vRealize Orchestrator 8.1 Highlights

It’s been a while since I published anything about vRealize Orchestrator here. Besides Ansible and PowerCLI, the vRealize Orchestrator is still my first choice for the reliable automation of VMware vSphere based environments and their components The upcoming release of this great (often underrated) product is it absolutely worth to write about the VMware vRealize Orchestrator 8.1 Highlights.

VMware vRealize Orchestrator 8.1 will continue to be tightly integrated and bundled with vRealize Automation 8.1 but is also available as a standalone product (Connected to the vCenter). However, this is the first release in which there are different feature sets, depending on whether with or without vRealize Automation.

Support for Multiple Scripting Languages

You can now use PowerShell, Nodejs, and Python for tasks in workflows alongside the traditional vRealize Orchestrator Java scripting language. This is a huge advancement for vRealize Orchestrator. No more need to have a PowerShell Host to run PowerShell scripts.

Tree View is Back

The tree view that everyone was familiar with in vRealize Orchestrator was not available when the switch to the HTML 5 client happened. With the release of vRealize Orchestrator 8.1, a version of the tree view is back with hierarchical folders. Now you can easily organize your workflows as you did in the previous versions.

Visual Differences and Source Control

vRealize Orchestrator now supports syncing workflows to different branches from a Git
repository. Before it was only available to source control to a single branch. This allows
the promotion of code through normal git operations and pull requests.

You can even see the visual differences between versions of a workflow in the workflow designer under version history.

Debug workflows at Schema Elements

The last of the vRealize Orchestrator 8.1 Highlights I want to share with you is, that you are now able to debug workflows at any element within the workflow by simply clicking the red box on the element and running the workflow. This will allow you to quickly move through workflow development.