If you are going to be using Orchestrator… and you should be, you are going to want to pull down and install the VIX plugin from here.

Why? I hope you are strapped into your seat, and that seat is bolted to the floor because the awesome fixing to drop will hit with a force so hard it will blow you over otherwise. Think on this situation:

“ZOMG We’re changing the network addressing scheme, and you… yes you need to change all of the IP addresses and gateways, in the next 45 minutes.”

Note: I know that’s a bit out there, but it happens.

Not sufficiently blown away? Look at some of my other posts on VIX to get a handle on the power the VIX API gives you for working inside the virtual machine.

Want some of this unadulterated automation awesomeness?

Pull down the bits from here, and follow these steps:

1. Extract the zip file:
   
2. Copy “VMware-vix-x64-1.10.1-266898.zip” to “C:\Program Files\VMware\” and extract it:
   
3. Edit the PATH variable on the system (System Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables) and add this:”C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware-vix-x64-1.10.1-266898”
   
4. Add the plugin to vCO:
   
5. Log into vCO check out the new workflows:
   

Summary

VIX really is some good stuff for taking your automation beyond basic VM building and allowing you to preform actions within the guest. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop a line in the comments or follow me on Twitter here.

We had a decent, if quick show last night, during with we covered VMRun/VIX, PowerCLI, and a few other things. Here are the show notes:

Video:

ProfessionalVMware VCAP-DCA BrownBag – Scripting & Automation from ProfessionalVMware on Vimeo.

Flash Cards:

Here they are… only 5 this time:
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/1599665

Objectives:

Objective 8.1 PowerCLI Notes:

• Getting started with PowerShell – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221100.aspx
• PowerCLI – http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/automationtools/powercli
• Update Manager cmd-lets – http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ps-libs/vumps/
• Hal’s book – http://amzn.to/g0WmPc
• Sean’s PowerCLI Section – http://www.vfail.net/other-pages/powercli/
• Getting Started with PowerCLI – http://www.virtu-al.net/2009/11/10/powercli-where-do-i-start/
• My VIX section – http://professionalvmware.com/?s=vix
• Sean’s 8.1 page: http://www.vfail.net/2010/09/07/vcap-dca-objective-8-1-execute-vmware-cmdlets-and-customize-scripts-using-powercli/

Objective 8.2 Orchestrator Notes:

N/A – We didn’t touch on Orchestrator this go around.s

Objective 8.3 vMA Notes:

There are any number of great resources here. Instead of covering this directly in the BrownBag, I decided to self reference a BrownBag we did in the past with Sean Crookston of vFail.net here.

Other Resources:

• Saffa Geek’s VCAP Prep page has been updated – http://thesaffageek.wordpress.com/vcap-dca-dcd/
• Sean Crookston’s VCAP-DCA page – http://www.vfail.net/vcap-dca/
• Sean’s result – http://www.vfail.net/2011/01/04/and-the-vcap-dca-results-are-in/

Summary

As this particular BrownBag was short, and we didn’t cover Orchestrator as well as we should have, so we’ll be doing the next BrownBag specifically on Orchestrator.

As always, if you’ve questions or comments, leave them here or drop a note on twitter.

No really, it is seriously awesome. Eric Sloof from NTPRO.nl has published a video that runs you through a little utility he wrote called “vmFilemanager”, then further shows you how to create such a utility using the free edition of Visual Basic 2008.

Online Training – Automating vSphere with the VIX API from Eric Sloof NTPRO.NL on Vimeo.

For more VIX goodness you can check out my past posts on VIX, as well as dive into this link provided by William Lam, http://bit.ly/dAm5NW

Why? Because it’s awesome, that’s why. Below is an example, complete with syntax and screenshots on how to defragment a windows guest using VMware’s VIX.

Here is what it looked like before:

Here is the command used from the host where VIX is installed:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VIX>vmrun -T esx -h https://vCenter.server.com/sdk –
u domain\user -p pass -gu domain\user -gp pass runProgramInGuest
"[Local Storage] vm/vm.vmx" C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe -f c:

A bit of explanation is needed there. In the vmrun command the “-T esx” specifies we connect to an ESX host, and the “-h http://” gives the URL to the SDK of either the host, or in this case, the vCenter (Virtual Center) that the host belongs to. The next sets of parameters specify a user on the vCenter, or ESX host “-u” & “-p” respectively. As well as a user and password for the guest “-gu” & “-gp”.

Next we specify that we want to run a program inside the guest “runProgramInGuest”, and then which guest to run it on “[Local Storage]… .vmx”

The last, and most important parts, are the actual command "C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe –f c:” I’ve found that it’s important to specify the entire path to the command you are accessing, as it seems VIX does not have visibility into your path variable.

So, now that we’ve done all that, what does our disk look like afterwards:

This is almost as good as a Peanut butter sandwich with Marshmallow cream. Or at least as good as the four shot “Venti’” mocha I just finished. It seems there is now some third part goodness from the VIX community, that will enable you to use it (VIX That is) with PowerShell. WOOT!

The original post from the VIX API blog is here.

Since my first few posts on this got a bit of attention, I thought I’d add some more to this. In today’s post we’ll cover adding or deleting a route, and setting a default route. I’ve got requests for others that will keep the next few weeks worth of VIX posts busy.

We’ll cover this against both a Windows and a Linux guest, because well… VIX is flexible like that. Remember, if you have any trouble, check that your VMware Tools are running, your command syntax is correct, and that you have the right user & password settings.

On Windows:

Traditionally this would be done by logging into the guest OS, and running one of the following commands:

Adding:
Temporary Route: route add 192.168.100.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.15.1 1
Permanent Route: route add -p 192.168.100.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.15.1 1

Deleting:
route delete 192.168.100.0

Doing this in VIX is as simple as:

Before:

Adding:
vmrun -T esx -h https://esx/sdk -u cody.bunch -p password -gu guest.user -gp guest.password runProgramInGuest "[datastore] vm/vmx.vmx" c:\windows\system32\route.exe add -p 192.168.100.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.15.1

Deleting:
vmrun -T esx -h https://esx/sdk -u cody.bunch -p password -gu guest.user -gp guest.password runProgramInGuest "[datastore] vm/vmx.vmx" c:\windows\system32\route.exe delete 192.168.100.0

Setting the default was accomplished back in our setting the IP address post.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VIX>vmrun -T esx -h https://esx.example.com/sdk -u nerv\cody.bunch -p apassword -gu Administrator -gp anotherpassword  runProgramInGuest “[sanstorage1] test/test.vmx” c:\windows\system32\netsh int ip set address “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.15.25 255.255.255.0 192.1

On Linux

On Linux, where my knowledge is quite limited, I’ve come to understand (thanks Google) that it’s as simple as the “route add –net” commands to add and delete routes. I did find however, that for making this route persistent, can vary across distro of choice, and thus I’ve not included it here.

Adding:
route add –net 192.168.100.0/24 gw 192.168.15.1

Deleting:
route del –net 192.168.100.0/24 gw 192.168.15.1

In VIX:

Before:

Adding:
vmrun -T esx -h http://dc01.nerv.local/sdk -u user -p password -gu root -gp rootpassword runProgramInGuest "[Local
Storage] shell.nerv.local/shell.nerv.local.vmx" /sbin/route add -net 192.168.10
0.0/24 gw 192.168.15.1

Deleting:
vmrun -T esx -h http://dc01.nerv.local/sdk -u user -p password -gu root -gp rootpassword runProgramInGuest "[Local
Storage] shell.nerv.local/shell.nerv.local.vmx" /sbin/route add -net 192.168.10
0.0/24 gw 192.168.15.1

See!

I will really have to install this soon to give a few examples as to how it all works. Until then, here are some examples from VMware’s VIX Blog team.

Use case: Restarting a service on Windows.

This one’s really easy so I’ll just show it without explanation.

    Example 3: Restart a service on Windows.
    vmrun -T esx -h https://esx.example.com/sdk -u root -p secretpw -gu user -gp userpw runProgramInGuest "[storage1] Windows/Windows.vmx" c:\windows\system32\net.exe restart dhcp

Note: That example should be all on one line.

Know what’s coming yet? No? Here are some wonderful VMware VIX things you can do while you think on it.

1. Install VMware Tools
2. Set IP
3. Snapshots
4. Reboot VM

These are all on one line. Note, the first two work, the second two at the time of this writing report “Error: Unknown error” (ESX in VIX 1.6.2 is still experimental, but I’ve an SR with these too)

Install VMware Tools

vmrun –T esx –h https://server/sdk –u user –p password –gu guestUser –gp guestPassword “[datastore] /vmfolder/vmname.vmx” installTools

Set IP

vmrun –T esx –h https://server/sdk –u user –p password –gu guestUser –gp guestPassword runProgramInGuest "[datastore] vm/vm.vmx" c:\windows\system32\netsh.exe int ip set address local static 192.168.15.25 255.255.255.0 192.168.15.1 1

Snapshots

vmrun –T esx –h https://server/sdk –u root –p pass snapshot “[datastore] vm/vm.vmx” test
vmrun –T esx –h https://server/sdk –u root –p pass deleteSnapshot “[datastore] vm/vm.vmx” test

Reboot VM

vmrun –T esx –h https://server/sdk –u someuser –p password reset “[datastore] vm/vm.vmx” soft

Let me know in the comments what you’re using VIX for.

As a demonstration of the power of VIX, I’ve chosen to show you how to change IP addresses of a Windows VM. You may want to buckle up for this.

First, grab the VIX API installable from VMware’s site. In this case we’ll be using the Windows version (because that is the VM I happen to be writing this post from). The install is quick and puts all the files into “%PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\VMware VIX”.

Lets get our command prompt open:

Cool, now lets check the IP of our Windows VM:

Now, lets change it:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VIX>vmrun -T esx -h https://esx.example.com/sdk -u nerv\cody.bunch -p apassword -gu Administrator -gp anotherpassword  runProgramInGuest “[sanstorage1] test/test.vmx” c:\windows\system32\netsh int ip set address “Local Area Connection” static 192.168.15.25 255.255.255.0 192.168.15.1

(That is all one line, the blog wrapped it)

Now for the lovely error!

Not rightly sure on that one. I’ve opened an SR for it. We’ll see how it goes.

So this will need further investigation on my part. On the surface it looks really cool:

“The VIX API allows development of scripts and programs to automate operations in guest virtual machines.”

Read that again. Now process. Automate operations IN the guest VM. Go here for the release notes.