Automation Orchestrator includes a collection of standard plug-ins. Each plug-in exposes an external product API to the Automation Orchestrator platform. Plug-ins provide inventory classes, additional object types for the scripting engine, and publish notification events from the external system. Each plug-in also provides a library of workflows for automating the typical use cases of the integrated external products.

You can see the list of installed plug-ins on the Manage Plug-Ins page in Control Center.

Table 1. Plug-Ins Installed with Automation Orchestrator
Plug-In Purpose Configuration
Active Directory Provides interaction between Automation Orchestrator and Microsoft Active Directory. See Configuring and the Auto Deploy Plug-In.
AMQP Interact with Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) servers, also known as brokers. See Configuring the AMQP Plug-In.
Auto Deploy Perform different operations associated with vCenter server ESXi hosts. See Configuring and the Auto Deploy Plug-In.
Configuration Provides workflows for configuring and managing the Automation Orchestrator server keystores and trusted certificates. None
Dynamic Types Define dynamic types and create and use objects of these dynamic types. See Using the Dynamic Types Plug-In.
Enumeration Provides common Enumerated Types that can be used in workflows by other plug-ins. See Time Zone Codes
HTTP-REST Manage REST Web services through an interaction between Automation Orchestrator and REST hosts. See Configuring the HTTP-REST Plug-In.
Library Provides workflows that act as basic building blocks for customization and automation of client processes. The workflow library includes templates for life-cycle management, provisioning, disaster recovery, hot backup, and other standard system management processes. You can copy and edit the templates to modify them according to your needs. None
Mail Uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send email from workflows.

Set the default values for the EmailMessage object to use.

See Define the default SMTP connection.

Multi-Node Contains workflows for hierarchical management, management of Automation Orchestrator instances, and scale-out of Automation Orchestrator activities. See Using the Multi-Node plug-in.
Net Uses the Jakarta Apache Commons Net Library. Provides implementations of the Telnet, FTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols. The POP3 and IMAP protocols is used for reading email. With the Mail plug-in, the Net plug-in provides complete email sending and receiving capabilities in workflows.
PowerShell Manage PowerShell hosts and run custom PowerShell operations. See Using the PowerShell plug-in.
SNMP Connect and receive information from SNMP-enabled systems and devices.
SOAP Manage SOAP Web services by providing interaction between Automation Orchestrator and SOAP hosts. See Configuring the SOAP plug-in.
SQL Provides the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API, which is the industry standard for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases. The databases include SQL databases and other tabular data sources, such as spreadsheets or flat files. The JDBC API provides a call-level API for SQL-based database access from workflows.
SSH Provides an implementation of the Secure Shell v2 (SSH-2) protocol. Allows remote command and file transfer sessions with password and public key-based authentication in workflows. Supports keyboard-interactive authentication. Optionally, the SSH plug-in can provide remote file system browsing directly in the Automation OrchestratorClient inventory. See Add an SSH Host.
vCenter Provides access to the vCenter API so that you can incorporate all the vCenter objects and functions into the management processes that you automate by using Automation Orchestrator. See Configuring the vCenter Server Plug-In.
vCloud Suite API (vAPI) Provides access to the API services exposed by any vAPI provider.
VMware Aria Automation The plug-in comes pre-installed with Automation Orchestrator deployments that are embedded in VMware Aria Automation. Integrates Automation Orchestrator with VMware Aria Automation. See Using the Automation Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware Aria Automation.
vSphere Update Manager (VUM) Provides interaction between Automation Orchestrator and VMware vSphere Update Manager/vSphere Lifecycle Manager. See Connect the vSphere Update Manager plug-in to vCenter.
XML A complete Document Object Model (DOM) XML parser that you can implement in workflows. Alternatively, you can use the ECMAScript for XML (E4X) implementation in the Automation Orchestrator JavaScript API.

Plug-In Components

The components of each plug-in, such as workflow categories and API modules, use different naming conventions.

Table 2. Names of Plug-In Components
Plug-In Name in the Configuration UI Workflow Categories API Module
Active Directory

Computer

Configuration

Organizational Unit

User

User Group

AD
AMQP Configuration AMQP
Auto Deploy

Answer Files

Configuration

Reprovision Host

Rules

Rule Set Compliance

 AutoDeploy
Configuration Configuration Configurator
Dynamic Types Configuration DynamicTypes
Common enumerated types None Enums
HTTP-REST Configuration REST
Library

Locking

Orchestrator

Tagging

Not applicable.
Mail Mail Mail
Orchestrator Multi-Node

Servers Configuration

Remote Execution

Remote Management

Tasks

Workflows

VCO
Net None Net
PowerShell

Configuration

Generate

Templates

PowerShell
SNMP

Device Management

Query Management

Trap Host Management

SNMP
SOAP Configuration SOAP
SQL

JDBC

SQL

SQL
SSH SSH SSH
Support None Support
vAPI VAPI VAPI
vCenter vCenter VC
VMware Aria Automation

Configuration

Infrastructure

 VRA
vSphere Update Manager Configuration VUM
XML XML XML