Streamlining Day-2 Actions for Multi-Cloud and On-Premises Environments: Boosting Efficiency with Aria Automation

In this blog post, we will explore the capabilities of Cloud Assembly for managing resources after deploying cloud templates. Once your templates are deployed, Cloud Assembly provides you with a range of actions to effectively manage your resources. However, the availability of these actions depends on factors such as the resource type and the support for specific actions on your chosen cloud account or integration platform.

As an administrator or project administrator, you can set up Day 2 Actions policies in Service Broker.

 It's important to note that the actions you can perform are also influenced by the entitlements set by your administrator. These entitlements determine the level of access you have and the actions you are authorized to execute,

You might also see actions that are not included in the list. These are likely custom actions added by your administrator

List of possible actions for Multi-cloud and  On-Premises

Action	Applies to  these resource types	Available for these cloud        types	Resour ce origin	Description
Add Disk	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add additional disks to existing virtual machines. If you add a disk to an Azure machine, the persistent disk or non-persistent disk is deployed in the resource group that includes the machine. When you add a disk to an Azure machines, you can also encrypt the new disk using the Azure disk encryption set configured in the storage profile. When you add a disk to vSphere machines, you can select the SCSI controller, the order of which was set in the cloud template and deployed. You can also specify the unit number for the new disk. You cannot specify a unit number without a selected controller. If you do not select a controller or provide a unit number, the new disk is deployed to first available controller and assigned then next available unit number on that controller. If you add a disk to a vSphere machine for a project with defined storage limits, the added machine is not considered as part of the storage limits. Only resized disks are considered. If you use VMware Storage DRS (SDRS) and the datastore cluster is configured in the storage profile, you can add disks on SDRS to vSphere machines.
Apply Salt Configu ration	Machines	n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Install a Salt minion or update an existing minion on a virtual machine. The Apply Salt Configuration option is available if you configured the SaltStack Config integration. To apply a configuration, you must select an authentication method. The Remote access with existing credentials uses the remote access credentials that are included in the deployment. If you changed the credentials on the machine after deployment, the action can fail. If you know the new credentials, use the Password authentication method. The Password and Private key use the user name and the password or key to validate your credentials and then connect to the virtual machine using SSH. If you do not provide a value for the Master ID and Minion ID, Salt creates the values for you.
Cancel	n  Various resource types in deployments n  Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deploye d n  On-boarded	Cancel a deployment or a day 2 action on a deployment or a resource while the request is being processed. You can cancel the request on the deployment card or in the deployment details. After you cancel the request, it appears as a failed request on the Deployments page. Use the Delete action to release any deployed resources and clean up your deployment list. Canceling a request that you think has been running too long is one method for managing deployment time. However, it is more efficient to set the Request Timeout in the projects. The default timeout is two hours. You can set if for a longer period of time if the workload deployment for a project requires more time.
Change Lease	Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Change the lease expiration date and time. When a lease expires, the deployment is destroyed and the resources are reclaimed. Lease policies are set in Service Broker.
Change Owner	Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  Onb oar ded	Changes to deployment owner to the selected user. The selected user must be a member of the same project that deployed the request. If you want to assign a service administrator or project administrator as the owner, you must add them as a project member.
Change Project	Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	The change project action is only available for deployments with onboarded resources. The onboarded deployments can include only machines and disks. The action is not available for deployed cloud templates nor migrated deployments. If you make any changes to the deployment resources, for example, add a disk, you cannot run the change project action. Change the project of an onboarded deployment. This action allows you to change individual deployments from the onboarding project to a different project. Action constraints: n  The initiating user must have permission to run the change project action. n  If you are an administrator moving the deployment, you could move the deployment to a project where the owner is not a member and therefore loses access. You can add the user to the target project or move the deployment to a project where they are a member. n  The target project cloud zones must be the same as the source project cloud zones. If they are not, any future day 2 actions involving cloud account / region resources that you run might not work.
Change Security Groups	Machines	n  VMware vSphere	n  Deploye d n  On-boarded	You can associate and dissociate security groups with machine networks in a deployment. The change action applies to existing and on-demand security groups for NSX-V and NSX-T. This action is available only for single machines, not machine clusters. To associate a security group with the machine network, the security group must be present in the deployment. Dissociating a security group from all networks of all machines in a deployment does not remove the security group from the deployment. These changes do not affect security groups applied as part of the network profiles. This action changes the machine's security group configuration without recreating the machine. This is a non-destructive change. n  To change the machine's security group configuration, select the machine in the topology pane, then click the Action menu in the right pane and select Change Security Groups. You can now add or remove the association on the security groups with the machine networks.
Connect to Remote Console	Machines	n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  Discovered n  On-boarded	Open a remote session on the selected machine. Review the following requirements for a successful connection. n  As a deployment consumer, verify that the provisioned machine is powered on.
Create Disk Snapshot	Machines and disks	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Create a snapshot of a virtual machine disk or a storage disk. n  For machines, you create snapshots for individual machine disks, including boot disk, image disks, and storage disks. n  For storage disks, you create snapshots of independent managed disks, not unmanaged disks. In addition to providing a snapshot name, you can also provide the following information for the snapshot: n  Incremental Snapshot. Select the check box to create a snapshot of the changes since the last snapshot rather full snapshot. n  Resource Group. Enter the name of the target resource group where you want to create the snapshot. By default, the snapshot is created in the same resource group that is used by the parent disk. n  Encryption Set Id. Select the encryption key for the snapshot. By default, the snapshot is encrypted with the same key that is used by the parent disk. n  Tags. Enter any tags that will help you manage the snapshots in Microsoft Azure.
Create Snapshot	Machines	n  Google Cloud Platform n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Create a snapshot of the virtual machine. If you are allowed only two snapshots in vSphere and you already have them, this command is not available until you delete a snapshot.
Delete	Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Destroy a deployment. All the resources are deleted and the reclaimed. If a delete fails, you can run the delete action on a deployment a second time. During the second attempt, you can select Ignore Delete Failures. If you select this option, the deployment is deleted, but the resources might not be reclaimed. You should check the systems on which the deployment was provisioned to ensure that all resources are removed. If they are not, you must manually delete the residual resources on those systems
	NSX Gateway	n  NSX	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete the NAT port forwarding rules from an NSX-T or NSX-V gateway.
	Machines and load balancers	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere n  VMware NSX	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete a machine or load balancer from a deployment. This action might result in an unusable deployment.
	Security groups	n  NSX-T n  NSX-V	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	If the security is not associated with any machine in the deployment, the process removes the security group from the deployment. n  If the security group is on-demand, then it is destroyed on the endpoint. n  If the security group is shared, the action fails.
Delete Disk Snapshot	Machines and disks	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete an Azure virtual machine disk or managed disk snapshot. This action is available when there is at least one snapshot.
Delete Snapshot	Machines	n  VMware vSphere n  Google Cloud Platform	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete a snapshot of the virtual machine.
Disable Boot Diagnostics	Machines	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Turn off the Azure virtual machine debugging feature. The Disable option is only available if the feature is turned on.
Edit Tags	Deploymen ts	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add or modify resource tags that are applied to individual deployment resources.
	NSX Gateway	n  NSX	n  Deploye d n  On-boarded	Delete the NAT port forwarding rules from an NSX-T or NSX-V gateway.
	Machines and load balancers	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere n  VMware NSX	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete a machine or load balancer from a deployment. This action might result in an unusable deployment.
	Security groups	n  NSX-T n  NSX-V	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	If the security is not associated with any machine in the deployment, the process removes the security group from the deployment. n  If the security group is on-demand, then it is destroyed on the endpoint. n  If the security group is shared, the action fails.
Delete Disk Snapshot	Machines and disks	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete an Azure virtual machine disk or managed disk snapshot. This action is available when there is at least one snapshot.
Delete Snapshot	Machines	n  VMware vSphere n  Google Cloud Platform	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Delete a snapshot of the virtual machine.
Disable Boot Diagnostics	Machines	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Turn off the Azure virtual machine debugging feature. The Disable option is only available if the feature is turned on.
Edit Tags	Deploymen ts	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add or modify resource tags that are applied to individual deployment resources.
	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Power off the machine without shutting down the guest operating systems.
Power On	Deployments	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Power on the deployment. If the resources were suspended, normal operation resumes from the point at which they were suspended.
	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  Disc over ed n  On-boarded	Power on the machine. If the machine was suspended, normal operation resumes from the point at which the machine was suspended.
Reboot	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Reboot the guest operating system on a virtual machine. For a vSphere machine, VMware Tools must be installed on the machine to use this action.
Reconfigure	Load Balancers	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware NSX	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Change the load balancer size and logging level. You can also add or remove routes, and change the protocol, port, health configuration, and member pool settings. For NSX load balancers, you can enable or disable the health check and modify the health options. For NSX-T, you can set the check to active or passive. NSX-V does not support passive health checks.
	NSX Gateway port forwarding	n  NSX-T n  NSX-V	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add, edit, or delete the NAT port forwarding rules from an NSX-T or NSX-V gateway.
	Security Groups	n  NSX-T n  NSX-V n  VMware Cloud n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add, edit, or remove firewall rules or constraints based on whether the security group is an on- demand or an existing security group. n  On-demand security group   Add, edit, or remove firewall rules for NSX-T and VMware Cloud on-demand security groups. n  To add or remove a rule, select the security group in the topology pane,  click  the Action menu in the right pane, and select Reconfigure. You can now add, edit, or remove the rules. n  Existing security group   Add, edit, or remove constraints for existing NSX-V, NSX-T, and VMware Cloud security groups. n  To add or remove a constraint, select the security group in the topology pane, click the Action menu in the right pane, and select Reconfigure. You can now add, edit, or remove the constraints.
Refresh Terraform State	Terraform Configurati on	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Retrieve the latest iteration of the Terraform state file. To retrieve any changes that were made to the Terraform machines on the cloud platforms that they were deployed on and update the deployment, you first run this Refresh Terraform State action. To view the file, run the Get Terraform State action on the configuration. Use the deployment history tab to monitor the refresh process.
Remove Disk	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Remove disks from existing virtual machines. If you run the day 2 action on a deployment that is deployed as vSphere machines and disks, the disk count is reclaimed as it applies to project storage limits. The project storage limits do not apply to additional disks that you added after deployment as a day 2 action.
Reset	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Force a virtual machine restart without shutting down the guest operating system.
Resize	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  Google Cloud Platform n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Increase or decrease the CPU and memory of a virtual machine.
Resize Boot Disk	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Increase or decrease the size of your boot disk medium. If you run the day 2 action on a deployment that is deployed as vSphere machines and disks, and the action fails with a message similar to “The requested storage is more than the available storage placement,” it is likely due to the defined storage limits on your vSphere VM templates that are defined in the project. The project storage limits do not apply to additional disks that you added after deployment as a day 2 action.
Resize Disk	Storage disk	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Increase the capacity of a storage disk. If you run the day 2 action on a deployment that is deployed as vSphere machines and disks, and the action fails with a message similar to “The requested storage is more than the available storage placement,” it is likely due to the defined storage limits on your vSphere VM templates that are defined in the project. The project storage limits do not apply to additional disks that you added after deployment as a day 2 action.
	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Increase or decrease the size of disks included in the machine image template and any attached disks.
Restart	Machines	n  Microsoft Azure	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Shut down and restart a running machine.
Revert to Snapsh ot	Machines	n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Revert to a previous snapshot of the machine. You must have an existing snapshot to use this action.
Run Puppet Task	Managed resources	n  Puppet Enterprise	n  Deploye d n  On-boarded	Run the selected task on machines in your deployment. The tasks are defined in your Puppet instance. You must be able to identify the task and provide the input parameters.
Shutdo wn	Machines	n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed	Shut down the guest operating system and power off the machine. VMware Tools must be installed on the machine to use this action.
Suspen d	Machines	n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Pause the machine so that it cannot be used and does not consume any system resources other than the storage it is using.
Update	Deploymen ts	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Change the deployment based on the input parameters. For an example, see How to move a deployed machine to another network. If the deployment is based on vSphere resources, and the machine and disks include the count option,
Update Tags	Machines and disks	n  Amazon Web Service n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	Add, modify, or delete a tag that is applied to an individual resource.
Unregister	Machines	n  Amazon Web Service n  Google Cloud Platform n  Microsoft Azure n  VMware vSphere	n  Deployed n  On-boarded	The unregister action is only available for onboarded deployment machines. Unregistered machines are removed from the deployment, along with any attached disks. By removing the resources, you can then re-run the onboarding workflow for the unregistered machine. You might want to onboard the resource again, this time to a new project. If you make any changes to the machine, for example, add a disk, before unregistering the machine, the unregister action fails.

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