View and Action DFA Requests

DFA Requests (DFA.Rs) record the changes and modifications to Managed VMware VMs managed by the Delegated Financial Authority (DFA) functionality. 

 

For an overview of the DFA and how it operates in CloudCreator, see Overview of DFA Functionality.

 

Topics

View All DFA Requests

To view a list of DFA Requests (DFA.Rs) from any screen in CloudCreator, follow the steps below.

 

1. Click the DFA Requests icon    in the sidebar.

 

2. If your company is using multiple virtual clouds, click the cloud name at the top of your screen. Select the required parent or child cloud from the dropdown menu. 

 

 

3. The DFA Requests screen appears. Here you can view all DFA requests by selecting either Unapproved, Approved, or All. Each of these tabs, and the information they display, are described below. 

 

Note: The number that appears next to the tab name 'Unapproved' is the number of DFA.Rs that a logged on user can action. The screenshot above shows that there are 4 DFA.R's that can be actioned. 

 

 

4. The table below describes the function of each tab in the DFA Requests screen.

 

Tab Description

Unapproved

 

These are the DFA.Rs waiting to be approved or declined. Click the DFA Request Number, to view and action a DFA.R. See Approve or Decline a DFA Request.

 

As soon as a DFA.R is approved or declined, it will drop off the list. A DFA.R may also disappear from the list if it is approved or declined by another user. See DFA Request States to find out more about Unapproved status.

 

Approved (unapplied)

 

 

These are the DFA.Rs that are approved and unapplied. Click on a DFA Request Number to view and apply a DFA.R. See Apply a DFA Request. To find out more about Approved status, see DFA Request States.

 

All

These are all the DFA.Rs for the virtual cloud, not limited by who created them, or their current state.

 

Here you can:

  • Search for DFA.Rs, by multiple criteria, including the $ amount approved by a specific user, over a given time period.
  • View the changes made to a resource in a specific time period.
  • Locate DFA.Rs that have 'gone stale', and are unable to be approved or applied.
  • See all the DFA.Rs you have approved and their current status including:
    • approved but not yet applied
    • applied, or
    • cancelled (deliberately not applied despite having been approved). See DFA Request States to find out more about the 'cancelled' status.
  • Click on a DFA Request Number to view the Manage DFA Request screen.

 

 

Approve or Decline a DFA Request

 
Only users with a DFA Level equal to or greater than the value of a DFA.R can view and approve or decline DFA Requests.
 
Follow these steps:
 
1. Click on the DFA Request Number from any of the screens described above.
 
2. The Manage DFA Request screen appears. Here you can:
  • View the details of the VM being created (or modified).
  • View information provided by the requestor to allow the approver to have all the information they need to approve the DFA.R.
  • Approve or decline the DFA.R.

 

 
3. Review all the information, including any additional information provided by the requestor.
 
4. Select either Approve or Decline and add a note to explain why you have approved or declined the request. This is important for any future reviews of your decision.
 
5. If the requestor has opted to be notified of the approval or decline, they will receive an email notifying them of the approval or decline.
 

6. If a previously approved DFA.R no longer needs to be performed, then the DFA.R must be cancelled. See Cancel a DFA Request.

 

Approving or declining a DFA.R is irrevocable. If the DFA still needs to be performed, a new DFA.R needs to be raised.

Apply a DFA Request

Once a DFA.R is approved, the requestor (or anyone else with the required roles in CloudCreator) can apply the DFA.R.

 

Follow these steps to apply a DFA.R:

 

1. From the DFA Requests screen for your virtual cloud, select the Approved tab. Click on the DFA Request Number.

 

 

2. The Manage DFA Request screen appears. Click Perform Create.

 

Note: If your user role (eg. VM Admin) allows, you can change a DFA.R once it has been approved.

 

 

3. Once the DFA.R is applied, the resource is moved from the 'From' state to the 'To' state. There may be other steps or checks during this action that are specific to the technology involved. For example, when applying a change to a VMware VM, you may be asked to reboot the machine.

 

Cancel a DFA Request

The Cancel action appears on any DFA.R that has not been completed. You can cancel the proposed changes without them being applied (before or after approval).

 

Examples of a DFA Request in Action

The examples below use a VMware subscription as the context.

 

Scenario

The organisation chooses to create two DFA levels; $20 and $500. This means the organisation has the following DFA levels and users assigned to them:

 

DFA Level Name

DFA Level Value

Comment

Assigned User

$Zero

$0
  • One of two default DFA levels.
  • This is the default DFA level for all users except Global Admins and Cloud Admins.

Bob

Level 2

$20

 

Ted

Level 3

$500

 

Alice

$Unlimited

$Unlimited
  • One of two default DFA levels.
  • This is the default DFA level for Global Admins and Cloud Admins.

Jeff

 

Example 1

Gavin attempts to change the tier of a VM to a lesser level of performance. He also adds a very small, additional drive. This causes a slight reduction to the cost of the VM.

As the ‘cost of the change’ (ie: the value of the DFA.R) is less than $0, then:

  • The VM modification will not be stopped by the DFA controls.
  • The DFA.R that encapsulates the modification will still be auto-created (with auto-populated information of the user as approver).
  • The user will still be faced with the question of allowing a reboot of the VM if the modification requires it, otherwise the change can go through immediately.

 

Example 2

Lara attempts to change the tier of a VM to a higher level of performance. This means the cost of the VM will be more than previously; eg. an increase of $12/month.

As the cost of the change is greater than Lara's ‘DFA Level Zero', Lara has the option of changing the configuration to something that is within her approval level, or to submit the DFA.R for approval.

 

Lara chooses to submit the DFA.R for approval. The following table describes the approval process:

 

Stage Description
1

Lara is shown a list of users who can approve the DFA.R. She sees the names of James, Sarah and Bart. Lara selects Bart but could select more people to request approval for the change. Because Lara is able to choose the people to be notified, this reduces the ‘spam’ effect of notifying too many people about a single modification. 
2

The VM is “locked” and no further edits to the configuration are allowed until the DFA.R is either completed, cancelled via CloudCreator, or becomes stale.

 

The only VM actions available after the change is submitted for approval are 'View VM Details' and 'Power on/off'. All VMs with pending changes are 'locked' in this way.
3

A DFA.R is created in CloudCreator, which auto-selects a DFA.R number (system incrementing) and records:

  • Current state of the VM.
  • Intended state of the VM.
  • Requestor’s details.
  • Value of the DFA.R.
  • Date and time the request is made.
  • Confirmation by the requestor as to whether or not a reboot is required at the time of change.
  • Details entered by the requestor justifying the modification (to enable the approval to be expedited).
4

Bart receives an email notifying him that the change has been requested by Lara. Bart views the DFA Requests screen in CloudCreator and selects the 'Unapproved' tab. This screen shows a list of outstanding DFA.Rs awaiting approval by Bart, and the DFA.Rs he has requested. The ‘history’ option shows all DFA.Rs including those that Bart has previously approved, declined or requested.
5

Bart locates the DFA.R by:

  • Searching by DFA.R number, requestor name, VM ID, or
  • Scrolling through a list of unapproved requests sorted by date/time.

If Bart chooses to:

  • Approve the requested change, it is marked as approved, and can be applied by Lara.
  • Decline the requested change, it is disabled and marked as declined.
6

When the DFA.R is approved or declined:

  • Bart updates the DFA.R with Approve or Decline, and the date/time stamp. He also adds comments about the reason for the decision.
  • Lara is notified by email that the VM change has been approved or declined, together with any notes that were added to the DFA.R. 
  • The DFA.R is removed from the list of Unapproved DFA.R's visible to Bart, Sarah and James.
  • The DFA.R is added to the list of historical DFA.Rs visible to Bart and Lara.
7 Once the DFA.R is approved, Lara views the DFA.R and 'Applies' the change.

 

 

Run a DFA Request Report

 

To find out more about the reports available in CloudCreator, see Reports.

The DFA Requests report provides the details of all DFA Requests within a specific date range. Follow these steps to run the report:

1. From any screen in CloudCreator, click the reports icon  on the side menu.

 

2. The Reports screen appears. Select the Run List Reports tab. Then click Select Report > DFA Requests. 

 

 

3. Click Date Range and select the dates you want to view. If required, click the Simple Format checkbox to produce a simple column layout report that can be exported to Excel.

 

4. Click Run Report. The DFA Requests report will be generated.

 

 

 

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