Automating the creation of virtual machines and storage accounts

As an application business analyst, you can automate the actions that you perform in Microsoft Azure, such as creating a storage account and creating a virtual machine. To automate these actions, in your application, you can create processes by using the Create VM and Create Storage Account Service elements in the Process designer of BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

Before you begin

Make sure that an administrator has configured the Microsoft Azure connector.

Create VM element properties

A Create VM element creates a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure.

The following video (2:49) explains how to automate the task of creating a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure:

https://youtu.be/NgByYLkA8_I

The following table describes the Create VM input properties:

Property	Description
Connection ID	Connection ID of the Microsoft Azure connector.
User Name	User login name for the virtual machine that you want to create.
Password	Password for the virtual machine. The password can be 8 to 123 characters long, and must meet any three of the following requirements: At least one lowercase character At least one uppercase character At least one numeric character At least one special character
Vm Name	Name of the virtual machine. The value must be 1 to 15 characters with no special characters.
(Optional) Region	Name of the region in which you want to create the virtual machine. If you do not specify a region, the region configured in the Azure connector is used. For information about supported regions, see Microsoft Azure regions.
Resource Group	Name of the resource group to which the virtual machine belongs.
Vm Size	Size of the virtual machine.
Primary Network	Network address space of the virtual machine.
Os Type	External ID of a service imported from the Microsoft Azure that is mapped to the process. Important: If you want to use a custom, specific, or latest virtual machine image, you must specify the Os Type value as Windows or Linux. If you want to use a popular virtual image image, specify the Os Type value from the following list: Values for Linux UBUNTU_SERVER_14_04_LTS UBUNTU_SERVER_16_04_LTS UBUNTU_SERVER_18_04_LTS DEBIAN_9 DEBIAN_10 CENTOS_8_1 OPENSUSE_LEAP_15_1 SLES_15_SP1 REDHAT_RHEL_8_2 ORACLE_LINUX_8_1 Values for Windows WINDOWS_DESKTOP_10_20H1_PRO WINDOWS_SERVER_2019_DATACENTER WINDOWS_SERVER_2019_DATACENTER_WITH_CONTAINERS WINDOWS_SERVER_2016_DATACENTER WINDOWS_SERVER_2012_R2_DATACENTER If you want to use a latest virtual machine image, you must specify the Os Type, Image Publisher, Image Offer, and Image SKU values. If you want to use a specific virtual machine image, you must specify the Os Type, Image Publisher, Image Offer, Image SKU, and Image Version values. If you want to use a custom virtual image, you must specify the Os Type and customImageID values. If you want to use a popular virtual image, you must specify the Os Type and imageURL values.
USER_BY	Login name of the virtual machine requestor.
Is Existing Resource Group	This value specifies whether the virtual machine belongs to an existing resource group. You can specify the value as True or False. Important: If you specify the Is Existing Resource Group as True, you must also specify the Existing Primary Network Resource Group, Existing Primary Network Name, and Existing Primary Network Subnet values.
(Optional) Existing Primary Network Resource Group	Name of the resource group of primary network that you want to use.
(Optional) Existing Primary Network Name	Name of the existing network that you want to add to the virtual machine.
(Optional) Existing Primary Network Subnet	Name of the associated virtual network subnet.
(Optional) Existing Primary Network Interface Resource Group	Name of the resource group of the network interface that you want to use. Important: If you specify the Existing Primary Network Interface Resource Group value, you must also specify the Existing Primary Network Interface Name value.
(Optional) Existing Primary Network Interface Name	Name of the network interface that connects the IP address with the network.
(Optional) Image Publisher	Name of the organization that provides a virtual machine image in the Azure Marketplace, that you want to use.
(Optional) Image Offer	Name of a group of related images created by the image publisher.
(Optional) Image Sku	Instance of an image offer such as a major release of an image distribution.
(Optional) Image Version	Version number of an image SKU.
(Optional) Custom Image ID	ID of the image that you want to use.
(Optional) Image URL	Location of the image.

The following table describes the Create VM output properties:

Property	Description	Example
IP	IP address of the provisioned virtual machine.	192.158. 1.3
Status	Current status of a virtual machine such as Running, Deallocating, and Stopped.	Running
User Name	User login name of the virtual machine.	Allen
User Password	Login password of the virtual machine.	Passw0rd!

Create Storage Account Service element properties

A Create Storage Account Service element creates a storage account in Microsoft Azure.

The following table describes the Create Storage Account Service input properties:

Property	Description
Connection Id	Connection ID of the Microsoft Azure connector.
Resource Group	Name of the resource group to which the storage account belongs.
Storage Account Name	Name of the storage account that you want to create. The name must meet the following requirements: 3 to 24 characters long Numeric characters and lowercase letters only Unique within Azure portal
(Optional) Region	Name of the region in which you want to create the storage account. If you do not specify a region, the region configured in the Azure connector is used.
USER_BY	Login name of the storage account requestor.
Is Existing Resource Group	This value specifies whether the storage account belongs to an existing resource group. You can specify the value as True or False.
Authorized Network Name	Name of the authorized network that you want to use. Important: You can create a storage account only on the virtual networks that are authorized networks for storage account creation.
Authorized Network Subnet	Name of the associated authorized network subnet.
Authorized Network Resource Group	Name of the authorized network resource group.
Authorized Ip Address	IP address of the authorized network.
Authorized Ip Address Range	IP address range of the authorized network.

The following table describes the Create Storage Account Service input properties:

Property	Description	Example
Account Name	Name of the storage account.	mystorageaccount
Key 1	Key 1 of the storage account.	6HUgdtEBmTrG3nKXsT6oNccgtQA7rnFJ8lhPgCwSXjIUlJe3gFC+dzhZAlxoUxAzvIASFYXKflNhi29O/1k7/g==
Key 2	Key 2 of the storage account.	cpaQtiTly9b1gVLTRjjfdRa+zTz7uJcFodh5LO2ePxuFd5AFzhlb57P1Tgn5UiP+ZBkvzv+ceGeWQ9GCYaXOWQ==

To create a process to create a virtual machine or storage account

Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
Navigate to the Workspace tab, and select the application in which you want to create a process.
In the application, select Processes, and click New.
The system opens Process designer.
In the Process designer, drag the element to the canvas based on the action that you want to perform in Microsoft Azure:
- To create a virtual machine, drag the Create VM element to the canvas.
- To create a storage account, drag the Create Storage Account Service element to the canvas.

In the element Properties pane, enter the property values.
If required, add the other process elements and specify the flow of execution that you want to create for your business logic.
Save the process.

Example: Automating virtual machine creation in Azure

Ajay is an application business analyst in Calbro Services. He wants to automate the task of creating a virtual machine in Microsoft Azure so that he can reduce the manual efforts of agents who are assigned to user requests of virtual machine creation. To automate the task, Ajay creates a process. He uses the Create VM element to create a virtual machine in Azure and uses the Send Virtual Machine Creation Email element to notify the virtual machine details to the user.

Ajay performs the following actions to create the process to automate the creation of a virtual machine:

Create the process as shown in the following image:
Add the process properties as shown in the following image:
Add the Create VM element properties as shown in the following image:
Add Send Virtual Machine Creation Email element properties as shown in the following image:
Save the process.

Example: Automating storage account creation in Azure

Ajay is an application business analyst in Calbro Services. He wants to automate the task of creating a storage account in Microsoft Azure. To automate the task, Ajay creates a process. He uses the Create Storage Account Service element to create a storage account in Azure and the Send Azure Storage Creation Email element to notify the storage account details to the user.

Ajay performs the following actions to create the process to automate the creation of a storage account:

Create the process as shown in the following image:
Add the process properties as shown in the following image:
Add the Create Storage Account Service element properties as shown in the following image:
Add the Send Azure Storage Creation Email element properties as shown in the following image:
Save the process.