VMware Communities : All Content - vCenter Lab Manager API

Resetting a machine's internal IP address in LM 4.0?

AHutton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:47:09 GMT

tleavitt, would you mind giving a little more detail on the order of the calls, what calls you made, what you passed them to change the machine name, mac, and IP. This would be very helpful to me, as it might get me out of fenced hell. Thanks,

determining expired configurations

MartinCartwright — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:17:14 GMT

That is exactly what we want to do, the problem is that the API, as far as I can see, doesn't return anything that indicates whether or not a configuration is expired, so there's nothing to filter on.

Java Exception when GetConfigurationByName called for non-existent Configuration

JohnCasebolt — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:14:47 GMT

Hi All -

I'm updating our Java-based application from the LM 2.5.3 API to LM 4 API. I'm using the unsupported API, and leveraging Axis2 for the SOAP work.
When using GetConfigurationByName, all works well as long as the requested Configuration exists in LM.
But, if it doesn't, I get an oddball Axis2/SOAP error (see below).

Anybody else having this problem?
In fact, anybody else still using Java for LM API? Kinda feels like VMware has abandoned all but the Windows/C# crowd.

Thanks,
JC

2009-10-28 15:53:07,518 main ERROR labmanageradapter.LabManagerAdapter - Unknown exception encountered when retrieving configuration
org.apache.axiom.om.impl.exception.OMBuilderException: detail unsupported element in SOAPFault element
at org.apache.axiom.soap.impl.builder.SOAP12BuilderHelper.handleEvent(SOAP12BuilderHelper.java:175)
at org.apache.axiom.soap.impl.builder.StAXSOAPModelBuilder.constructNode(StAXSOAPModelBuilder.java:374)
at org.apache.axiom.soap.impl.builder.StAXSOAPModelBuilder.createOMElement(StAXSOAPModelBuilder.java:212)
at org.apache.axiom.soap.impl.builder.StAXSOAPModelBuilder.createNextOMElement(StAXSOAPModelBuilder.java:191)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.builder.StAXOMBuilder.next(StAXOMBuilder.java:172)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.llom.OMElementImpl.buildNext(OMElementImpl.java:633)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.llom.OMNodeImpl.getNextOMSibling(OMNodeImpl.java:141)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.llom.OMElementImpl.getNextOMSibling(OMElementImpl.java:314)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.traverse.OMChildrenQNameIterator.next(OMChildrenQNameIterator.java:118)
at org.apache.axiom.om.impl.llom.OMElementImpl.getFirstChildWithName(OMElementImpl.java:252)
at org.apache.axiom.soap.impl.llom.soap12.SOAP12FaultImpl.getReason(SOAP12FaultImpl.java:143)
at org.apache.axis2.AxisFault.initializeValues(AxisFault.java:202)
at org.apache.axis2.AxisFault.<init>(AxisFault.java:196)
at org.apache.axis2.util.Utils.getInboundFaultFromMessageContext(Utils.java:512)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.handleResponse(OutInAxisOperation.java:370)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.send(OutInAxisOperation.java:416)
at org.apache.axis2.description.OutInAxisOperationClient.executeImpl(OutInAxisOperation.java:228)
at org.apache.axis2.client.OperationClient.execute(OperationClient.java:163)
at com.vmware.labmanager.VMwareLabManagerSOAPinterfaceStub.GetConfigurationByName(VMwareLabManagerSOAPinterfaceStub.java:4428)
at org.nplace.ci.fap.labmanageradapter.LabManagerAdapter.getConfigurationByName(LabManagerAdapter.java:390)

How to retrieve DataStore Path

gpanki — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:55:41 GMT

Hi, I also want to retrive .vmx file name. can you please share your source code.

Thank You!!

Lab Manager plug-in for VMware Orchestrator?

AlexeyBykov — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:48:34 GMT

Is Lab Manager plug-in for VMware Orchestrator available?

If not, please, suggest a simplest way to integrate Lab Manager to VMware Orchestrator.

VMWare Tools for Server 2008 R2

AHutton — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:54:34 GMT

LM 3.0.2 Server 2008 R2 RTM works just fine, you should try it again.

Change Name in Machine Defined in Workspace

dphinc — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:57:16 GMT

I was hoping to avoid using the Internal APIs.

For now, the only solution is to use the Internal APIs and assign the new name during the Clone invocation.

Internal LM API Operation "machineInsertCDFromPath" returns "Deprecated. Use ESX30Agent.SmbMount"

dleigh — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:19:00 GMT

In LM 3.0, attempting to use the "machineInsertCDFromPath" operation, we get the result: "Deprecated. Use ESX30Agent.SmbMount". Is this operation broken? Any suggestions?

How to know the labamanger version ?

vm_wonder — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:51:42 GMT

Thank you. Would really appreciate if you can provide me a code sample to do this.

Changing a Configuration's Property Values

SteveFonden — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:47:41 GMT

Great thanks! I'll monitor this page.

URGENT API calls to LabManager 4.0 fails

stanbinev — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:20:18 GMT

Something to keep in mind. If you ever want to use a Workspace other than 'main' then you need to define the workspacename field as well. If not specified it defaults to 'main'

ConfigurationDeployEx Sample Code Needed

rdamos — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:30:45 GMT

We had the same problem. We have only an internal network in the configuration. When we deploy we connect the virtual to the physical network 'Teleservice Portal Desktops'. Therefore we had to retrieve the physical network ID from LM with GetNetworkTemplateByName.

Also, make sure to set the FenceNetworkOptios to NULL, otherwise you have an exception.

Richard

SOAP Equivilant for: Clone to existing worspace?

Michael Ottati — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:34:04 GMT

I would be happy to.

Our automated build system puts together a a single VM library configuration with the "latest bits". The install setup etc takes about 45 minutes. One of the tests we run is a protocol test that tests latency.

In order to inject latency into our virutal networks, I need 3 machines on two networks as shown below

What I would lilke to do is have the router and jmeter (my test harness machine) in one library and merge it together with today's build from the daily build library. I am not exactly sure how I would solve the routing issues, the system under test (ContentServer in this picture) would still contain the original routing information which might need to be tweaked..

The main idea is I want to perform my install once and then drop the VM with the install on it into other libraries of different machines like a component. Think of this as a big test automation work flow where installing "todays build" is step one. The new API calls will allow me some nice reuse possibilities for "todays build"

ConfigurationDeploy()

Michael Ottati — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:06:10 GMT

Using powershell it would look something like the following. From your example above, you already know the configurationId.

PS C:\Users\ottatm\Documents\PowerShell> $labManager.GetConfigurationByName("Standalone Base")

id : 1320
name : StandAlone Base
description :
isPublic : False
isDeployed : True
fenceMode : 4
type : 1
owner : ottatm
dateCreated : 7/13/2009 12:45:46 PM

PS C:\Users\ottatm\Documents\PowerShell> $labManager.ListMachines(1320)

id : 6741
name : ContentServer
description :
internalIP : 10.8.7.61
externalIP : 10.8.7.65
**macAddress : 00:50:56:34:00:0f
memory : 3092
status : 2
isDeployed : True
configID : 1320
DatastoreNameResidesOn : PlayPen_SAN
HostNameDeployedOn : pleperf607.dctmlabs.com
OwnerFullName : Ottati, Michael

Script to Clone Configuration and Deploys in LM

CapiZikus — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:49:27 GMT

Thanks Mike,

I never use the Ant before, will check out the Ant installation first then keep you post.

internalIP seems to always be null?

Michael Ottati — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:25:35 GMT

We are doing something similar. We host our continuous integration under various build servers, TeamCity, CruiseControl and Bamboo.

In your post you mention "checkout" but not "deploy" the code snippet below illustrates what we do. We have wrapped the SOAP API in Ant tasks but the flow is the same regardless of the language. The Ant task code is open sourced at http://www.labminder.org/ if you want to look at it. The binary distribution only works with LM 3.0.0, recompile the trunk if you want 3.0.1 or 3.0.2.

After checkout, you must then deploy the configuration before you can get an IP address. Once the configuration has been deployed, you can then get the IP address.The code below shows how we do this. We have several build servers using this technique.




<target name="main">

	<LabMinder:Checkout username="${labmgr.user}"
				password="${labmgr.password}"
				host="${labmgr.host}"
				sourceConfig="${sourceConfig}"
				destinationConfig="${destinationConfig}"
			/>

	<LabMinder:Deploy username="${labmgr.user}"
			  password="${labmgr.password}"
			  host="${labmgr.host}"
			  sourceConfig="${destinationConfig}"/>
	
	<!-- Expose the configuration properties so than can be passed back in the SSH invocation -->
	<LabMinder:ConfigurationInfo
		username="${labmgr.user}"
		password="${labmgr.password}"
		host="${labmgr.host}"
		sourceConfig="${destinationConfig}"
		configPrefix="Configuration"/>
	
	<!-- Primary Content Server Installation -->
	<antcall target="ssh">
		<param name="ssh.external-ip-address" value="${Configuration.ContentServer.external-ip-address}"/>
		<param name="ssh.p4client" value="${p4.contentserver.client}"/>
		<param name="ssh.buildtarget" value="install"/>
	</antcall>
	
	<antcall target="publish"/>

</target>

Java Code for ConfigurationInfo

    protected void configurationInfo(String sourceConfig, String configurationPrefix) {
                Configuration configObj = proxy.getSingleConfigurationByName(sourceConfig);

        int configID = configObj.getId();

        if (configurationPrefix == null ) {
            configurationPrefix = sourceConfig;
        }

        configurationPrefix = configurationPrefix + ".";

        String configType = ConfigurationType.toTypeString(configObj.getType());

        setProperty(configurationPrefix + "config-id", String.valueOf(configID));
        setProperty(configurationPrefix + "config-type", configType);

        //TODO:confirm if the return value for this api is a bug
        log("Config Type - " + configObj.getType());

        ArrayOfMachine machines = proxy.listMachines(configID);

        for (Machine m : machines.getMachines()) {
            String machineName = m.getName();
            setProperty( configurationPrefix + machineName + "." + "internal-ip-address",  m.getInternalIP() );
            if (m.isIsDeployed()) {
                setProperty( configurationPrefix + machineName + "." + "external-ip-address", m.getExternalIP());
            }

        }
    }

How can you get a list of organizations?

pyurgal — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:45:52 GMT

I figured out the C# code to get a list of organizations.

Here is a copy of the code that I used to get and print the LabManager organizations.

//
// Add a Dynamic web reference to you project
// https://<Your Server>/LabManager/SOAP/Labmanager.asmx

//** Bind to the Lab Manager SOAP API
//
// LM_Get_Orgs.ServiceReference1.LabManagerSOAPinterfaceSoap
LM_Print_Orgs.SOAPLabmanagerInternal.LabManagerSOAPinterface binding1 = new LM_Print_Orgs.SOAPLabmanagerInternal.LabManagerSOAPinterface();

//
//** Enter the URL for your system here
//
binding1.Url = "https://<Your Server Name>/LabManager/SOAP/LabmanagerInternal.asmx";
binding1.Timeout = 10 * 60 * 1000; // 10 minutes
System.Net.ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback =
delegate(Object obj, System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate certificate, System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Chain chain, System.Net.Security.SslPolicyErrors errors)
{
// Replace this line with code to validate server certificate.
return true;
};
//**
//** Allocate AuthenticationHeader object to hold caller’s
//** user name and password
//**
binding1.AuthenticationHeaderValue = new SOAPLabmanagerInternal.AuthenticationHeader();

//
//** Substitute a real user’s user name, password, and organization name here
//
binding1.AuthenticationHeaderValue.username = username;
binding1.AuthenticationHeaderValue.password = userpassword;
// I am not sure this is needed for this call but I left it in
binding1.AuthenticationHeaderValue.organizationname = "Default";

SOAPLabmanagerInternal.Organization[] orgs = binding1.GetOrganizations();
for (int j = 0; j < orgs.Length; j++)
{
Console.WriteLine(orgs[j].Name.ToString());
}
/// <summary>
/// This class is needed to automatically accept the SSL certificate
/// the Lab Manager sends on each API call.
/// </summary>
public class CertificateAccepter : System.Net.ICertificatePolicy
{
public CertificateAccepter() { }
public bool CheckValidationResult(
System.Net.ServicePoint servicePoint,
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate cert,
System.Net.WebRequest webRequest, int iProblem)
{
return true;
}
}

Hopefully VMWare will add the GetOrganizations API to the list of external APIs with the next LabManager release.

Paul

How to deploy a sinlge image from a mulitimage configuration?

Michael Ottati — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:17:24 GMT

I agree with you completely.

This is essentially the question I was asking in: SOAP Equivalent for: Clone to existing workspace?

Lets hope that something gets added in the next release along with vSphere integration.

Deploy one machine in a workspace config. with fenced networking

rcriten — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:32:13 GMT

I also would be interested in seeing some of the sample code for the ConfigurationDeployEx. I'm just starting down this path and any starters would be appreciated.

VMwareLabManagerSOAPinterface is an unknown type

ACKH — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:57:56 GMT

Alright, I figured it out. There is an advanced button in Visual Studio 2008 when adding a Web Reference. Using this button I created a reference for .NET 2.0 which worked. The type has been renamed to "LabManagerSOAPinterface", i.e. the VMware infront has been removed

internalIP seems to always be null?

Swordphish99 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:19:11 GMT

Hello fellow experts it's me again... :-P
First I'll give you a brief overview of what I am trying to accomplish for my project, cause I am hoping someone here is going through the same thing and maybe we will be able to help each other in doing so...
We purchased Lab Manager to replace out QA automation testing environment from ESX, this decision was made on what the SOAP API that Lab Manager offers. We are trying to develop a system for our QA testers that will deploy a bank of images on demand power them on, and execute a series of test, and also have the ability to underplay the image bank when it's done to release the SilkTest agent license so other test can be run. (SilkTest is our sledgehammer QA automation tool we use to perform all our automated regression and function tests)
I am currently able to "checkout" and "Check in" now I am trying to start up a process (i.e. SilkTest with the given test) and wait for the process to end. Now when I try to pull the "internalIP" from a deployed and running machine it is null? I am not sure why it's NULL, and I'm kind of at a road block on.
And with that said. Does anyone have any ideas as to why, and is there anyone out there who is working on this type of Lab Manager testing environment and would like to share some knowledge on developing such a system...
Thanks in advance...
_swordphish

VI SDK - vim25.jar will support esx3 server

Michael Ottati — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:24:57 GMT

This question pertains to an ESX specific set of APIs, not the LabManager APIs discussed in this forum. You should probably move your question to the Web Services SDK, CIM SDK forum.

Having said that, if you look at the VMware Infrastructure (VI) SDK 2.5.0 Readme notice the following text.

QUOTE

In this release, the WSDL is available in two different versions, located in the \wsdl sub-directory of the SDK package.

vim sub-directory contains WSDL files with vim2 namespace, which defines API hosted on Web services running on ESX Server 3.5, VirtualCenter Server 2.5, ESX Server 3i, ESX Server 3.0.x, and VirtualCenter Server 2.0.x
vim25 sub-directory contains WSDL files with vim25 namespace, which defines API hosted on Web services running on ESX Server 3.5, VirtualCenter Server 2.5, and ESX Server 3i

END QUOTE

It has been my experience that the SOAP code must be built with the exact WSDL of the server that it communicates with. My interpretation of the above docs is that the vim25 code set will not work with an esx 3.0.x version. You will undoubtedly obtain better answers in the VI SDK forum.

Iam using vim25.jar used to connect esx3 server VI SDK -not vCenter

kbr5678 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:36:51 GMT

Hi ..

Iam using vim25.jar used to connect esx3 server via VI SDK

throws exception

AxisFault
faultCode: ClientFaultCode
faultSubcode:
faultString: Unsupported namespace in content of SOAP Body
faultActor:
faultNode:
faultDetail:
{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}stackTrace:Unsupported namespace in content of SOAP Body
at org.apache.axis.message.SOAPFaultBuilder.createFault(SOAPFaultBuilder.java:222)
at org.apache.axis.message.SOAPFaultBuilder.endElement(SOAPFaultBuilder.java:129)
at org.apache.axis.encoding.DeserializationContext.endElement(DeserializationContext.java:1087)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.endElement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.scanEndElement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDispatcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.axis.encoding.DeserializationContext.parse(DeserializationContext.java:227)
at org.apache.axis.SOAPPart.getAsSOAPEnvelope(SOAPPart.java:696)
at org.apache.axis.Message.getSOAPEnvelope(Message.java:435)
at org.apache.axis.handlers.soap.MustUnderstandChecker.invoke(MustUnderstandChecker.java:62)
at org.apache.axis.client.AxisClient.invoke(AxisClient.java:206)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invokeEngine(Call.java:2784)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2767)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2443)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2366)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:1812)
at com.vmware.vim25.VimBindingStub.retrieveServiceContent(VimBindingStub.java:43886)
at Vm25Connection.getEsxConnection(Vm25Connection.java:28)
at Vm25ConnectionPool.getConnection(Vm25ConnectionPool.java:130)
at VmGetInfoReal.getEsxConnection(VmGetInfoReal.java:1001)
at VmGetInfoConnectionThread.isConnectedToEsx(VmGetInfoConnectionThread.java:58)
at VmGetInfoConnectionThread.run(VmGetInfoConnectionThread.java:17)

{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}hostname:egurkha161

Unsupported namespace in content of SOAP Body
at org.apache.axis.message.SOAPFaultBuilder.createFault(SOAPFaultBuilder.java:222)
at org.apache.axis.message.SOAPFaultBuilder.endElement(SOAPFaultBuilder.java:129)
at org.apache.axis.encoding.DeserializationContext.endElement(DeserializationContext.java:1087)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.endElement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.scanEndElement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDispatcher.dispatch(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.axis.encoding.DeserializationContext.parse(DeserializationContext.java:227)
at org.apache.axis.SOAPPart.getAsSOAPEnvelope(SOAPPart.java:696)
at org.apache.axis.Message.getSOAPEnvelope(Message.java:435)
at org.apache.axis.handlers.soap.MustUnderstandChecker.invoke(MustUnderstandChecker.java:62)
at org.apache.axis.client.AxisClient.invoke(AxisClient.java:206)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invokeEngine(Call.java:2784)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2767)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2443)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:2366)
at org.apache.axis.client.Call.invoke(Call.java:1812)
at com.vmware.vim25.VimBindingStub.retrieveServiceContent(VimBindingStub.java:43886)
at Vm25Connection.getEsxConnection(Vm25Connection.java:28)
at Vm25ConnectionPool.getConnection(Vm25ConnectionPool.java:130)
at VmGetInfoReal.getEsxConnection(VmGetInfoReal.java:1001)
at VmGetInfoConnectionThread.isConnectedToEsx(VmGetInfoConnectionThread.java:58)
at VmGetInfoConnectionThread.run(VmGetInfoConnectionThread.java:17)

VI SDK to monitor an ESX server and its VMs through VC.

kbr5678 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:38:10 GMT

I am using VI SDK to monitor an ESX server and its VMs through VC. ESX metrics are retrieved properly but no VMs are discovered. I have used the administrator only. VC version is 2.5 update 4. Has any one seen this issue before? Any clues?"

Thanks

ram

How to Deploy to a virtual network connected to a physical network

cregan89 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:33:08 GMT

I am actually looking to do this as well. From the web interface, I click on "Connect Virtual Networks to Physical Networks" and then click on "Connectivity - Allow In and Out".

ConfigurationDeploy does not have any options to do this. I am pretty sure it can be done through ConfigurationDeployEx through the "BridgeNetworkOptions" class but I haven't been able to get it to work. Does anybody have any sample code using the ConfigurationDeployEx method? Any sample code at all would be a huge help.

getting more info for some internal calls...

cregan89 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:42:41 GMT

I'm trying to find information on the internal calls as well. I'm looking specifically for "BridgeNetworkOptions" and "FenceNetworkOptions".

Well at least that's what I think I am looking for. I am trying to checkout a configuration from the library but only on specfic machines. I am also trying to deploy the configurations with the "Connect Virtual Networks to Physical Networks" option with "Allow In and Out" connectivity. I couldn't find any way to do this using the public API.

So have you been able to locate any documentation cschmidt or does anybody else have any knowledge of these internal calls?

API, Revert and Snapshot a machine?

tparkhom — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:13:10 GMT

There are no named snapshots in Lab Manager. You can only have one snapshot at a time. MachinePerformAction: option 6 will create a snapshot, option 7 will revert.

You can try to emulate named snapshots by creating clones in the workspace.

If it possible to use vim25.jar to connect Esx3 servers..

kbr5678 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:59:12 GMT

Hi..

If it possible to use vim25.jar to connect Esx3 servers..If any changes in vim25.jar files..iam waiting for urs reply............................

Thanks

ram

How to get the hosts currenttime via VirtualCenter (VI SDK)

kbr5678 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:59:57 GMT

Thanks a lot

Getting info on Stored and Deployed User Quotas

tparkhom — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:05:39 GMT

Hi,

I would like to be able to get the info on user quota for stored and deployed configurations. Internal SOAP API "GetCurrentUser" provides this information as well as number of currently stored and deployed configurations.

However, I can't execute "GetCurrentUser" with non-admin permissions. This does not make much sence, because it is different from "GetUser" which can be used to get someone else password, but "GetCurrentUser" will return the password of the user to the same user.

I have two questions:

First: is there a way to enable user permissions so that this API can be executed without making a user an "admin" ?

Second: is there any other way to get user quotas through SOAP?

How to Delete a VM through SDK

vemwhere — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:23:00 GMT

I don't believe there is a way to do it with the SOAP API, however, you may be able to achieve what you are trying to do with the VIX API

There is a method in the API that allows you to delete VMs, but I believe you have to be using Labmanger 3.0. The specific method can be found here.

How to use Async Methods

cpope — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:10:12 GMT

I was able to answer my own question with quite a bit of research and playing around. For those that might stumble upon this, here is what you need (example in vb.net):

First, make sure you define your binding with events:

Public WithEvents MyBinding As New LabManagerSoap.LabManagerSOAPinterface

Then declare the API call and give an address of your handler sub:

Public MyCheckoutEvent As New LabManagerSoap.ConfigurationCheckoutCompletedEventHandler(AddressOf MyCheckoutHandler)

If the API call has a special return structure declare that:

Public MyCheckoutArgs As LabManagerSoap.ConfigurationCheckoutCompletedEventArgs

Then add the handler declaration in the Main or On_Load of your project:

AddHandler MyBinding.ConfigurationCheckoutCompleted, MyCheckoutEvent

Last build your proceedure you want to kick off when the API returns:

Public Sub MyCheckoutHandler(ByVal e, ByVal myCheckoutargs)

Try

Dim myresult As Integer
Dim index As Integer

index = Int(myCheckoutargs.userstate)
myresult = myCheckoutargs.result

Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox("MyCheckoutHandler: " & ex.InnerException.Message)
End Try

End Sub

userstate is the variable you pass when you call the async method and that tells you which instance returned if you called multiple at the same time.

I hope this helps someone out there. Feel free to ask questions about it, I have a pretty good grasp on it now.

Curtis

Using NetInfo with ConfigurationAddMachineEx() method

cpope — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:54:00 GMT

Could you use the GetNetworkInfo() call to get the network info structure from another VM in the configuration that is configured like you want the new VM? The GetNetworkInfo call returns the array of information you are looking for.

You could also use the "ListNetworks" call to get all networks, look for "VM Default" in the returned name variable and then take the results from that network and shove them into your array of type NetInfo.

Roles & Rights

farojoyer — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:21:37 GMT

Hi,

This seems like a simple question, but I just can't seem to find it...

Anyone know what user right I can assign to a role that would allow someone to Insert/Swap/Eject a CD to a VM in their workspace?

What I'm looking for is a way to assign minimal rights that are still usable. View Only seems like enough, except for the right mentioned above...

Regards,

moving/copying templates between organizations?

cschmidt — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:31:34 GMT

I'm setting up some automation to manage a group of servers(bring up arbitrary config, do some post processing). Currently one team is already using LM and has some active configurations and a set of templates. I was setup in a separate organization, with the intention being that I'll have a separate datastore for the VMs I'll be bringing up. I want to leverage the templates that already exist within the primary organization. I know that if i had access i could use templatecopy to copy it to my datastore, but I can't see it unless i use the primary organization.(this user account has rights in both orgs)

What's the best way for me to go about this? Am i better to just not have a separate organization and put both datastores under the same org? or is there a viable way to

How to modify Memory on a given VM Machine through SDK?

vm_wonder — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:42:04 GMT

Hello all,
I would like to know if how to change the default memory for a VM through SDK. In my case the default value is 1024 MB when i add a new VM.
I can get Machine object from GetMachineByName() method but changing the fields on this object does not reflect back to the original VM.

Thanks.

Deploy configuration to specific Resource Pool

cpope — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:25:23 GMT

Hi, I am working on an automation application that deploys a large number of configurations very quickly for a training environment. I would like to specify the resource pool that the configuration gets deployed into like I can in the LM interface. I have looked through the API and the InternalAPI and don't see a method to do this. Is there any undocumented tricks to be able to achieve what I am looking for.

Thanks,

Curtis

Call to get a list of all templates?

cschmidt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:46:20 GMT

Nevermind, we upgraded to 3.0.2 last night and I now have an option within the internal api called, surprise, ListTemplates

SOAP ConfigurationAddMachineEx error: Unable to cast transparent proxy to type 'LabManager.Backend.Interfaces.ITemplateContainer'.

cschmidt — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:58:19 GMT

I managed to get it to work under soapUI. Looks like one of the values i was passing was not correct. (either template_id or nicID, not sure)

The XML is correct, i think i was referencing a lookup id that no longer exists. I'm going to go out on a limb and from now on assume that "Unable to cast..." errors mean it likes the xml, but not the data.

Intermittent Errors With SOAP calls

b2jrock — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:20:21 GMT

I think the issue is that ZSI for basic authentication would generate a BasicAuth type header as in: http://www.whitemesa.com/soapauth.html#S322

However, the LabManager wsdl is looking for something like

<AuthenticationHeader xmlns="http://vmware.com/labmanager"><username>someuser</username><password>mysecretpass</password></AuthenticationHeader>

The solution previously set _AuthHeader to that string, which I'm guessing worked fine with previous versions of ZSI where _AuthHeader may have been a simpler type, but wasn't exaclty compliant with the API. Newer versions of ZSI have added additional authentication features, so now the _AuthHeader is a callable function, so the _auth_tmpl solution no longer works.

I think a new solution is going to be needed for ZSI 2. I don't see any easy way to do it with the existing ZSI auth functions.

ConfigurationPerformAction

AHutton — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:25:31 GMT

Just in case others need. It is in the internal API doc in the link above, since cut and paste does not work in these forms on IE8 Ill have to leave it at that

SetCurrentOrganization question

AHutton — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:20:35 GMT

I am trying to use this method, as ConfigurtionChangeOwner requires being in the same organization. So I login to SOAP and bind in the global organization, then I setcurrentorganization to another organization and then checkout a configuration. I would have thought it would be then checkout under that new organization, but it isn't it is still global. However if I then go to the website I am indeed in that new organization. What do i have to do to get it checkout to another organization? Did I misguess at to what SetCurrentOrganizations intended use case was?

Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated

SOAP API: How to invoke processes on deployed machine?

heyitspablo — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:17:21 GMT

This document was generated from the following thread: SOAP API: How to invoke processes on deployed machine?"

I am unable to locate any functionality in the SOAP API that permits a user to invoke a process (or script) directly from the SOAP API. It would be nice to have some sort of "exec" facility similar to the Ant exec task:

http://ant.apache.org/manual/CoreTasks/exec.html

Clearly it is possible to use ssh or the SysInternals PsTools package for remote execution. Doing so involves a slight paradigm switch from the webservices framework into to some other scripting framework, and moving data between each.

We are begriming to look at controlling LM with the web services API and I would like to hear how others have solved this issue.

Are there other VMware API's that would help me here?

Thought I'd ressurect this post as I have a similar problem.

We have just installed ESX and Lab Manager as part of our plan to use virtual machines in our automated test system.

To give a brief example. When the test system launches the testing it will start up a configuration (or 2), install our product on to the machines and run the tests. Once the tests have finished, the results will be copied to a central repository, the VM will be shutdown & captured (in case anything needs to be investigated)

The start up, shutdown and capturing off the configuration can be done using a C# pprogram to access the SOAP API. The problem I have is how do I get the VM's to carry out the product install etc... Reading the SOAP API Guide I see that there are API's for running Mercury Interactive Quality Center tests on the VM's.

We use in house application to run our tests so I'm looking for something similar that can be used for running custom programs on the VM's?

Thanks
Steve

Currently there are no API's that will allow you to run something similar to an exec command on a LM Configuration. Even If there was an API you would still need a program that would act like an orchestrator of tasks to launch on your VM. There are many approaches to solving this problem but here is an idea that I can think of.

Here are the list of tasks I am assuming you will need and the technologies associated with each task (Assuming your Guest OS is windows based):

Prerequisites for VM that will be used for testing: Before capturing this configuration to the library make sure you have your In house application that you use for testing installed on this VM. In most cases a commercial tool such as SilkTest or Quick Test Pro could be used, I have also heard of Selenium being used. Just make sure these tools are installed on the VM before capturing to the library.

Task 1. Check Out Config from the library, deploy and get the ip address of the target vm where The Application Under Test will be installed.

Technology Used: LM Soap API can be called using C#

Task 2. Download the latest build of my software onto this VM and perform the automated installation of your product.

Task 2a.) Download your latest test source code from a share on your network to your VM that is used for testing.

Technology Used: A C# program that makes a call to psexec (sysinternals third party tool) looks like this: psexec <target_vm_ip> xcopy
mysharetestsourcecode C:\Automation

Task 2b.) Download the latest build of your software and run the automated install of the product

Technology Used: A C# program that makes a call to psexec that will now launch a batch file to start the installation process: psexec <target_vm_ip> "cmd \c start C:\Automation\InstallBuild.bat"

Task 3. Run functional tests on your application

Technology Used: A C# program that makes a call to psexec
that will now launch a batch file to start running acceptance tests:
psexec <target_vm_ip> "cmd \c start
C:\Automation\RunAcceptanceTests.bat"

In a nutshell: You can create a C# program that acts like and orchestrator of tasks that just makes calls to psexec. In turn psexec will either run system commands or make calls to launch the automation test tool that will

perform your testing.

If you dont want to create your own orchestrator of tasks commerical tools such as SilkCentral and QualityCenter are options that I have seen in use with Lab Manager.

As of today, LM does not have the functionality to invoke a process inside guest OS via the SOAP API:

Some thoughts:

Several methods worth exploring are:

1. Using the open source STAF/STAX framework. you have to install an agent in each guest and then issuing commands inside this quest is as easy as contacting the STAF SOAP API running inside the quest. ( http://staf.sourceforge.net/index.php )

2. Use SSH and PSEXEC (from SysInternals)

3. Implement your own (bootstrap) agent that exposes a SOAP API (or other remoting mechanism) and install it inside each guest.

4. Applications such as HP Quality Center, Borland Silk Central, ElectricCloud's ElectricCommander have remote execution integrated with Lab Manager.

I guess it will be nice to add an execution task into ant/nant/cruisecontrol that communicates with LM API and runs a process inside a guest.

Thanks for the responses, the psexec solution seems like it might be the method for me.

I'll let you know how I get on.

As I had know idea how to call psexec (or any external program) from C# I put together a noddy little program to understand how it can be done. In case it's helpful to someone else I've attached it as a text file.

The program connects to the config and checks if the VM is deployed. If it's not deployed it deploys it, then uses psexec to copy across and execute a batch file on the VM. The batch file simply does 'echo process executed at %TIME% > C:\EchoProc.txt', so that there was something tangible on the VM to see that the operation had been successfull.

Using this method I'm thinking I should be able to accomplish all the tasks I need to

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Looks good, the psexec command has a switch that may be useful depending on what type of task you want to run. You can try "-i" switch when running psexec if you notice any issues. You can look up the use of the switch from the command line help system.

Just a note: The WMI service must be running in the guest os in order for psexec to be able to work.

This document was generated from the following thread: SOAP API: How to invoke processes on deployed machine?
This document was generated from the following thread: SOAP API: How to invoke processes on deployed machine?"

Python SOAP API

cschmidt — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:10:56 GMT

Hello all, i'm looking for an example python script to talk to Lab manager's SOAP API. Assume that I want to run this on a freshly installed Ubuntu image. I've got python 2.5 and have intalled the latest version of ZSI. I've managed to get the wsdl file and converted it using wsdl2py. I'm now trying to setup even a simple connection and i'm not having much luck.

Anyone here successfully using python for this interaction?

Thanks,

Welcome Lab Manager Developers!

Corey_R — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:38:52 GMT

Welcome to the new VMware vCenter Lab Manager SDK Community.

1. Documentation for the SDK

2. Download (Included in the VMware Lab Manager Download)

Have fun and we would like to hear your feedback.

Thank You,

Corey Romero

VMware Community Web Producer

VMware Lab Manager SDK Documentation

Corey_R — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:24:04 GMT

Soap API Guide for VMware Lab Manager 3.0 - Use the Lab Manager SOAP API Guide to develop applications that use Lab Manager
Web service data, automate tasks, or integrate VMware® Lab Manager with other
software testing tools.

VMware Lab Manager SOAP API Guide for Lab Manager 2.4 - Use the VMware Lab Manager SOAP API Guide to develop applications that leverage Lab
Manager Web service data, automate tasks, or integrate Lab Manager with other
software testing tools.

Lab Manager Internal API Documentation