An automation developer has been tasked with creating a Self-Service multi-VM blueprint to deploy a...

In the Nutanix Self-Service (Calm) Blueprint lifecycle, tasks are executed in a specific order relative to the provisioning of the infrastructure (Substrate).

Pre-Create Task:This is the specific phase designed to run scripts or set variablesbeforethe VM provision call is sent to the provider (AHV).

Workflow:

The developer creates a pre-create task (e.g., a Python script) to generate the custom hostname string based on logic (e.g., date, user input, or sequence).

The script outputs this string to a variable (e.g., @@{vm_hostname}@@).

The VM Service configuration (Substrate) references this variable in the "VM Name" or "Hostname" field.

Execution:When the blueprint launches, the pre-create task runs first, populates the variable, and then the VM creation occurs using that calculated name.

Tasks in post-create or package-install (Options B and C) runafterthe VM has already been provisioned and named, making them too late for this requirement.