VCF Automation – SimplyGeek

VCF Operations Orchestrator: Auto-Document Your Actions with Ease

I spend a significant amount of time developing code for VCF Operations Orchestrator, and while I follow a strict and structured development process, documentation often falls behind. Keeping documentation up to date is an ongoing challenge as it’s difficult to maintain and keep up with frequent code changes. To solve this, I decided it was time to automate the documentation process and created a script to achieve this. When I set out to build this solution, I had a clear set of requirements I wanted it to meet: You can find my documentation tool here: vcf-operations-orchestrator-doc-generator, along with instructions on...

3 July 2025

VCF Operations Orchestrator: Why I Write Actions and Not Workflows (Mostly)

This might be a controversial stance, but if you’ve reviewed any of my VCF Operations Orchestrator code, you’ll notice that 99% of it is written as Actions. I take this approach because it enables me to write “pure” JavaScript code that is easier to read, maintain, and integrate with modern development tools such as linters, unit testing frameworks, and code analysers. Workflows are a visual tool that provides a drag-and-drop interface used to develop automation flows without writing (much) code. It was originally intended for system administrators and infrastructure teams, who might not be traditional developers, to automate tasks on...

1 July 2025

Development / JavaScript / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation / VCF Operations Orchestrator

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VCF Automation – Native Git Integration vs Alternatives

VCF Automation integration with a Git solution like GitHub or Gitlab is a conversation that has come up a lot over the years, and again recently. The suggestion is often to use the native integration options provided with the product, which are fine for their intended use case, but many misconceptions lead to disappointment. It’s important to understand what content can be managed from a Git repository using the native functionality before any decision-making takes place. I will address these in this post and help to understand what can be achieved and the available alternatives (and in many cases, necessities)....

24 June 2025

Development / Git / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation / VCF Operations Orchestrator

VCF Automation – Build Tools for VMware Aria – Useful Maven Command Reference

This series has focused on getting up and running with the Build Tools and creating basic projects. In this post, I will demonstrate all the available Maven commands and some additional parameters that can be used. This page can also be used as a useful Maven command reference. Creating Projects The following sections provide all the commands for creating the various project types. In all of the examples, you can substitute groupId and artifactId with your own values. The archetypeVersion is the desired version of the Build Tools (if these are new projects, use the latest available). TypeScript Project A...

24 June 2025

VCF Operations Orchestrator / Build Tools for VMware Aria / Development / Maven / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation

VCF Automation – Build Tools for VMware Aria – Visual Studio Code Integration

The Build Tools for VMware Aria project has developed an Extension for Visual Studio Code that provides native integration directly in the IDE. Using VSCode with this extension will provide the following features when developing code for your VCF Automation environment: I have had quite a few issues with the plugin and found that it provides limited support. The biggest benefit of using the Build Tools is that the code can be managed in VSCode to begin with. Install the vRealize Developer Tools extension for Visual Studio Code The vRealize Developer Tools extension for Visual Studio Code can be installed...

24 June 2025

VCF Operations Orchestrator / Build Tools for VMware Aria / Development / Visual Studio Code / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation

VCF Automation – Build Tools for VMware Aria – Overview of VCF Automation Projects

The Build Tools for VMware Aria support a variety of project types. In this post, I’ll focus on those relevant to managing VCF Automation and VCF Automation Orchestrator content. I’ll explain the purpose of each project type, offer guidance on when to use each based on your use case, and provide example commands to help you create them. First, let’s take a look at the list of available project types: If you are not familiar with the old product acronyms:vRA = VCF AutomationvRO = VCF Operations Orchestrator. There are also two legacy project types, but I will not be covering...

24 June 2025

VCF Operations Orchestrator / Build Tools for VMware Aria / Development / Maven / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation

VCF Automation – Build Tools for VMware Aria – Up and Running

It’s been a while since I last covered the Build Tools that support development in VCF Automation, and a lot has changed since my original IaC for vRealize series. I’ve received quite a few requests for an update, and I finally found time to write one. This post covers the latest release of the Build Tools (version 4.7.0 at the time of writing) and is recommended for users running version 2.30.x or later. Earlier versions may not function as expected. A lot has changed—most notably the rebranding from vRealize Build Tools to Build Tools for VMware Aria (can we expect...

24 June 2025

Development / Build Tools for VMware Aria / DevOps / Maven / Artifactory / Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation / VCF Operations Orchestrator

Using a Service-Oriented Architecture Approach to VCF Operations Orchestrator Development

In this post, I will briefly describe Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and how I apply this to all of my VCF Operations Orchestrator development. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a popular software development methodology that focuses on creating distinct services that are loosely coupled and reusable. These characteristics make SOA an approach that is well-suited for systems integration. Anyone who works with Orchestrator will understand that most development focuses heavily on integrating with other systems, where Orchestrator acts as the “glue” or central point. Here are some key principles of SOA: Following the SOA principles helps to reduce the need to redevelop...

24 June 2025

Broadcom (VMware) / VMware Cloud Foundation / VCF Automation / VCF Operations Orchestrator