Author: John Hardy

Example using Tagging for Displaying Pricing and Quota on Service Dialogs

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John Hardy, Senior Principal Product Manager, Red Hat

 

Introduction

This post explains a solution whereby Red Hat CloudForms is enabled to show back to the users their remaining tenant budget when ordering services via the service catalog. The implementation uses CloudForms taxonomy and custom methods to display service costs, quota, and a message on the Service Dialog screen.

Use-Case

As a user, I wish to be presented the cost of the service I am ordering, along with my current budget and remaining budget when the service is ordered. I would like my budget to be set and maintained at my tenant level.

Continue reading “Example using Tagging for Displaying Pricing and Quota on Service Dialogs”

CMDB Integration Architecture Examples for CloudForms

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John Hardy, Senior Principal Product Manager, Red Hat

Introduction

This document is to position two different types of integration with a CMDB and Red Hat CloudForms.

We discuss the use of HP uCMDB because it supports both types of integration but also other CMDBs are available such as Service-Now.

The two types of integration are known as;

Pull – Where by the information/data is collected (Pulled) by the CMDB from the end points. CMDB Server initiated.

Push – Where by the information/data is sent (Pushed) to the CMDB server by the end point. Endpoint initiated.

Other CMDB servers may not support a PULL approach at which point you have only the PULL solution as the only option.

We shall now dive deep into each integration type.

 

Continue reading “CMDB Integration Architecture Examples for CloudForms”

Accessing Guest RDP and SSH via Custom Buttons

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John Hardy, Senior Principal Product Manager, Red Hat

First let’s talk about Remote Session vs Remote Console, they are often confused.

 

  • Remote Session – Provides the user a server session on the remote host. Multiple sessions can be established with same or different credentials.
  • Remote Console (Also known as Remote Control) – Provides the actual console screen to the user, still a session but the systems local session. Only one console session can exist. Any credentials with rights to log on locally can obtain the system session. (Default in Windows is Deny)

 

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Review and Future Directions of CloudForms State-Machines

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John Hardy, Senior Principal Product Manager, Red Hat

This article seeks to explain the use of State Machines in Red Hat CloudForms for the use in the flow control of automation.

The topic of State Machines is sometimes perceived as rocket science, barely used but often taught. The first thing to dispel is the complexity in state machines, then we can compare how a state machine differs from other process automation like Workflows.

Finally the article is to dispel the myth that State Machines are RUBY or if you use Ansible Automation Inside you do not need state machines, again not a true statement.

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CloudForms as a Container

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John Hardy, Senior Principal Product Manager, Red Hat

The CloudForms 4.1 release (June ’16) delivered a new format for the CloudForms appliance: as a container in docker format. CloudForms has led the way by offering the appliance in several different virtualization and cloud formats, such as:

  • Red Hat Virtualization
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Microsoft SCVMM (Hyper-v)
  • VMware vSphere

With the new CloudForms container you can now host CloudForms on:

  • Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 3
  • Red Hat Atomic Host (7.2 or higher)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (7.2 or higher)
  • Anywhere using docker

Continue reading “CloudForms as a Container”