software selection in a
user interface or for software use reporting.
Custom Properties Reference
20 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑5. Custom Properties for Customizing Cloned Machines with a Guest Agent (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath Species 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
lename.
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 le can then be programmed to accept
and use this value.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName Species the path and lename of the ISO le relative to the
datastore root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name.iso. If a
value is not specied, the ISO is not mounted.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation Species the storage path that contains the ISO image le
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 specied, the ISO is
not mounted.
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.
Table 2‑6. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Storage Species 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 Species the storage reservation policy to use to nd
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 specied 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.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 21
Table 2‑6. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size Denes the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give a size
of 150 GB to a disk G, dene 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 specied 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 Species the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk label
maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be
sequential. When used with a guest agent, species the
label of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter Species the drive leer or mount point of a machine’s disk
N. The default is C. For example, to specify the leer D for
Disk 1, dene 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 species the
drive leer or mount point under which an additional disk
N is mounted by the guest agent in the guest operating
system.
MaximumProvisionedMachines Species the maximum number of linked clones for one
machine snapshot. The default is unlimited.
Linux.ExternalScript.Name Species 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 dene its
location by using the
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType Species 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.
Custom Properties Reference
22 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑6. Custom Properties for Linked Clone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Linux.ExternalScript.Server Species 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.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path Species 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 le name, for
example /scripts/linux/config.sh.
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 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 specied or
set to anything other than False, the enhanced clone
workow sends work items to the guest agent.
VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay Species 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 workow from
sending work items to the guest agent until all
customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath Species 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
lename.
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 le can then be programmed to accept
and use this value.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 23
Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for
FlexClone blueprints.
Table 2‑8. Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName Species the name of a network prole 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 rst device, 1 for the second, and so on.
When you use the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName property, the
network prole it points to is used to allocate an IP
address. However, the provisioned machine is aached to
any network that is selected in the reservation using a
round-robin fashion model.
Changing this property value after the network is assigned
has no eect 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 prole 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 aributes of the network prole are available
to enable static IP assignment in a cloning blueprint:
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Linux.ExternalScript.Name Species 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 dene its
location by using the
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.
Custom Properties Reference
24 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑8. Custom Properties for FlexClone Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType Species 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 Species 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.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path Species 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 le name, for
example /scripts/linux/config.sh.
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 2‑9. Custom Properties for Customizing FlexClone Machines with a Guest Agent
Custom Property Description
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 specied or
set to anything other than False, the enhanced clone
workow sends work items to the guest agent.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size Denes the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give a size
of 150 GB to a disk G, dene 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 specied 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 Species the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk label
maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be
sequential. When used with a guest agent, species the
label of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating
system.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 25
Table 2‑9. Custom Properties for Customizing FlexClone Machines with a Guest Agent (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter Species the drive leer or mount point of a machine’s disk
N. The default is C. For example, to specify the leer D for
Disk 1, dene 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 species the
drive leer or mount point under which an additional disk
N is mounted by the guest agent in the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay Species 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 workow from
sending work items to the guest agent until all
customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath Species 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
lename.
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 le can then be programmed to accept
and use this value.
Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for basic
workow blueprints.
Table 2‑10. 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 Species the storage reservation policy to use to nd
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 specied 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.
Custom Properties Reference
26 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑10. Custom Properties for Basic Workflow Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.Storage.AllocationType Stores collected groups to a single datastore. A distributed
environment stores disks round-robin style.
VirtualMachine.Storage.Name Identies the storage path on which the machine resides.
The default is the value specied 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 recongure a
virtual machine. vSwap allocation checking is only
available for vSphere endpoints.
N 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 Species the VM hardware version to be used for vSphere
seings. 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 workows and is available
only for basic workow blueprints.
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 2‑11. Required Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
Custom Property Description
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem Species 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
predened 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 Values for this property are case sensitive. Species the
location of the ISO image from which to boot, for example
hp://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.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 27
Table 2‑11. Required Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Image.ISO.Name Values for this property are case sensitive. Species 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.
Image.ISO.UserName Species 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 Species 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 2‑12. Optional Custom Properties for Linux Kickstart Blueprints
Custom 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.
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.
The Connect Using SSH option requires that your browser
has a plug-in that supports SSH, for example the FireSSH
SSH terminal client for Mozilla Firefox and Google
Chrome. When the plug-in is present, selecting Connect
Using SSH displays an SSH console and prompts for your
administrator credentials.
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.
Custom Properties Reference
28 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑13. Required Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
Custom Property Description
Image.ISO.Location Values for this property are case sensitive. Species the
location of the ISO image from which to boot, for example
hp://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.
Image.ISO.Name Values for this property are case sensitive. Species 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.
Image.ISO.UserName Species 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 Species 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 Species the name of the SCCM collection that contains the
operating system deployment task sequence.
SCCM.Server.Name Species the fully qualied domain name of the SCCM
server on which the collection resides, for example lab-
sccm.lab.local.
SCCM.Server.SiteCode Species the site code of the SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.UserName Species a user name with administrator-level access to the
SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.Password Species the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.
Certain custom properties are used most often with SCCM blueprints.
Table 2‑14. Common Custom Properties for SCCM Blueprints
Custom Property Description
SCCM.CustomVariable.Name Species 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. prex from your custom variable.
SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix Set to true to remove the prex SCCM.CustomVariable.
from SCCM custom variables you created by using the
custom property SCCM.CustomVariable.Name.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 29
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 2‑15. Required Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints
Custom Property Description
Image.ISO.Location Values for this property are case sensitive. Species the
location of the ISO image from which to boot, for example
hp://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.
Image.ISO.Name Values for this property are case sensitive. Species 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.
Image.ISO.UserName Species 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 Species 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 Species the drive leer to which the WIM image path is
mapped on the provisioned machine. The default value is
K.
Image.WIM.Path Species the UNC path to the WIM le 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 Species the name of the WIM le, for example
win2k8.wim, as located by the Image.WIM.Path property.
Image.WIM.Index Species the index used to extract the correct image from
the WIM le.
Image.Network.User Species 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 Species the password associated with the
Image.Network.User property.
Custom Properties Reference
30 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑15. Required Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner Species the user name of the machine owner.
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem Species 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
predened 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.
Optional custom properties are also available for WIM blueprints.
Table 2‑16. Common Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints
Custom Property Description
SysPrep.Section.Key
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone
Species information to be added to the SysPrep answer
le on machines during the WinPE stage of provisioning.
Information that already exists in the SysPrep answer le is
overwrien by these custom properties. Section represents
the name of the section of the SysPrep answer le, for
example GuiUnaended or UserData. Key represents a key
name in the section. For example, to set the time zone of a
provisioned machine to West Pacic Standard Time, dene
the custom property
GuiUnattended.UserData.TimeZone and set the value to
275.
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 specied for
WIM-based provisioning:
nGuiUnaended
nAdminPassword
nEncryptedAdminPassword
nTimeZone
nUserData
nProductKey
nFullName
nComputerName
nOrgName
nIdentication
nDomainAdmin
nDomainAdminPassword
nJoinDomain
nJoinWorkgroup
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin Species 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 Species the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 31
Table 2‑16. Common Custom Properties for WIM Blueprints (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain Species the name of the domain to join in Active
Directory.
Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup Species the name of the workgroup to join if not using a
domain.
SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName Species a machine name, for example lab-client005.
SysPrep.UserData.FullName Species the full name of a user.
SysPrep.UserData.OrgName Species the organization name of the user.
SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey Species the Windows product key.
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.
Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Blueprints
You can add certain custom properties to a vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine component denition 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.
NSX load balancer properties are only applicable to vSphere machines.
Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in the Blueprint
Canvas
Custom Property Description
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin Species 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 Species the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.
Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain Species the name of the domain to join in Active
Directory.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.IsFixed Disables the editing of a specic disk when reconguring a
machine. Set to True to disable display of the edit capacity
option for a specic 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.s
vc/VirtualMachines(guid'60D93A8A-F541-4CE0-
A6C6-78973AC0F1D2')/VirtualMachineProperties.
Custom Properties Reference
32 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in the Blueprint
Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy Species the storage reservation policy to use to nd
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 specied 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.
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.NetworkN.Name Species the name of the network to connect to, for
example the network device N to which a machine is
aached. 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
specic network by seing 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
specic 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 specic
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,” on page 35.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType Species how IP address allocation is supplied to the
network provider, where NetworkN is the network
number, starting with 0. The following values are available:
nDHCP
nStatic
nMANUAL (available for vCloud Air and
vCloud Director only)
This property is available for conguring vCloud Air,
vCloud Director, and vSphere machine components in the
blueprint. Also see VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 33
Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in the Blueprint
Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu Set to true to specify that the recongure machine action
restarts the specied machine. By default, the recongure
machine action does not restart the machine.
Performing a hot add of CPU, memory, or storage causes
the recongure machine action to fail and not to restart the
machine unless the Hot Add seing 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 seing and force the machine to
restart regardless of the vSphere Hot Add seing. The
custom property is only available for machine types that
support hardware reconguration, which are vSphere,
vCloud Air, and vCloud Director.
VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins Species 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
conict is found, the lease value is synchronized to match
the lease length dened 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 workow every 45 minutes, which is the workow
default, and only the leases of machines that are set to
expire within 12 hours are changed to match the lease
length dened 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 ownership operations, the
owner is not changed on the endpoint. If not specied 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. Seings specied in the template, including
storage path, supersede seings specied in the blueprint.
The only changes from the template are the names of the
cloned machines, which are generated from the machine
prex specied in the blueprint.
vCloud Air or vCloud Director machines that are
provisioned as identical copies can use networks and
storage proles that are not available in the
vRealize Automation reservation. To avoid having
unaccounted reservation allocations, verify that the storage
prole or network specied in the template is available in
the reservation.
Custom Properties Reference
34 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑17. Custom Properties for vCloud Air and vCloud Director Machine Components in the Blueprint
Canvas (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VMware.SCSI.Sharing Species 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 CloneWorkow provisioning workow. If you
specify the CloneWorkow provisioning workow when
conguring 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, species the SCSI machine type
using one of the following case-sensitive values:
nbuslogic
Use BusLogic emulation for the virtual disk.
nlsilogic
Use LSILogic emulation for the virtual disk (default).
nlsilogicsas
Use LSILogic SAS 1068 emulation for the virtual disk.
npvscsi
Use para-virtualization emulation for the virtual disk.
nnone
Use if a SCSI controller does not exist for this machine.
The VMware.SCSI.Type property is not available for use
with the CloneWorkow provisioning workow. If you
specify the CloneWorkow provisioning workow when
conguring your machine component in the blueprint
design canvas, you cannot use the VMware.SCSI.Type
property.
Custom Properties for Networking
The vRealize Automation custom properties for networking specify conguration for a specic 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.
NSX load balancer properties are only applicable to vSphere machines.
N This information does not apply to Amazon Web Services.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 35
By default, a machine has one network device congured with the VirtualMachine.Network0.Name property.
You can congure additional network devices by using the VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name custom property,
where N is the network number.
N Network-specic custom properties that point to on-demand networks not supported. For example,
you cannot use network custom properties, such as VirtualMachine.Network0.NetworkProfileName, for on-
demand NAT and on-demand routed network components.
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
specied.
Table 2‑18. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address Species 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-dened (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
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress Species 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 species the MAC address. For virtual
machines provisioned on ESX server hosts, the address
must be in the range specied by VMware. For details, see
vSphere documentation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Custom Properties Reference
36 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑18. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name Species the name of the network to connect to, for
example the network device N to which a machine is
aached. 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
specic network by seing 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
specic 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 specic
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.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PortID Species the port ID to use for network device N when
using a dvPort group with a vSphere distributed switch.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 37
Table 2‑18. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName Species the name of a network prole 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 rst device, 1 for the second, and so on.
When you use the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName property, the
network prole it points to is used to allocate an IP
address. However, the provisioned machine is aached to
any network that is selected in the reservation using a
round-robin fashion model.
Changing this property value after the network is assigned
has no eect 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 prole 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 aributes of the network prole are available
to enable static IP assignment in a cloning blueprint:
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
You cannot use this custom property to dene an on-
demand NAT or on-demand routed network prole name.
Because on-demand network prole 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.
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes
Congures aributes of the network prole specied in
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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
specic reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Custom Properties Reference
38 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑18. Custom Properties for Networking Configuration (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.name Species 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 specied pools. The value is an edge/pool
name or a list of edge/pool names separated by commas.
Names are case-sensitive.
N 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 rst member of the
specied edge load balancer pool to determine the new
member port and monitor port seings. However, NSX 6.2
does not require that the member port seing be specied.
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 rst 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:
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.moderate
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.high
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.low
VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.name Species 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:
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.sales
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.support
VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.name Species 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:
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names.sales
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names.support
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 39
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 2‑19. Custom Properties for Calling PowerShell Scripts
Custom Property Description
Pxe.Setup.ScriptName Species 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 Species 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.
Custom Properties For PXE and SCCM Provisioning
You can use these properties for PXE and SCCM provisioning.
Table 2‑20. Custom Properties for PXE and SCCM Provisioning
Custom Property Description
SCCM.Collection.Name Species the name of the SCCM collection that contains the
operating system deployment task sequence.
SCCM.Server.Name Species the fully qualied domain name of the SCCM
server on which the collection resides, for example lab-
sccm.lab.local.
SCCM.Server.SiteCode Species the site code of the SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.UserName Species a user name with administrator-level access to the
SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.Password Species the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.
SCCM.CustomVariable. Species 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. prex from your custom variable.
Custom Properties For PXE and WIM Provisioning
You can use these properties for PXE and WIM provisioning.
Custom Properties Reference
40 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑21. Custom Properties for PXE and WIM Provisioning
Custom Property Description
Image.Network.Letter Species the drive leer to which the WIM image path is
mapped on the provisioned machine. The default value is
K.
Image.WIM.Path Species the UNC path to the WIM le 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 Species the name of the WIM le, for example
win2k8.wim, as located by the Image.WIM.Path property.
Image.WIM.Index Species the index used to extract the correct image from
the WIM le.
Image.Network.User Species 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 Species the password associated with the
Image.Network.User property.
SysPrep.Section.Key
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone
Species information to be added to the SysPrep answer
le on machines during the WinPE stage of provisioning.
Information that already exists in the SysPrep answer le is
overwrien by these custom properties. Section represents
the name of the section of the SysPrep answer le, for
example GuiUnaended or UserData. Key represents a key
name in the section. For example, to set the time zone of a
provisioned machine to West Pacic Standard Time, dene
the custom property
GuiUnattended.UserData.TimeZone and set the value to
275.
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 specied for
WIM-based provisioning:
nGuiUnaended
nAdminPassword
nEncryptedAdminPassword
nTimeZone
nUserData
nProductKey
nFullName
nComputerName
nOrgName
nIdentication
nDomainAdmin
nDomainAdminPassword
nJoinDomain
nJoinWorkgroup
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin Species 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 Species the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin property.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 41
Table 2‑21. Custom Properties for PXE and WIM Provisioning (Continued)
Custom Property Description
Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain Species the name of the domain to join in Active
Directory.
Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup Species the name of the workgroup to join if not using a
domain.
SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName Species a machine name, for example lab-client005.
SysPrep.UserData.FullName Species the full name of a user.
SysPrep.UserData.OrgName Species the organization name of the user.
SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey Species the Windows product key.
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 2‑22. 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
specied 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 specied 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 specied or
set to anything other than False, the enhanced clone
workow sends work items to the guest agent.
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 Denes the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give a size
of 150 GB to a disk G, dene 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 specied 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.
Custom Properties Reference
42 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑22. Custom Properties for Customizing Provisioned Machines with a Guest Agent (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label Species the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk label
maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering must be
sequential. When used with a guest agent, species the
label of a machine's disk N inside the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter Species the drive leer or mount point of a machine’s disk
N. The default is C. For example, to specify the leer D for
Disk 1, dene 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 species the
drive leer or mount point under which an additional disk
N is mounted by the guest agent in the guest operating
system.
VirtualMachine.Admin.CustomizeGuestOSDelay Species 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 workow from
sending work items to the guest agent until all
customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name Species 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 workow or the guest
agent but it is useful for a custom software selection in a
user interface or for software use reporting.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath Species 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
lename.
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 le can then be programmed to accept
and use this value.
Insert {Owner} to pass the machine owner name to the
script.
You can also pass custom property values as parameters to
the script by inserting {YourCustomProperty} in the path
string. For example, entering the
value \\vra-
scripts.mycompany.com\scripts\changeIP.bat runs
the changeIP.bat script from a shared location, but
entering the
value \\vra-
scripts.mycompany.com\scripts\changeIP.bat
{VirtualMachine.Network0.Address} runs the
changeIP script but also passes the value of the
VirtualMachine.Network0.Address property to the
script as a parameter.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 43
Table 2‑22. Custom Properties for Customizing Provisioned Machines with a Guest Agent (Continued)
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt Allows vRealize Automation to obtain an encrypted string
that is passed as a properly formaed
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath custom
property statement to the gugent command line.
You can provide an encrypted string, such as your
password, as a custom property in a command-line
argument. This allows you to store encrypted information
that the guest agent can decrypt and understand as a valid
command-line argument. For example, the
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath =
c:\dosomething.bat password custom property string
is not secure as it contains an actual password.
To encrypt the password, you can create a
vRealize Automation custom property, for example
MyPassword = password, and enable encryption by
selecting the available check box. The guest agent decrypts
the [MyPassword] entry to the value in the custom
property MyPassword and runs the script as
c:\dosomething.bat password.
nCreate custom property MyPassword = password
where password is the value of your actual password.
Enable encryption by selecting the available check box.
nSet custom property
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt as
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt = true.
nSet custom property
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath as
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath =
c:\dosomething.bat [MyPassword].
If you set VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt to false,
or do not create the
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt custom property,
then the string inside the square brackets ( [ and ]) is not
decrypted.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName Species the path and lename of the ISO le relative to the
datastore root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name.iso. If a
value is not specied, the ISO is not mounted.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation Species the storage path that contains the ISO image le
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 specied, the ISO is
not mounted.
Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
Integration
vRealize Automation includes custom properties that you can use to provide additional controls for BMC
BladeLogic Conguration Manager integration.
Table 2‑23. Custom Properties Required for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Integrations
Custom Property Description
VirtualMachine.EPI.Type Species the type of external provisioning infrastructure.
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner Species the user name of the machine owner.
Custom Properties Reference
44 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑23. Custom Properties Required for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Integrations
(Continued)
Custom Property Description
BMC.Software.Install Set to True to enable BMC BladeLogic Conguration
Manager integration.
EPI.Server.Name Species 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
Conguration Manager host, this value directs the request
to the desired server.
If only dedicated BMC EPI agents for specic BMC
BladeLogic Conguration Manager hosts were installed,
this value must exactly match the server name congured
for one of these agents.
BMC.Service.Profile Species the name of the default authentication prole on
the BMC BladeLogic server.
BMC.Software.BatchLocation Species the location in BMC BladeLogic conguration
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 Species 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
predened 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.
Custom Properties To Make BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Software
Jobs Available
Congure BMC BladeLogic Conguration 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.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 45
Table 2‑24. Custom Properties to Make Software Jobs Available
Custom Property Description
LoadSoftware Set to True to enable software install options.
Vrm.Software.IdNNNN Species 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 rst property must start with 1000 and increment in
numerical order for each additional property.
1 — AuditJob
2 — BatchJob
3 — ComplianceJob
4 — DeployJob
5 — FileDeployJob
6 — NSHScriptJob
7 — PatchAnalysisJob
8 — SnapshotJob
Optional Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager
Integrations
You can also use optional custom properties that are commonly used with BMC BladeLogic Conguration
Manager blueprints.
Table 2‑25. Optional Custom Properties for BMC BladeLogic Configuration Manager Integrations
Property Definition
BMC.AddServer.Delay Species the number of seconds to wait before adding the
machine to BMC BladeLogic Conguration Manager. The
default is 30.
BMC.AddServer.Retry Species the number of seconds to wait before retrying if
the rst aempt to add the machine to BMC BladeLogic
Conguration Manager is unsuccessful. The default is 100.
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.
Custom Properties Reference
46 VMware, Inc.
Table 2‑26. Required Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Property Definition
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem Species 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
predened to include the correct
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem values. This
property is for virtual provisioning.
VirtualMachine.EPI.Type Species the type of external provisioning infrastructure.
EPI.Server.Name Species 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
Conguration Manager host, this value directs the request
to the desired server.
Opsware.Software.Install Set to True to allow HP Server Automation to install
software.
Opsware.Server.Name Species the fully qualied name of the HP Server
Automation server.
Opsware.Server.Username Species the user name provided when a password le in
the agent directory was created, for example
opswareadmin. This user name requires administrative
access to the HP Server Automation instance.
Opsware.BootImage.Name Species the boot image value as dened 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 Species a customer name value as dened in HP Server
Automation, for example MyCompanyName.
Opsware.Facility.Name Species a facility name value as dened in HP Server
Automation, for example Cambridge.
Opsware.Machine.Password Species the default local administrator password for an
operating system sequence WIM image such as
Opsware.OSSequence.Name as dened in HP Server
Automation, for example P@ssword1.
Opsware.OSSequence.Name Species the operating system sequence name value as
dened in HP Server Automation, for example Windows
2008 WIM.
Opsware.Realm.Name Species the realm name value as dened in HP Server
Automation, for example Production.
Opsware.Register.Timeout Species 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 Species 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.
Chapter 2 Custom Properties Grouped by Function
VMware, Inc. 47
Table 2‑26. Required Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration (Continued)
Property Definition
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType Species the location type of the customization script
named in the Linux.ExternalScript.Name property.
This can be either local or nfs.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path Species 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 le name, for
example /scripts/linux/config.sh.
Optional Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Certain custom properties are optional for a blueprint to work with HP Server Automation.
Table 2‑27. Optional Custom Properties for HP Server Automation Integration
Property Definition
Opsware.ProvFail.Notify (Optional) Species the notication email address for HP
Server Automation to use in the event of provisioning
failure, for example provisionfail@lab.local.
Opsware.ProvFail.Notify (Optional) Species the HP Server Automation user to
whom ownership is assigned if provisioning fails.
Opsware.ProvSuccess.Notify (Optional) Species the notication email address for HP
Server Automation to use if provisioning is successful.
Opsware.ProvSuccess.Owner (Optional) Species the HP Server Automation user to
whom ownership is assigned if provisioning is successful.
Custom Properties That Make HP Server Automation Software Jobs Available
Depending on how your fabric administrator congures 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 2‑28. Custom Properties to Make Software Jobs Available
Property Definition
LoadSoftware Set to True to enable software install options.
Vrm.Software.Id (Optional) Species an HP Server Automation policy to be
applied to all machines provisioned from the blueprint.
NNNN is a number from 1000 to 1999. The rst property
must start with 1000 and increment in numerical order for
each additional property.
Custom Properties Reference
48 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties Grouped by Name 3
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,” on page 13.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“Custom Properties Underscore (_) Table,” on page 50
n“Custom Properties A Table,” on page 51
n“Custom Properties B Table,” on page 51
n“Custom Properties C Table,” on page 52
n“Custom Properties E Table,” on page 52
n“Custom Properties H Table,” on page 54
n“Custom Properties I Table,” on page 55
n“Custom Properties L Table,” on page 56
n“Custom Properties M Table,” on page 57
n“Custom Properties O Table,” on page 57
n“Custom Properties P Table,” on page 58
n“Custom Properties R Table,” on page 59
n“Custom Properties S Table,” on page 59
n“Custom Properties V Table,” on page 63
n“Custom Properties X Table,” on page 83
VMware, Inc. 49
Custom Properties Underscore (_) Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with an underscore (_).
Table 3‑1. Custom Properties Underscore (_) Table
Property Description
_debug_deployment Except for scale operations which allow partially successful
deployments, the default behavior is to destroy the entire
deployment if any of the individual resources fail to provision.
You can override the default behavior by seing 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 a failed catalog item are accessible to users, so
this custom property is best used during development and
testing of new blueprints.
To apply the custom property to a blueprint, add
_debug_deployment to the Blueprint Properties page using the
Properties tab when you create or edit a blueprint. This
property is for blueprints that contain multiple components,
such as composite blueprints, and is ignored if applied to
standalone blueprints. The _debug_deployment property is
consumed at the software provisioning level, not the guest
agent or machine provisioning level.
You can also congure vRealize Automation to not delete
virtual machines after deployment failure by using seings in
the VRMAgent.exe.config le.
_deploymentName When added to a blueprint, this property allows you to specify
a custom name for the deployment by seing the value of
_deploymentName to your custom string. If more than one
instance of this deployment is provisioned in a single request,
your custom name becomes a prex. If you want users to
specify their own deployment names, set this custom property
to allow override. The following two caveats are required for
usage:
nYou must add this property at the blueprint level, not at the
component level. For example, when creating or editing a
blueprint, click the Properties tab and then select Custom
Properties > New to add the _deploymentName property to
the blueprint. Do not add the property to a machine or
other component in the blueprint.
nYou must add this property as a separate property and not
as a member of a property group.
_number_of_instances When added to a blueprint, this property allows you to specify
the number of instances of the deployment that a user can
provision in a single request.
Custom Properties Reference
50 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties A Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer A.
Table 3‑2. Custom Properties A Table
Property Description
AD.Lookup.Department Species the cost center value that is included in a notication
email sent to approvers. This property value must be specied in
the blueprint.
amazon.AmazonEC2Config.ServiceURL Species the Amazon conguration service URL for Amazon
GovCloud, for example
amazon.AmazonEC2Config.ServiceURL=hps://ec2.us-gov-
west-1.amazonaws.com.
amazon.ElasticLoadBalancingConfig.Service
URL
Species the Amazon load balancer conguration service URL for
Amazon GovCloud, for example
amazon.ElasticLoadBalancingConfig.ServiceURL=hps://ela
sticloadbalancing.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 specied values. This property is
valid for vSphere, Amazon, and Hyper-V congurations.
amazon.IAMInstanceProfile.ARN Species the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
instance prole Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) when
requesting an AWS instance. When you add this property, for
example amazon.IAMInstanceProfile.ARN = IAM Instance
Prole ARN(s) value, to a blueprint and then request provisioning
from the catalog, the provisioned Amazon virtual machine or
instance contains the specied IAM role.
Amazon.Instance.Id Species the Amazon instance ID of a machine provisioned on an
Amazon EC2 endpoint. This property is valid for vSphere and
Amazon congurations.
Amazon.elasticIpAddress.ipAddress Species the Amazon IP address where ipAddress is the specic IP
address to assign to the instance.
Custom Properties B Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer B.
Table 3‑3. Custom Properties B Table
Property Definition
BMC.AddServer.Delay Species the number of seconds to wait before adding the machine
to BMC BladeLogic Conguration Manager. The default is 30.
BMC.AddServer.Retry Species the number of seconds to wait before retrying if the rst
aempt to add the machine to BMC BladeLogic Conguration
Manager is unsuccessful. The default is 100.
BMC.Service.Profile Species the name of the default authentication prole on the BMC
BladeLogic server.
BMC.Software.BatchLocation Species the location in BMC BladeLogic conguration 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 Conguration Manager
integration.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 51
Custom Properties C Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer C.
Table 3‑4. Custom Properties C Table
Property Definition
Cisco.Organization.Dn Species 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 specied 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 Species the name of an existing machine or virtualization platform
object to clone from, for example a template in vCenter Server such
as Win2k8tmpl.
CloneSpec Species the name of a customization specication on a cloned
machine, for example a predened SysPrep object in vCenter Server
such as Win2k Customization Spec. The default value is specied 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 leer E.
Table 3‑5. Custom Properties E Table
Property Definition
EPI.Server.Collection Species the name of the Citrix provisioning collection to which the machine
is to be registered.
EPI.Server.Name Species 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
Conguration Manager host, this value directs the request to the desired
server.
If only dedicated BMC EPI agents for specic BMC BladeLogic Conguration
Manager hosts were installed, this value must exactly match the server name
congured for one of these agents.
Species 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 specic HP server automation servers were
installed, this value must exactly match the server name congured 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 specic servers of the appropriate type were installed, this value must
exactly match the server name congured for one of these agents.
Custom Properties Reference
52 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑5. Custom Properties E Table (Continued)
Property Definition
EPI.Server.Port Species 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 Species the name of the Citrix provisioning site that contains the collection
and store identied by the EPI.Server.Collection and
EPI.Server.Store properties, for example site1.
EPI.Server.Store Species the name of the Citrix provisioning store that contains the vDisk
identied by the EPI.Server.VDiskName property, for example store1.
EPI.Server.VDiskName Species the name of the Citrix provisioning vDisk from which to provision,
for example disk1.
ext.policy.activedirectory.custom
izationWorkflowTag
The tag that you added to a custom vRealize Orchestrator workow. The
Active Directory policy searches for custom workows with the specied tag
and, if found, uses the tagged workow when an Active Directory record is
created.
ext.policy.activedirectory.custom
izationDeleteWorkflowTag
The tag that you added to a custom vRealize Orchestrator workow. The
Active Directory policy searches for custom workows with the specied tag
and, if found, uses the tagged workow when an Active Directory record is
deleted.
ext.policy.activedirectory.domain The domain that you want to user rather than the domain in the current
Active Directory policy.
Overrides ext.policy.activedirectory.system.domain value that is
specied in the Active Directory policy.
ext.policy.activedirectory.endpoi
nt.id
The policy identier to use to specify a policy or override policy. The ID that
you provide must be for an existing Active Directory policy.
Overrides ext.policy.activedirectory.system.endpoint.idvalue that
is specied in the Active Directory policy.
ext.policy.activedirectory.id The organizational unit that you want to use rather than the organizational
unit in the current Active Directory policy.
Overrides ext.policy.activedirectory.system.id value that is
specied in the Active Directory policy.
ext.policy.activedirectory.machin
eName
The name of the machine in Active Directory that you want to use rather than
the name in the current Active Directory policy.
Overrides ext.policy.activedirectory.system.machineNamevalue that
is specied in the Active Directory policy.
ext.policy.activedirectory.orguni
t
The organizational unit that you want to user rather than the domain in the
current Active Directory policy.
Overrides ext.policy.activedirectory.system.orgunit value that is
specied in the Active Directory policy.
ext.policy.activedirectory.system
.domain
System property for the domain of the machine in Active Directory.
If you modify this property, which is used by the dened policies, you can
disable the policy. Use ext.policy.activedirectory.domain to override
the policy value.
ext.policy.activedirectory.system
.endpoint.id
System property for the name of the Active Directory vRealize Orchestrator
endpoint.
If you modify this property, which is used by the dened policies, you can
disable the policy. Use ext.policy.activedirectory.endpoint.id to
override the policy value.
ext.policy.activedirectory.system
.id
System property for the user-readable ID for the Active Directory policy.
If you modify this property, which is used by the dened policies, you can
disable the policy. Use ext.policy.activedirectory.id to override the
policy value.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 53
Table 3‑5. Custom Properties E Table (Continued)
Property Definition
ext.policy.activedirectory.system
.machineName
System property for the name of the machine in Active Directory.
If you modify this property, which is used by the dened policies, you can
disable the policy. Use ext.policy.activedirectory.machineName to
override the policy value.
ext.policy.activedirectory.system
.orgunit
System property for the distinguished name of the Active Directory
organizational unit.
If you modify this property, which is used by the dened policies, you can
disable the policy. Use ext.policy.activedirectory.orgunit to override
the policy value.
Custom Properties H Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer H.
Table 3‑6. Custom Properties H Table
Property Definition
Hostname Species 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.
The maximum number of allowed characters for the Hostname value is 15.
Hyperv.Network.Type Species 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
54 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties I Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer I.
Table 3‑7. Custom Properties I Table
Property Definition
Image.ISO.Location Values for this property are case sensitive. Species the location of the ISO
image from which to boot, for example hp://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 species the name of a
datastore in the instance that will be accessible to the provisioning compute
resource. For virtual provisioning with XenServer, this species the name of a
storage repository.
For physical provisioning, this species the HTTP URL of the web-accessible
location of the image.
Image.ISO.Name Values for this property are case sensitive. Species 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 species the path to
the image in the datastore specied 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 species the name of the image in the storage repository
specied by Image.ISO.Location. In virtual provisioning with Hyper-V, this
value species the full local path to the image.
For physical provisioning, this value species the le name of the image.
Image.ISO.UserName Species 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 Species 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 Species the UNC path to the WIM le 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 Species the name of the WIM le, for example win2k8.wim, as located by the
Image.WIM.Path property.
Image.WIM.Index Species the index used to extract the correct image from the WIM le.
Image.Network.User Species 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 Species the password associated with the Image.Network.User property.
Image.Network.Letter Species the drive leer to which the WIM image path is mapped on the
provisioned machine. The default value is K.
Infrastructure.Admin.MachineObj
ectOU
Species the organizational unit (OU) of the machine. When machines are
placed in the required OU by the business group OU seing, this property is
not required.
Infrastructure.Admin.ADUser Species the domain administrator user ID. This identier is used to query
Active Directory users and groups when an anonymous bind cannot be used.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
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Table 3‑7. Custom Properties I Table (Continued)
Property Definition
Infrastructure.Admin.ADPassword Species the password associated with the Infrastructure.Admin.ADUser
domain administrator user ID.
Infrastructure.Admin.DefaultDom
ain
Species the default domain on the machine.
Infrastructure.ResourcePool.Nam
e
Species the resource pool to which the machine belongs, if any. The default is
the value specied in the reservation from which the machine was provisioned.
Custom Properties L Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer L.
Table 3‑8. Custom Properties L Table
Property Description
Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType Species 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 Species 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 dene its location
by using the Linux.ExternalScript.LocationType and
Linux.ExternalScript.Path properties.
Linux.ExternalScript.Path Species 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 le
name, for example /scripts/linux/config.sh.
Linux.ExternalScript.Server Species 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 Reference
56 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties M Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer M.
Table 3‑9. Custom Properties M Table
Property Description
MaximumProvisionedMachines Species 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.
The Connect Using SSH option requires that your browser has a plug-
in that supports SSH, for example the FireSSH SSH terminal client for
Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. When the plug-in is present,
selecting Connect Using SSH displays an SSH console and prompts
for your administrator credentials.
Custom Properties O Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer O.
Table 3‑10. Custom Properties O Table
Property Description
Opsware.BootImage.Name Species the boot image value as dened 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 Species a customer name value as dened in HP Server
Automation, for example MyCompanyName.
Opsware.Facility.Name Species a facility name value as dened in HP Server Automation,
for example Cambridge.
Opsware.Machine.Password Species the default local administrator password for an operating
system sequence WIM image such as Opsware.OSSequence.Name
as dened in HP Server Automation, for example P@ssword1.
Opsware.OSSequence.Name Species the operating system sequence name value as dened in
HP Server Automation, for example Windows 2008 WIM.
Opsware.ProvFail.Notify (Optional) Species the notication email address for HP Server
Automation to use in the event of provisioning failure, for example
provisionfail@lab.local.
Opsware.ProvFail.Owner (Optional) Species the HP Server Automation user to whom
ownership is assigned if provisioning fails.
Opsware.ProvSuccess.Notify (Optional) Species the notication email address for HP Server
Automation to use if provisioning is successful.
Opsware.ProvSuccess.Owner (Optional) Species the HP Server Automation user to whom
ownership is assigned if provisioning is successful.
Opsware.Realm.Name Species the realm name value as dened in HP Server Automation,
for example Production.
Opsware.Register.Timeout Species the time, in seconds, to wait for creation of a provisioning
job to complete.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 57
Table 3‑10. Custom Properties O Table (Continued)
Property Description
Opsware.Server.Name Species the fully qualied name of the HP Server Automation
server.
Opsware.Server.Username Species the user name provided when a password le 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 leer P.
Table 3‑11. 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 Species an Active Directory account user name with sucient
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 Species the password associated to the
Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.UserName property.
Plugin.AdMachineCleanup.Domain Species 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 prex. The
value is the prex string to prepend, for example destroyed_.
Pxe.Clean.ScriptName Species 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 Species 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 Reference
58 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties R Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer R.
Table 3‑12. Custom Properties R Table
Property Description
ReservationPolicyID Species the reservation policy name.
RDP.File.Name Species an RDP le from which to obtain seings, for example
My_RDP_Settings.rdp. The le 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 leer S.
Table 3‑13. Custom Properties S Table
Property Description
SysPrep.Section.Key
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.AdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.EncryptedAdminPassword
nSysPrep.GuiUnattended.TimeZone
Species information to be added to the SysPrep
answer le on machines during the WinPE stage of
provisioning. Information that already exists in the
SysPrep answer le is overwrien by these custom
properties. Section represents the name of the
section of the SysPrep answer le, for example
GuiUnaended or UserData. Key represents a key
name in the section. For example, to set the time
zone of a provisioned machine to West Pacic
Standard Time, dene the custom property
GuiUnattended.UserData.TimeZone and set the
value to 275.
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
specied for WIM-based provisioning:
nGuiUnaended
nAdminPassword
nEncryptedAdminPassword
nTimeZone
nUserData
nProductKey
nFullName
nComputerName
nOrgName
nIdentication
nDomainAdmin
nDomainAdminPassword
nJoinDomain
nJoinWorkgroup
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin Species 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 Species the password to associate with the
Sysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin
property.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 59
Table 3‑13. Custom Properties S Table (Continued)
Property Description
Sysprep.Identification.JoinDomain Species the name of the domain to join in Active
Directory.
Sysprep.Identification.JoinWorkgroup Species the name of the workgroup to join if not
using a domain.
SysPrep.UserData.ComputerName Species a machine name, for example lab-
client005.
SysPrep.UserData.FullName Species the full name of a user.
SysPrep.UserData.OrgName Species the organization name of the user.
SysPrep.UserData.ProductKey Species the Windows product key.
SCCM.Collection.Name Species the name of the SCCM collection that
contains the operating system deployment task
sequence.
SCCM.CustomVariable.Name Species 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. prex from
your custom variable.
SCCM.Server.Name Species the fully qualied domain name of the
SCCM server on which the collection resides, for
example lab-sccm.lab.local.
SCCM.Server.SiteCode Species the site code of the SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.UserName Species a user name with administrator-level
access to the SCCM server.
SCCM.Server.Password Species the password associated with the
SCCM.Server.UserName property.
SCCM.RemoveCustomVariablePrefix Set to true to remove the prex
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.
Snapshot.Policy.Limit Sets the number of snapshots allowed per machine.
The default seing 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.
nDepth – Maximum is 31.
nWidth – There is no limit.
Custom Properties Reference
60 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑13. Custom Properties S Table (Continued)
Property Description
Snapshot.Policy.Disable 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.
software.http.proxyHost Species the host name, or address, of the proxy
server.
For software content properties to use the proxy
server, you must use both
software.http.proxyHost and
software.http.proxyPort.
N You can use the software proxy seings to
dene a content property type value for a software
component. Content properties are URLs that are
downloaded by the agent. The agent uses the
variable as a le path to the locally downloaded le.
However, you can use the software proxy seings
to download through the proxy host instead of
from the URL.
software.http.proxyPassword Species the password for the user name with
which to authenticate to the proxy server. Use in
combination with software.http.proxyUser.
The software.http.proxyPassword seing is
required if you use the software.http.proxyUser
seing.
N You can use the software proxy seings to
dene a content property type value for a software
component. Content properties are URLs that are
downloaded by the agent. The agent uses the
variable as a le path to the locally downloaded le.
However, you can use the software proxy seings
to download through the proxy host instead of
from the URL.
software.http.proxyPort Species the port number of the proxy server.
For software content properties to use the proxy
server, you must use both
software.http.proxyHost and
software.http.proxyPort. There is no default
software.http.proxyPort value.
N You can use the software proxy seings to
dene a content property type value for a software
component. Content properties are URLs that are
downloaded by the agent. The agent uses the
variable as a le path to the locally downloaded le.
However, you can use the software proxy seings
to download through the proxy host instead of
from the URL.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 61
Table 3‑13. Custom Properties S Table (Continued)
Property Description
software.http.proxyUser Species the user name with which to authenticate
to the proxy server. Use in combination with
software.http.proxyPassword.
The software.http.proxyUser seing is optional.
The software.http.proxyPassword seing is
required if you use the software.http.proxyUser
seing.
N You can use the software proxy seings to
dene a content property type value for a software
component. Content properties are URLs that are
downloaded by the agent. The agent uses the
variable as a le path to the locally downloaded le.
However, you can use the software proxy seings
to download through the proxy host instead of
from the URL.
software.http.noProxyList Species a list of hosts, and optional ports, that
cannot use the proxyHost. The original content
property downloads directly from URLs that match
the paerns in the list. The
software.http.noProxyList seing is only
applicable if the proxy server is congured. For
example, for the following comma separated list:
"buildweb.eng.vmware.com,confluence.eng.v
mware.com:443,*.eng.vmware.com:80"
The following statements apply:
nAny URL whose HOST is
"buildweb.eng.vmware.com" cannot use the
proxy server.
nAny URL whose HOST is
"conuence.eng.vmware.com" and the whose
PORT is 443 cannot use the proxy server.
nAny URL whose HOST is anything under the
"eng.vmware.com" namespace and whose
PORT is 80 cannot use the proxy server.
N You can use the software proxy seings to
dene a content property type value for a software
component. Content properties are URLs that are
downloaded by the agent. The agent uses the
variable as a le path to the locally downloaded le.
However, you can use the software proxy seings
to download through the proxy host instead of
from the URL.
Custom Properties Reference
62 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties V Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer V.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table
Property Description
VbScript.PreProvisioning.Name Species 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 le must reside on the system on which the
Visual Basic script EPI agent is installed.
VbScript.PostProvisioning.Name Species 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 le must reside on the system on which the
Visual Basic script EPI agent is installed.
VbScript.UnProvisioning.Name Species 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 le must reside on the system on which the
Visual Basic script EPI agent is installed.
VCloud.Lease.Sync.TimeBufferMins Species 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 conict is found,
the lease value is synchronized to match the lease
length dened 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 workow every 45
minutes, which is the workow default, and only the
leases of machines that are set to expire within 12
hours are changed to match the lease length dened
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
ownership operations, the owner is not changed on
the endpoint. If not specied or set to false, the
vRealize Automation owner is the machine owner.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 63
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
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. Seings specied in
the template, including storage path, supersede
seings specied in the blueprint. The only changes
from the template are the names of the cloned
machines, which are generated from the machine
prex specied in the blueprint.
vCloud Air or vCloud Director machines that are
provisioned as identical copies can use networks and
storage proles that are not available in the
vRealize Automation reservation. To avoid having
unaccounted reservation allocations, verify that the
storage prole or network specied in the template is
available in the reservation.
VCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.name Species 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 specied pools.
The value is an edge/pool name or a list of edge/pool
names separated by commas. Names are case-
sensitive.
N 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 rst
member of the specied edge load balancer pool to
determine the new member port and monitor port
seings. However, NSX 6.2 does not require that the
member port seing be specied. 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 rst 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:
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.moderat
e
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.high
nVCNS.LoadBalancerEdgePool.Names.low
Custom Properties Reference
64 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.name Species 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:
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.sales
nVCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.support
VCNS.SecurityGroup.Names.blueprint_name When using vCloud Networking and Security,
species the Edge Pool with which to associate the
blueprint.
VCNS.SecurityTag.Names.name Species 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:
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names.sales
nVCNS.SecurityTag.Names.support
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
specied or set to anything other than False, the
enhanced clone workow sends work items to the
guest agent.
VirtualMachine.Admin.NameCompletion Species the domain name to include in the fully
qualied domain name of the machine that the RDP
or SSH les 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 qualied domain name my-
machine-name.myCompany.com in the RDP or SSH
le.
VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress Species the RDP connection address of the machine
to which an RDP le is downloaded when the user
interface option Connect Using RDP is used or
aached 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.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 65
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress.Regex Used by a vRealize Automation administrator to
dene a regular expression to match an IP address
for terminal connections, such as an RDP connection.
If matched, the IP address is saved under the
VirtualMachine.Admin.ConnectAddress custom
property. Otherwise, the rst available IP address is
designated.
For example, seing the property value to 10.10.0.
allows selection of an IP address from a 10.10.0.*
subnet that is assigned to the virtual machine. If the
subnet has not been assigned, the property is
ignored.
This property is available for use with Openstack.
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 Species 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 virtual machine and assign a specic
adapter type for a template cloning operation. Use to
modify the network seings of a newly provisioned
virtual machine. The following options are available:
nE1000 (default)
nVirtIO
nRTL8139
nRTL8139 VirtIO
VirtualMachine.Admin.Name Species the generated machine name for vSphere,
for example CodyVM01. When creating custom
workows 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.
N This property is for vSphere only.
The value specied in the blueprint has no eect 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 Species the UUID of the machine. The guest agent
records the value when the machine is created. The
value becomes read-only. The value in the blueprint
or property group has no eect on this property.
Custom Properties Reference
66 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.AgentID Species the UUID of the guest agent. The guest
agent recorsd the value when the machine is created.
The value becomes read-only. The value in the
blueprint or property group has no eect on this
property.
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner Species the user name of the machine owner.
VirtualMachine.Admin.Approver Species the user name of the group manager who
approved the machine request.
VirtualMachine.Admin.Description Species the description of the machine as entered or
modied by its owner or an administrator.
VirtualMachine.Admin.EncryptPasswords If set to True, species that the administrator
passwords are encrypted.
VirtualMachine.Admin.AdministratorEmail Species 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.com.
VirtualMachine.Admin.TotalDiskUsage Species the total disk space that the machine uses,
including all disks as specied by the
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size properties and the
swap le as specied by the VMware.Memory.
Reservation property.
VirtualMachine.Admin.Hostname Informs the administrator which host is used for
provisioning the machine on the endpoint. The
specied 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.
N This is an internal output property from the
agent that is populated during the data collection
process and identies the host on which a machine
resides.
VirtualMachine.Admin.ClusterName Informs the administrator which cluster contains the
compute resource for the machine to use.
N This is an internal output property from the
agent that is populated during the data collection
process and identies the cluster in which a machine
resides.
VirtualMachine.Admin.ApplicationID List the application IDs that can be assigned to a
machine.
VirtualMachine.Admin.AddOwnerToAdmins Set to True (default) to add the machine’s owner, as
specied 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 specied by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.Owner property.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 67
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.Admin.DiskInterfaceType Indicates the type of disk drivers. The following disk
drivers are supported:
nIDE (default)
nVirtIO
This property is for virtual provisioning.
VirtualMachine.Admin.EagerZero When set to true, species that the machine disks are
provisioned using the VMware provisioning format
of eager zero.
Thick provision eager zero is a type of thick virtual
disk that supports clustering features such as fault
tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is
allocated at creation time. In contrast to the at
format, the data remaining on the physical device is
zeroed out when the virtual disk is created. It might
take much longer to create disks in this format than
to create other types of disks.
VirtualMachine.Admin.ForceHost Species the name of the ESX host. The property is
only honored if
VirtualMachine.Admin.HostSelectionPolicy is
set to EXACT_MATCH.
N 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 specied by the
VirtualMachine.Admin.ForceHost property. If the
host is unavailable, the request results in a failure. If
a host is not specied, the next best available host is
selected. If set to EXACT_MATCH, an error occurs if
the specied host does not have enough memory or
is in maintenance mode.
N This property applies to vSphere only.
VirtualMachine.Agent.CopyToDisk Set to True (default) to copy the guest agent
executable le 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 workow.
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 Species the number of CPUs, for example 2,
allocated to a machine. The default is the value
specied by the CPU seing on the blueprint.
N This custom property value is overridden by
the CPU value on the blueprint when the machine is
rst provisioned.
Custom Properties Reference
68 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.Customize.WaitComplete Set to True to prevent the provisioning workow
from sending work items to the guest agent until all
customizations are complete.
VirtualMachine.Core.Count If set to a value greater than zero, species the
number of cores per socket when provisioning the
virtual machine.
You can use this property on a blueprint to specify
cores per virtual socket or total number of sockets.
For example, your licensing terms might restrict
software that is licensed per socket or available
operating systems only recognize so many sockets
and additional CPUs must be provisioned as
additional cores.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Letter Species the drive leer or mount point of a
machine’s disk N. The default is C. For example, to
specify the leer D for Disk 1, dene 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 species the drive leer or mount
point under which an additional disk N is mounted
by the guest agent in the guest operating system.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Size Denes the size in GB of disk N. For example, to give
a size of 150 GB to a disk G, dene 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
specied 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.IsFixed Disables the editing of a specic disk when
reconguring a machine. Set to True to disable
display of the edit capacity option for a specic
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/ManagementModelEntit
ies.svc/VirtualMachines(guid'60D93A8A-
F541-4CE0-
A6C6-78973AC0F1D2')/VirtualMachineProperti
es.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 69
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Label Species the label for a machine’s disk N. The disk
label maximum is 32 characters. Disk numbering
must be sequential. When used with a guest agent,
species 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 Species the le system of the machine’s disk N. The
options are NTFS (default), FAT and FAT32.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Percent Species the percentage of the disk N to be formaed
by a guest agent for the machine’s use. That machine
cannot use the remaining portion of the disk.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicy Species the storage reservation policy to use to nd
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 specied 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 if there is insucient space
on the datastores in a storage reservation policy. Use
this custom property to allow vRealize Automation
to select a datastore outside the specied storage
reservation policy in cases where there is not
sucient space remaining on the datastores in the
policy.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.StorageReservationPolicyMode Allocates disk N to the best available storage
reservation policy.
VirtualMachine.DiskN.Storage Species 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.
Custom Properties Reference
70 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.DiskN.VMwareType Species the VMware disk mode of the machine’s
diskN. The following options are available:
npersistent
nindependent_persistent
nindependent_nonpersistent
If you set this custom property to
independent_persistent or
independent_nonpersistent, users must power o
their machine before using vRealize Automation to
take a snapshot.
N This property applies to vSphere only.
For details, see
VirtualDeviceDeviceBackingOption data object
help in VMware vSphere Web Services SDK
Documentation.
VirtualMachine.EPI.Type Species 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 Species the size of the machine's memory in MB,
such as 1024. The default is the value specied by the
memory seing on the blueprint.
N This custom property seing is overridden by
the memory seing on the blueprint when the
machine is rst provisioned.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address Species the IP address of network device N in a
machine provisioned with a static IP address.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 71
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AdditionAddressMDenes additional M IP address allocated for an
Openstack instance for network N, excluding the IP
address set specied by the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Address. property.
More addresses are displayed on the Network tab in
the Additional Addresses column.
This property is used by Openstack machine state
data collection.
While this property is only data-collected by the
OpenStack endpoint, it is not specic to OpenStack
and can be used for lifecycle extensibility by other
endpoint types.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.AddressType Species how IP address allocation is supplied to the
network provider, where NetworkN is the network
number, starting with 0. The following values are
available:
nDHCP
nStatic
nMANUAL (available for vCloud Air and
vCloud Director only)
The MANUAL value also requires that you specify
an IP address.
This property is available for conguring
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-dened (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
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Custom Properties Reference
72 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.MacAddress Species 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 species the MAC address. For
virtual machines provisioned on ESX server hosts,
the address must be in the range specied by
VMware. For details, see vSphere documentation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.Name Species the name of the network to connect to, for
example the network device N to which a machine is
aached. 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 specic network by seing 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
specic 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 specic 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.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.PortID Species the port ID to use for network device N
when using a dvPort group with a vSphere
distributed switch.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 73
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName Species the name of a network prole 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 rst device, 1 for the
second, and so on.
When you use the
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName
property, the network prole it points to is used to
allocate an IP address. However, the provisioned
machine is aached to any network that is selected in
the reservation using a round-robin fashion model.
Changing this property value after the network is
assigned has no eect 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
prole 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 aributes of the network prole are
available to enable static IP assignment in a cloning
blueprint:
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffix
es
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
You cannot use this custom property to dene an on-
demand NAT or on-demand routed network prole
name. Because on-demand network prole 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.
Custom Properties Reference
74 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SubnetMask
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.Gateway
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryDns
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.PrimaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.SecondaryWins
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSuffix
nVirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes
Congures aributes of the network prole specied
in VirtualMachine.NetworkN.ProfileName.
VirtualMachine.NetworkN custom properties are
specic 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 specic
reservation, do not use this property on a
reservation.
When specifying values for multiple DNS search
suxes using
VirtualMachine.NetworkN.DnsSearchSuffixes,
you can use commas to separate values for a
Windows deployment.
VirtualMachine.Rdp.File Species the RDP le that contains seings 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 le 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 Congures specic RDP seings. N is a unique
number used to distinguish one RDP seing from
another. For example, to specify the Authentication
Level so that no authentication requirement is
specied, dene the custom property
VirtualMachine.Rdp.Setting1 and set the value
to authentication level:i:3. Use to open an RDP link
to specify seings.
For a list of available seings and correct syntax, see
the Microsoft Windows RDP documentation.
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu Set to true to specify that the recongure machine
action restarts the specied machine. By default, the
recongure machine action does not restart the
machine.
Performing a hot add of CPU, memory, or storage
causes the recongure machine action to fail and not
to restart the machine unless the Hot Add seing is
enabled in vSphere for the machine or template. You
can add
VirtualMachine.Reconfigure.DisableHotCpu=t
rue to a machine component in a
vRealize Automation blueprint to disable the Hot
Add seing and force the machine to restart
regardless of the vSphere Hot Add seing. The
custom property is only available for machine types
that support hardware reconguration, which are
vSphere, vCloud Air, and vCloud Director.
VirtualMachine.Request.Layout Species the property layout to be used in the virtual
machine request page. The value must match the
name of the layout to be used.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 75
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.Name Species 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 workow or the guest agent but it is
useful for a custom software selection in a user
interface or for software use reporting.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath Species 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 lename.
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 le can then be programmed to accept and use
this value.
You can also pass custom property values as
parameters to the script by inserting
{YourCustomProperty} in the path string. For example,
entering the
value \\vra-
scripts.mycompany.com\scripts\changeIP.bat
runs the changeIP.bat script from a shared
location, but entering the
value \\vra-
scripts.mycompany.com\scripts\changeIP.bat
{VirtualMachine.Network0.Address} runs the
changeIP script but also passes the value of the
VirtualMachine.Network0.Address property to
the script as a parameter.
Insert {Owner} to pass the machine owner name to
the script.
Custom Properties Reference
76 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt Allows vRealize Automation to obtain an encrypted
string that is passed as a properly formaed
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ScriptPath custom
property statement to the gugent command line.
You can provide an encrypted string, such as your
password, as a custom property in a command-line
argument. This allows you to store encrypted
information that the guest agent can decrypt and
understand as a valid command-line argument. For
example, the
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath =
c:\dosomething.bat password custom property
string is not secure as it contains an actual password.
To encrypt the password, you can create a
vRealize Automation custom property, for example
MyPassword = password, and enable encryption by
selecting the available check box. The guest agent
decrypts the [MyPassword] entry to the value in the
custom property MyPassword and runs the script as
c:\dosomething.bat password.
nCreate custom property
MyPassword = password where password is the
value of your actual password. Enable
encryption by selecting the available check box.
nSet custom property
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt as
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt =
true.
nSet custom property
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath as
VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath =
c:\dosomething.bat [MyPassword].
If you set VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt
to false, or do not create the
VirtualMachine.ScriptPath.Decrypt custom
property, then the string inside the square brackets
( [ and ]) is not decrypted.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOName Species the path and lename of the ISO le
relative to the datastore root. The format
is /folder_name/subfolder_name/file_name.is
o. If a value is not specied, the ISO is not mounted.
VirtualMachine.SoftwareN.ISOLocation Species the storage path that contains the ISO
image le 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
specied, the ISO is not mounted.
VirtualMachine.Storage.Name Identies the storage path on which the machine
resides. The default is the value specied 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.Automation.
Behavior custom property.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 77
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.Behavior Species an SDRS behavior type when
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.
Enabled is set to True.
The available behavior type values are automated or
manual.
The
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.
Enabled and
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.
Behavior properties are set after the machine is
provisioned and after inventory data collection is
nished. If automation is disabled,
VirtualMachine.Storage.Cluster.Automation.
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 recongure a virtual machine. vSwap
allocation checking is only available for vSphere
endpoints.
N 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.
VirtualMachine.VDI.Type Species the type of virtual desktop infrastructure.
For XenDesktop provisioning, set to XenDesktop.
VMware.AttributeN.Name Species the name of an aribute in
vRealize Orchestrator. For example, it species the
value of the aribute used in the
VMware.AttributeN.Name property. Replace the
leer N with a number, starting with 0 and
increasing for each aribute to set.
VMware.AttributeN.Value Species the value of the aribute used in the
VMware.AttributeN.Name property. Replace the
leer N with a number, starting with 0 and
increasing for each aribute to set.
VMware.Endpoint.Openstack.IdentityProvider.Version Species the version of Openstack Identity provider
(Keystone) to use when authenticating an Openstack
endpoint. Congure a value of 3 to authenticate with
Keystone version 3 OpenStack Identity Provider. If
you use any other value, or do not use this custom
property, authentication defaults to Keystone version
2.
VMware.Endpoint.Openstack.Release Deprecated. Species the OpenStack release, for
example Havana or Icehouse, when creating an
OpenStack endpoint. Required for 6.2.1, 6.2.2, and
6.2.3 OpenStack provisioning.
VMware.Hardware.Version Species the VM hardware version to be used for
vSphere seings. 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 workows and is available only for basic
workow blueprints.
Custom Properties Reference
78 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VMware.VirtualCenter.OperatingSystem Species 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
predened 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.SCSI.Type For vCloud Air, vCloud Director, or vSphere
machine components in blueprints, species the SCSI
machine type using one of the following case-
sensitive values:
nbuslogic
Use BusLogic emulation for the virtual disk.
nlsilogic
Use LSILogic emulation for the virtual disk
(default).
nlsilogicsas
Use LSILogic SAS 1068 emulation for the virtual
disk.
npvscsi
Use para-virtualization emulation for the virtual
disk.
nnone
Use if a SCSI controller does not exist for this
machine.
The VMware.SCSI.Type property is not available for
use with the CloneWorkow provisioning workow.
If you specify the CloneWorkow provisioning
workow when conguring your machine
component in the blueprint design canvas, you
cannot use the VMware.SCSI.Type property.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 79
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VMware.SCSI.Sharing Species 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 CloneWorkow provisioning
workow when conguring 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 CloneWorkow provisioning
workow. If you specify the CloneWorkow
provisioning workow when conguring your
machine component in the blueprint design canvas,
you cannot use the VMware.SCSI.Sharing property.
VMware.Memory.Reservation Species the size of the machine’s swap le, for
example 1024.
VMware.Network.Type Species the network to connect the VM as specied
in the reservation. The network adapter on the
machine must be connected to a unique network.
The following adapter type values are available:
nFlexible (default )
nVirtualPCNet32 (not compatible with vSphere).
nE1000 or VirtualE1000
nVMXNET or VirtualVMXNET
nVMXNET2
nVMXNET3
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 specied endpoint seing or species
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 Species the name of the inventory folder in the data
center 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 specied folder in vSphere if the folder does not
exist. Folder names are case-sensitive. This property
is available for virtual provisioning.
Custom Properties Reference
80 VMware, Inc.
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VDI.Server.Website Species 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 specied, 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.
N 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=sqa-
xddc-7.sqa.local/Citrix/StoreWeb. See
VDI.Server.Name for more information.
VDI.Server.Name Species 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 specic DDC servers
were installed, this value must exactly match the
server name congured for a dedicated agent.
N For more information about how to make
StoreFront the default page in IIS, see Citrix
documentation. See also VDI.Server.Website.
N 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 are 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, species 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, species the name of the
XenDesktop group to which machines are to be
added. XenDesktop 4 preassigned groups are
supported.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 81
Table 3‑14. Custom Properties V Table (Continued)
Property Description
VDI.ActiveDirectory.Interval Species 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).
VDI.ActiveDirectory.Timeout Species an optional timeout value to wait before
retrying Active Directory registration. The default
value is 00:00:15 (30 minutes).
VDI.ActiveDirectory.Delay Species 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 Species 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 le. Associate each
compute resource with a location.
Set to Exact (default) to provision a requested
machine on a compute resource associated with the
location specied 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 sucient capacity and
associated with the location specied on the
blueprint. If that compute resource is not available,
then use the next available compute resource with
sucient capacity without regard to location.
Vrm.Software.IdNNNN
This row is specic to BMC BladeLogic.
Species 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 rst property
must start with 1000 and increment in numerical
order for each additional property.
1 — AuditJob
2 — BatchJob
3 — ComplianceJob
4 — DeployJob
5 — FileDeployJob
6 — NSHScriptJob
7 — PatchAnalysisJob
8 — SnapshotJob
Vrm.Software.IdNNNN
This row is specic to HP Server Automation.
(Optional) Species an HP Server Automation policy
to be applied to all machines provisioned from the
blueprint. NNNN is a number from 1000 to 1999. The
rst property must start with 1000 and increment in
numerical order for each additional property.
Custom Properties Reference
82 VMware, Inc.
Custom Properties X Table
This section lists vRealize Automation custom properties that begin with the leer X.
Table 3‑15. 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.
Chapter 3 Custom Properties Grouped by Name
VMware, Inc. 83
Custom Properties Reference
84 VMware, Inc.
Using the Property Dictionary 4
You can use the property dictionary to dene new custom property denitions and property groups.
You dene a property to support a specic 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 Denitions,” on page 85
n“Using Property Groups,” on page 103
Using Property Definitions
Many custom properties are supplied with vRealize Automation. You can also dene 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 drop-down
menu with values obtained from a custom vRealize Orchestrator workow.
You can also use properties to control how your custom workows function. For information about using
vRealize Automation Designer to dene and work with custom workows, see Life Cycle Extensibility.
N To avoid naming conicts with supplied vRealize Automation custom properties, use a standard and
meaningful prex for all property names that you create. Use a prex 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 conict with vRealize Automation custom
properties. In that event, the vRealize Automation custom property takes precedence over property
denitions that you create.
The following steps describe the general procedure for creating and using new property denitions:
1 Create a new property denition and associate it with a data type that allows for a specic type of
content, such as boolean or integer content. Use a standard naming convention for the new property
name such as my_grouping_prex.my_property_name.
2 Associate a property denition with a display type, such as a check box or drop-down menu. Available
display types are derived from the selected data type.
3 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.
VMware, Inc. 85
4 As a machine requestor, specify required values as 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 specied for another property.
You can use the vra content list --type property-definition vRealize CloudClient command to list all
property denitions in the current vRealize Automation instance tenant. You can also use the vra content
list --type property-group vRealize CloudClient command to list all property groups. You can add some
or all of the property denitions and property groups to a package and export the package to a zip le. You
can then import the package into another vRealize Automation instance tenant. For more information about
vRealize CloudClient and its uses, see the VMware Developer Center at
hps://developercenter.vmware.com/tool/cloudclient.
Create and Test Custom Property Definitions
You create a custom properties denition that determines how the custom property appears in
vRealize Automation. You can add the custom property to a blueprint so that you can verify that the
property displays the check box, drop-down menu, or other control type as expected.
To create and test the custom property denitions, you need a blueprint that is already entitled to you or to a
test user account to which you have access. This test blueprint allows you to create the custom property, add
it to a blueprint, and then verify that the custom property has the expected appearance. After you validate
the custom property, you can add it to your production blueprints as needed.
Prerequisites
nVerify that you have a blueprint to which you are adding the action. See Conguring vRealize Automation.
nVerity that the blueprint is entitled to you so that you can test the custom properties in the blueprint.
See Conguring vRealize Automation.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
Procedure
1Create Custom Property Denitions on page 87
You create custom property denitions that determine how the custom property appears in
vRealize Automation. You can validate the custom property in a test blueprint before adding it to your
production blueprints.
2Add a Custom Property to a Blueprint on page 95
You can add custom properties to many parts of vRealize Automation, including approval policies,
business groups, endpoints, and reservation policies. However, only the machine blueprints support
the display options that you congure as property denitions. Adding a custom property to a
blueprint as a simple way to verify that the custom property appears in the user interface as you
designed it in the property denition.
3Verify the Custom Property in the Catalog Request Form on page 97
As creator of the custom property denitions that run vRealize Orchestrator actions, you test your
custom properties to ensure that the correct values appear in the request form.
Custom Properties Reference
86 VMware, Inc.
Create Custom Property Definitions
You create custom property denitions that determine how the custom property appears in
vRealize Automation. You can validate the custom property in a test blueprint before adding it to your
production blueprints.
nCreate a Property Denition on page 87
You can create property denitions to allow for additional levels of vRealize Automation
customization. When you create a property denition, you specify a data type for the property, for
example a string or a boolean type.
nCreate a Custom Property That Validates Against a Regular Expression on page 89
You create custom property denition that evaluates a regular expression when you want service
catalog users to provide validated data on the catalog request form.
nCreate a vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition on page 90
You create a custom property denition that includes a vRealize Orchestrator action so that you can
add the custom property to a blueprint. The action runs when the service catalog user is conguring
the custom property in the request form. The action retrieves the data that is displayed in the form.
nBind Custom Properties to Create a Parent-Child Relationship on page 91
To create a parent-child relationship between custom properties, you bind the parent to the child.
When you add the parent and child custom properties to a blueprint, the requesting user selects a
value for the parent property. The selected parent value determines the possible values for the child
property.
Create a Property Definition
You can create property denitions to allow for additional levels of vRealize Automation customization.
When you create a property denition, you specify a data type for the property, for example a string or a
boolean type.
To avoid potential conict with supplied vRealize Automation custom properties, use a naming format of
my_prex.my_property_name1. For example, use a standard and meaningful prex 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 conict with vRealize Automation-supplied custom properties. In
that event, the vRealize Automation custom properties take precedence over properties that you create.
Prerequisites
Log in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
Procedure
1 Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property .
2Click New ( ).
3 Enter the new property denition name in the Name text box.
Use a standard naming convention for the new property name such as
my_grouping_prex.my_property_name.
The Name value is stored internally as the property identier (ID).
Chapter 4 Using the Property Dictionary
VMware, Inc. 87
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 rst, 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.
5 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 seing after you create the item.
6 (Optional) Enter a property description in the Description text box.
Describe the intent of the property denition and any other helpful information about the property.
7 (Optional) Enter a value in the Display order text box.
The number that you enter controls how the property name appears on the request form. The following
ordering rules apply:
nThe display order applies only to properties that are congured with Prompt User or Show in
Request Form seings.
nAll properties with a display order appear before properties with no display order.
nProperties with a display order are sorted from lowest to highest value. Negative numbers are
allowed.
nAll properties are ordered alphabetically, with all display order properties appearing before non-
display order properties.
nIf two properties have the same display order value, they are sorted alphabetically.
8 Select a property denition 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 as options are Checkbox and Yes/No.
Datetime Allows for a value entered in a date and time format.
The Display as option is Date Time Picker.
Decimal Allows for an integer or decimal value.
The Display as options are Dropdown, Slider, and Textbox.
Integer Allows for an integer value.
The Display as options are Dropdown, Slider, and Textbox.
Secure String Allows for secure or encrypted content such as a password.
The Display as option is Textbox.
String Allows for a string value.
The Display as options are Dropdown, Email, Hyperlink,
Textarea, and Textbox.
9 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.
Custom Properties Reference
88 VMware, Inc.
10 If the Minimum value option is available, specify a minimum value.
11 Select a display control type for this property in the Display as drop-down menu. Available options are
derived from your Data type selection.
Table 4‑2. Property Definition Display as Options
Display as Option Description
CheckBox Provides a single check box control.
Date Time Picker Provides a date and time control that adheres to a YYYY-
MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY format and a time in HH:MM
format, 24-hour clock or followed by AM or PM.
Dropdown Provides a drop-down menu control.
Email 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 Species a Yes or No value.
12 Click the Static list option in the Values area.
Click New in the Static list area and add a property name and value.
13 (Optional) Optionally select the Enable custom value entry check box to allow the user to specify
custom values in addition to pre-dened values.
14 Click OK.
The property is created and available on the Property Denitions page.
Create a Custom Property That Validates Against a Regular Expression
You create custom property denition that evaluates a regular expression when you want service catalog
users to provide validated data on the catalog request form.
For example, to add an alphanumeric text box where the requesting user provides an application or function
name that is limited to ve to ten characters with no special characters. For this scenario, you use a regular
expression custom property congured to something similar to ^[a-zA-Z0-9]{5,10}$.
Prerequisites
nEnsure that you have a regular expression that validates the provided values as expected.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
Procedure
1 Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property .
2Click the New icon ( ).
Chapter 4 Using the Property Dictionary
VMware, Inc. 89
3 Enter the options.
Option Description
Name Enter a value using a standard naming convention for the new property
name such as my_grouping_prefix.my_property_name.
Label The label is populated based on the name. You can change the label to
provide a more readable name.
Visibility The action custom properties are only available in the current tenant. To
make them available in another tenant, you must congure them when
you are logged in to that tenant.
Description Describe the intent of the property denition and any other helpful
information about the property.
Display order The number that you enter controls how the property name appears on the
request form. The following ordering rules apply:
nThe display order applies only to properties that are congured with
Prompt User or Show in Request Form seings.
nAll properties with a display order appear before properties with no
order index.
nProperties with a display order are sorted from lowest to highest order
index value. You can use negative numbers.
nAll properties are ordered alphabetically, with all display ordered
properties appearing before non-display ordered properties.
nIf two properties have the same display order value, then they are
sorted alphabetically.
Data type Select String in the drop-down menu.
Required Select No in the drop-down menu.
Display as Select Textbox in the drop-down menu.
Valid user input Enter the regular expression.
4 Enter a value in the testing text box to verify that the expression works.
5 Click OK.
The custom property denition is added to the list and it is available to add to a blueprint.
What to do next
Add the custom property to a machine blueprint. See “Add a Custom Property or Property Group as a
Blueprint Machine Property,” on page 95.
Create a vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Definition
You create a custom property denition that includes a vRealize Orchestrator action so that you can add the
custom property to a blueprint. The action runs when the service catalog user is conguring the custom
property in the request form. The action retrieves the data that is displayed in the form.
Prerequisites
nReview the conguration details for the custom property you are creating. See “Conguration Details
for the vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denitions,” on page 98.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
Procedure
1 Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property .
2Click the New icon ( ).
Custom Properties Reference
90 VMware, Inc.
3 Enter the options.
Option Description
Name Consult the conguration details. Some of the custom properties require
specic names or formats. Where you can, use a standard naming
convention for the new property name such as
my_grouping_prefix.my_property_name.
Label The label is populated based on the name. You can change the label to
provide a more readable name.
Visibility The action custom properties are only available in the current tenant. To
make them available in another tenant, you must congure them when
you are logged in to that tenant.
Description Describe the intent of the property denition and any other helpful
information about the property.
Display order The number that you enter controls where the property name appears on
the request form. The following ordering rules apply:
nThe display order applies only to properties that are congured with
Prompt User or Show in Request Form seings.
nAll properties with a display order appear before properties with no
order index.
nProperties with a display order are sorted from lowest to highest
value. You can use negative numbers.
nAll properties are ordered alphabetically, with all display order
properties appearing before non-display order properties.
nIf two properties have the same display order value, they are sorted
alphabetically.
4 Consult the conguration details to determine what you must provide for the values.
The following values are provided in the conguration details:
nData type
nDisplay as
nValues
nAction folder
nScript action
nInput parameters
5 Click OK.
The custom property denition is added to the list and it is available to add to a blueprint.
What to do next
Add the custom property to a blueprint. Whether you add it as a machine or as a network property depends
on the property. See “Add a Custom Property to a Blueprint,” on page 95.
Bind Custom Properties to Create a Parent-Child Relationship
To create a parent-child relationship between custom properties, you bind the parent to the child. When you
add the parent and child custom properties to a blueprint, the requesting user selects a value for the parent
property. The selected parent value determines the possible values for the child property.
nThe parent custom property denition can be a static list or an external value that is determined by an
vRealize Orchestrator action. It provides possible input parameters to a child property denition.
nThe child custom property denition must call a vRealize Orchestrator action. In the child custom
property, you bind the parent custom property so that it provides an input parameter value.
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For example, your development team works on production and non-production systems. You also have ve
data centers. Three of the data centers are your development testing data centers and the other two are
where you provide services to your internal clients. To ensure that developers can deploy the same blueprint
to either environment, the testing or the internal clients data centers, you create and bind two custom
property denition. Using the rst custom property, the requesting user can select either the production or
non-production environment. Based the environment that the user selects in the request form, the second
custom property displays one the following values:
nThe list of three testing data centers for the non-production environments.
nThe two internal clients data centers as production environments.
The goal of this procedure is to create two custom properties that you bind in parent-child relationship.
With the binding, you can select the appropriate location based on the selected production state.
Prerequisites
nFor this example, create a vRealize Orchestrator action that provides data center names as location
information. Name the action datacenters_prod, add an input parameter named prod as a string type,
and use this sample script for the action script.
if(prod == null) {
return ['Empty1', 'Empty2'];
} else if (prod.equals('nonprod')) {
return ['WestDC for development testing', 'EastDC for QA automation testing', 'CentralDC
for scale testing'];
} else {
return ['NorthDC for AMEA clients', 'SouthDC for Asia Pacific clients'];
}
For information about developing workows, and about creating and using vRealize Orchestrator
script actions, see Developing with VMware vCenter Orchestrator .
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
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Procedure
1 Create a custom property denition so that users can select production or non-production environment.
a Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property .
bCongure the custom property options.
Option Example Values
Name production.ready
Label Environment
Description Select the production or non-production environment.
Display order 1
You select 1 to ensure that this custom property appears rst in the
blueprint.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values Static list
Static list values Add the following key-pair pairs.
nProduction and prod
nNon-Production and nonprod
c Click OK.
The production.ready custom property is congured and added ready to use.
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2 Create a vRealize Orchestrator action custom property denition that runs your custom location action.
a Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property .
bCongure the custom property options.
Option Example Values
Name datacenter
Label Target data center
Description Select the datacenter base on whether you are deploying a
production or non-production blueprint.
Display order 2
You select 2 to ensure that this custom property appears after the
production.ready custom property in the blueprint.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values External values
Script action Click Select and locate your datacenters_prod action.
The input parameters table includes a prod parameter.
c In the Input parameters table, select the prod row and click Edit.
d Select the Bind check box.
e Select production.ready in the drop-down menu.
f Click OK.
g Click OK.
The data center custom property is congured and ready to use.
What to do next
nBecause of the relationship between the two property denitions, add the two property denitions to a
property group. See “Create a Property Group,” on page 104.
nAdd your production-datacenter property group to a blueprint. See “Add a Custom Property or
Property Group as a Blueprint Machine Property,” on page 95.
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94 VMware, Inc.
Add a Custom Property to a Blueprint
You can add custom properties to many parts of vRealize Automation, including approval policies, business
groups, endpoints, and reservation policies. However, only the machine blueprints support the display
options that you congure as property denitions. Adding a custom property to a blueprint as a simple way
to verify that the custom property appears in the user interface as you designed it in the property denition.
Some custom properties are associated with the virtual machine blueprint on the Properties tab and some
are on the Network tab.
nAdd a Custom Property or Property Group as a Blueprint Machine Property on page 95
You add a custom property as a machine custom property so that service catalog users can select of
congure the values when they request the item. You can add individual properties or property
groups.
nAdd a Custom Property as a Network Custom Property on page 96
Add a custom property as a network custom property so that service catalog users can select the
necessary network prole value when they request the item.
Add a Custom Property or Property Group as a Blueprint Machine Property
You add a custom property as a machine custom property so that service catalog users can select of
congure the values when they request the item. You can add individual properties or property groups.
In this workow, you add the custom properties to validate that they are working as expected in blueprints.
You can also add custom properties to business groups, approval policies, and other components.
Prerequisites
nVerify that you created the required property denition. See “Create Custom Property Denitions,” on
page 87.
nIf you are adding a property group, verify that you added the relevant property denitions to a
property group. See “Create a Property Group,” on page 104. To test the visual functions of the
property denitions, you must select Show in request when you add the property to the group.
nIf you are adding a vRealize Orchestrator action as a custom property, review the conguration details
to ensure that you addrf the custom property in the correct location. See “Conguration Details for the
vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denitions,” on page 98.
nVerify that you created the blueprint to which you are adding the custom property. See Conguring
vRealize Automation.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as an infrastructure architect.
Procedure
1 Select Design > Blueprints.
2 Select the blueprint to which you are adding the custom property and click Edit.
3 Click the target machine component.
The conguration options for the virtual machine appear on the canvas.
4 Click the Properties tab, and then click the Custom Properties tab or the Property Groups tab.
nTo add a custom property, click New and select the property denition in the drop-down menu.
Option Description
Name Name of the selected custom property denition.
Value (Optional) Enter a default value.
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Option Description
Encrypted When adding custom properties that run vRealize Orchestrator actions, do not encrypt the
value.
Overridable Select this option to ensure that the requesting user can select a value on the request form.
Show in request Select this option to ensure that the requesting user can see the property and select a value
on the request form.
nTo add a property group, click Add and select the group.
5 Click OK.
The custom property is added to the blueprint.
6 Click Finish.
7 Publish the blueprint.
The blueprint includes the custom property.
What to do next
Test the custom property in the request form. See “Verify the Custom Property in the Catalog Request
Form,” on page 97
Add a Custom Property as a Network Custom Property
Add a custom property as a network custom property so that service catalog users can select the necessary
network prole value when they request the item.
Prerequisites
nVerify that you have the required custom property denition. See “Create a vRealize Orchestrator
Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
nIf you are adding a vRealize Orchestrator action as a custom property, review the conguration details
to ensure that you added the custom property in the correct location. See “Conguration Details for the
vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denitions,” on page 98.
nVerify that you created the blueprint to which you are adding the custom property. See Conguring
vRealize Automation.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation console as an infrastructure architect.
Procedure
1 Select Design > Blueprints.
2 Select the blueprint to which you are adding the network custom property and click Edit.
3 Click the target virtual machine component.
The conguration options for the virtual machine appear on the canvas.
4 Click the Network tab.
5 Click New.
6 Select the network prole in the Network drop-down menu and click OK.
7 In the new row, click Edit Custom Properties.
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8 Select the network custom property and congure the options.
Option Description
Name You cannot change the property name.
Value (Optional) Enter a default value.
Encrypted When adding custom properties that run vRealize Orchestrator actions, do
not encrypt the value.
Overridable Select this option to ensure that the requesting user can select a value on
the request form.
Show in request Select this option to ensure that the requesting user can see the property
and select a value on the request form.
9 Click OK.
The network custom property is added to the blueprint.
10 Click Finish.
11 Publish the blueprint.
The blueprint includes the custom property.
What to do next
Test the custom property in the request form. See “Verify the Custom Property in the Catalog Request
Form,” on page 97
Verify the Custom Property in the Catalog Request Form
As creator of the custom property denitions that run vRealize Orchestrator actions, you test your custom
properties to ensure that the correct values appear in the request form.
Prerequisites
nAdd the custom property to the appropriate location in the blueprint. See “Add a Custom Property to a
Blueprint,” on page 95.
nVerity that the blueprint is entitled to you so that you can test the custom properties in the blueprint.
See Conguring vRealize Automation.
nLog in to the vRealize Automation as a user with access to the test blueprint.
Procedure
1 Select Catalog.
2 Select the test blueprint and click Request.
3 On the request form, click the machine to which you added the custom property.
4 Locate the custom property and click the drop-down arrow.
The vRealize Orchestrator action runs and retrieves the values it is congured to display. Verify that the
expected values appear.
What to do next
Add the custom property to your production blueprints where needed.
Chapter 4 Using the Property Dictionary
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Configuration Details for the vRealize Orchestrator Action Custom Property
Definitions
You create custom property denitions that run vRealize Orchestrator actions to retrieve key value pairs
from external les or from vRealize Automation conguration information. You add the custom properties
to blueprints so that they appear in the catalog request forms.
The service catalog user requesting the item can select a value to include in the deployment. When the user
clicks the drop-down menu to select a value, the vRealize Orchestrator action runs, retrieving the data that
is displayed in the menu for the user to select.
The conguration workows for each vRealize Orchestrator actions property denition are similar, but
some of the details vary. For example, there are dierences in prerequisites and limitations, and where you
apply the custom property in the blueprint might vary.
nNetwork Custom Property Denition on page 98
You add a custom property to retrieve network names from the vRealize Automation database when
you want users to select the network in the request form. The network selector custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to retrieve the values.
nReservation Policy Custom Property Denition on page 99
You add a custom property denition to retrieve reservation policy names that are applicable to the
requesting users when they select the policy in the request form. The reservation policy selector
custom property denition uses a vRealize Orchestrator action to retrieve the values.
nPowerShell Script Custom Property Denition on page 100
You add a custom property to run a PowerShell script when you want to use a script to retrieve data to
populate the custom property in the request form. The PowerShell script custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to run the script and retrieve the values.
nDatabase Query Custom Property Denition on page 101
You add a custom property to query a database when you want to retrieve values from that database
to populate the custom property on the request form. The database custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to run the query and retrieve the values.
nCustom Action Custom Property Denition on page 102
You add a custom property to retrieve data from a source using a custom vRealize Orchestrator action
when you want users to select the retrieved values in the request form.
Network Custom Property Definition
You add a custom property to retrieve network names from the vRealize Automation database when you
want users to select the network in the request form. The network selector custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to retrieve the values.
Limitations
Plan for the following limitations when you use the network selector custom property.
nThe name of the custom property must be VirtualMachine.network0.Name. This name is required. You
cannot create multiple property denitions for the network selector.
nThe action retrieves all the network names for the requesting user without validating that it applies to
the target vCenter Server instance. A service catalog user might select a network that is not applicable to
the selected target. If the wrong network is selected, the catalog request fails.
nThe action retrieves network names for the requesting user only. If you submit a request on behalf of
other users, the networks are for you. For example, Network A and Network C are associated with
Business Group 1, so the BG 1 users see only Network A and C, not B.
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98 VMware, Inc.
Prerequisites
None.
Custom Property Configuration Values
You use these options to create the custom property. For the general steps, see “Create a vRealize
Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
Table 4‑3. Network Custom Property Configuration Values
Option Value
Name You must use VirtualMachine.network0.Name.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values External
Action folder com.vmware.vra.reservations
Script action getApplicableNetworks
This script action is an example script. You can create
specic actions for your environment.
Input parameters No required parameters.
Blueprint Configuration
Add the custom property on the blueprint Network tab. See “Add a Custom Property as a Network Custom
Property,” on page 96.
Reservation Policy Custom Property Definition
You add a custom property denition to retrieve reservation policy names that are applicable to the
requesting users when they select the policy in the request form. The reservation policy selector custom
property denition uses a vRealize Orchestrator action to retrieve the values.
Limitations
Plan for the following limitations when you use the reservation policy selector custom property.
nThe name of the custom property must be ReservationPolicyID. This name is required. You cannot
create multiple property denitions for the reservation policy selector.
nThe action retrieves all reservation policies applicable to the requesting user without validating that it
applies to the target endpoint, for example a vCenter Server instance or some other platform. A service
catalog user might select a reservation that is not applicable to the selected blueprint target system. If
the user selects the wrong reservation, the catalog request fails.
nThe action retrieves reservation policies for the requesting user only. If you submit a request on behalf
of another user, the reservation policies are for you. For example, Reservation 1 and Reservation 3 are
associated with Business Group 1, so the BG 1 users see only Reservations 1 and 3, not 2.
Prerequisites
None.
Custom Property Configuration Values
You use these options to create the custom property. For the general steps, see “Create a vRealize
Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
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Table 4‑4. Reservation Policy Custom Property Configuration Values
Option Value
Name You must use ReservationPolicyID.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values External
Action folder com.vmware.vra.reservations
Script action getApplicableReservationPolicies
This script action is an example script. You can create
specic actions for your environment.
Input parameters No required parameters.
Blueprint Configuration
To add the custom property to the blueprint Properties tab, see “Add a Custom Property or Property Group
as a Blueprint Machine Property,” on page 95.
PowerShell Script Custom Property Definition
You add a custom property to run a PowerShell script when you want to use a script to retrieve data to
populate the custom property in the request form. The PowerShell script custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to run the script and retrieve the values.
For example, as the cloud administrator you have a PowerShell script that retrieves user IDs from the Active
Directory that is registered with vRealize Automation. The intent of the script is to retrieve and display John
Smith when the actual value in Active Directory is JSmith01.
An advantage to using the PowerShell script action includes a central location for the script. You can either
store the script on a central server and then run it on target virtual machines, or you can store it in
vRealize Orchestrator and then run it on the target machines. A central location decreases maintenance time.
Storing the scripts in vRealize Orchestrator when you have backup and restore congured ensures that you
can restore the scripts if a system failure occurs.
Limitations
None.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have a working PowerShell script that returns key pair values. The script must be available
on an accessible server or that the script is uploaded into vRealize Orchestrator.
Custom Property Configuration Values
You use these options to create the custom property. For the general steps, see “Create a vRealize
Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
Table 4‑5. PowerShell Script Custom Property Configuration Values
Option Value
Name You can use any string.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values External
Action folder com.vmware.vra.powershell
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Table 4‑5. PowerShell Script Custom Property Configuration Values (Continued)
Option Value
Script action Select an action based on where the PowerShell script is
located.
nIf the PowerShell script is on a central server, use
executeExternalPowerShellScriptOnHostByName.
nIf the PowerShell script is uploaded into
vRealize Orchestrator, use
executePowershellScriptFromResourceOnHostByName
.
These script actions are example scripts. You can create
specic actions for your environment.
Input parameters Congure the input parameters based on the selected
action.
Dene parameters
nIf you use
executeExternalPowerShellScriptOnHostByName:
nhostName. Name of the central server where the
script is located.
nexternalPowershellScript. Path to the PowerShell
le on the host.
nArguments. Parameters to pass to the script. You
separate the arguments with commas. For
example, Argument1,Arguement2.
nIf you use
executePowershellScriptFromResourceOnHostByName
:
nvRealize Orchestrator. Name of the
vRealize Orchestrator instance you are using as the
host.
nscriptResourcePath. Path to the PowerShell le on
the host.
nscriptResourceName. Path to the PowerShell le as
an uploaded resource in vRealize Orchestrator. For
example,
Blueprint Configuration
To add the custom property to the blueprint Properties tab, see “Add a Custom Property or Property Group
as a Blueprint Machine Property,” on page 95.
Database Query Custom Property Definition
You add a custom property to query a database when you want to retrieve values from that database to
populate the custom property on the request form. The database custom property uses a
vRealize Orchestrator action to run the query and retrieve the values.
The action is supported for the following databases:
nMicrosoft SQL Server
nMySQL
nOracle
nPostgreSQL
Limitations
All retrieved values are converted to strings.
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Prerequisites
Verify that the vRealize Orchestrator SQL Plug-In is installed and congured to connect to the target
database.
Custom Property Configuration Values
You use these options to create the custom property. For the general steps, see “Create a vRealize
Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
Table 4‑6. Database Query Custom Property Configuration Values
Option Value
Name You can use any string.
Data type String
Display as Dropdown
Values External
Action folder com.vmware.vra.sql
Script action executeSQLSelectOnDatabase
This script action is an example script. You can create
specic actions for your environment.
Input parameters ndatabaseName. Name of the database to which
vRealize Orchestrator is connected.
nsqlSelectQuery. The SQL select query that you are
running on the database to retrieve the values. For
example, select * <table name>.
nkeyColumnName. Name of the database column that
is the key for the key pair value.
nvalueColumnName. Name of the database column
from which you are retrieving values.
Blueprint Configuration
To add the custom property to the blueprint Properties tab, see “Add a Custom Property or Property Group
as a Blueprint Machine Property,” on page 95.
Custom Action Custom Property Definition
You add a custom property to retrieve data from a source using a custom vRealize Orchestrator action when
you want users to select the retrieved values in the request form.
Limitations
Limitations depend on your custom action.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have a working vRealize Orchestrator action. For information about developing workows
and creating and using vRealize Orchestrator script actions, see Developing with VMware vCenter
Orchestrator .
The action script must accept the input parameter values. You can congure the values as key value pairs.
You can present user-readable names for less friendly identiers using key value pairs.
Custom Property Configuration Values
You use these options to create the custom property. For the general steps, see “Create a vRealize
Orchestrator Action Custom Property Denition,” on page 90.
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Table 4‑7. Custom Action Custom Property Configuration Values
Option Value
Name You can use any string.
Data type Decimal, Integer, or String
Display as Dropdown
Values External
Action folder Location of your custom action.
Script action Name of your custom action.
Input parameters Depends on your custom action.
Blueprint Configuration
Usually you add the custom property on the blueprint Properties tab. Whether you add it to the Properties
tab depends on your action. See “Add a Custom Property to a Blueprint,” on page 95.
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 denitions that you
create or custom properties that are supplied. Property groups 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 eciently 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 WIM-
based provisioning:
nImage.ISO.Location
nImage.ISO.Name
nImage.Network.Password
nImage.Network.User
nImage.WIM.Index
nImage.WIM.Name
nImage.WIM.Path
You can also create a property group for vCloud Air or vCloud Director machine provisioning that contains
the following properties:
nVirtualMachine.Network0.Name
nVCloud.Template.MakeIdenticalCopy
nVMware.SCSI.Type
nSysprep.Identification.DomainAdmin
nSysprep.Identification.DomainAdminPassword
nSysprep.Identification.JoinDomain
Chapter 4 Using the Property Dictionary
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You can use the vra content list --type property-definition vRealize CloudClient command to list all
property denitions in the current vRealize Automation instance tenant. You can also use the vra content
list --type property-group vRealize CloudClient command to list all property groups. You can add some
or all of the property denitions and property groups to a package and export the package to a zip le. You
can then import the package into another vRealize Automation instance tenant. For more information about
vRealize CloudClient and its uses, see the VMware Developer Center at
hps://developercenter.vmware.com/tool/cloudclient.
Create a Property Group
You can organize specic custom properties into property groups to more easily add multiple custom
properties to blueprints.
Prerequisites
Log in to the vRealize Automation console as a tenant administrator or fabric administrator.
Procedure
1 Select Administration > Property Dictionary > Property Groups.
2Click New ( ).
3 Enter the new property group name and ID.
If you enter the Name value rst, the ID text box is populated with the same value.
4 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 seing after you create the item.
5 (Optional) Enter a description of the property group, for example My_CloningProperties_vSphere.
6 Add a property to the group by using the Properties box.
aClick New ( ).
b Enter a property name.
For example, enter VirtualMachine.Storage.ReserveMemory.
c (Optional) Enter a property value.
For example, enter True.
d (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.
e (Optional) Select the Show in Request check box to display the property on the request form when
requesting machine provisioning.
f Click OK to add the property to the group.
7 Add additional properties to the group.
8 Click Save.
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Index
A
add, property definition 86, 87
Amazon, available custom properties 51
B
binding
properties 91
property definitions 91
blueprint
add custom property 95, 96
add network custom property 96
test custom property 95, 96
blueprints, custom properties 15, 44
C
custom 10
custom properties, a properties 51
custom properties
binding 91
blueprints 15
creating property groups 104
custom property types 12
debugging provisioning problems 16
defining new properties 85
for FlexClone blueprints 24
for basic workflow blueprints 26
for clone blueprints 18, 42
for linked clone blueprints 21
Linux Kickstart provisioning 27
listed by function 13
listed by name 49
machine provisioning 10
networking 35
o properties 57
Openstack endpoints 17
order of precedence 10
PXE provisioning 40
reasons for using 9
regular expression 89
related guides 5
required for integrating HP Server
Automation 46
required and optional 44
SCCM provisioning 28
specifying properties 9
updated property information 7
using the property dictionary 85
vCloud Air and vCloud Director blueprints 32
WIM provisioning 30
custom properties, b properties 51
custom properties, c properties 52
custom properties, e properties 52
custom properties, h properties 54
custom properties, i properties 55
custom properties, l properties 56
custom properties, m properties 57
custom properties, p properties 58
custom properties, r properties 59
custom properties, s properties 59
custom properties, underscore (_) properties 50
custom properties, v properties 63
custom properties, x properties 83
custom property
database query 101
network 98
PowerShell script 100
property definition 86
reservation policy 99
test in request form 97
test in blueprint 95, 96
custom vRealize Orchestrator action, property
definition 102
D
database query, property definition 101
deployment, rolling back a failed provisioning
process 16
H
HP Server Automation, required custom
properties 46
L
Linux Kickstart provisioning, custom
properties 27
M
machine provisioning, custom properties 10
N
network, property definition 98
VMware, Inc. 105
O
Openstack, custom properties for endpoints 17
P
PowerShell script, property definition 100
properties
encrypted 104
overrideable 104
show in request 104
property definition
add 86, 87
binding 91
custom vRealize Orchestrator action 102
database query 101
network 98
PowerShell script 100
regular expression 89
reservation policy 99
vRealize Orchestrator action 90
property definitions, test in blueprint 95, 96
property dictionary, creating a property
definition 87
property groups
creating 104
using custom property groups 103
PXE provisioning, custom properties 40
R
regular expression, property definition 89
request form, test custom property 97
reservation policy, property definition 99
S
SCCM provisioning, custom properties 28
V
vCloud Air blueprints, adding custom
properties 32
vCloud Director blueprints, adding custom
properties 32
VirtualMachine.Network, specifying a network
device 35
vRealize Orchestrator action
custom action property definition 102
database query property definition 101
network property definition 98
PowerShell script property definition 100
property definition 90
reservation policy property definition 99
W
WIM provisioning, custom properties 30
Custom Properties Reference
106 VMware, Inc.

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