VMware Communities : All Content - Virtual Disk Development Kit

How do I find the VixVolumeInfo.inGuestMountPoints for volumes that are mounted on a clean NTSF folder

red0mark — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:46:31 GMT

I have a vm guest with 2 disks… the boot disk is mounted at C: but the second disk it mounted on a founder in the C: file system.

E.g.
C:\drivef is a mount point for my second disk.

The VixVolumeInfo for the inGuestMountPoints is null so is there another way I can determine that the mound point is C:\drivef

Thanks,
-Ron

VixDiskLib_Open on RDM (Raw Device Mapping) always returns VIX_E_FILE_ALREADY_LOCKED

red0mark — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:11:35 GMT

Will this be fixed in an up coming VDDK release? We don't want to power off all our vm's just to take snapshots and backup the files.

Thanks,
-Ron

How to use VixDiskLib_Attach?

tos2k — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:48:42 GMT

When I want to open a delta file for writing, what is the recommended flag to use then:

VIXDISKLIB_FLAG_OPEN_UNBUFFERED or VIXDISKLIB_FLAG_OPEN_SINGLE_LINK ? What is the difference? Where is documentation on that?

Will the data be handled correctly by the ESX, or will the ESX write the data "directly" to the delta file specified??

Tos2k

vmdk specification with vsphere

RColbert — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:10:11 GMT

Thin provisioned disks are a different disk type noted in disk types for VDDK 1.1.

Limit on the number of mounted disks

giladb — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:42:37 GMT

Is there a limit on the number of simultaneous virtual disk that can be mounted with vmware-mount ?
What about mounting VDDK ?

Assuming I am mounting the disks on a Linux machine, is there a limit from the Linux side ?

VixDiskLib Opening delta disks (snapshots

tos2k — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:29:15 GMT

Hi!
I think there is nothing to fix according to the error codes.
Everything worx like expected:

opening files for READ only (no limitation concerning vmdk files!)
opening (parent/base) vmdk files for WRITE (SINGLE_LINK)

The only thing that is crashing is opening delta files with SINGLE_LINK.
I am assuming that this is due the format of delta files: Is there any documentation about that? Or is write access limited due undocumented format of delta files?

Tos2k

Opening a child disk fails

tos2k — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:38:08 GMT

Opening delta files does not work for me either:

I use VixDiskLib to open vmdk files. That works for parent vmdk with both read and single. I can also open delta vmdks with read permission, but it fails with VIXDISKLIB_FLAG_OPEN_SINGLE_LINK

What is the status on that? Can we expect to fix that soon? Or is it an issue? Should we file a SR too?

Tos2k

Which version of 'fuse/libfuse' will work with VMware vMA 4.0 & VDDK 1.1 ?

Tashi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:55:52 GMT

Hi,

I have the same issue. I am working on linux suse 10 SP 1.

I have installed fuse version 2.8.1 (and the 2.7.4 just to try).

sles10SP164bit:~ # /etc/init.d/fuse status
Checking fuse filesystem ok.

If I try to start vmware-mount I have this message:

sles10SP164bit:~ # vmware-mount -h 10.1.1.38 -u adm "[cbst03_lun_F] VM_for_backup/VM_for_backup.vmdk" /mnt/disk/
Failed to mount disk '[cbst03_lun_F] VM_for_backup/VM_for_backup.vmdk': The VMware fuse daemon failed to start

sles10SP164bit:~ # vmware-mount -h 10.1.1.38 -u adm "[cbst03_lun_F] VM_for_backup/VM_for_backup.vmdk" /mnt/disk/
Failed to mount disk '[cbst03_lun_F] VM_for_backup/VM_for_backup.vmdk': A system call has failed

Any ideas?

Thanks

Mario

vmware-install.pl empty

Tashi — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:09:25 GMT

Yahoooo! That was the problem.
Thank you a lot for your help!
Mario

What is tmpdir used for ?

sudarsan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:43:18 GMT

You won't see these files on Linux. Perhaps rather than X days, an upper limit may be more apt ?

On Linux, this directory is used to create partition mount points. Of course, you should not delete them while stuff is mounted.

Thanks
Sudarsan

Failed to open vmdk

MissionaryLiao — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:22:20 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. After testing, the real connection happens at VixDiskLib_Open, but not VixDiskLib_Connect.

For another question, I found that I can connect to Virtual-Center, but not LAN-connect with my ESXi server.

After I checked the log of vmware-mount.exe(_vmount.log_), I found that it would try to access ESXi server but not only Virtual-Center.

I check the appendix section of VDDK programming guide, I think this is because I tried to mount disk in LAN-mode.

But there is no way for vmware-mount.exe to change mount-mode.

Mission.

VixDiskLib_Cleanup

rahqa — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:39:46 GMT

VixDiskLib_Cleanup : Remove leftover transports.

If virtual machine state was not cleaned up correctly after connection shut down, VixDiskLib_Cleanup() removes extra state for each virtual machine. Its three parameters specify connection, and pass back the number of virtual machines cleaned up, and the number remaining to be cleaned up. int numCleanedUp, numRemaining; VixError vixError = VixDiskLib_Cleanup(&cnxParams,&numCleanedUp,
&numRemaining);

-> VixDiskLib_Disconnect() near the end of program, and for safety add a VixDiskLib_Cleanup() call immediately afterwards.

Writing via SAN

sudarsan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:45:35 GMT

The backup guide has some example code - we are working on an expanded sample to show some of these capabilities.

To answer your other question, SAN does need a snapshot because of an implementation quirk. Writing via SAN is supported.

Thanks
-Sudarsan

Mapping disk to drive letter

sudarsan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:42:43 GMT

It is a bit convoluted, hopefully you can make it all work:

You need libraries to parse the NTFS and / or FAT
You also need code to parse the mbr and get the offsets for the volumes
Looking at the MBR, you can find which is the system volume - and from here get either boot.ini or boot bcd.
Once you have the volume offsets, you can parse the ntfs / fat file system structures to get to the boot.ini (or bcd hive) and look for the boot volume (the one that has windows directory)
You can then read the registry file and parse it in anyway you like

There are some additional issues with dynamic volumes - but once you have the above working, it is not that difficult.

Thanks
Sudarsan

VixDiskLib Reading/Writing

sudarsan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:11:49 GMT

Probably missing "times j" in the sentence ....

-Sudarsan

vmware-mount of vmdk in ovf

sudarsan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:36:31 GMT

OVF format does not allow random read/write access. So mount would not work. The only way I can think of is to convert to a flat / sparse disk and mount the disk, do your modifications and re-compress it to OVF.

Thanks.
Sudarsan

PS: vmware-mount should really detect the disk to be of OVF format but goes ahead and mounts the disk, but it does not.

VDDK Logging

giladb — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:04:03 GMT

When calling both VixDiskLib_InitEx and VixMntapi_Init my code provides all three logging functions.
Yet, there are still messages written to standard output, such as

[2009-10-29 11:51:47.209 B763BB30 info 'App'] Current working directory: /mnt/disk2/home/devel/trunk
[2009-10-29 11:26:10.017 B75A3B30 trivia 'SOAP'] Sending soap request to [TCP:10.10.42.200:443]: retrieveContent
[2009-10-29 11:26:10.021 B75A3B30 trivia 'SOAP'] Received soap response from [TCP:10.10.42.200:443]: retrieveContent
[2009-10-29 11:26:10.022 B75A3B30 trivia 'SOAP'] Sending soap request to [TCP:10.10.42.200:443]: GetConfig
[2009-10-29 11:26:10.032 B75A3B30 trivia 'SOAP'] Received soap response from [TCP:10.10.42.200:443]: GetConfig

How can these messages be prevented, or redirected to my own logging functions ?

Virtual Appliance deployment degradation on vSphere4

diego2 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:47:00 GMT

Hello esloof,

I use cygwin.

VixDiskLib_Read/Write performance

sudarsan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:45:40 GMT

I can reproduce this behavior, I will update with status once we decide on what next.

Thanks for pointing this out,
Sudarsan

Connecting via Virtual Center

sudarsan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:56:51 GMT

Moref formats can vary from version to version and from VC to esx. As for the best way to get this during development, I use the managed object viewer, https://<esx|vc>/mob - which gives you enough detail.

Snapshot is required if you are planning on using SAN transport (I am not 100% sure about hotadd) - if not, you can safely ignore this parameter.

Sudarsan

Creating disks with type VIXDISKLIB_DISK_VMFS_THIN

Lakshmi Gayatri — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:05:21 GMT

True,

This has been already reported as a bug.

VDDK Redistribution questions

giladb — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:03:23 GMT

Is that a response to the files needed for Linux or for the curl question ?
I assume the latter.
Could you please answer the other question as well ?

Thanks

Next VDDK Version ?

sudarsan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:45:21 GMT

Thanks!

Some of these are on our list already. Supporting GetOSInfo on Linux will involve ntfs / registry understanding code on Linux - and is not something high on the list.

-Sudarsan

How to monitor vmware-mount.

rahul_bck — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:37:37 GMT

Hi Ayrus,

vmware-mount doesn't show any such progress on the VI client task bar as they are related to the disk APIs (VDDK : VixMntApi) and the tasks showing progress on VI are linked with VISDK API calls. So i guess when you use the VixMntAPi API with any mount utility you program, you should be able to print out the progress within that itself.Hope that helps.

Thanks

Rahul

VixMntapi_GetOsInfo Fails

giladb — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:44:52 GMT

Thanks.
It would be helpful if you could include it in future documentation and/or header files.
Even better would be to simply not expose it, so it fails compilation and saves the developer a lot of precious time

Multiple threads created by VDDK

giladb — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:04:46 GMT

The transport parameter I am supplying for VixDiskLib_ConnectEx is NULL.
All storage is local on the ESX.
I am running a Linux app which connects to the ESX; I prefer connecting to the VC but that's a different issue

can't mount remote vmdk

kinc — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:37:37 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to use vmware-mount to remotely mount a vmdk on our ESX 4 server,
but can't seem to be able to:

bash-3.2# vmware-mount -h esx -u root -F /root/infoblox 'Storage1Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmdk' /tmp/vmdk
Failed to open disk: Unknown error (1)
Failed to mount disk 'Storage1Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmdk': Cannot open the virtual disk
bash-3.2# vmware-mount -h esx -u root -F /root/infoblox 'Storage1VMware Studio/VMware Studio.vmdk' /tmp/vmdk
Failed to open disk: Unknown error (1)
Failed to mount disk 'Storage1VMware Studio/VMware Studio.vmdk': Cannot open the virtual disk
bash-3.2# vmware-mount -h esx -u root -F /root/infoblox 'Storage1rsp-esx.vmdk' /tmp/vmdk
Failed to open disk: Unknown error (1)
Failed to mount disk 'Storage1rsp-esx.vmdk': Cannot open the virtual disk
bash-3.2#

On our ESX server, the name of the datastore is Storage1, and I can see the
vmdk's there:

~~root@localhost /~~# find /vmfs/volumes/ | grep vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/esxconsole-4ad3c62b-d3d4-4d04-a6f9-00304834fd8a/esxconsole-flat.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/esxconsole-4ad3c62b-d3d4-4d04-a6f9-00304834fd8a/esxconsole.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/Ubuntu/Ubuntu-flat.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/VMware Studio/VMware Studio-flat.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/VMware Studio/VMware Studio.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/rsp-esx-flat.vmdk
/vmfs/volumes/4ad3c6c2-bdf33934-0aaf-00304834fd8a/rsp-esx.vmdk
~~root@localhost /~~#

This is the vmware-mount I used:

bash-3.2# vmware-mount -v
vmware-mount: option requires an argument -- 'v'
VMware DiskMount Utility version 2.0.1, build-156745
...

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Kin

VDDK 1.0 Managed Wrapper

fixitchris — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:59:14 GMT

VDDK .NET wrapper?

fixitchris — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:31:11 GMT

Thanks for the extra sigs.

tos2k, can you post some code? Are you incrementing the array by 512, keeping in mind that VB defines the upper bound instead of the array size?

VDDK redistributable size and installation

Lexus16 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:46:25 GMT

The question is moved here.

Open multiple disks with SAN transport

Lakshmi Gayatri — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:49:51 GMT

Vladimir,

you can use VixDiskLib_Open() to open disks inside a VM(one call for one disk) and then use VixMntapi_OpenDiskSet().

Hope this helps.

If your query is answered, please mark as "Answered".

Bytes/sector for vmdk

sudarsan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:18:26 GMT

There is also a definition in vixDiskLib.h

#define VIXDISKLIB_SECTOR_SIZE 512

-Sudarsan

SISTEMISTI SENIOR WINDOWS / WMWARE

GeRiKoOnE — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:05:05 GMT

Salve a tutti!

Si ricercano urgentemente due Sistemisti Senior Windows / Wmware per l'area di Verona.

Durata del contratto: un anno.

Gli interessati sono pregati di mandare il Curriculum Vitae a job@adfor.it specificando in oggetto "Candidatura Sistemista Vmware".

Grazie e a presto.

VDDK Implementation Difficulty Question

RColbert — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:05:14 GMT

I wasn't particularly concerned about trying to boot from vmdk (though that would be an awesome feature).

Being a novice at this, I was thinking that the block level read/write capabilities of the VDDK would be enough for the MS Virtual Disk Service stack to pick up. If that were true, then it would (hopefully) be fairly easy to write a provider mode driver. I know that Paragon Software has a partitioning manager that can work with the raw VMDK format to do the internal partitioning. My hope was to integrate that same feature into the native tools provided by the host OS.

I'll poke around and see if I can put something together creating a VDS capable driver for VDDK.

vss-manifest.zip file on ESX 4.0?

Lakshmi Gayatri — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:15:50 GMT

Ashwin,

The snapshot taken from the VI client by default does not cause VSS to get engaged while snasphotting unless you select the check box "Quiesce File system" .

You can do the snapshotting even via VI SDK.

VxDiskLib_Create problem on non-standard filesystem

sudarsan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:24:55 GMT

Great you figured it out.

Just so you know, that list of attributes might change from release to release.

Also, are you sure you tried both faking the name as NTFS and mapping to drive letter at the same time - that should work.

I agree with you about the max size property, we won't be having this conversation then.

Thanks
Sudarsan

vixDiskLib > Managed

tos2k — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:03:41 GMT

Do you know what is the right port to use for VixDiskLib calls?
http://communities.vmware.com/message/897988

Looks like using your wrapper worx for both, 443 as 902???

How can I overwride the logging of VixDiskLib functions with your wrapper?

Tos2k

Changed Block Tracking

rahqa — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:19:50 GMT

Another thing i would want you to confirm from the VI client front is that, when you add the line ctkEnabled (value = true), under VM edit settings -> options -> advanced -> configuration parameters -> you need to ensure that you need to add lines for the individual VMDKs. I e along with the line ctkEnabled = true, there should be other lines for the VMDKs as well. For ex : scsi0:0.ctkEnabled = true; scsi0:1.ctkEnables = true and so on.

hope this helps

Thanks

Rahul

Can`t find best way of remote management

DinoPozzo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:50:49 GMT

Thanks for all of your responses guys! All the responses about using SttarWind are very helpfull. I like it cause of its reliability, high functionality and simplicity.

Using VixMntApi to create files

sudarsan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:45:23 GMT

If you are using VixMntapi to write to a powered off snapshot, it would work - of course, you should be aware that you are writing outside the control of the guest OS, so it is like taking the disk and inserting into another machine.

So, note a few complications:

If there are any storage / file system filter drivers in the guest, they will not be aware of these changes - so they may react badly to such changes (VSS, backup software etc.). As another example, there is no longer A/V protection for these 'off-line' writes or at least the protection is different from that provided by the guest os.

If NTFS versions do not match, some versions of Windows will try to upgrade the new volume's NTFS. This might or might not be what you want - the same may apply to other file systems.

-Sudarsan

Create vmdk on ESX using VDDK

wendyxiao — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:44:52 GMT

Hello there,

I guess you are using API to clone your disk. You specify the vmxSpec in the _Connect function, then you call _Clone method. There must be a .vmdk file existed, the _Clone method will over-write the existed .vmdk. If there is no .vmdk file existed, the _Clone method will not create the new .vmdk file for you.

The workaround would be

1) you make a dummy .vmdk with the same .vmdk filename you would clone, then call the _Clone method.

2) use the vmware-vdiskmanger.exe to clone the vmdk, which can by-pass the vmxSpec.

Hope that helps!

What contents are returned by VixDiskLib_Read?

RickMeier — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:21:09 GMT

Yvs,

Yes, that is as I suspected.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Rick

how to access individual file in vmdk

ashiag — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:26:31 GMT

Thanks a lot.

Mount Support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 Server R2 Guests

fixitchris — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:42:40 GMT

Cool.

Running Virtualdisk mount

jstockall — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:20:09 GMT

Just to clarify, when you're working with local virtual disks (on local storage or nfs/cifs shares) vmware-mount will allow the disk to be mounted (provided to host operating system can mount it) when the VM is running. If you're using the remote capabilities of vmware-mount the VM must not be running.

Bootable vmdk file from

yvsvmware — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:37:22 GMT

You can use the vmware converter.

Select the option to create a physical online machine to a VM and Select only volume c:

Vmware Converter will create a VM that contains a bootable VMDK file.

Hope this resolved your problem

Thanks

Yvs

VMX file for virtual disk

yvsvmware — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:12:29 GMT

VDDK is used only for Virtual disk management. Through VDDK we can't get the VMX file.

we can't get the VMX file even through VIX. VIX has more power for getting files from guest and manage guest.

So the only option that I know is to use HTTP APIS, there is a sample in VI SDK named getVMfiles.

It contains the sample code for formation of http request url. We need to form the vmxspec like ?dcPath=dataCenter&dsName=dataStoreName which will be recognised as a http resource

example httpurl: https://hostname/folder/vmname?dcPath=ha-datacenter/&dsName=Storage is used for listing the folder.

and example httpurl: https://hostname/folder/vmname/vmname.vmx?dcPath=ha-datacenter&dsName=LocalStorage is used for getting the vmx file.

Note: the new way of conveying the vmxspec using VM moref is not supported as a http resource by VI webservice yet.

Thanks

Yvs

Virtual disk virus signature scanning

yvsvmware — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:15:15 GMT

There are two stages of virus scan here.

1. Virus infection in virtual disk (VMDK file):

For this, the entire virtual disk(VMDK file) has to be scanned. This is the step that you are currently doing.

Writing each buffer to a temporary file and then scanning that file will not be correct and will not be efficient.

To do this you should either get the entire VMDK file locally and scan the file. Or the best way is pass the sector buffers to the AV engine. one has to live with this performance until unless the AV engine has a special support to scan huge files in mulit-threaded appraoch.

But to boost the performance you can use reader threads and scanner thread approach where there will be no wait time for scanner thread. i..e reader threads get the data and put it ready in a buffer for scanner thread.

But this method will not detect a virus if the virus signature is in one of the 'files' in virtual disk. Since the file layout could not be contiguous.

2. Virtus infection in a file in virtual disk:

The best approach here is to do a file mode mount of the VMDK file and scan the mounted file system.

Thanks

Yvs

mounting a vmdk

ayrus — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:47:35 GMT

You can also mount the remote disk. For that you atleast need a snapshot of that disk. so you can mount a remote disk of a running vm this way

1. Take a snapshot

2.Mount it in non-persistant mode.

3.Unmount it.

4.Remove the snapshot if you want.

This is what I was doing. Is there any other better way to scan a running vmdk??

~ayrus

VDDK on Chinese system fails

yvsvmware — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:46:32 GMT

The current locale and the locale of the host file system could be different.

You can try the following:

Convert the VDDK file name from the current locale of simplified chinese to the locale of the host file system. And pass the converted ASCII string to VDDK API.

Also if you copy the VMDK file to the local machine and trying with the filename encoded in current locale might work fine.

Thanks

Yvs

VDDK bin/AMD64/vstor2-mntapi10.sys?

red0mark — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:09:29 GMT

Sudarsan,

We are working on a 64 bit redistribution package.. we just don't know which version of the 64 bit vstor2-mntapi10.sys to bundle with our install.

-Ron

From: sudarsan <communities-emailer@vmware.com>
To: Ron Edmark/Austin/IBM@IBMUS
Date: 09/14/2009 02:52 PM
Subject: Virtual Disk Development Kit New message: "VDDK bin/AMD64/vstor2-mntapi10.sys?" 24UTlj-2DtI-5IGf

VixDiskLib_Clone() Error

Alberto Gonzalez — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:52:34 GMT

Ok, I cant use vCenter Clone() API because source and remote host arent in the same vCenter.

It would be nice to have this feature in future releases to avoid using ssh/scp, as waiting for copy from source to local and then local to remote is too slow.

Advanced Transport Modes

sudarsan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:12:12 GMT

Can you open disks with other transport modes?

-Sudarsan

linux vmdk mount

sudarsan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:03:33 GMT

Sorry, the answer is linux does not support this feature yet. VDDK comes with vixMntapi which you can use to mount a vvirtual disk in non-presistent mode.

Thanks

Sudarsan

VDDK utilities on esxi

madhadr — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:32:07 GMT

You will also have to have at least a Foundation license of ESXi(3.5). The free version does not allow this type of write access.

VMDK newbie question

sudarsan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:37:42 GMT

vmware-mount on Windows mounts volumes and not disks. So simply creating a raw disk and trying to mount will fail. Perhaps that Is what is hapenning?

-Sudarsan

Failed to load shared object file vixDiskLib.so

sudarsan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:46:37 GMT

VixDiskLib_Init and _Connect are from vixDiskLib.so, so I am not sure what is going on here. Is the error reported really 'vixDiskLib.so' (perhaps vixDiskLibVim.so?)

Thanks

Sudarsan

Technology Exchange Developer Day - Demo on VDDK, a part of vStorage APIs

navadavuluri — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:58:03 GMT

Hello,

We are happy to announce about our hands-on demo at Technology Exchange Developer Day 2009, Demo on VDDK(Virtual Disk Development Kit), a part of vStorage APIs
Presenter: Sudarsan Piduri

Demo ID: DS-07

Time: 5:45 - 6:45 PM

Abstract:

VixDiskLib and VixMntapi libraries can be used to manipulate virtual disks in both hosted and virtual infrastructure environments.
These libraries can be used to enable on-line backups of running VMs from outside the VM. This demo will illustrate some
additional use cases, like the use of these libraries to perform disk and file level tasks such as checking for presence of a file
on a powered off vm. The demo is implemented using standard C.

VDDK logs

sudarsan — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:57:31 GMT

You can provide logging callback functions in VixDiskLib_Init(Ex).

-Sudarsan

VixDiskLib_Cleanup always return vixError (6) - The operation is not supported for the specified parameters

sudarsan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:37:31 GMT

Ron,

I think your connection is probably not using any advanced transports, in which case _Cleanup does not do anything. If you are connecting without using advanced transports, cleanup returns 6 - there is nothing to cleanup.

Thanks
Sudarsan

VixMntapi_GetVolumeInfo is not returning inGuestMountPoints for additional disks

kumars17 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:51:54 GMT

Even I get the empty value for diskSetInfo

&diskSetInfo 0x0012fd88 VixDiskSetInfo * *
0x016fb340 {openFlags=0 mountPath=0x00000000 <Bad Ptr> } VixDiskSetInfo *

openFlags 0 unsigned int
+ mountPath 0x00000000 <Bad Ptr> char *

V Disk install on esxi - clarification needed

richard999 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:32:01 GMT

Sudarsan,

many thanks for that. I will download the win32 version tomorrow and try that.

I am looking to convert some pre-allocated thick vm's to be growable and then shrink them. I assume this is possible ?

Do I have to download the vm's out of the datastore onto the xp machine before I convert them or can it do it all over the network ? For some reason some of the vm's were pre-allocated 70GB space when in fact they need nowhere near this.

thanks again,

Richard

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -p hangs

killermachine188 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:18:40 GMT

Hi Wendy,

what about a fix for the problem? Is there any chance it will be fixed in the near future?

We are planing to patch/optimize about 100 vms. Because it is run automaticaly and takes some days to complete, it would be nice to have a few as possible crashes.

Is there any chance to get a hotfix for the vmware-diskmanager.exe? What support package would be needed to get a hotfix?

cannot mount vmdk (in linux) with write-permissions

draygen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:18:19 GMT

Thanks!!! I'll investigate converting ... I should have posted here before wasting my entire day trying to mount a vmdk that is unmountable

Serious Memory Leaks with VDDK 1.1 on Linux

UniBill — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:52:13 GMT

Any update on this issue? I'm seeing even more memory leaks on further calls to this library.

==9440== LEAK SUMMARY:
==9440== definitely lost: 17,202 bytes in 36 blocks.
==9440== indirectly lost: 422,229 bytes in 9,384 blocks.
==9440== possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
==9440== still reachable: 82,564 bytes in 90 blocks.
==9440== suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
==9440== Reachable blocks (those to which a pointer was found) are not shown.
==9440== To see them, rerun with: --leak-check=full --show-reachable=yes

The biggest difference between my test program and Mitch's above is that I also called VixDiskLib_GetInfo() after the VixDiskLib_Open() call, and then a corresponding VixDiskLib_FreeInfo() call right before the VixDiskLib_Close() call.

I haven't run valgrind against IO calls yet, but that's a lot of memory to lose on just an init, connect, getinfo, freeinfo, close, disconnet, exit chain of function calls.

Windows volume mount warning for BCD & boot.ini?

red0mark — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:49:04 GMT

All,

What is this error and how does one correct it? I've run chkdsk & fixmbr on the virtual machine and my local machine but on luck so far. I see
this only on one on my vm systems. The VDDK 1.1 host system is XP Pro SP3 and the vm guest is also XP Pro SP3 on an ESXi server.

Thanks,
-Ron

Warning: Unable to copyfile \\.\vstor2-mntapi10-AAC5AAC5007E00000000000002000000\\Boot\BCD to C:\DOCUME~1\edmark\LOCALS~1\Temp\vmware-edmark-1007\vixmntapi2, error = 3.
Warning: Error reading boot.ini file \\.\vstor2-mntapi10-AAC5AAC5007E00000000000002000000
boot.ini
type: VIXMNTAPI_BASIC_PARTITION=1
symbolicLink: \\.\vstor2-mntapi10-AAC5AAC5007E00000000000002000000\
isMounted: True
inGuestMountPoints: C:

Problem installing VDDK on Vista 64-bit

tcjarvis — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:10:07 GMT

net start vstor2-mntapi10 -> err 2185, "The service name is invalid."
Yahoo, catch-22.

A reboot hadn't helped, I had tried that.

http://...

Ok, after running devmgmt and uninstalling the device, then running
through the registry with regedit and a registry cleaner and removing
anything that has anything to do with "vstor2" and then rebooting, the
install succeeded.

Thanks, Sudarsan.

Clark

Creation of VMFS file system taking longer time on ESX server 3.5 Update 3

satyakada — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:11:01 GMT

Hi All,

I need help on to identify the issue while creating the datastore on ESX server 3.5 with Update 3. The issue is it is taking very long time to create VMFS file system. I am using third party vendor SAN, created VDisk and mapped the VDisk using FC to the esx server. I am using this LUN and creating datastore.It is taking longer time to create datastore and sometimes it is failing also. What might be the issue? Is the LUN and VPort are not good state, if so how to identify the state of the path?

Thanks,

--Satya.

vmware-mount behaviour

sudarsan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:21:54 GMT

No copy is made during vmware-mount operation so there is no space requirement based on the size of the disk/volume. Are the machines connected to the esx in the same way? Perhaps logs would be helpful in diagnosing.

-Sudarsan

How to do mapping between disks(OS level) and vmdks?

sudarsan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:17:31 GMT

The 'mount point' of the new volume is returned through the symbolic link. You can use it to create a mount point / map to a drive letter or simply open the volume device and start using the volume.

Thanks

-Sudarsan

File name and sector number

sudarsan — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:04:50 GMT

Sorry for the delay, but to get the file's extents, the utility needs to understand the file system.VDDK does not have any file system knowledge.

If you are working on Windows you can mount the volume and use WIN32 api's to get the extents of a file. On Linux, you will need to use the file system specific libraries to do this.

-Sudarsan

Prepare to shrink. it's not working in offline mode

Kim76 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:20:29 GMT

Hi all

I'm using these commands to shrink my 4 GB dynamic vmdk disk:

vmware-vdiskmanager -d "C:\Virtual Machines\w2kpro\w2kpro.vmdk"
vmware-mount J: "C:\Virtual Machines\w2kpro\w2kpro.vmdk" /v:1
vmware-vdiskmanager -p J:
vmware-mount J: /d
vmware-vdiskmanager -k "C:\Virtual Machines\w2kpro\w2kpro.vmdk"

and the size for reduces with about 200 MB every time I run the batch

If I start the gust OS and Prepare to shrink through VMware tool manually in the control panel and just power off guest OS with out the shrink option and run
vmware-vdiskmanager -k "C:\Virtual Machines\w2kpro\w2kpro.vmdk" then the vmdk file resize from 4 GB to 1,6 GB, in offline mode.
it must be something with the mapping of vmdk file.

Is there anyone ho know what the problem is?

Virtual Disk Development Kit - Session Abstract for Technology Exchange - Developer Day

heyitspablo — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:02:47 GMT

Folks,

This is one of most popular sessions. In case you did not catch Sudarsan in our last Coffee Talk Webinarthis is a great opportunity to meet him and ask questions, or find out what he has planned for future versions of the VDDK.

{youtube}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wghgHpbuhc{youtube}

Register for the VMware Technology Exchange - Developer Day http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/techexchange

Session ID: VS-06
Title: Introduction to Virtual Disk Development Kit (Key part of vStorage APIs solution)
VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) is a C API targeted at software developers. Part of vStorage APIs, the VDDK provides location transparent access to virtual disks – well suited for use cases such as backup, offline compliance checking and management / manipulation of virtual disks. This session will focus on Virtual Disk basics, VDDK APIs and the new features of VDDK 1.1 release.
Level: Beginner

Speaker:
Sudarsan Piduri Staff Engineer R&D Virtual Infrastructure has been working at VMware for the last three years - in addition to VDDK, I work on VMware Converter. Before VMware, I was developing backup/restore software. I enjoy hiking and running.

Added Sudarsan's video

Unable to get a VIM ticket for this virtual disk.

cesarmc3 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:26:39 GMT

Got it! You're the best! I was reading some of your post before I added mine... I found the VM in question under the "Discovered Virtual Machines" I just moved them under the datacenter, and it worked....Thanks for the help!!!

VixDiskLib_Clone() just for conversion?

nicok — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:00:58 GMT

I actually want to just create a copy of a virtual disk on the same ESX.

When I do that I get an error that it could not find the file. From the logs it seems it triws to open the vmdk locally on the machine where I run my application.

Any thoughts?

Multithreading Clone

sudarsan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:22:33 GMT

For local vmdk's, there should be no problem. For vmdk's on datastores, clone has the same limitations as open.

-Sudarsan

Prevent vmware-mount.exe run as daemon

sudarsan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:02:47 GMT

You are right about not needing to leave the binary running. It is a fairly small footprint however.

Regarding Pyhton script, it may be a problem of the script integration rather than not flushing, we had a similar issue with perl earlier - but was fixed in perl script itself.

-Sudarsan

VixDiskLib_Open fails while connecting through vCenter

Swapnil D — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:09:39 GMT

In "vmPath=ha-datacenter/vm/Win 2k3 -x86" try replacing "ha-datacenter" with the name of the datacenter that you created in vCenter.

The string "ha-datacenter" is a place holder when connecting directly to a ESX/ESXi host.

In vCenter, ESX/ESXi hosts are part of datacenters.

Hopefully this should solve the problem.

Regards

Swapnil D.

VixDiskLibGenericLogFunc

Swapnil D — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:04:00 GMT

#define VDDK_LOG_FILE "c:\\temp
LogFunc.log"

#define VDDK_WARN_FILE "c:\\temp
WarnFunc.log"

#define VDDK_PANIC_FILE "c:\\temp
PanicFunc.log"

CRITICAL_SECTION g_arrCriticalSections[3];

somewhere at the beginning ...

::InitializeCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[0]);

::InitializeCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[1]);

::InitializeCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[2]);

somewhere at the end...

::DeleteCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[0]);

::DeleteCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[1]);

::DeleteCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[2]);

void LogFunc(const char *format, va_list info)

{

FILE* stream;

errno_t err;

::EnterCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[0]);

if((err = fopen_s( &stream, VDDK_LOG_FILE, "a" )) !=0 )

std::cout<<"The file "<<VDDK_LOG_FILE<<" was not opened."<<std::endl;

else

{

vfprintf(stream, format, info);

fclose(stream);

}

::LeaveCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[0]);

}

void WarnFunc(const char *format, va_list info)

{

FILE* stream;

errno_t err;

::EnterCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[1]);

if((err = fopen_s( &stream, VDDK_WARN_FILE, "a" )) !=0 )

std::cout<<"The file "<<VDDK_WARN_FILE<<" was not opened."<<std::endl;

else

{

vfprintf(stream, format, info);

fclose(stream);

}

::LeaveCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[1]);

}

void PanicFunc(const char *format, va_list info)

{

FILE* stream;

errno_t err;

::EnterCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[2]);

if((err = fopen_s( &stream, VDDK_PANIC_FILE, "a" )) !=0 )

std::cout<<"The file "<<VDDK_PANIC_FILE<<" was not opened."<<std::endl;

else

{

vfprintf(stream, format, info);

fclose(stream);

}

::LeaveCriticalSection(&g_arrCriticalSections[2]);

}

VDDK and Visual Studio

Swapnil D — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:54:48 GMT

vixDiskLib.lib is just to satisfy the link time dependencies.

Try executing the app from the directory that has the vixDiskLib.dll or adding the path to the VDDK bin folder (C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit\bin) to your environment PATH variable.

Hope this helps

Regards

Swapnil D.

VMware Coffee Talk Bio - Sudarsan Piduri

heyitspablo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:28:12 GMT

Sudarsan Piduri
Staff Engineer, R&D: Virtual Infrastructure Management
I have been working at VMware for the last three years - in addition to VDDK, I work on VMware Converter. Before VMware, I was developing backup/restore software. I enjoy hiking and running. BTW, I use 'Suda' when at a coffee shop

Virtual Disk Development Kit - Coffee Talk Webinar July 1st 2009 - 9:00AM - 10:00AM PST

heyitspablo — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:45:36 GMT

Folks,

VDDK - PDF Attached

We are happy to have Sudarsan Piduri present on the Virtual Disk Development Kit 1.1. Please join use July 1, 2009

Presentation PDF and Recording will be posted on our Coffee Talk Webinar Blog

Where: Web Ex Con-Call - Details Below

Session Title: Virtual Disk Development Kit 1.1

Abstract: VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) is primarily a C API targeted to software developers. It provides location transparent access to virtual disks – well suited for use cases like backup, offline compliance checking and management / manipulation of virtual disks. This talk will focus on Virtual Disk basics, VDDK API’s and the new features of 1.1 release.

Audience level: Beginner

Pre-reqs : Some programming experience and VMware experience desirable. Some knowledge of hard disk terms like MBR, partition, volume will be helpful.

Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Time: 9:00 am, Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -07:00, San Francisco)

Meeting Number: 929 140 533 Meeting Password: (This meeting does not require a password.)

Web Ex Link: https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?ED=118609487&UID=0

More details about the webex session below.

To join the online meeting (Now from iPhones too!)

1. Go to https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?ED=118609487&UID=0 2. Enter your name and email address. 3. Enter the meeting password: (This meeting does not require a password.) 4. Click "Join Now".

To join the teleconference only

Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 866-469-3239 Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-429-3300 Global call-in numbers: https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=118609487&tollFree=1 Toll-free dialing restrictions: http://www.webex.com/pdf/tollfree_restrictions.pdf

To add this meeting to your calendar program (for example Microsoft Outlook), click this link: https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?ED=118609487&UID=0&ICS=MI&LD=1&RD=2&ST=1&SHA2=cQA01NYykVYjdN16oP7vx6dxs5--vr8Wj8oqVrVw8W8= The playback of UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files requires appropriate players. To view this type of rich media files in the meeting, please check whether you have the players installed on your computer by going to https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/systemdiagnosis.php IMPORTANT NOTICE: This WebEx service includes a feature that allows audio and any documents and other materials exchanged or viewed during the session to be recorded. By joining this session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to the recording, do not join the session.

Dynamic expansion of Virtual Disk

sudarsan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:17:59 GMT

You can use VI sdk to add / modify disks - Checkout VI sdk's reconfigure function. If you need help,post in the VI sdk forum.

-Sudarsan

Shrink (-k) fails

fixitchris — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:33:50 GMT

Nevermind, first of all I was trying to run Vdisdmanager -k m: and not on the VMDK, second of all I had a mapped drive to m: and after net use m: /delete I got this error:

FILE: CreateEntryDirectory creation failure on 'M:\.lck': No such file or directory
FILE: FileIO_Lock on 'm:' failed: No such file or directory
Failed to open the disk 'm:' : A file was not found (0x3000900000004).
Failed to shrink the disk 'm:' : A file was not found (0x3000900000004).

This is on Server 2008, so the confusion lied in that I had two command prompts open to get the right privilage on the fs, one with my regular user token and the other with the admin token...

Incremental backup with Defrag

AndreTheGiant — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:42:27 GMT

Defrag inside VM will change the blocks.
So the blocks will be take by the backup process as new blocks.

Andre

cannot connect to host

ayrus — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:26:23 GMT

Everything set in LD_LIBRARY_PATH . Infact I can see the info of hosted disk (local disk). But wen i try to get info abt remote disk . it shows that error. Works perfectly fine in windows. :o

Thanks in advance.

Surya

How to delete a child disk and submit the change to its parent in the parenet-disk chain with VixDiskLib?

sudarsan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:03:51 GMT

VixDiskLib does not currently have a function which does the 'combining'.

-Sudarsan

what are the requirements for san transport mode

sudarsan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:13:22 GMT

The SAN / HotAdd configuration that you have for VCB should work without change. Can you post the log thru a private message?

Sudarsan

Using an unmodified VHD file as a VMDK file

bboule — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:47:41 GMT

Hey Guys,

Not sure is this would be of interest, my company (StarWind Software) just released a free utility that aids in these types of conversions. I thought you might want to check it out http://www.starwindsoftware.com/converter

Hope you find it helpful!

Bob

Mounting Linux VG /w LVM on remote system

sudarsan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:08:22 GMT

As of now, there is no read-only mounting support on Linux. So you could just use the default flags (0)

-Sudarsan

diskLib Multi threading

arent_t — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:26:23 GMT

Yes you were right, I didnt follow the 3rd guideline. its working now.

Thanks

Got problems installing VDDK 1.1 onto VMware vMA 4.0? Solution here

lamw — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:10:03 GMT

As the topic states, if you're trying to install VDDK 1.1 you'll notice there is a shared library package that is missing by default on VMware vMA 4.0, take a look here for the solution: How to install VDDK 1.1 on vMA 4.0 (libfuse.so.2 fix)

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
http://twitter.com/lamw

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Limitations opening vmdk files of running guests

flatino — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:11:56 GMT

Very clear. I understood.

Many thanks again !

Cannot mount vmdk file

writetonikhil — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:02:44 GMT

Yes, the VMDK file is unmounted properly.

How can I mount a snapshot of a vm online to work in parallel with the same vm at the same time?

killermachine188 — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:44:27 GMT

Hi Selaf.

You cannot run two instances of the same vm parallel.

You will have to clone the vm, revert to SNAP2 and start the cloned one, so you have two independet vms.

If you are done, you can delete the whole cloned vm.

BTW: you are talking about mounting, but do not want to mount anything . You mount something to access its file system.

Ciao Ciao

HotAdd transfer mode using VDDK APis fails

dhd9 — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:50:48 GMT

Hi,
I'm using VDDK's Flexible transfer mode APIs VDIskLib_InitEx and VixDIskLIb_ConnectEx etc. for HotAdd transfer mode inside VM. But If I see logs, it fails and fall backs to nbd transfer mode.
I'm not sure what is issue here.
Is there any special configuration required for HotAdd transfer mode inside VM ?

Thanks in advance
dhd9

troubles with vmware-mount "file not found" ??

soonblue — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:57:51 GMT

Ugh, posted the wrong part of the fuseMount log in the last reply. Here it is:

May 22 13:50:57.741: VMware VixDiskLib (1.1) Release build-163495
May 22 13:50:57.741: Using system libcrypto, version 90807F
May 22 13:50:57.743: >>>>>>>>> Starting FuseMount Process PID: 21557 <<<<<<<<<
May 22 13:50:57.743: --- Mounting Virtual Disk: davenfs cas2.ds.udel.edu/cas2.ds.udel.edu.vmdk ---
May 22 13:50:57.744: Disk flat file mounted under /var/run/vmware/fuse/15881202677672233625
May 22 13:50:57.748: LIBFUSE :Opening disk - vmSpec -vmPath=ha-datacenter/vm/cas2.ds.udel.edu-, server -nd2cluster1.nss.udel.edu-, disk -davenfs cas2.ds.udel.edu/cas2.ds.udel.edu.vmdk-
May 22 13:50:57.749: TicketResolveHostName: Resolving IP address for hostname nd2cluster1.nss.udel.edu.
May 22 13:50:57.752: TicketResolveHostName: Resolved to 128.175.28.80.
May 22 13:50:57.754: VixDiskLibVim: TicketLogin
May 22 13:50:58.005: VixDiskLibVim: TicketFindVMByInvPath: vmxPath = -ha-datacenter/vm/cas2.ds.udel.edu-
May 22 13:50:58.044: VixDiskLibVim: TicketLoadVM
VixDiskLibVim: Unable to find key for disk davenfs cas2.ds.udel.edu/cas2.ds.udel.edu.vmdk
May 22 13:50:58.109: VixDiskLibVim: TicketLoadVMCb
VixDiskLibVim: TicketLoadVMCb failure - VixError = 4.
May 22 13:50:58.111: VixDiskLibVim: TicketLogout
May 22 13:50:58.154: LIBFUSE : Failed to open disk: A file was not found (4)
May 22 13:50:58.154: Fuse initialization failed.
Failed to mount disk 'davenfs cas2.ds.udel.edu/cas2.ds.udel.edu.vmdk': Cannot open the virtual disk

Enable mutipath option for Raw Device Mapping in Virtual machine

karthimin — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:40:16 GMT

I posted in appropriate forum.

Thanks

Karthi

[NFC ERROR] Network error

fixitchris — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:46:56 GMT

Your logs on the eSX server should provide you more info on this client side error.

Child vdmk files can be opened only with ESX credentials ?

flatino — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:51:44 GMT

Hi Sudarsan,

I must copy the VMDK files from the ESX server on another machine since I am not able to compile your sample code on the ESX server: a lot of libraries needs to be upgraded.

So I am running your example on another Linux machine (where I setup the VDDK environment to compile your sample) and so I need to copy the VMDK files from the ESX locally to the Linux machine.

You are right: a VMDK image snapshot created with VMWare workstation can be opened while an ESX one fails.

I performed this test:

Machine A = ESX server / Workstation

Machine B = Linux machine runnign vix sample code

1- On machine A create a snaphost ( file-000001.vmdk is created togheter with other files...)

2- copy all the VMWare machine folder from MAchine A to Machine B (the Linux machine running your sample code)

3- From Machine B run "vixDiskLibSample.exe -info <path_to_snapshot>"

These steps work for a CHILD VMDK created by VMWare Workstation but they fails if the CHILD is created with ESX server...is this normal ?