vwm1

Manage vmware virtual machines

Usage

vwm <command> [options]

Commands

clone

Clone a given VM or template to another VM name. If -c is specified multiple copies are made. Each VM name will be incremented in the usual Perlish way. e.g.: DB1, DB2, DB3 etc.

If -a is unspcified the datastore of the source VM is copied as the new clones datastore. If -a is specified the data store will be set during cloning. If -a contains a comma denoted list the datastores will be alternated during cloning. e.g. -a 1,2 copies to datastore 1 then 2 then starts again at 1. Patterns of repeating datastores can be specified - e.g. '-a 1,2,3,2,1'.

deploy: Synonym of 'clone'.

df: Display disk usage information about datastores. If a list of matches is provided, the data store list is filtered for those items.

list

Display a list of the given items matching a pattern.

Possible lists include (selection can be plural or singular):

        vms (default if unspecified)
        datastores
        hosts
        pools

If '-d' is specified without any containing '$' marks the string is evaluated as a CSV with each line extracting the requisite information that would be shown with the 'show' command. See the EXAMPLES section for further information.

If '-d' is specified and contains a '$' it is evaluated as a perl expression with $_ being set to the currently active item.

If '-t' is spcified the titles header for the table is set.

migrate: Migrate a given list of VMs to another host.

move: Move a given list of VMs to another datastore.

setpool: Set the share level on the given resource pools.

show: Show information about a given object. If no specific object type is specified 'vm' is assumed. If no specific matching pattern is specified all objects of that type are listed.

snapshot: Take a snapshot of the matching VM's. If '-t' is specified, it is used as the title of the snapshot. Otherwise the current time is used.

state

Set the state of a list of VMs.

This can be any of the following choices:

        on - Power up the specified VMs
        off - Power down the specified VMs. This is a hard power state so data loss could occur.
        suspend - Power the machine into standby mode. This is a hard power state which does not rely on VMware tools.
        restart - Hard power cycle the VMs. Like 'off' this is a forced power state so data loss could occur.
        shutdown - Try shutting down the machine via VMware tools.
        standby - Try to put the machine into the soft standby state.
        reboot - Try shutting down the machine via VMware tools.

version: Display various version informaiton about the connected vServer and local API. This command is the default if no actual command is specified (i.e. just running 'vwm' with nothing else specified).

Options

[@profile]

Used during: All operations

Default: First specified profile in config

Type: Profile name or URL

Specifies which profile to use when addressing the vServer. This can be an entry within the config file or the URL (with optional login details) e.g.

        vwm version @cluster1
        vwm version @cluster2
        vwm version @https://cluster1.acme.edu
        vwm version @https://[email protected]
        vwm version @https://username:[email protected]

Examples 1 and two assume 'custer1' and 'customer2' have been defined in the examples file (see EXAMPLES). The further examples specify the connection information on the command line. Specifying the password from the command line is exceptionally silly and should be avoided.

If username and/or password is omitted (such as in examples 3 and 4 above) they will be prompted for when vwm is run.

-c

Used during: migrate

Default: 1

Type: Number

Specifies how many VMs should be created during a clone operation. The name of the target VM is incremented in the usual Perlish way. e.g.

DBS1, DBS2, DBS3... DBS10 DB00, DB01, DB02... DB99 DBAA, DBAB, DBAC... DBZZ

--display [col1,col2...]

-d [col1,col2...]

Used during: list

Default: Name

Type:: Command seperated list of columns to display in tabular output when using the 'list' command. See also: -s to specify the seperation character to use between the columns.

Specify a data store for operations that require it.

--datastore [datastore]

--ds [datastore]

-a [datastore]

Used during: migrate

Default: Same as source VM

Type: Datastore name

Specify a data store for operations that require it.

--force

-f

Used during: All operations

Default: off

Type: Switch

Force continue if an error occurs. Normaly if an error occurs vwm will stop processing any operations specified on the command line. If this flag is enabled vwm will continue operation as if no error occured.

--human

-h

Used during: df

Default: off

Type: Switch

Display the numbers of the 'df' command in a human readable format.

--dryrun

-n

Used during: All operations

Default: off

Type: Switch

Dry run mode. When enabled vwm will continue as normal but no actual call to the VMware VServer is made.

--folder

-l

Used during: clone

Default: Source VM / templates folder

Type: String

Specifies the folder that the cloned machine should be moved into. If unspecified the source VM's folder is used instead.

--pool [pool]

-o [pool]

Used during: clone, migrate, move

Default: Same as the source VM

Type: Pool name

Specifies the alternate pool name to use when migrating or cloning machines. If unspecified the source VM's pool is used instead.

--priority [priority]

-p [priority]

Used during: migrate

Default: low

Type: Choice of: low, normal, high

Specifies the priority when migrating VMs.

--seperator [character]

-s [character]

Used during: list

Default: \t (tab)

Type: String

Specifies the string to display between columns when outputing a list.

--title [title]

-t [title]

Used during: list, snapshot

Default: The Unix EPOC (for VMs)

Type: String

The title of the snapshot to create or the title row of the list table.

-v

--verbose

Used during: All operations

Default: 0

Type: Accumulating switch

Be more verbose when outputting information to STDERR. Specify multiple times to increase verbosity.

-w [seconds]

-wait [seconds]

Used during: clone, host, migrate, setpool, state

Default: 0

Type: Number of seconds

Force a wait for the specified number of seconds between operations.

Overview

A command line tool for the manipulation of VMware Virtual Machines (VM).

Examples

vwm clone VM01 VM02: Clone VM01 to VM02. Since neither the datasource (-d) or pool (-o) is specified these details are copied from VM01.

vwm clone DB00 DB01 -c 30: Clone DB01 to DB02 creating 30 copies. This will actually make the machines DB01 to DB30. Since neither the datasource (-d) or pool (-o) is specified these details are copied from VM01.

vwm clone DB00 DB01 -c 30 -d SAN1,SAN2 -o Active: Same as the above example but spread the datastores across SAN1 and SAN2 and move the machine to the 'Active' pool.

vwm deploy Template-DBServer DB05 -l Databases: Deploys the template Template-DBServer into DB05, moving the destination into the Databases folder.

vwm clone Template-DBServer DB05 -l Databases: This is exactly the same as above. A clone and deploy operations will automatically figure out if the source is a template and act accordingly.

vwm df *2: Display a datastore usage sheet (similar to the Unix 'df' command) for all datastores ending in '2'.

vwm host maintenance Moe Homer: Put the hosts 'Moe' and 'Homer' into maintenance mode (use 'restore' to recover from this).

vwm list vms: List all VMs.

vwm list vms -d name,host,ip: List all VMs - showing their name, currently allocated host and IP address.

vwm migrate DBS* Carl: Migrate all virtual machines matching 'DBS*' to the 'Carl' host.

vwm migrate DBS* Lenny -w 60 -o Active -p high: Migrate all virtual machines matching 'DBS*' with high priority to the 'Active' pool on the 'Lenny' host waiting 60 seconds between machine.

vwm move DB00 DB01 SAN2 @cluster2: Move VMs DB00 and DB01 to the SAN2 datastore within profile 'cluster2'.

vwm show host Lisa: Show information on host 'Lisa'.

vwm snapshot DB04 DB05 -t 'Todays backup': Take a snapshot of VMs 'DB04' and 'DB05' using the title 'Todays backup'

vwm state on DB00 DB01 -w 30: Turn DB00 and DB01 on waiting 30 seconds between machines.

vwm state on DB00 DB01 -w 30 -f: Turn DB* VMs on. -f ensures that even if any of the machines fail to turn on for any reason the remaining machines will still be sent the 'on' command.

Files

/etc/vmmrc: VMM config file for all users.

.vmmrc: VMM config file for the local user.

Config

The /etc/vmmrc and .vmmrc files will be processed to determine VMM's configuration, the latter file taking precedence.

The layout of the config file spcifies which profiles to use.

        [GLOBAL]
        rewrite host = s/^(.+?)\./\1/
        verbose = 2
        profile = Cluster1
        dryrun = 0
        human = 1
        force = 0
        seperator = \t
        http_proxy = http://myproxy.example.com:8080
        https_proxy = http://myproxy.example.com:8080
        
        [Cluster1]
        url = https://cluster1.acme.edu
        username = admin
        password = password
        
        [Cluster2]
        url = https://cluster2.acme.edu
        username = administrator
        password = changeme

[GLOBAL]

The meta global section. Any option specified here will be automatically carried into each profiles config.

In the main example Cluster1 will have a 'verbose' option of 2. Cluster2 will have a 'verbose' option of 1 since it overrides the global setting.

[profile]: The name (case-insensitive) of the profile to define.

url: The connection URL of the vServer system within the profile

username and password: The authentication information when connecting to the vServer.

dryrun: Specify a default dry run value. See -n for further information.

force: If an error is encounted during a multiple VM operation the default behaviour is to stop execution. If this setting is set to '1' this behaviour will be overridden and operations will continue even if an error is encounted.

http_proxy

https_proxy: Forceably set the HTTP(s)_PROXY environment variable to the provided value before connecting. This is included to assist basic login shells where these variables are not imported correctly.

human: Always output numbers in a human readable format rather than the raw form.

priority: Specify a default priority when using any command that is '-p' compatible.

profile: Specify the default profile to use if none is explicitally set. If not specified the first found profile in the config file is used.

rewrite host: Specify a substitution regular expression to use when correcting host names. The value given in the above example will remove any trailing DNS name correcting 'host1.a.very.long.dns.com' to 'host1'.

seperator: Specify the seperator character used when outputting tabular data with the 'list' command.

verbose: Specify a default verbosity level. See -v for further information.

Installation

VMM requires a few external modules before it can work correctly. Follow the following stages to get everything working.

* Install the VMware Perl SDK from http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/viperltoolkit/

 This requires the packages libclass-methodmaker-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl 
 libsoap-lite-perl libuuid-perl libxml-libxml-perl.

* Setup the config file. See either the CONFIG section above or use the sample file from /usr/share/doc/vmware-manager.

* Run VMM with a simple command to make sure everything is setup right.

        vwm version

* Enjoy

History

Debian 13 (Trixie) to Debian 11 (Bullseye): the text shown here
Debian 10 (Buster) to Debian 7 (Wheezy)