VMware Communities : Unanswered Threads - vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)

Technology Exchange Developer Day - Learn about vMA as a platform for deploying scripts and agents

navadavuluri — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:08:38 GMT

Hello,

We are happy to announce about our demo at Technology Exchange Developer Day 2009, Learn about vMA as a platform for deploying scripts and agents

Presenter: Ashwath Seshadri
{youtube}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUtLStlCK-Q{youtube}

Demo ID: DS-23

Time: 5:45 - 6:45 PM

Abstract:

VMware vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) is a prepackaged Linux virtual machine in which
administrators can deploy scripts and select third-party agents to manage ESX and ESXi systems.
Software included in vMA includes vSphere CLI, an authentication component that supports
non-interactive login, and a log collection component. Learn about the features provided vCLI and vMA and how you can integrate with your vSphere environment.

compatible with "apcupsd-multimon"

lhimin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:36:50 GMT

Hi there,

First of all - this vMa is fantastic! Really appreciate the information that is shared within this community.

I've downloaded the latest vMA and installed apcupsd-3.14.7-1el5.x86_64.rpm and works like a charm... But I've noticed that the latest documentation for APC UPS Daemon talks about Network monitoring. I see that there is another package which includes the Multimon CGI program.

I've tried to install the file and it seems that it needs further packages - but it seems that I'm going in endless circles trying to install the right packages for dependencies.

I was wondering if there will be another updated version of VIMA on its way? one that works with, say... apcupsd-multimon-3.14.7-1.el5x86_64.rpm

Many thanks!

Learn about vSphere vMA @ Developer - Video

heyitspablo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:27:31 GMT

Folks, Ashwath will be presenting on vMA @ upcoming Tech Ex - Developer Day

Event is August 31st, 2009 Monday @ VMworld 2009
More info http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/techexchange

{youtube}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUtLStlCK-Q{youtube}

Changes to the ESX Service Console for ESX 4.0

navadavuluri — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:36:02 GMT

Please check out the attched document for this information

This technical paper discusses incompatibilities between the ESX 3.5 service
console and the ESX 4.0 service console. Included are suggestions of what you might do to upgrade your
existing environments that depend on the ESX service console. This document also discusses how you might
bridge the gap to support ESXi, which does not include a service console. And finally, if you are currently
writing applications that run in the ESX service console, this document suggests some possible options you
have for transitioning away from it.

Configuring automatic startup with perl in VIMA

dsnowden — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:03:38 GMT

I have 3 ESXi hosts running in a vCenter cluster. I need to configure the virtual machines on them to start up automatically as they could potentially be shut down by a UPS.

I have HA enabled which should start VMs up automatically but the only problem is that th vCenter and supporting SQL Server are virtual machines in the cluter they are managing. Automatic startup (configured on the host) and HA do not play well together. Configuring auto startup in a HA cluster causes errors when vmotioning. HA coming online removes the auto start configuration from the hosts. That second part can work to my advantage if I can configure auto start when the cluster is being shut down, bring the SQL and vCenter back online and let HA take care of the other VMs and removing auto start.

Shutdown is handled by a lamws upsVIShutdown.pl/ghettoShutdown.pl scripts.

Extending upsVIShutdown.pl looks like it should be simple, but I'm not too familiar with the API. Does anyone know how I can create an instance of a VM object by passing a VM name? (All the scripts I've seen so far simply iterate through a list of all VMs) and how to configure automatic startup delays on the VM object? And presumably I would need to enable virtual machines starting up and shutting down with the host?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

differnces between vMA to vSphere CLI

Itzikr — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:31:50 GMT

Hi,

what's the difference in terms on functionality between vMA to vSphere CLI

Itzik

Error mounting CDROM from VIMA client

wnp1 — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:37:19 GMT

When attempting to mount CDROM from VIMA client I get errors

end -request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 64

Isofs-fill-super: bread failed, dev-hda, iso_blknum=16, block=16

Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom,

Missing codepage or other error

The mount command used is

sudo mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

I have attached screen shot of error along with the mesg file

VIMA can't connect to the network

vancod — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:29:46 GMT

I've got a freshly installed cluster of ESX 3.5.3 hosts on Opteron-based HP Proliants. There are numerous other Guests up and running just fine.

I've instaled the VIMA, removed the vmxnet NIC and added an e1000 NIC (so I can VMotion), and powered on.

I've configured the IP, hostname, and password, and booted successfully.

However, I can see nohing on the network. Can't see the default gateway.

I have tried removing and recreating the /etc/sysconfig script - no change.

I've tried migrating to a different host - no change.

The network appears to be functional (no errors at boot, the output of ifconfig looks as expected).

I followed this exact proceedure on my hosts here at home and it worked without issue - only these are Intel CPUs.

???

VIMA logging and log rotation - does it miss entries?

ewannema — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:58:51 GMT

Does anyone know how VIMA deals with log rotation? It polls for logs and it seems like there is the possibility that it will miss some events if events are written after the previous poll and log is rotated before the next one.

The manual seems to indicate that it uses the DiagnosticManager object in the API and I don't see a way to get anything other than the current log.

Having issues with "vmclone.pl" and "vmreconfig.pl"

lamw — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:33:02 GMT

I'm running into an issue when trying trying to execute the RCLI command "vmclone.pl" located on VMware's VIMA

Here is quick look at the environment:

[vi-admin@vima-primp-industries vm]$ uname -a
Linux vima-primp-industries.com 2.6.18-92.el5 #1 SMP Tue Apr 29 13:16:15 EDT 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[vi-admin@vima-primp-industries vm]$ sudo vifp listservers
172.30.0.64
172.30.0.61

This proves that accessing the host for info has been done correctly on another command "guestinfo.pl"

[vi-admin@vima-primp-industries vm]$ ./guestinfo.pl --vmname UCSB-RESNET --server 172.30.0.64 --operation display


Guest Info for the Virtual Machine 'UCSB-RESNET' under host olga.resnet.ucsb.edu

UCSB-RESNET guestFamily: windowsGuest
UCSB-RESNET guestFullName: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32-bit)
UCSB-RESNET guestId: winXPProGuest
UCSB-RESNET guestState: running
UCSB-RESNET hostName: WinXPeDev.
UCSB-RESNET ipAddress: 169.254.74.15
UCSB-RESNET toolsStatus: VMware Tools is running and the version is current.
UCSB-RESNET toolsVersion: 103908
UCSB-RESNET Screen - Height: 0
UCSB-RESNET Screen - Width: 0
UCSB-RESNET Disk[0]: Capacity 10725732352
UCSB-RESNET Disk[0]: Path : C:\
UCSB-RESNET Disk[0]: freespace : 5716729856
UCSB-RESNET net[0] - connected : 1
UCSB-RESNET net[0] - deviceConfigId : 4000
UCSB-RESNET net[0] - macAddress : 00:50:56:b4:69:0b
UCSB-RESNET net[0] - network : IsolatedNetwork
UCSB-RESNET net[0] - ipAddress : 169.254.74.15

Now the issue arises when executing the clone command:

[vi-admin@vima-primp-industries vm]$ ./vmclone.pl --vmname UCSB-RESNET --vmname_destination UCSB-RESNET-CLONE-1 --vmhost 172.30.0.64
Host '172.30.0.64' not found

I've gone ahead and removed the server and tried to re-add but the error still continues and I'm not sure if there's any more info on the error. The host in question is "172.30.0.64" which is running VMware ESXi 3.5u3

I also found a funny discrpency when trying to execute "vmconfigure.pl":

[vi-admin@vima-primp-industries vm]$ ./vmreconfig.pl
Can't locate object method "new" via package "XML::LibXML::XPathContext" (perhaps you forgot to load "XML::LibXML::XPathContext"?) at ./vmreconfig.pl line 318.

End Disconnect

I have not tired to rebooting the VIMA appliance, but was wondering if there's something I'm missing. I was under the impression the appliance was ready out of the box (or download)

Update syslog.conf

RobMokkink — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:26:31 GMT

Today i downloaded VIMA. And give it a go.
I thought there were some tooling to update the ESX hosts syslog.conf. However this is still not possible, only for 3i.

I now make use of plink in combination with powershell to get things done.

Does anyone else have an idea?