Aria Automation - formatVersion 2

If you’ve been keeping an eye on VMware Aria Automation, you might have noticed the significant enhancements and new features introduced over the past few months. One particular update that has flown under the radar is the introduction of Cloud Template formatVersion 2.

Yes, after many years, Cloud Templates now have a new format version, bringing some new shiny improvements.

One of the standout features of formatVersion 2 is the ability to create a Deployment Overview. This feature allows you to provide more insightful information to your users, including detailed instructions and explanations about how your application works. You can be really creative with this, enhancing the user experience significantly.

It's straight for to enable it and can be done on your already existing templates.

• Update Cloud Template to formatVersion to 2;
• Create a new outputs section;
•  Include the __deploymentOverview key within this section.

 

You can format the lines in the Deployment Overview using different heading sizes by starting the line with the # character. The number of # characters (from 1 to 4) determines the size of the title, with 1 being the largest and 4 the smallest. This allows you to create well-structured, readable text.

 Additionally, you can use inputs and variables from your deployment to dynamically generate the text, making the information more relevant and specific to each deployment.

Another useful feature is the ability to export information to the User Events tab. This provides an easy way to make critical information available to users, enhancing transparency and usability.

 

Just create your variables under the outputs section with the name and desired value, check my the example bellow:

FormatVersion 2 also introduces several other powerful capabilities, such as:

• Disable day 2 actions: you can now disable and hide update day 2 action from within the deployment itself;
• Variables: You can define and use variables to simplify and streamline your templates;
• Conditional Logic: The use of IF statements allows for conditional logic, enabling more complex and flexible templates;
• Loops: The FOR construct allows you to iterate over collections, making it easier to handle repetitive tasks.

The official documentation has more details about all these features.

 Here's my example:

formatVersion: 2
outputs:
  myhost:
    value: ${resource.vSphereVM.resourceName}
  myIP:
    value: ${resource.vSphereVM.address}
  __deploymentOverview:
    value: |
      ## ${env.deploymentName} - Deployment details
      The following vSphere Virtual Machine has been provisioned on top of VMware Cloud Foundation

      For more details of all the amazing features visit: https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-foundation.html

      ### Application details
      Your application is running and available at: https://{{resource.vSphereVM.resourceName}}

      If you need to directly access the VM run: ssh root@{{resource.vSphereVM.address}}

 

Happy Automation !!