VMware’s vRealize Orchestrator is a product used by many virtualization admins to automate common tasks. Today, we’re looking at using vRealize Orchestrator to enable automation of common Active Directory tasks, so Active Directory admins may benefit from this solution using the publicly available blueprints for Active Directory.
About vRealize Orchestrator
vRealize Orchestrator helps simplify the automation of complex IT tasks. It offers drag-and-drop workflows, and integrates with vRealize Suite and vCloud Suite to further improve service delivery efficiency, operational management and IT agility.
vRealize Orchestrator is included as part of vSphere and/or vRealize Automation entitlements. vRealize Automation-focused functionality within vRealize Orchestrator is only available as part of vRealize Automation entitlement (standalone or vRealize Suite Advanced/Enterprise license keys).
The vRealize Orchestrator functionality can be greatly expanded using ready-built blueprints. These blueprints, among other downloads, are available through the VMware Solutions Exchange.
Active Directory vRealize Orchestrator Blueprints
The following VMware-authored Active Directory-focused blueprints are available from the VMware Solutions Exchange for vRealize Automation:
- Change user password in Active Directory
- Create user in Active Directory
- Create user group in Active Directory
- Add user to user group in Active Directory
These blueprints can be added to vRealize Orchestrator workflows:
This way, for instance, you can create a workflow that accommodates new hires. This type of workflow would typically create a new user in Active Directory, populate the necessary group memberships based on the role and provision a new VMware Horizon virtual desktop.
Concluding
Throughout this series on virtualizing Domain Controllers, we focused on the availability, integrity and confidentiality of running Domain Controllers as virtual machines on top of VMware vSphere. VMware’s vRealize Orchestrator really adds another layer of benefits to Active Directory admins. In VMware’s suite of products, this might be your best shot at achieving Active Directory-as-a-Service.
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