Ever came across some Advanced Parameter for your ESX Host you wanted to set in your Environment ?
Wanted to be sure that these Advanced Parameters are set consistently through all Hosts in your Environment ?
Want to have some "Right Click on Host and set an Advanced Parameter on a host" experience without scrolling throught this Big list in the Vsphere Client?
Here is a Solution approach...
The Basic Idea is to have a single Configuration Element to save the "Special" Advanced Parameters you want to set for the Hosts in and have a Workflow which is scheduled to check and set the Parameters to the configured Values.
Workflow 1: Configure AdvancedParameter Config Check
There is one Workflow to Set and Configure the Advanced Parameters in the Configuration element (just to make it easier to set them). If you already have a reference Host for the Parameters choose this one as Host to make it easier to configure the Advanced Parameter you want to set.
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Next choose the Advanced Parameter you want to define:
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You can use a Pattern (1.) to narrow the Paramters to Select (2.). Be aware that the search is empty if the Pattern does not work (no Wildcards, best result if you Narrow the search with the first Patterns up to the . like NFS, CBRC or something like that or exact match).
Then choose the Parameter and after the "Next" set the Value you want to have in the Value field (The Actual Value is prefilled by the Workflow):
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After the "Submit" the Configuration Element is filled with the Configured Value:
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You can change the Configuration Element to Save the Values to in the Workflow Attribute. Repeat these steps for every Parameter you want to define.
Workflow 2: "Check and Set AdvancedParameter Config for Host"
After that, there is another Workflow to check and set the Advanced Parameters for the Host:
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Start this one, choose the Host to check and wait for completion.
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The Workflow loops through every attribute in the Configuration Element defined in the Workflow Attribute and set's it (if it's not already set).
If you want to change or delete some Parameters you've defined, just edit the Configuration element.
And if you want to check for more than one Host feel free to integrate the Workflow in another one or leverage the Batch Workflows of the Vcenter Library.
Workflow 3 : "Set Advanced Parameter"
Btw. if you just want to set an Advanced Parameter once, use this Workflow.
It directly sets the Parameter you choose to the Value you Provide.