Errands

Errands are scripts that Tanzu Operations Manager runs automatically when it installs or uninstalls a product, such as a new version of TAS for VMs. There are two types of errands: post-deploy errands run after the product is installed, and pre-delete errands run before the product in uninstalled.

By default, Tanzu Operations Manager always runs all errands.

In the Errands pane, you can change these run rules. For each errand, you can select On to run it always or Off to never run it.

For more information about how Tanzu Operations Manager manages errands, see Managing Errands in Tanzu Operations Manager.

Important Several errands, such as App Autoscaler and Notifications, deploy apps that provide services for your deployment. When one of these apps is running, selecting Off for the corresponding errand on a subsequent installation does not stop the app.

• The Smoke Test Errand verifies that your deployment can do the following:

  • Push, scale, and delete apps
  • Create and delete orgs and spaces

• The Usage Service Errand deploys the Usage Service app on which Apps Manager depends.

• The Offline Docs Errand deploys an offline documentation app that can be used in air-gapped environments.

• The Apps Manager Errand deploys Apps Manager, a dashboard for managing apps, services, orgs, users, and spaces. Until you deploy Apps Manager, you must perform these functions through the cf CLI. After you first deploy Apps Manager, VMware recommends setting this errand to Off for subsequent TAS for VMs deployments. For more information about Apps Manager, see Getting started with apps Manager.

• The Notifications Errand deploys an API for sending email notifications to your TAS for VMs platform users.

  Important The Notifications app requires you to configure a user name and password for your SMTP server, even if you select None from the SMTP authentication mechanism drop-down menu in the Email Notifications pane of the TAS for VMs tile. To configure a user name and password for your SMTP server, see Configure email notifications.

• The Notifications UI Errand deploys a dashboard through which users can manage their notification subscriptions.

• The App Autoscaler Errand pushes the App Autoscaler app, which allows you to configure your apps to automatically scale in response to changes in their load. For more information, see Scaling an App Using App Autoscaler.

• The App Autoscaler Smoke Test Errand runs smoke tests against App Autoscaler.

• The NFS Broker Errand pushes the NFS Broker app, which supports NFS volume services for TAS for VMs. For more information, see Enable NFS Volume Services in Enabling Volume Services.

• The Metric Registrar Smoke Test Errand verifies that the Metric Registrar can access custom metrics that an app emits and convert them into Loggregator metrics.

  Important The Metric Registrar Smoke Test errand runs only if the Metric Registrar is deployed. For more information about configuring the Metric Registrar, see Metric Registrar and Custom App Metrics.

• The SMB Broker Application Errand pushes the SMB Broker app, which supports SMB volume services for TAS for VMs. For more information, see Enable SMB volume services in Enabling Volume Services.

• The Rotate CC Database Key translates sensitive data in the Cloud Controller database to the key that is marked as Primary in the Cloud Controller pane of the TAS for VMs tile. You configure this key in the Encryption key ledger field of the Cloud Controller pane.