Mastering CloudForms Automation

Chapter 3. Writing and Running Our Own Automation Scripts

Let’s jump right in and start writing our first automation script. In time-honored fashion we’ll write “Hello, World!” to the Automate Engine logfile.

Before we do anything, we need to ensure that the Automation Engine server role is selected on our CloudForms appliance. We do this from the Configure → Configuration menu, selecting the CloudForms server in the Settings accordion (see Figure 3-1).

Tip

The Automation Engine server role is now enabled by default in CloudForms 4.0, but it’s still worthwhile to check that this role is set on our CloudForms appliance.

Figure 3-1. Setting the Automation Engine server role

The Automation Engine Role

Setting the Automation Engine role is necessary to be able to run queued Automate tasks (this includes anything that starts off as an automation request, which we’ll cover in Chapter 12). Automate actions initiated directly from the WebUI—such as running instances from Simulation, or processing methods to populate dynamic dialogs—are run on the WebUI appliance itself, regardless of whether it has the Automation Engine role enabled.

Our first Automate examples in the book will be run from Simulation, so we don’t need the Automation Engine role to be set for these to work. When we move on to more advanced ways of running our scripts, however, we will need the role enabled, so by checking ...