list clusters by datacenter

[dacoulter]

Is it possible to retreive a list of VC host clusters based on a VC data center name natively in vCO?  Or derive the VC data center name from a VcVlusterComputeResource object? I've looked at the VcClusterComputerResource/configuration/configurationEx and VcDatacenter properties/methods, but can't seem to find a way to accomplish this.

Here's a post that's similar to my use case, although I'm looking to do this in vCO versus PowerShell: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/231345

[tschoergez]

Hi,

I don't know a direct way.

One workaround is to "crawl" through the object tree: Get the datacenter and the hostFolder-attribute of this. Then you can use the childEntity-Attribute of this VcFolder.

(you have to crawl deeper if you have layered folder-structure in your vCenter).

The other, maybe more elegant way is to use the VcPlugin.getAllComputeResources()-Method with the proper xpath-expression.

Problem: I have no idea, how this xpath-expression look like.

More infos about this here:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/284052

Maybe you can also find some ideas here:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/301381

I'm playing with the xpath right now, I'll come back if I find something helpful 🙂

Regards,

Joerg

[mmarinov]

Hi,

The method you are looking for is VcPlugin.getAllClusterComputeResources().

Unfortunately I have troubles with the xpaths expressions so any method from the VcPlugin that expects xpaths for some reason ignores them.

Theoretically speaking the correct invocation should be

var xpath = "xpath://parent.parent.name[compare(.,'your_datacenter_name') == 0]";

var clusters = VcPlugin, getAllClusterComputeResourses(null, xpath);

the reason parent.parent.name is used is

- cluster's parent is always the flder host

- the host folder's parent is always the datacenter name

I have checked the above by using the following snippet on my machine

var clusters = VcPlugin.getAllClusterComputeResources();

for (var i=0; i<clusters.length; i++) {

System.log("Clsuter: " + clusters[i].name);

System.log("Cluster name: " + clusters[i].parent.parent.name);

}

Hope this helps,

--Martin

[tschoergez]

Hi Martin,

First of all: You're right, in my post above I copy&pasted the wrong method. We're looking for a ClusterComputeResource 🙂

I cannot try it now, but I have two remarks:

1. what happens, if you have some subfolders between the datacenter and the cluster? will the parent.parent... still work?

2. Relating to Konstantin's post here http://communities.vmware.com/message/1673541#1673541:

What about the double slash // here?

Is there any documentation about the xpath yet?

Regards,

Joerg

[mmarinov]

Hi Joerg,

From what I know about the VC data model:

- datacenter has four folders only, and they can be add/removed/changed - vm, host, datastore, network. Those are the folders that you see when you browse the VC inventory

- a cluster is always a child of the host folder. So I think we are on the safe site about parent.parent

as for the // I'm not aware there is a documentation yet. But I'll double check it tomorrow.

Regards,

--Martin

[dacoulter]

Unfortunately the number of parents depends on how many folders you have in between your cluster and your datacenter.  Here's what I did, although not very elegant.

// ESXCluster is a VC:ClusterComputeResource

// Walk up the folder hiearchy until we find a Datacenter (only going up to 6 levels deep)

if (ESXCluster.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

    if (ESXCluster.parent.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

        if (ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

            if (ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

                if (ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

                    if (ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.vimType != "Datacenter") {

                        throw "Unable to find DataCenter of cluster " + ESXCluster.name;

                    } else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.name };

                } else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent.name };

            } else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.parent.name };

        } else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.parent.parent.name };

    } else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.parent.name };

} else { DataCenterName = ESXCluster.parent.name };

[tschoergez]

Hi!

You can use a recursion for a more elegant way to implement this.

Have a look at the System.getModule("com.vmware.library.vc.folder").getAllVirtualMachinesByFolderIncludingSubFolders()-Action for following:

if(!vmFolder){
    throw "UndefinedParameter: vmFolder mandatory input is not defined.";
}
var allVms = new Array();
getAllVmsInFolder(vmFolder);
return allVms;
function getAllVmsInFolder(folder) {
    var children = folder.childEntity;
    for (var i in children) {
        if (children[i] instanceof VcFolder) {
            getAllVmsInFolder(children[i]);
        }
        if (children[i] instanceof VcVirtualMachine) {
            allVms.push(children[i]);
        }
    }
}

It should not be too difficult to rewrite if for your requirements...

Regards,

Joerg

[dacoulter]

Followup: Found an easy way to get the Datacenter name with an existing library action:

getDatacenterForVimObject

var datacenterName = System.getModule("com.vmware.library.vc.basic").getDatacenterForVimObject(esxClusterObject).name

Not sure how I missed that one before...

[cdecanini_]

If you would not have missed it before you would have missed all this thread fun stuff