Services

Services

You can view and manage service requests, OVF files, and downloads. The OVF files and downloads are provided by your administrator. By default, the Services menu option displays all service requests and their status.

Service Requests

You can create a service request to provision virtual machines (VMs), services, or applications. The service request process creates a provisioning workflow for VM creation that includes the following actions:

  • Budget validation

  • Dynamic resource allocation

  • Approvals

  • Provisioning

  • Lifecycle setup and notifications

Your administrator can provide an orchestration workflow as a catalog item. To provision a VM or execute an orchestration workflow, you must first create a service request. Once your administrator or the designated approver approves the service request, the VM is provisioned. VMs can be immediately approved or scheduled to be approved within a maximum of 90 days from the original request. You can view the Service Requests report by choosing Service Requests under Services.

The Service Requests reports screen displays all service requests, as well as the following information:

  • Service Request ID

  • Request Type

  • Initiating User

  • Group

  • Catalog/Workflow Name

  • Initiator Comments

  • Request Time

  • Request Status

  • Rollback Type

You can view additional information about a service request by clicking the row with service request and clicking View Details.

Creating a Service Request for a Standard Catalog

Standard catalog items are used for generic service requests, such as creating service requests for VM provisioning using images from a list of clouds.

    Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
    Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
    Step 3   Click Create Request.
    Step 4   On the Create Request screen, choose Standard from the Catalog Type drop-down list.
    Step 5   Click Submit.
    Step 6   On the Catalog Selection screen, complete the required fields, including the following:
    1. Select the Group or User radio button to specify if you want to provision the VM for a group or set of users.

      If you select the User radio button, you can choose the users who will have VM ownership, VM access privilege, and VM management privilege.

    2. Choose a catalog from the Select Catalog drop-down list.
    3. Check Perform deployment assessment to perform a VM deployment assessment before creating the service request.
    Step 7   Click Next.
    Step 8   On the Deployment Configuration screen, complete the required fields, including the following:
    1. From the Provision drop-down list, choose when to provision the VM.

      If you choose Now, the VM is provisioned immediately. If you choose Later, a calendar and a time drop-down list appear.

    2. Check Lease Time to configure a lease time for the VM specified in days and hours.
    3. From the Charge Duration drop-down list, choose a duration for which the default cost is calculated.

      By default, this duration is set to Monthly. You can specify the duration in days, months, or hours depending on the duration you choose.

    Step 9   Click Next.
    Step 10   On the Custom Specification screen, specify the CPU cores and memory and click Next.
    Step 11   On the Custom Workflow screen, if applicable, complete the required fields and click Next. Custom workflow inputs are applicable if your administrator enabled post-provisioning custom actions for the catalog selected for VM provisioning. The post-provisioning workflow includes custom inputs, which depend on the workflow attached to a catalog.
    Step 12   On the Summary screen, review the information for the service request.
    Step 13   Click Submit.

    Creating a Service Request for an Advanced Catalog

    Before You Begin

    Advanced catalog items are used for orchestration workflow execution. You can execute workflow catalog items that have been provisioned by your administrator.

      Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
      Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
      Step 3   Click Create Request.
      Step 4   On the Create Request screen, choose Advanced from the Catalog Type drop-down list.
      Step 5   Click Submit.
      Step 6   On the Catalog Selection screen, choose a catalog from the Select Catalog drop-down list and then click Next.
      Step 7   On the Custom Workflow screen, if applicable, complete the required fields and then click Next. Custom workflow inputs are applicable if your administrator enabled post-provisioning custom actions for the catalog selected for VM provisioning. The post-provisioning workflow lets you specify custom inputs, which are dependent on the workflow attached to a catalog.
      Step 8   On the Summary screen, review the information for the service request.
      Step 9   Click Submit.

      Creating a Service Request for a Service Container Catalog

      Service container catalog items are used for application container VM provisioning.

        Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
        Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
        Step 3   Click Create Request.
        Step 4   On the Create Request screen, choose Service Container from the Catalog Type drop-down list.
        Step 5   Click Submit.
        Step 6   On the Catalog Selection screen, choose a catalog from the Select Catalog drop-down list and then click Next.
        Step 7   On the Deployment Configuration screen, complete the required fields, including the following:
        1. From the Provision drop-down list, choose when to provision the VM.

          If you choose Now, the VM is provisioned immediately. If you choose Later, a calendar and a time drop-down list appear.

        2. In the Service Container Name field, enter a name for the service container.
        Step 8   Click Next.
        Step 9   On the Summary screen, review the information for the service request.
        Step 10   Click Submit.

        Creating a Service Request for a Bare Metal Catalog

        Bare metal catalog items are used for workflow execution of a bare metal server. You can execute a catalog item with a bare metal server provisioning policy that has been defined by your administrator.

          Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
          Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
          Step 3   Click Create Request.
          Step 4   On the Create Request screen, choose Bare Metal from the Catalog Type drop-down list.
          Step 5   Click Submit.
          Step 6   On the Catalog Selection screen, choose a catalog from the Select Catalog drop-down list and then click Next.
          Step 7   On the Custom Workflow screen, if applicable, complete the required fields and then click Next. Custom workflow inputs are applicable if your administrator enabled post-provisioning custom actions for the catalog selected for bare metal server provisioning. The post-provisioning workflow lets you specify custom inputs, which are dependent on the workflow attached to a catalog.
          Step 8   On the Summary screen, review the information for the service request.
          Step 9   Click Submit.

          Canceling a Service Request

          You can cancel a pending or approved service request. Canceling the request denies the request and removes it from your approval list. The workflow for a pending approval stops in a failed state at the approval task. You can cancel an approved service request that you may want to resubmit later. If you resubmit a service request for a cancelled request that was previously approved, the workflow starts from the approval task.

            Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
            Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
            Step 3   Click the row with the service request that you want to cancel.
            Step 4   Click Cancel.
            Step 5   On the Cancel Service Request screen, click Submit.

            The service request is removed from the Approvals page. On the Service Requests page, the Request Status for the service request changes to Canceled.

            Resubmitting a Service Request

            You can resubmit a rejected or failed service request. A service request can fail for the following reasons:

            • Budget limit (if defined by your administrator) is exceeded for the group under which the VM is being provisioned.

            • Resource limits (if defined by your administrator) are exceeded for the group under which the VM is being provisioned.

            • Provisioning could fail if relevant information is not provided when creating a service request.

            When a service request is resubmitted, you can choose the task in the workflow from which you want to start the service request. For example, if a service request fails in the Resource Allocation workflow, you can resubmit the service request to start from this step.

              Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
              Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
              Step 3   Click the row with the service request that you want to resubmit.
              Step 4   Click Resubmit Request.
              Step 5   On the Resubmit Service Request screen, choose the task from which you want to start the service request, from the Resubmit Step drop-down list.
              Step 6   Click Submit.

              On the Approvals page, the My Approval Status for the service request changes to Pending.

              What to Do Next

              On the Approvals page, choose and approve the service request.

              Archiving a Service Request

              You can archive a service request for future use. Once you archive a service request, contact your administrator if you want to reinstate the service request.

                Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
                Step 3   Click the row with the service request that you want to archive.
                Step 4   Click Archive.
                Step 5   On the Archive Request screen, click Archive.

                Adding Notes to a Service Request

                You can add notes to a service request, to provide information for yourself, for the requestor, or for other approvers.

                  Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                  Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
                  Step 3   Click the row with the service request to which you want to add a note.
                  Step 4   Click Add Notes.
                  Step 5   On the Add Notes screen, add any necessary information to the Notes field.
                  Step 6   Click Submit.

                  Rolling Back a Service Request

                  You can undo all or part of an executed workflow by rolling back a service request. You can roll back tasks that executed successfully. Exceptions include:

                  • Some tasks are designed such that they cannot be rolled back.

                  • Rollback can be disabled for a task within a particular workflow.

                  Any changes made by tasks that are not selected to be rolled back are not undone. For example, if the task for creating virtual resources is not selected, virtual resources are not removed when the service request is rolled back. If you choose to roll back an entire successful service request, all of its workflow tasks are rolled back with the exceptions of those that are disabled.

                    Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                    Step 2   On the Services page, click Service Requests.
                    Step 3   Click the row with the service request that you want to roll back.
                    Step 4   From the More Actions drop-down list, choose Rollback Request.
                    Step 5   On the Rollback Service Request screen, verify that the tasks you want to roll back are checked.

                    By default, all of the tasks are checked.

                    Step 6   Click Submit.

                    On the Approvals page, the Approval Status for the service request changes to Pending.

                    What to Do Next

                    On the Approvals page, choose and approve the service request.

                    User OVF Management

                    You can manage Open Virtualization Format (OVF) files and deploy them to your group or to customer organizations. The OVF files can be in OVA, zip, and jar formats. You can view the user OVF Management report by choosing User OVF Management under Services.

                    The User OVF Management report displays all available OVF files, as well as the following information:

                    • File Name

                    • Description

                    • Date/Time Added

                    • Folder Type

                    • User ID

                    Uploading an OVF File

                    You can upload OVF and image files (OVA, zip, and jar formats) to a predefined storage location.

                      Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                      Step 2   On the Services page, click User OVF Management.
                      Step 3   Click Upload File.
                      Step 4   On the Upload File screen, complete the required fields.

                      You can choose a file or drag and drop a file into the OVF file field.

                      Step 5   Click Submit.

                      Deploying an OVF File

                      You can deploy OVF and image files (OVA, zip, and jar formats) to a group or to a customer organization.


                      Note

                      At least twice the file size disk space is required for OVF and image file uploads.

                        Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                        Step 2   On the Services page, click User OVF Management.
                        Step 3   Click the row with the OVF file that you want to deploy.
                        Step 4   Click Deploy.
                        Step 5   On the Deploy OVF screen, complete the required fields.
                        Step 6   Click Submit.

                        Downloads

                        Your administrator can provide files for you to download. Downloads can include binary files and executable files. You can view the Downloads report by choosing Downloads under Services.

                        The Downloads report displays all available downloads, as well as the following information:

                        • Name

                        • Description

                        • File Name

                        Downloading a File

                        You can download a file provided by your administrator.

                        Before You Begin

                        Disable pop-up blockers in your browser.

                          Step 1   From the menu, choose Services.
                          Step 2   On the Services page, click Downloads.
                          Step 3   Click the row with the file that you want to download.
                          Step 4   Click Download.