Request Cloud.pptx

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Cloud Orchestration with IBM Cloud Orchestrator
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2015
IBM Cloud Orchestrator as an integration
layer

IBM Cloud Orchestrator as an integration layer
Objectives
• Position IBM Cloud Orchestrator as integration layer with existing legacy applications
• Use REST API calls to build request from an external application to IBM Cloud Orchestrator
See examples of how IBM Cloud Orchestrator services can be invoked
• Use IBM Cloud Orchestrator to interact with legacy backends

Lesson 1: Usage examples

Default flow
Virtualization and Provisioning
Images and Patterns
Process Orchestration
• Functionality is exposed to users
through self-service offerings
• BPM human services render UI components
for direct interaction with the user
• BPM executes functionality
• Provisioning of a single virtual machine is passed
to OpenStack Nova for execution (On Premise)
• Provisioning of a virtual machine is submitted to a
public provider such as Amazon or SoftLayer (Off
Premise)

External front-end scenario
Virtualization and Provisioning
• A legacy system for offering and handling
of service requests already exists
• Users are not allowed to log in to the
self-service catalog of ICO
• Requests for provisioning or other actions
need to be invoked externally
• Approvals and notifications need to be handled
Legacy service provider

External back-end scenario
Provisioning (optional)
• One or more legacy systems that need
to be invoked during the process flow
• Calls to OpenStack might or might not be
part of the workflow
Legacy back-end
App A App B

IBM Cloud Orchestrator
as an integration layer
Combination of the two previous scenarios
Legacy back-end
App A App B

Lesson 2: Legacy front-end scenario

Technical challenges
• How can a self-service offering be triggered externally?
• How to design a self-service offering to make it easier to be invoked?
• How to claim Inbox assignments?
• How to process approval requests?

REST interface
• REST API
• Relevant Endpoints for
 Offering REST API
 Business Process Manager
Invoker REST API
• REST API is documented in the
IBM Cloud Orchestrator User’s
Guide, Chapter 10: Reference

REST call generic processing flow
• SimpleToken retrieval
from Keystone
• Basic HTTP
authentication
GET
GET
POST
PUT
POST/PUT/PATCH
DELETE

Example: IBM Cloud Orchestrator and Business Process Manager
curl -k -u Default/admin:passw0rd
https://orchestrator:443/orchestrator/v2/offerings
basic
authentication REST URL

Scenario 1: Self-service offerings
• In the general case, a self-service offering consists of human service and business process
• The user communicates through coaches and exchanges information
• The business process takes all actions that are required for execution of task
human service business process

Design considerations
• In the case of REST calls, the user does not see any panels from the coaches
• The information exchange is text-based
• Technically the execution is possible, but it is very implementation intensive and difficult
REST

Design considerations (2)
• One approach is to define a self-service offering without a human service
• In this case, the caller submits all input into the inputParameterObject instead of walking through
the human service and coaches
• This reduces complexity significantly, but requires specification of all parameters at the time of
invocation
REST
inputParameterObject

Design considerations (3)
• With IBM Cloud Orchestrator, you can define self-service offerings to be deployed with a business
process only and no human service even if an inputParameterObject is defined
• The self-service offerings start directly with the business process

Approach
• Prepare input parameter object in JSON format
• Obtain list of self-service offerings; identify the ID of the one that you want
Because there might be many, make sure to specify a limit on your curl call

Approach (2)
• Invoke self-service offering through REST API passing parameters in JSON form
• Verify invocation and correct passing of parameters (SystemOut.log)
Business process is invoked and active
params
login
address REST URI Offering ID action

Scenario 2: Claiming Inbox assignments
• After a process is executed, it might still need a
form of user interaction, for example, an approval
step
• There is a Task API, which allows processing for
user interaction
• Approach is similar to the invocation of a self-
service offering
1. Obtain a list of tasks
2. Identify the desired one
3. Invoke it and pass the required parameters in
JSON format
REST

Approach
• Obtain list of Inbox Assignments
• Locate the ID
• Analyze the data model

Approach (2)
• Prepare the call
• Observe execution and passing of variables (SystemOut.log)
• Observe execution and passing of variables (IBM Cloud Orchestrator user interface)
ID and action

Lesson 3: Legacy back-end scenario

Technical challenges
• What kind of API does a legacy
application expose?
• How can this API be invoked from the
context of IBM Cloud Orchestrator?
• Typical scenarios for back-ends
 Java interface
 REST interface
 Command-line script
Process
Orchestration
App A App B

Example of how to invoke in Java
Build JAR file (Simple example)

Approach
• Add JAR file to your process application or toolkit
• Build an integration service and add a Java integration

Java integration
• Invokes a method from a Java class, based on the Definition tab
• Data mapping converts the Business Process Manager variables to the arguments
for the method (input) and returns the result (output)

Product-provided REST interfaces
Input data mapping for Perform Rest Call Java integration
PerformRestCall
Integration
Service
variables

Student exercises

Summary
• Position IBM Cloud Orchestrator as integration layer with existing legacy applications
• Use REST API calls to build request from an external application to IBM Cloud Orchestrator
See examples how IBM Cloud Orchestrator services can be invoked
• Use IBM Cloud Orchestrator to interact with legacy backends

Request Cloud.pptx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Request Cloud.pptx

Similar to Request Cloud.pptx (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Request Cloud.pptx

Editor's Notes