VMware vRealize Cloud Client 3.0 is GA

Caution: Articles written for technical not grammatical accuracy, If poor grammar offends you proceed with caution ;-)

What is the cloud client you ask?  The CloudClient is a verb based command-line utility aimed at simplifying interactions with multiple product api’s.  The CloudClient also provides common security, exception handling, json, & CVS support.  Currently vRealize Automation (vRA)( Formerly vCAC), Site Recovery Manager (SRM), & vRealize Orchestrator (vRO)(Formerly vCO).

Getting Started with vRealize Cloud Client 3.0

1. First you need to get the Cloud Client which you can download here.
2. If you don’t have Java JRE version 1.7.0.40 installed you will want to install that as well.
3. Once you download the Zip file you will want to extract to a location that you will want to run it from.
4. On Windows open a command prompt (I always run as administrator), then navigate to where you extracted the files to and run cloudclient.bat.
5. On Linux navigate to the directory you extracted the files to and execute cloudclient.sh.The client client interface will load and you will see the following screen: (I rather like it reminds me of the old X-Term days).

If you want to take advantage of automatic logins next you will need to execute the following command:

login autologinfile

This will create a file in the cloudclient directory called CloudClient.properties where you can configure the username, password, and the server they are used for to use for the different supported connections.  You can choose to input your password as plain text or use an encrypted password file.  If you choose to use an encrypted password file you can specify the file to use per supported connections.

To generate an encrypted password use the following command:

login keyfile –file yourpassfile.txt –password yourpassword

You will want to create a different password file for each connection you are configuring in the CloudCLient.properties file if they don’t share a common password.  The CloudClient.properties file supports the following connections:

vRA Calalog Server (Virtual Appliance)
vRA IaaS Server (Windows Server)
vCO Server

Once you generate the encrypted password file you need to update the CloudClient.properties.  Below is an example of my vRA Catalog Config.

To test this restart the cloud client and issue the following command:

vra login isauthenticated catalog

Repeat for:
vra login isauthenticated iaas
vra login isauthenticated vco

*Note I noticed some issues where it wouldn’t take certain passwords.  Using a pasword with a S! as the first two characters failed for me.  Once I changed the password all was ok.  When it failed it displayed an error that showed my password minus the first character.  Also if you get a 403 forbidden error your account doesn’t have the appropriate permissions to access the API.

Below are some commands to try out to see if everything is in order:

vra catalog list
vra catalog list –type VM
vra business group list
vra computeresource list

These are just a few to give it a try.  If you get any message that state the user has insufficient privileges to make the api call you will need to review your permissions.  More on permission and uses of the CloudClient 3.0 to come.