IMAPEX - UCS Director

Cisco UCS Director abstracts hardware and software into programmable tasks that are assembled together to provision infrastructure across computing, networking, and storage resources that reside on multiple hyper-visors.

UCS Director Workflows

Importing

Workflows are stored in the system database and are maintained outside of the product by importing and exporting them. Although they are packed in a binary format this makes them easily portable and shared on communities.

version management

Workflows may be managed by an internal versioning system stored in the database. This allows you

Rollback

One of the most powerful components of UCS Director is its ability to maintain and manage the elements it automates. Users take action on those elements by executing service requests which in turn calls workflows. UCS Director inherently supports the ability to rollback a workflow and it is best practice to always include this.

UCS Director Custom Tasks

A task is a single action or operation with inputs and outputs. Use these to create repeatable atomic units of work. Anytime you find yourself writing cloudpia script consider if it would be better placed in a custom task.
Refer to the Custom Task Getting started guide.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/ucs-director/custom-task-getting-started-guide/5-5/b_UCSDirector_Custom_Task_Getting_Started_Guide_55.html

Example Custom Task and report integration

importPackage(java.lang);
importPackage(java.util);
importPackage(com.cloupia.lib.util.managedreports);
 
function getReport(reportContext, reportName)
{
     var report = null;
      try  {
             report = ctxt.getAPI().getConfigTableReport(reportContext, reportName);
      } catch(e) {
      }
 
      if (report == null)
      {
             return ctxt.getAPI().getTabularReport(reportName, reportContext);
      } else
     {
           var source = report.getSourceReport();
           return ctxt.getAPI().getTabularReport(source, reportContext);
     }
}
 
function getReportView(reportContext, reportName)
{
      var report = getReport(reportContext, reportName);
 
     if (report == null)
     {
           logger.addError("No such report exists for the specified context "+reportName);
 
           return null;
     }
 
     return new TableView(report);
}
 
// following are only sample values and need to be modified based on actual UCSM account name
var ucsmAccountName = "ucs-account-1";

// repot name is obtained from Repot Meta data 
var reportName = "TABULAR_REPORT_VMS_PAGINATED_CONFIG_REPORT";
 
var repContext = util.createContext("global", null, null);

var report = getReportView(repContext, reportName);
 
// Get only the rows for which our user is part of
report = report.filterRowsByColumn("Assigned To User", input.UserID, false);

var matchingIds = [];
var count = 0;
 
logger.addInfo("report has this many rows: "+report.rowCount());

for (var i=0; i<report.rowCount(); i++)
{
     logger.addInfo("User "+report.getColumnValue(i,"Assigned To User")+" is assigned to VM "+report.getColumnValue(i,"VM Name"));
	count++;
}

output.VMsAssigned =  count

Developer Integration

####Administration --> Downloads

Rest API SDK

UCS Director REST API SDK Bundle is part of the UCS Director REST API. In addition to documentation, such as Cookbook, the SDK Bundle provides examples that you can use with the REST API. These examples include test cases and sample code that demonstrates the use of the SDK classes.

PowerShell Console

UCS Director PowerShell Console provides cmdlet wrappers for the JSON-based APIs. Each cmdlet performs a single operation. The cmdlets are executed in a Microsoft Windows server. Depending on the data returned by the JSON-based APIs, the cmdlets automatically interpret the data and convert it into Windows PowerShell objects. You can chain multiple cmdlets together. After installed to view a list of available cmdlets, execute 'Get-Command'.

Open Automation SDK

The platform architecture consists of two components: the Cisco UCS Director Platform Runtime and the set of modules that get executed on the platform. The platform provides the required APIs and management functionality so that the modules can perform their intended functions. The modules provide the necessary intelligence and features. The platform provides a loosely-coupled plug-in architecture where modules can be developed, deployed and executed against the platform. Using tools such as UCS Director Open Automation and the SDK, you can develop and deploy a module that can be executed on the Cisco UCS Director platform runtime.

Custom Tasks Scripts Samples

A long list of example Custom Tasks as well as supporting documentation.

The Developer Experience

Because UCS Director is a coding platform itself it is important to understand the differences between what the platform does internally and how you as a develop can interface with it.

The base code of UCS Director runs on java and is extended through Cloupia libraries. The main interface the user is going to have inside the system is through javascript. All custom tasks are supported through javascript only. To break outside this the user can utilize java inherently inside javascript but you will still have to abide by the rules of the javascript server.

Javascript can't do everything and sometimes accomplishing tasks inside of UCS Director needs to be done with a different approach. If a windows based task is needed consider using the Powershell agent as this is a swiss army knife plugin that allows the user to interface and accomplish anything that can be scripted against windows or other vendors that provide powershell functions.

If the need is to interface with Linux based systems we can ssh into a Linux server and write custom scripts there.

Logging

Administration --> Support Information

Show log - Views the logs of the different system components in the browser. When developing against UCS Director check here first for API calls in and out of the system.
Debug Logging - Turns on and off debug logging. If you can't find the data you need in show log try turning on debug logging. This feature automatically runs for 30 minutes or when the user stops the debug log (whichever comes first).
API Logging - Similar to the deubg logging this turns on and off API logging for UCS Director.

REST API

####Admin (upper right) --> Advanced REST calls require an access key.

Also check the box "Enable Developer Menu" to get example REST calls for reports inside of UCS Director.

Call a UCSD workflow from Python - https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-56724

Example REST API Call

Request URL
http://<UCSD_IP>/app/api/rest?formatType=json
&opName=userAPISubmitWorkflowServiceRequest
&opData={
param0:"Change_VM_Size",
param1:{ "list":[
{ "name":"VM_Identity",
"value":"45" },
{ "name":"Update_CPU",
"value":"2" },
{ "name":"Update_RAM",
"value":"2048" }
] },
param2:-1}

REST API Browser

In parallel with the first “Workflows” tab, you would see “REST API Browser.”

On the left side of the pane are the folders for tasks. You can navigate the structure and double click any one of the tasks for a dialog box with three tabs on the top: API Examples, Details, Sample Java Code.

With the API Example tab, you can find the URL, HTTP method. You can also select context for the API call and generate a sample XML request, which can be executed by the “Execute REST API” button below. Upon execution, you would see the XML response at the bottom. The Details tab list API details for the selected task. But the last tab “Sample Java Code” provides you the generate Java code for running the task. That is definitely very helpful to get started with Java programming on the UCS Director REST APIs. I’ll cover that in a later article.

Communities

Rely on communities to jump start development as well as provide reusable code. The Cisco field maintains and publishes its code here.

Workflow Index https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-56419

Task Index https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-59594

Some Important Examlpe Worflows

Power Shell Examples Administration -> Virtual -> Powershell Agents
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-55779 (Power Shell with rollback)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-54044 (Power Shell AD DNS example)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-51153 (Host Profile building script / execute script)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-58250 (Passing Variables)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-55389 (Add VM to AD OU)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-59142 (AD computer account)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-59892 (Move VM to different OU in AD)

SSH
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-55502 (SSH with Rollback and command execute timer)

Check a System (alive?)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-57682 (Ping)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-57813 (Telnet to port)
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-60468 (Test port 3389 (RDP) is up)

Derivatives

Outside of the main product suite, UCS Director comes in different forms.

UCSD Express (Hadoop) - http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-director-express-big-data/index.html

Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data provides a single-touch solution that automates Hadoop deployment on the Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture (CPA) for Big Data infrastructure. It also provides a single management pane across both physical infrastructure and Hadoop software. All elements of the infrastructure are handled automatically with little user input.

##### **UCSD ICF Plugin (Inter Cloud)**

##### **UCSD VACS Plugin (Containers on Steroids)**

A serpately licensed product inside UCS Director to logically isolate virtual application workloads at the virtual layer.

##### **UCSD IMC Supervisor** -

Management Controller (IMC) Supervisor enables centralized management for standalone Cisco UCS® C-Series Rack Servers and E-Series Servers located across one or more sites. Everything that can be done IMC Supervisor can be done in UCSD. This

Further Help

UCSD Coding Mailer - [email protected]

mytokarz / imapex_ucsdirector Goto Github PK