Create A Self-service Catalog Item
Introduction
Go to Services → Catalogs.
Currently there are no catalogs, but we will be creating a new one now. We need a few things:
- A service dialog to gather user input
- An automation workflow that will be responsible of creating the VM
- A catalog to show the user
- A catalog item within that catalog to put all together
Using the service catalog to create a service
Creating the dialog
Let’s start creating the dialog. Dialogs are part of Automate, so go to Automate → Customization and select Service Dialogs in the accordion.
Press Configuration → Add a New Dialog
Choose a name for it
Dialogs require a Tab, a Box and a Element. The Dialog loads with a Tab and Box, so you will need to add an Element to your Dialog.
We will be adding a checkbox that prints “Are you sure?” with a checkbox, but we won’t be doing anything with the answer…
Creating a catalog
You need a catalog for the user to choose from it. Let’s create a catalog with a basic name and description
Go to Services → Catalogs and choose Catalogs in the accordion.
Press Configuration → Add a New Catalog and fill the fields. As there are no catalog items yet, you won’t see any in the Assign Catalog Items tabs.
Creating a catalog item####
Let’s add all together, so the user can order a service instead of doing a traditional provisioning.
Navigate to Services → Catalogs and Select Catalog Items in the accordion, and within it the catalog you just created
Add a new Configuration → Add a New Catalog Item
Select Google as Catalog Item type and you will get a dialog to configure what will happen when the customer orders the item. Don’t forget to select Display in Catalog to be make it available.
Fill the description in details and fill Request Info with the same data you did in the traditional provisioning.
When finished, press Add
Now you will be able to see your service catalog and the item will be orderable within Service Catalogs in the accordion.
Ordering a service####
Go to the Service catalog again. Now you can see your catalog item as part of the catalog. You can order it pressing the Order below the icon.
A service item can be more complex than a single VM, including bundles and items that comprise different providers, and are provisioned through a series of automation workflows. The dialog we created will be used to gather information from the customer, hiding all the complexity of the details needed to actually deploy any of the components.
Services has their own life cycle on top of the lifecycle of its components. With the appropriate permissions you can see the resources associated to it in each moment
Ordering consists of different phases that are outside of the scope of this guide.
Press Administrator|EVM in the upper right part of the screen, and then Logout.
Once you are logged out, enter https://[your IP ADDRESS]]/self_service in your web browser. This is the self service interface, that can be used to isolate you from the nuances of the underlying infrastructure.
The Service UI allows for a more simple design for end users compared to the Operational UI.
