CloneVM_Task Heartache!!

[Roman_Romano]

Dear All,

I'm looking to script the cloning of VMs from one datastore to another. My initial tests involve the following script:

-

---

Connect-VIServer xxxxxxx

$sourceVMName = "ITSSCOM01-test"

$targetVMName = "ITSSCOM01"

$targetDatastore = "xxxxxx"

$targetFolder = Get-Folder -Name "test" | % {Get-View $_.ID}

function Clone-VM {

$VMCloneSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineCloneSpec

$VMCloneSpec.Location = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineRelocateSpec

$VMCloneSpec.Location.datastore = (Get-View (Get-Datastore -VM $sourceVMName).ID).MoRef

$VMCloneSpec.powerOn = $FALSE

Write-Host "Cloning $sourceVMName to $targetVMName in $targetFolderName..."

(Get-View (Get-VM -Name $sourceVMName).ID).CloneVM_Task($targetFolder.MoRef, $targetVMName, $VMCloneSpec)

}

Clone-VM

Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

-

---

HOWEVER, i get the following error:

The operation is not supported on the object

From what i can google, people get this problem if they are not conected to a VirtualCenter server, but i am!

Hopefully i'm just missing something simple but i can't for the life of me see it. Any help would be most apreciated!

For the record, we have a 6 node esx 3.5 cluster and the VM i want to clone is powered OFF.

kind regards

Roman

[LucD]

Is the target datastore defined on the ESX server ?

Since you do not specify the host property in the VirtualMachineRelocateSpec object, the cloned VM will be created on the same ESX host as the source VM.

As a side-remark, it is always useful to capture the Task object that the xxx_Task methods produce.

It (sometimes) allows you to see the error that caused the failure of the method.

You can do something like this

....
$taskMoRef = (Get-View (Get-VM -Name $sourceVMName).ID).CloneVM_Task($targetFolder.MoRef, $targetVMName, $VMCloneSpec)
$task = Get-View $taskMoRef
while($task.info.state -eq "running" -or $task.info.state -eq "queued"){
  $task = Get-View $taskMoRef
}
Write-Host $task.info.error
....

[Roman_Romano]

Yes, both datastores can be seen by the host.

You are quite right, i should capture the CloneVM_Task to check for errors. I will do this on my return to work on Monday and let you know the results.

Thanks for your reply.

Roman

[Roman_Romano]

LucD

The problem seemed to be with my Get-Folder statement (the 'test' folder was me messing about).

I assume that VMs are put into a folder called 'vm' by default(??) Trouble was, i has 3 'vm' folders! Once i got my script to correctly identify the 'vm' folder that contained the VM i wanted to clone, all was better.

The trouble now is that launching the clone task from my script submits it to my VirtualCenter and then exits, where as i need it to wait while the clone task actually completes, then move on to another one.....

Regards

Roman

[yboychev · Accepted solution]

Hi Roman,

There are two ways you can do that:

1. You can just call the synchronous method CloneVm(...)

2. You can invoke the WaitForTask($MoRef) method:

$taskMoRef = $vmView.CloneVm_Task(...)

$vmView.WaitForTask($taskMoRef)

[Roman_Romano]

Many thanks for that!

Works like a treat

regards

Roman

[GuruAnt]

How do I "invoke the WaitForTask($MoRef) method"?

I'm still just starting out with the VI Toolkit, so this is still a little advanced for me, but this functionality would be really handy for a VM-backup script I'm working on (until we get a proper backup solution in place).

[yboychev]

It is the last two lines from my previous post:

$taskMoRef = $vmView.Clone_VmTask(...)

$vmView.WaitForTask($taskMoRef)

$vmView is the view of the virtual machine managed object for which the clone task is initiated. Any task method like Clone_VmTask(...) returns a managed object reference to a task object ($taskMoRef in our case). Then you simply invoke the WaitForTask method for the managed object for which the task is initiated passing the task MoRef as an argument.

\Yavor