vRA 7 linux guest agent and custom props

[SteveR123]

Hi guys, I'm moving to an agent-based customisation process for my VM's in vRA 7 (vRO previously).

I'm using the VirtualMachine.Software0.Name,VirtualMachine.Software0.ScriptPath properties ok but when I use more than one script it takes hours for the request to complete in vRA. So the processes and scripts finish correctly but it takes at least 2 hours for vRA to recognise this. Has anyone else experienced this?

I tried bypassing the scripts by just running the commands in the property line which works ok e.g. /usr/bin/mount -t nfs vrealize-nfs:scripts /nfs

If I add a 2nd line I get the delays again. so I tried to add the next command to this line with && but I don't think that works.

Just wondering if anyone else has come across this or if you could help in any way. I'm just passing the hostname and password variables through to a script on an NFS share to customise the guest.

Thanks in advance

Steve

[rmav01 · Accepted solution]

Have you tried wrapping your script as a Software Component? That way it's clearly formatted as a readable script, you can set the exit conditions, and possibly see any exceptions that are thrown as part of the request history. You can also reuse the agent install as part of future blueprints if you want and have a common point of change. I'm wondering if the script call you currently have is not giving a proper return code and vRA is busy waiting until it times out on something?

[SteveR123]

Thanks for the response. I don't have the enterprise license unfortunately (yet) so that's not a runnner I'm afraid (Im working on that license). The incorrect return code sounds good though, do you know where i'd find logs that could confirm this? the GuestAgent.log isnt very helpful or the vRA infrstructure log.

Thanks again for your response

Steve

[rmav01]

I have seen log entries surrounding script kickoffs and exceptions in the catalina.out file on the appliance, so I would check there first. This link lists out all of the log locations for vRA7 if you haven't seen that yet.

[SteveR123]

Haven't found anything of any use yet but I'll keep digging. Thanks