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5 Replies Last post: Jun 19, 2009 5:29 AM by Chandrashekhar

why do ip address of virtual machine is null? posted: Jun 2, 2009 10:06 PM

Chandrashekhar

53 posts since
Mar 19, 2009

Hi,

I want to know IP address of virtual machine. I am able to get the ip address, but its null for all the virtual machines. How come its null ?

I am getting VM's IP address using following hierarchy :

VirtualMachine -> VirtualMachineSummary -> virtualMachineGuestSummary.getIpAddress()

I tried following hierarchy also :

VirtualMachine -> GuestInfo -> IpAddress.

With both the methods, I am getting IP address as NULL.

Does anyone knows what is the problem?

Tags: visdk, virtual, machine, ip, address, null, ip_address, infrastructure

Re: why do ip address of virtual machine is null?

1. Jun 2, 2009 10:07 PM

in response to: Chandrashekhar

lamw

2,803 posts since
Nov 27, 2007

This information is only available if the VM has VMware Tools installed, make sure you have the latest tools installed else this information will not be available.

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Re: why do ip address of virtual machine is null?

2. Jun 2, 2009 10:50 PM

in response to: lamw

Chandrashekhar

53 posts since
Mar 19, 2009

thanks for quick reply. But may I know the reason behind it? Why we cannot get ip address through sdk? Is there any paper or article which explains this thing?

Re: why do ip address of virtual machine is null?

3. Jun 2, 2009 10:57 PM

in response to: Chandrashekhar

stumpr

451 posts since
Sep 26, 2007

Without the VMware Tools, VMware has no information on the Operating System configuration. Once you install the VMware Tools, you can get information regarding the network, disks, etc.

Re: why do ip address of virtual machine is null?

4. Jun 2, 2009 10:58 PM

in response to: Chandrashekhar

lamw

2,803 posts since
Nov 27, 2007

I'm sure there is a document somewhere stating this information, but its a known fact that information such as this will not be available w/o VMware Tools.

The only thing I can find with a quick search on the net is: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/virtualization-pro/vmware-tools-faq/

Do I lose out on any other functionality if I don’t install VMware Tools?
When using the VMware Infrastructure Client without VMware Tools some of the information such as IP address will not be available.

VMware Tools allows for it to access some guest attributes, so without tools it will not be able to extract some of this information and will not be accessible through the API's.