Does anyone use Orchestrator to manage Azure?

[Michael Cornn]

We have a multi-cloud environment, with on-prem vCenter and a Microsoft Azure subscription. 

In Aria Automation (soon to be VCF Automation), we deploy VMs to Azure in Assembler. This works well with the built-in Azure Cloud Account type. 

In Aria Automation's Orchestrator, we have no such option. We can't find an Orchestrator plugin for Azure. Is there no plugin available? It would be nice to have pre-built actions and workflows for common Azure tasks. 

For those who manage Azure within Aria/VCF Automation, which method do you use?

• An Azure plug-in (that I haven't found yet)
• Actions written as API calls to the Azure API
• A PowerShell host with the AZ Powershell Module

Though we don't use AWS or GCP, I'm curious to see how engineers manage those services in Automation. 

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[Allan Solomon Mejia]

Hi Michael,

We use Aria Orchestrator to manage Azure, but primarily through the Azure REST APIs or Azure PowerShell rather than a dedicated plug-in. In my experience, calling the Azure APIs with a service principal or managed identity provides the most flexibility and keeps you aligned with Microsoft's latest capabilities.

 

If you're already using Aria Automation for provisioning, this approach integrates well for post-deployment automation too.

[Blake Nutt]

Hi Michael, 

I've used all the methods you mentioned here, starting with PowerShell modules, then moved onto REST calls via Orchestrator and then finally the plugin, based on the order of what methods I found to be most performant. You will find the plug-in within a KB at the very bottom as an attachment. It's unclear why this plugin does not appear in their plugin library website. I've asked my TAM to investigate why it is absent from the site. Here is the link to the KB https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/391736/azure-plugin-fails-to-load-on-aria-autom.html