I'm doing stress testing of automation of spin-up and tear-down of many virtual machines on an ESX4u1 system using the vix libraries. I've noticed the following behaviors that I was hoping someone at VmWare might be able to shed some light on.
I occasionally get a VIX_E_HOST_USER_PERMISSIONS error on VixVM_PowerOn (although the machine does actually power on successfully).
I also occasionally get a VIX_E_VM_NOT_RUNNING error on VixVM_PowerOff [hard poweroff, not graceful shutdown) (although the machine is currently powered on and running).
I've noticed that the more machines I have running concurrently, the more exacerbated the problem is. E.g. with 5 machines running, I may get the error once every 100 power-on/power-off cycles. With 10 machines running, I get the error once every 20 power-on/power-off cycles. With 20 machines running I get the error once every 10 or so.
I've also noticed that the power-off errors seems to occur when there is very little time (< 1 second) between the power-on and the power-off cycle. VixVM_PowerOn has returned success, I've waited for VmWare Tools to come up, and then immediately shut it down. This leads me to believe that there is possibly some lag time in the bookkeeping on the ESX system.
The power on error is still a mystery to me since that error doesn't make any sense... I would expect that kind of error with a VixHost_Connect(), but not with VixVM_PowerOn.
Any light to be shed by someone at VmWare or others in the user community that have seen things like this woud be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Pete