VMware Communities: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin

Up to Discussions in vSphere™ Web Services SDK

1 2 3 ... 12 Previous Next

177 Replies Last post: Oct 19, 2009 7:52 AM by mw4tkn

Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion

Feb 13, 2008 1:00 AM

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

SVMotion is a VI 2.5 client plugin (the FIRST released, third-party plugin in fact) that extends the client's functionality by providing an integrated, graphical tool that can be used to invoke storage VMotion (SVMotion) operations. This plugin is not supported by VMware. In fact, the plugin is not anywhere close to supported by VMware because it is the result of a two-week dive into the inner-workings of the VI client libraries with popular reflection tools (reverse-engineering). l o s t c r e a t i o n s is working on a white paper that describes how to build VI plugins.

Read more about SVMotion and download it here http://www.lostcreations.com/code/wiki/vmware/viplugins/svmotion.

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 13, 2008 10:06 AM

bill.french 94 posts since
Feb 17, 2004

Well, if this is the first third party plug in, and totally untested, am I the first to confirm it works in a production environment?

I was able to successfully storage vmotion a (minor) 1 disk production vm from an iSCSI lun to local storage successfully. I'll try a multi-disk, multi lun vm next. 20GB disk took less than 15 minutes. I have the good fortune of having several production vms that are (almost) inconsequential if they disappear, things like the WSUS server.

I am confused as to where to send payment? There's no "buy now" link on the website?

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 13, 2008 10:12 AM

in response to: bill.french

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

A few people have confirmed that it works, but the more the merrier

No payment necessary, but thank you for asking. I release all my software under the New BSD license. Good karma and all that : )

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 13, 2008 12:44 PM

in response to: akutz

melvery 3 posts since
Apr 7, 2006

Hi akutz, we bumped into you plugin today during our VMware training. Did some test with it (from iSCSI LUN to internal disk) and it seems to work great! Also tried two vm's atonce and that worked aswell!

Keep up the good work!

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 14, 2008 4:13 AM

winops 1 posts since
Nov 30, 2006

Fantastic. Works a treat!

Many thanks.

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 14, 2008 4:44 AM

A.Mikkelsen 498 posts since
Feb 27, 2006

Damm nice

Thanks for the good work.

Regards
A. Mikkelsen

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 14, 2008 2:39 PM

in response to: A.Mikkelsen

williambishop 1,156 posts since
Mar 9, 2006

Didn't work for me on 3.5, gave a vague error about invalid parameter, and failed. No real problem, I was more or less just testing it on a small vm...Very clean, I expect this one will be quite good.

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 14, 2008 5:23 PM

in response to: williambishop

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

Could you be more specific about the exception?

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 14, 2008 6:09 PM

in response to: akutz

williambishop 1,156 posts since
Mar 9, 2006

Actually, that was as specific as it gave me. Invalid parameter, no further information was available in the event log.

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 2:55 AM

rott 7 posts since
Dec 7, 2004

Hi,

I tried to install the plugin today but I wasn't able to find the plugin in the VI Client. I followed the installation guide and put the SVMotion directory under plugins. Even after restarting the PC it didn't find the plugin under "Manage Plugins".
After that I tried it on a complete different Infrastructure with another Client - same effect!?

Do you have any Ideas?

Michael

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 4:22 AM

in response to: rott

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

Re-download the zip file. I had screwed up the deploy script and it was not including a necessary assembly. My apologies.

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 4:27 AM

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

I just uploaded version 0.0.2.0 to the server. Changes include:

The ability to right-click on (almost) any object in the inventory and get the command "Migrate Storage...". This allows you select multiple VMs for SVMotion.
The GUI is slightly different.
The code in the repositories is now thoroughly documented for those of you who wish to create your own plugins.

Hope this helps!

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 4:47 AM

in response to: rott

crnielsen 54 posts since
Dec 8, 2004

I have the same problem as rott. It newer shows up in the plugin manager.

Regards

Claus

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 4:52 AM

in response to: rott

doomdevice 98 posts since
Dec 4, 2005

Hi rott,

had the same issue. it seems there are multiple webservers behind the link and different zip files. after downloading the zip file multiple times I´ve found out that there is a difference.

You must have the zip file containing SVMotion.zip again inside. Extracting that file into the plugin directory worked for me.

@lostcreations teams: The tool is great and thanks a lot for publishing the sources also!! Great help and community support!

Dennis

Reply Re: Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion Feb 15, 2008 5:53 AM

in response to: doomdevice

akutz 316 posts since
Nov 9, 2005

Although Doom's solution will work, the answer is simply my deploy script was screwed up. The new SVMotion.zip file should be exactly what you need. I was working on deploy scripts long after I should have gone to bed. Sorry.

1 2 3 ... 12 Previous Next

Actions

View as PDF

Up to Discussions in vSphere™ Web Services SDK

Introducing the VI 2.5 Client Plugin - SVMotion

Feb 13, 2008 1:00 AM

Actions

Incoming Links