Automating Tintri with vRO Part 2: Create REST Session

In this post I’m going to walk you through utilizing the vRO workflow I’ve developed for creating a Tintri session over REST. This is the first workflow in the series, and without it, none of the subsequent workflows can be utilized.

Why do I need this workflow?

In order to complete REST requests against the Tintri API, an authenticated session is required. This workflow authenticates with the Tintri REST API, and returns the JSESSION ID. This JSESSIONID variable is then utilized for each of the REST requests in the next set of operations.

Pre Requisites:

1. Tintri VM Store Configured and accessible via REST
2. vRealize Orchestrator installed and configured
3. Download the vRO workflow package from Flowgrab

Step 1: Add your Tintri REST Host

First of all make sure you have the vRealize Orchestrator REST plugin installed. The REST plugin should have been configured automatically when you installed vRealize Orchestrator.

Run the “Add a REST host” workflow to add your Tintri VMstore. If like most users, you have more than one Tintri appliance, go ahead and repeat this process to add all of them.

addresthost

addresthost2

Choose “No” for Use Proxy

addresthost3

Choose “None” for Host’s authentication type

addresthost4

 

If everything is successful, you should see your Tintri Host listed in your inventory list.

addresthost5

Step 2: Import the Tintri vRO workflow package

Import the workflow package you from Flowgrab.

You will find the following objects now available to you in vRO:

Workflow:

The FG-Tintri-CreateSession workflow uses the action and configuration elements discussed below.

import1

Action:

Right now, you will only see the tintriGetSession action item highlighted below. This is the action item which returns the JSESSIONID.

import2

Configuration Element:

import3

The configuration element was created to store the Tintri UserName as opposed to storing it directly in the vRO workflow as a general attribute.

Edit the Tintri-ConfigurationElement

import4

Select the attributes tab, and input your password for the admin account.

Step 3: Run the workflow and verify we can create a session!

Now for the fun part! Run the FG-Tintri-CreateSession workflow.

workflowrun1

Select your REST Host and click submit.

Check the logs and verify you got a status code of 200 which verifies the session was successfully created, along with the JSESSIONID.

Congratulations, you were able to successfully authenticate with your Tintri VM Store using the REST API.

What next…

Part 3: vRO Workflow: Get a Tintri UUID from vCenter VM Object – scheduled for 05/20 – stay with me!

This next workflow allows us to select a Virtual Machine from vRealize Orchestrator, and returns the UUID from Tintri.

Part 2b: Tintri-CreateSession vRO Workflow Code – Go here if you want to see the code and how this was all created – scheduled for 05/21 – stay with me!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *