....So in automation center we can set a custom property value to a blueprint or server build such as "VirtualMachine.Admin.Clustername" to override something in the default workflow like what cluster we are going to provision to.
If I start using the properties dictionary and I make a custom entry for VirtualMachine.Admin.Clustername and set it as a dropdown box I can effectively limit what the user can select...however, this limitation is going to be the same for ANY blueprint now that wants to use that custom property...so if I have blueprint #2 that I don't want to have access to one of those clusters as an option what am I to do?
Is the solution other people use to create a true custom property, mark it as a dropdown with whatever selections, and then as part of the default workflow have vCenter orcehstrator hooked in to read that custom value and then based on it's value set the actual VirtualMachine.Admin.Clustername? I am just finding the property dictionary to be extremly limiting in that I can only do each property once, I can only restrict values once, I can't provide user friendly names for the "values" unless I go this VCO route...am I on the right track?
IE"
The Objective:
Provide a dropdown for blueprint 1 that has cluster a and b as selections.
Provide a dropdown for blueprint 2 that has cluster c and d as a selection but not cluster a and b.
Provide a storage dropdown that has selections for storage based on value in the cluster dropdown (I think I can still do this with the XML with ONE instance of the custom property since it is just going to look at the value in the cluster dropdown and won''t have all options available)
Also:
Is it common to use the machine blueprint in this way where all of my true custom stuff I will have performed with Hooks into VCO, or is this a dumb idea? Should I be depending on VCO using advanced services designer to do the entire vm provision from start to finish?