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VMware vRA CLI

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A powerful Python CLI tool to interact with VMware vRealize Automation 8 via REST API. This tool enables developers and system administrators to automate VM provisioning, management, and decommissioning tasks through a simple command-line interface.

Features

Key Capabilities

  • Authentication Management: Secure authentication with vRA 8 using bearer tokens
  • Service Catalog Management: Access and request catalog items programmatically
  • Deployment Lifecycle: Create, manage, and destroy deployments through the CLI
  • Deployment Export: Export all deployments grouped by catalog item for backup, migration, and analytics
  • Tag Management: Comprehensive tagging system for resource organization and governance
  • Workflow Operations: Execute and monitor vRealize Orchestrator workflows
  • Analytics & Reporting: Generate usage reports, activity timelines, and unsynced deployment analysis
  • Configuration Management: Flexible configuration options with environment variables and config files
  • Rich Output: Beautiful terminal output with colors and progress indicators
  • Secure Credential Storage: Integration with system keyring for secure credential management
  • Batch Operations: Support for bulk operations for high-volume use cases

Why VMware vRA CLI?

This tool was inspired by real-world use cases where development teams need to create and destroy 1000+ virtual machines per day. Instead of clicking through the vRA 8 self-service portal repeatedly, developers can now automate these tasks through a simple CLI interface.

graph LR
    A[Developer] --> B[vRA CLI]
    B --> C[vRA 8 API]
    C --> D[VMware Infrastructure]
    D --> E[Virtual Machines]

    style A fill:#e1f5fe
    style B fill:#f3e5f5
    style C fill:#e8f5e8
    style D fill:#fff3e0
    style E fill:#fce4ec

Quick Example

# Authenticate with vRA
vra auth login --username admin --url https://vra.company.com

# List available catalog items
vra catalog list

# Request a catalog item
vra catalog request <catalog-item-id> --project <project-id> --name "dev-vm-001"

# List deployments
vra deployment list

# Create and assign tags
vra tag create "environment" --value "development" --description "Dev environment"
vra tag assign <deployment-id> <tag-id>

# Clean up
vra deployment delete <deployment-id>

Use Cases

Development Teams

  • Rapid provisioning of development environments
  • Automated testing infrastructure setup
  • CI/CD pipeline integration

System Administrators

  • Bulk VM operations
  • Infrastructure automation
  • Resource management and monitoring

DevOps Engineers

  • Infrastructure as Code implementation
  • Automated deployment pipelines
  • Environment standardization

Architecture Overview

flowchart TB
    subgraph "VMware vRA CLI"
        CLI[CLI Interface]
        AUTH[Authentication Module]
        API[API Client]
        CONFIG[Configuration Manager]
        CRED[Credential Manager]
    end

    subgraph "VMware vRA 8"
        CSP[Cloud Services Platform]
        CAT[Service Catalog]
        DEP[Deployment Service]
        RES[Resource Management]
    end

    CLI --> AUTH
    CLI --> API
    CLI --> CONFIG
    CLI --> CRED

    AUTH --> CSP
    API --> CAT
    API --> DEP
    API --> RES

    style CLI fill:#e3f2fd
    style AUTH fill:#e8f5e8
    style API fill:#fff3e0
    style CONFIG fill:#f3e5f5
    style CRED fill:#fce4ec

Getting Started

Get up and running in minutes:

  1. Installation - Install the CLI tool
  2. Quick Start - Your first VM in 5 minutes
  3. Configuration - Configure for your environment

Support

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