Need to programmatically change the network an interface is on

[Darin]

Hi all,

One of our ESX servers' VSwitch is configured with multiple VLANs and I have a requirement for programmatically (command line) changing the network that a Virtual Machine is connected too.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks,

Darin

[lamw · Accepted solution]

You can either manually edit the VM(s) .vmx configuration file and use vimsh wrapper vmware-vim-cmd to refresh the VM(s) configuration:

[root@himalaya root]# vmware-vim-cmd vmsvc/reload
Insufficient arguments.
Usage: reload vmid

Reload the virtual machine state from afresh.

The VM unfortunately needs to be powered off I think for this to work.

If you need to do it while the VM is running, you'll want to take a look at the VI API and look into the ReconfigVM_Task() http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk25pubs/ReferenceGuide/vim.VirtualMachine.html#re...

This is also implemented in the VI Perl Toolkit Utilities as a script: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/viperltoolkit/viperl15/doc/perl_toolkit_utilities_idx.html and you can look at the script called vmreconfig.pl http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/viperltoolkit/viperl15/doc/vmreconfig.html

The VIPT is to be executed on either a Windows/Linux or on VMware VIMA/vMA and not on the Service Console of classic ESX

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[alanrenouf]

This can also easlily be done through the VI Toolkit (Powershell)

Check the VI Toolkit for more info:

http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/windows_toolkit?view=discussions

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for Correct or Helpful.

Alan Renouf

[Darin]

Ok, thanks for the replies.

I have the Perl VI toolkit installed and can run vmreconfig.pl but I'm really stumped as to what I need to give it?!

Do I always need to provide an XML file or are there a bunch of command like arguments I can throw at it?

There doesn't seem to be very many examples so I'm a bit stumped.

Thanks,

Darin

[lamw]

You do need to provide it the xml spec on the configurations you would like to change each time, but you can also modify the script to just perform a network interface update but in general the script provides you a way of modifying some of the basic params w/VM

Update: You can take a look at this thread on how to just create a script that updates the network: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1210967#1210967

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".