WFA 2.0: Is it possible to start data acquisition as part of a workflow?

[TIMHOIBERG]

Hi,

I'm wondering if it's possible to start a data acquisition from within a workflow? As a standard I refresh the monitors on the array I'm making the changes to but I'd like to also start a data acquisition as well instead of waiting for the next scheduled acquisition.

Regards,

Tim

[shailaja · Accepted solution]

Hi Tim,

It is possible to do it by writing a custom command which uses REST APIs on the WFA server.

There are REST APIs to do an on-demand data source acquisition. You can refer to https://communities.netapp.com/docs/DOC-21510 (Page 47 onwards..)

Also, note that if you have just triggered a refresh on OnCommand side, I hope you are also waiting for the monitor refresh to complete. Otherwise, the acquisition will not be useful.

Also, if you are using certified commands, there is also some amount of book-keeping WFA keeps on the type of action taken by the commands of the workflow. This is the reservation component.

So, in general, I would suggest you be careful in not calling it too many times unnecessarily as it may lead to unwanted load.

Thanks,

Shailaja

[yaronh]

Just to add to Shailaja's comment:

While this is possible and there are uses where you'd like to do that - Bear in mind that even if you manage to acquire fresh info,

it will not have impact on that workflow's planning.

Since planning is set and is finite prior to execution - What happens during the execution cannot impact later stages of the workflow even if new information

had been acquired during the flow.

Yaron

[TIMHOIBERG]

Thanks Yaron and Shailja,

I understand it won't affect the workflow, I have a webapp that uses the WFA database to display info about our environment, and being able to programmatically refresh the data is something I want to do for that rather than for a workflow.

[hill]

Hi Tim,

Can you possibly contact me offline (hill@netapp.com) to discuss your use case?  We are exploring similar options internally, and would like to understand a bit more around this use case.

Thanks!

Kevin.