Changing the Virtual Switch a VM is connected to

[Bizarrity]

Hiya,

I am trying to change the Virtual Switch a VM is connected to, using the VI SDK and C#. As a test, I am able to change the macAddress of a given VirtualEthernetCard, but if I try to change the card's 'deviceInfo.summary' (which i assume is the correct property to change to change the connected vSwitch) nothing happens.

Here is some sample code:

private static void changeNetwork(VimService service,

ManagedObjectReference vm,

VirtualEthernetCard card,

string newNetworkName)

{

card.macAddress = "10:10:20:30:40:50";//This works...

card.deviceInfo.summary = newNetworkName;//But this doesn't

VirtualDeviceConfigSpec spec = new VirtualDeviceConfigSpec();

spec.device = card;

spec.operation = VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation.edit;

spec.operationSpecified = true;

VirtualMachineConfigSpec config = new VirtualMachineConfigSpec();

config.deviceChange = new VirtualDeviceConfigSpec[] { spec };

service.ReconfigVM_Task(vm, config);

}

Hope you can help. Either I'm close, or I'm beating around completely the wrong bush!

[Steve_Jin]

Try the following:

VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo bi= new VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo();

bi.network = <ManagedObjectReference to your new Network> // NOT the name, but ManagedObjectReference

card.backing = bi

Steve JIN, VMware Engineering

Creator of VI Java API:

[Bizarrity]

I managed to get back to this, and got it working. For completeness, the working code is:

private static VirtualDeviceConfigSpec getDeviceConfigSpec(VirtualEthernetCard card,

ManagedObjectReference newNetwork, string newNetworkName)

{

VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo newBI = new VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo();

newBI.network = Ref;

newBI.deviceName = newNetworkName;

card.backing = newBI;

VirtualDeviceConfigSpec spec = new VirtualDeviceConfigSpec();

spec.device = card;

spec.operation = VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation.edit;

spec.operationSpecified = true;

return spec;

}

Thanks Steve for your answer.

[regis]

Hello, is it possible to do exactly the same code but with VI Perl (not easy to understand the ReconfigVM function ... )

to change network label with vm poweredOn

Many Thanks

[njain]

Hi,

In perl, you can reconfigure the VM in powered on state to change the network as follows:

my $vm_view = Vim::find_entity_view(view_type => 'VirtualMachine',
filter =>{'name' => $vm_name }); 


# $network holds the reference to the new network and $networkName has the new network name
my $backing_info
= VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo->new(network => $network,
deviceName => $networkName);
my $card = VirtualPCNet32->new(backing => $backing_info, key => $key); # here $key is the "key" from the existing PCNet32 Ethernet card attached to a virtual machine. 


my $config_spec_operation = VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation->new('edit');
my $devspec = VirtualDeviceConfigSpec->new(operation => $config_spec_operation,
device => $card);
my $device_config_specs = [$devspec]; 


my $vmspec = VirtualMachineConfigSpec->new(deviceChange => $device_config_specs);
eval {
$vm_view->ReconfigVM( spec => $vmspec );
Util::trace(0,"\nVirtual machine '" . $vm_view->name
. "' is reconfigured successfully.\n");
}; 

Hope this is helpful.

Neha

[regis]

Ok perfect, thank you Neha

Regis

[Sean_D]

Thanks for the perl code snippet. It was very useful. If anyone's interested, I found a way to not have to recreate the network device completely (which saves you from having to determine if the network device was PCNet32, E1000, or whatever).

my $vm_view = Vim::find_entity_view(view_type => 'VirtualMachine', filter =>{'name' => $vm_name }); 


# $network holds the reference to the new network and $networkName has the new network name
my $backing_info = VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo->new(network => $network, deviceName => $networkName);
# You must set $netCard to the virtual network device you want to modify
$netCard->backing($backing_info);

my $config_spec_operation = VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation->new('edit');
my $devspec = VirtualDeviceConfigSpec->new(operation => $config_spec_operation, device => $netCard);
my $device_config_specs = [$devspec]; 


my $vmspec = VirtualMachineConfigSpec->new(deviceChange => $device_config_specs);
eval {
$vm_view->ReconfigVM( spec => $vmspec );
Util::trace(0,"\nVirtual machine '" . $vm_view->name
. "' is reconfigured successfully.\n");
};