I'm using VIX API 1.6.2 on 32 bit Windows 2003 (SP2) to control vitrual machines running on another 64-bit machine running ESXi 4.0.0 (171294).

The Virtual machine is running 32-bit Windows 2003 (SP2)  and has VMWare tools installed.

Using the VIX API I first revert to a named snapshot (that has the machine in shutdown state), then I power it on and wait for tools in guest before I run programs inside the VM.

The problem is that WaitForToolsInGuest ( ) does not return and hangs indefinately even after the OS has booted up successfully.

The code below works fine for ESX 3.5 (update 3) and also VMWare Server 2.0.1 but does not work forESXi 4.0.0 (171294)

My VBScript code that uses VIX API looks like this:

' Create the VIX library

Dim lib

Set lib = CreateObject("VixCOM.VixLib")

' Connect to ESXi server

Dim jobConnect

Set jobConnect = lib.Connect(VixCOM.Constants.VIX_API_VERSION, VixCOM.Constants.VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_VI_SERVER, "https://myesxiserver:443/sdk/", 0, "root", "mypwd", 0, Nothing, Nothing)

Set connectResults = Nothing

err = jobConnect.Wait(Array(VixCOM.Constants.VIX_PROPERTY_JOB_RESULT_HANDLE), connectResults)

If lib.ErrorIndicatesFailure(err) Then

       Wscript.Echo "Connecting to host failed with error code "

       WScript.Quit(err)

End If

Dim host

Set host = connectResults(0)

' Open the virtual machine

Set jobOpenVM = host.OpenVM("[datastore] myvm/myvm.vmx", Nothing)

Set openVMResults = Nothing

err = jobOpenVM.Wait(Array(VixCOM.Constants.VIX_PROPERTY_JOB_RESULT_HANDLE), openVMResults)

If lib.ErrorIndicatesFailure(err) Then

       WScript.Echo "Opening virtual machine failed with error code "

       WScript.Quit(err)

End If

' The vm object will be first element in the results array.   

Dim vm

Set vm = openVMResults(0)

' Power on the virtual machine

Dim jobPowerOn

Set jobPowerOn = vm.PowerOn(VixCOM.Constants.VIX_VMPOWEROP_NORMAL, Nothing, Nothing)

err = jobPowerOn.WaitWithoutResults()

If lib.ErrorIndicatesFailure(err) Then

        WScript.Echo "Powering on guest failed with error code "

        WScript.Quit(err)

End If

' Wait until VMWare tools starts inside the guest

Dim jobWaitForTools

Set jobWaitForTools = vm.WaitForToolsInGuest(0, Nothing)

err = jobWaitForTools.WaitWithoutResults()

If lib.ErrorIndicatesFailure(err) Then

       WScript.Echo "Waiting for tools in guest failed with error code "

       WScript.Quit(err)

End If

Thanks in advance.

Hello all,

I just stumpled on VMware-vix-1.6.2-156745.exe available on the VMware Server 2 download page. The package's date: 30/3/2009, product version: 2.0.1 build-156745

Unfortunately, I could not find a changelog or something like that anywhere.

The VIX API landing page still claims that VMware-vix-1.6.2-127388.exe (03/12/2008, product version: 2.0.0 build-127388) is the most recent version of the VIX API.

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vix-api/

Can anyone point me to a changelog?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Patrick

Has anyone had problems using the Vix C API to connect with an ESXi host?  I can't get VixHost_Connect to connect with the C API, but if I use vmrun.exe with the same parameters it connects fine.  A colleague has also been able to connect to the same host using COM (VBScript).

I'm building the .dll in Visual C++ Express Edition and running it from Java with JNI.  The code I'm using is:

jobHandle = VixHost_Connect(VIX_API_VERSION, // VIX_API_VERSION (or '1' on VMWareServer 1.0)

VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_VI_SERVER, // VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_SERVER,

server, //  "[https://<IPAddress>:443/sdk]"

0, // ignored

user, // "root"

password, // "password"

0, // options

VIX_INVALID_HANDLE, // properties handle,

NULL, // callbackProc,

NULL); // clientData);

<![endif]><![if gte mso 9]><![endif]><![if gte mso 9]>

Hi, I’m trying to power on a virtual machine starting from a

the web application, that’s say, using ASP.NET. The problem is that I run the

application from internet explorer doesn’t work but if I run one from the

visual studio works. I think that it could be problems of permits but I

impersonate the user of the application and neither it works. Here I send the

code.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using Vestris.VMWareLib;

using VixCOM;

namespace VixWebApplication

{

    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

        }

        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            // declare a virtual host

            VMWareVirtualHost virtualHost = new VMWareVirtualHost();

            // connect to a local (VMWare Workstation) virtual machine

            virtualHost.ConnectToVMWareWorkstation();

            // open an existing virtual machine

            VMWareVirtualMachine virtualMachine = virtualHost.Open(@"D:\Shared\My Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional\winxppro.vmx");

            // power on this virtual machine

            virtualMachine.PowerOn(Constants.VIX_VMPOWEROP_NORMAL /| Constants.VIX_VMPOWEROP_LAUNCH_GUI/, 180);

            // login to the virtual machine

            virtualMachine.LoginInGuest("mila", "mila");

        }

    }

}

When

I run the application starting from the browser I obtain this error “Cannot

connect to the virtual machine” but I run the application from visual studio

works fine, that’s to say, the virtual machine power on.

+Cannot

connect to the virtual machine+

Description:An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the

current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about

the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: Vestris.VMWareLib.VMWareException:

Cannot connect to the virtual machine

Source Error:

               Constants.VIX_VMPOWEROP_LAUNCH_GUI*/, 180);

               Line 32:

               Line 33: //

               login to the virtual machine|

Source File: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\VixWebApplication\VixWebApplication\Default.aspx.cs Line: 31

Stack Trace:

I am experimenting with running automated tests on a VMWare VM. Opening and powering on the VM (through VIX API), as well as running the test tool, is all controlled from the VMWare host (same physical machine). After the tests have been run I would like to use VIX API to revert to "Snapshot 1", i.e. the state my VM was in before the tests were run. However, I get the error code and message "15 The file is already in use.".

When I do this manually on the VM, it is automatically restarts and I am back at "Snapshot 1" state but, if I do it using VIX API RevertToSnapshot from the VMWare host, I get the message above and the VM gets suspended. If I select to "Resume...." (manually)  then I am back at "Snapshot 1" state. Any idea what is wrong? Why does the VM not restart automatically when I use VIX API?

I've posted a release candidate for VMWareTasks 1.3 that supports VixCOM 1.7.0. Please download it here and file bugs or post questions at http://vmwaretasks.codeplex.com.

Features

- Added a VMWareComLib and VMWareComTools that expose a full scriptable COM interface.

- Added a vestris-vmwarecomlib.jar and vestris-vmwarecomtools.jar that exposes a Com4J JNI wrapper for VMWareComLib and VMWareComTools to Java clients.

- Added support for VixCOM 1.7.0. VMWareTasks works against both 1.6.2 and 1.7.0.

Misc Improvements

- All VMWareLib.Tools objects are now IDisposable and explicitly release reference to the virtual machine.

- All assemblies are strongly named and signed.

- The source in the release package can now be built without any changes.

Bugs

- VMWareRootSnapshotCollection.CreateSnapshot doesn't pass flags to the COM API.

Backwards incompatible interface changes

- VMWareVirtualHost.ConnectToVMWareServer takes an additional username and password. Pass blank values to connect to a local VMWare Server 1.x.

I am working on more thorough multithreaded stress tests, but with some early testing it looks like the VMWare development team did a very good job at fixing all the issues that I have reported, thank you!

Hi !   I'm hoping some helpful expert can help point me in the right direction.

I am attempting to upgrade the vmrun binary in my vmware-server 1.0.9 as the vmrun version that came with vmware-server 1.0.9 is not allowing me to run "vmrun" with the "revertToSnapshot option" as a non-root user (it only allows start and stop to be run as non-root user).

So I downloaded "VMware-VIX-1.7.0-186713.i386.bundle" from vmware's site as someone said that there might be a problem with my vmrun as it is an old version (it is the one that came default when i installed vmware-server 1.0.9) and they told me to make sure i upgraded VIX to 1.7.

However, i am getting the following error when i try to run "sh VMware-VIX-1.7.0-186713.i386.bundle" even though i tried it while su'ed to root as well as logged in as root itself :

"Extracting VMware Installer...done.

cp: cannot stat `/tmp/vmis.OKqJZk/install/vmware-installer/bootstrap': No such file or directory"

For some reason, the installer code in this irritating "bundle" file cannot find the temporary directory it created. 

In fact, there was no temporary directory created at all because i do not see it when i type "ls -al /tmp".

Can anyone help me as to why the vmware vix installer does not work and how to get it to work?

(and i am also wondering why vmware can't do things the normal way and release the VIX code as a straightforward tarball which would make it much easier, just like how they do it with vmware-server. 

Providing install files that don't work out of the box can make people irritated enough to consider switching to other equally compelling & free solutions such as Sun's VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org) or Citrix's Xensource. )

Many thanks in advance!

MK

First of all, I wrote my question as document by mistake, so I submit again here.

I have a question how a remote program can monitor VM is normally running or not on VMware.

My environment is VMware ESX 4.0 and VIX API 1.7.

My C++ program can successfully access VMware from remote workstation, monitor power state of VM, power on or shutdown VM. And I want to monitor VM health state in order to confirm VM is normally running, that is power state of VM is running and also VM is not in hang condition.

In case of Hyper-V of Microsoft, VM object, Msvm_ComputerSystem, has HealthState and OperationStatus properties. So it is possible to monitor VM is normally running by periodically monitoring those properties, I think.

In case of VMware, VM object has not such a property. So if anyone has an idea to know health state of VM, please let me know.

I have an idea to confirm VM health by periodically writing and reading variable to VM as follows, but I don't know this is effective or not.

############################################################################

BOOL writeReadPropertiesToVM(VixHandle vmHandle, BOOL* vmOK)

{

BOOL status = FALSE;

VixError err = VIX_OK;

VixHandle jobHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;

char *readValue = NULL;

jobHandle = VixVM_WriteVariable(vmHandle,

VIX_VM_GUEST_VARIABLE,

"myTestVariable",

"newValue",

0, // options

NULL, // callbackProc

NULL); // clientData);

err = VixJob_Wait(jobHandle, VIX_PROPERTY_NONE);

if (VIX_OK != err)

{

// Handle the error...

const char* errorString = Vix_GetErrorText(err, NULL);

printf("VixVM_WriteVariable, status = 0x0%x(%s).\n", err, errorString);

goto abort;

}

printf("VixVM_WriteVariable succeeded.n");

jobHandle = VixVM_ReadVariable(vmHandle,

VIX_VM_GUEST_VARIABLE,

"myTestVariable",

0, // options

NULL, // callbackProc

NULL); // clientData);

err = VixJob_Wait(jobHandle,

VIX_PROPERTY_JOB_RESULT_VM_VARIABLE_STRING,

&readValue,

VIX_PROPERTY_NONE);

if (VIX_OK != err)

{

// Handle the error...

const char* errorString = Vix_GetErrorText(err, NULL);

printf("VixVM_ReadVariable, status = 0x0%x(%s).\n", err, errorString);

goto abort;

}

printf("VixVM_ReadVariable succeeded.\n");

*vmOK = TRUE;

status = TRUE;

abort:

Vix_FreeBuffer(readValue);

Vix_ReleaseHandle(jobHandle);

return status;

}

Thanks and regards,

Shigemi

Hello,

I am writing a module to emulate malicious code and i want to be able to monitor what goes on in real time and restrict certain behaviours (sandboxing??).. is there anyways i can do that using any of the Vmware API/SDKs??

Mohamed Hossam

I'm running vmware workstation 6.5.3 on windows 7 (64bit) and am now trying out the VIX API.

I tried compiling some of the sample code included with vmware workstation (vix api) and every time I run it, I get a sigsegv as soon as I call VixHost_Connect.

Am I doing something wrong?

This is my compiler command:

c:\MinGW\bin\gcc -D_SSIZE_T -I"c:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VIX" -o powerOn powerOn.exe "c:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VIX\Workstation-6.5.0\32bit\vix.lib"

This is the backtrace from powerOn.exe when I run it against a vmx file:

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.

0x00005358 in ?? ()

(gdb) bt

#0  0x00005358 in ?? ()

#1  0x004013da in main (argc=2, argv=0x352b80) at powerOn.c:108

Has anyone had any luck running any VIX code that has been compiled with mingw?  I also tried linking against the wrapper library, VixAllProducts.lib, but that did not work at all and produced copious errors (undefined symbols, etc.)

How do you get output from a vmrun.exe runProgramInGuest session without having the app/script on the local machine save to a file and pull that file back and cat it? Is there a way to get the STDERR or STDOUT piped back?

Keven

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ba/My%20Documents/Soulseek%20Chat%20Logs/Private/eureka.txt

here is my situtation:

      workstation 7.0 installed------&gt; vmrun runs pretty well -

&gt;install   VMware-vix-e.x.p-222403.exe(this is vix110 beta) -

&gt;vmrun not work

below is my operation:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation&gt;vmrun -T ws start "D:\redhat\Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.vmx"

Unable to connect to host.

Error: The specified version was not found

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation&gt;

thanks for any help

Hi,

After establishing connection to the vshpere server, I need to create Inventory of Managed Object say Datacenter.

Normally this can be done using following piece of code -

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

        Connection con = new Connection(config);

        Inventory inv = InventoryFactory.getInventory(con);            

        // find all Virtual machines

        VirtualMachine[] virtualMachines = inv.findEntities(null, VirtualMachine.class);

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

To establish connection, we need username,password and other stuff.  I want to bypass these thing as I already have established connection and my request is directing to some other servlet. Now using sessionId, how it is possible to get all these thing. Can some help me out.

Hey, I am trying to Copy files into a VMWare image hosted in ESX using VIX (C# Wrapper around the COM API), but I can't quite get it right.

Conceptual Something like:

IVMWareVirtualHost host = new VMWareVirtualHost();

host.ConnectToVMWareVIServer("172.18.19.69", "ESX Admin User", "ESX Admin Password");

IVMWareVirtualMachine virtualMachine = host.Open("[Storage1] Image/Image.vmx");

virtualMachine.PowerOn();

virtualMachine.WaitForToolsInGuest();

virtualMachine.LoginInGuest("Administrator", "ILoveOMSIS!1234");

virtualMachine.CopyFileFromHostToGuest("C:
temp
File.txt", "C:
package
File.txt");

And it fails at the last line with "INTERNAL ERROR: A file was not found"...

The File exists Locally, Casing is corrent and the "C:\package" folder exists in the Guest.

Host System: ESX 4.0

Guest System: Windows XP

Client System: Windows 2003 server

(Client System refers to the system where I try tu run the commands and vmrun.exe

After trying to find some help ect on the web, I went to "vmrun" and tested a command that used to work with the "VMWare Server"

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u "Local Admin User" -p "Local Admin Password" -gu "Guest Admin account" -gp "Guest Admin password" CopyFileFromHostToGuest "[Standard] Image/Image.vmx" "C:\temp\file.txt" "C:\package\file.txt"

changed to:

vmrun -T server -h https://172.18.19.69/sdk -u "ESX Admin User" -p "ESX Admin Password" -gu "Guest Admin account" -gp "Guest Admin password" CopyFileFromHostToGuest "[Storage1] Image/Image.vmx" "C:\temp\file.txt" "C:\package\file.txt"

Both Works just fine...

So what am I'm doing wrong in the code?

I have been doing .vbs (adsi/wmi) scripting for years and now want to get into VMware coding via the VMware APIs & DLLs.

The I saw Eric Sloof's VS 2010 VB project using dll, for his VMclient (ie easy remote console) applcation. But, I have no idea where he got these DLLs from, or how they are used. This can be dowloaded at http://vmclient.nl/ (right most is a 2010 project, inside there you can find the folowing DLLs:

Interop.VMwareRemoteConsoleTypeLib.dll

AxInterop.VMwareRemoteConsoleTypeLib.dll

VimService2005.dll

I have seen the homebrew dll wrappers which look like the conenct to the VC web service via SOAP. As it seems the VMware API only works w/ Java and C#. It seems use some older Vmwre dlls so Richard Garsthagen wrote a wapper, which seems to give full serialize support to the SOAP agent on the VC server. Eric Sloof r'cmd grabbing and using the DLLs from http://www.run-virtual.com/?page_id=173 when I browse the DLL in Visual Studio i see tons and tons of stuff (fun!) but it seems so complex.  The .pdf that pointed me to this is also by Eric Sloof and is here:  http://www.ntpro.nl/VMwareVBApp.pdf

IN addition, I have seen the VMware published DLL in (VIX API bet 1.10 -- http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vix-api// ) from VMware but only lets you hook and do stuff on a VM. It appear to let you do stuff on the host or cluster level. Is thie correct it only lets you do stuff on the VM and not the host/cluster? Using this API Eric Sloof shows how to connect, power on/off a VM, and move files a VM it w/o the NIC in this example. His video is here: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/categories/22-Products Sickly, I screen shot his video and typed in ALL the code (yeah a bit like the C64 days) and am playing this this code sample. If he agrees, I can post his source code.

Can anybody shed some light on this? Is VMware working on like a "gold ticket API" which we can hook and do everything (connect to VM consoles, move file to/from VMs, Automate VirutalCenter,etc etc) ? I do perfer to use VB .net (due to my .vbs scripting background). This is very confusing to a new coder and there seems to be a ton of DLLs all over the place and I am not sure where they came from.

Thanks.

Hey folks,

I've been stumped for a few hours with file operations.

I am using the vix-perl bindings. I'm using Workstation 7.1 on Windows 7, and have a Windows XP guest.

I am opening the vm, powering it on and logging in:

($err, $vmHandle) = VMOpen($hostHandle, $vmxPath);
check_for_error($err, "vmopen");

$err = VMPowerOn($vmHandle, $powerOptions, $propertyListHandle);
check_for_error($err, "vmpoweron");

$err = VMLoginInGuest($vmHandle, $username, $password, $options);
check_for_error($err, "vmloginguest");

I verified that this is working correctly by listing the running processes inside a guest:

my @processProperties;
($err, @processProperties) = VMListProcessesInGuest($vmHandle, $options);
check_for_error($err, "vmlistprocessesinguest");

foreach my $process (0..$#processProperties)
{
     print $processProperties[$process]{'PROCESS_NAME'} . "\n";
}

and I get a list back that looks fine. However, attempting to perform a file operation is failing. I can try to query a file for its information:

my %fileInfo;

($err, %fileInfo) = VMGetFileInfoInGuest($vmHandle, $guestFilePath);

or try to copy a file from the guest:

VMCopyFileFromGuestToHost($vmHandle, $guestFilePath, $hostFilePath,  $options, $propertyListHandle);

and both fail with the error "A file was not found". I have verified that the file I am trying to query exists on the guest at C:\something.txt,

I first thought it might be a backslash issue, so I tried both: C:/something.txt and C:\something.txt

I wondered if it might be a permissions issue, so I put something.txt in my My Documents folder and tried with it there: still no luck.

Any ideas?

Hi:

I´ve a problem trying to run program in guest using VIX API. I have this code (first I power on, login, etc...):

     //Run program in guest

     if (runp == true){

          Vix_ReleaseHandle(jobHandle);

          jobHandle = VixVM_RunProgramInGuest(vmHandle,

                                                  "c:
Prueba c++.exe",

                                                  NULL,

                                                  0, // options,

                                                  VIX_INVALID_HANDLE, // propertyListHandle,

                                                  NULL, // callbackProc,

                                                  NULL); // clientData

          err = VixJob_Wait(jobHandle, VIX_PROPERTY_NONE);

          if (VIX_OK != err) {

               goto abort;

          }

          Vix_ReleaseHandle(jobHandle);

     }

Always fail and abort!!!! what´s the problem???

Thanks

Hi,

I try to automate updating vmtools for our closed applications (linux based). I use the vmrun to run the "vmware-uninstall-tools.pl" on the vm. However, I got the following error:

Unable to remove the file "/usr/lib/vmware-tools/sbin32/vmware-hgfsmounter".

Execution aborted.

Problem uninstaling VMware Tools 4.0.0-208167 from /usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl

If I login the vm and run the script directly, I don't have the problem.

Any possible problem or suggestion on this?

Thanks

Hello, 

I am trying to use the API for testing purposes.  The command I use is vmrun -T esx -h https://host.me.org/sdk List. I keep getting the following error message:

Unable to connect to host.

Error: This operation is not supported with the current license.

When I use the same command syntax against my production system (full version ESX) I get the desired result. 

All documentation claims that ESXi is supported for this API, but evidence shows otherwise.  What am I missing?

Hi,

I am new with VIX and try to use it for a proto infrastructure.

When I try to start a VM with VIX (from a VM of the same host) here is what I get :

vmrun -T esx -h https://bod-qa-vmhost1.vsg3d.intra/sdk -u root -p rootPassword start "[Local Datastore HDD1 VMs] bod-qa-vmbuild2/bod-qa-vmbuild2.vmx"

Unable to connect to host.

Error: This operation is not supported with the current license

I have a free license ESXi, is this the issue ?

What king of license should I need to make it run ?

Thanks.