In recent months there have been a number of articles published about the Nutanix Calm DSL. For example, I’ve covered:
- Introducing the Nutanix Calm DSL
- Nutanix Calm DSL – Managing Projects
- From UI to Code – Calm DSL and Blueprint Decompile
There’s also the Nutanix Calm DSL “home page” on Nutanix.dev that nicely groups together all articles and a few extra resources to get you started.
Wiring it all together
I know, though, that many people (myself included) prefer to sit down and learn about a product via a more hands-on approach. That’s where today’s topic comes in – the Nutanix Calm DSL Lab 1.0.
This lab has been written from the perspective of someone that’s familiar with high-level I.T. administration tasks and so doesn’t walk through the deployment of the strongly recommended Ubuntu 20.04 virtual machine for example. What it does cover, however are the following topics.
- Preparation of an existing Ubuntu 20.04 VM so that it is ready for use with the Calm DSL
- Installation and use of the Calm DSL container
- Configuration of the Calm DSL container
- Creation of a new Calm project that will manage access permissions and default configurations
- Creating new Calm blueprints via the Calm DSL
- Launching Calm blueprints that were generated by the Calm DSL, from the Calm DSL
- Decompilation of existing blueprints so they can be easily modified as Python code
- Creating a Calm DSL blueprint from scratch and deploying it to Prism Central
- Publishing your new blueprint to the Nutanix Calm Marketplace, then launching it using the Calm DSL
These key topics are what I’d consider the most important when getting started with the Calm DSL.
Out of 5, this lab has been “rated” a 4, meaning it is intended for use by those with some exposure to I.T. administration tasks, e.g. the deployment of the Ubuntu 20.04 virtual machine mentioned above.
Check out the lab now by hitting the un-subtle button below and navigating to the “Automation” section.
Hopefully the lab will be useful and informative! Thanks for reading and have a great day. 🙂