[et-mgmt-tools] VMware?

[Michael DeHaan]

Michael DeHaan wrote:
> drew einhorn wrote:
>> Things are working well on the ESX box now that I'm past the cobbler
>> and kickstart misconfigurations.
>>
>> Every time I create an new vm I need to take a trip though VMware's
>> Virtual Infrastructure Client, that I'd really like to avoid.  VMware
>> has a few more options to besides ram and disk space to configure
>> before creating a VM.  Haven't taken a close enough look to know
>> either how difficult it will be to live without being able to set them
>> when the VM is created, or how difficult it would be to extend cobbler
>> to handle more VM attributes, or how this maps into all the other
>> virtualization toolsets.
>>
>
> Can you see if VMware has any docs for command line creation of guests?
>
> If so, those attributes could be added in koan fairly easily.   I 
> don't have a test platform,
> but would be more than happy to code something up in koan if someone 
> wanted to test the proof
> of concept.   Tracking a few additional attributes in cobbler wouldn't 
> be a problem.
>
>
>
>> On 7/2/07, *Michael DeHaan* < mdehaan at redhat.com 
>> <mailto:mdehaan at redhat.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     drew einhorn wrote:
>>     > Cobbler / Koan supports Xen virtualization.
>>     >
>>     > Has anyone looked at what it would take to get koan working
>>     > on other virtualization platforms?  I have a VMware ESX box
>>     > I'd like to be able to use it on.
>>     >
>>
>>     Not to my knowledge -- though I like the idea.
>>
>>     As far as I'm aware, vmware does understand PXE installation, so 
>> koan
>>     would just need a way to create an "empty" guest
>>     that would PXE itself.   I know this is the plan for how we're
>>     going to
>>     support fully automatic installs for other
>>     virtualization types like KVM, Xen hardware virt, etc.
>>
>>     If there are any VMware experts on the list, patches would be 
>> great :)
>>
>>     It seems like the syntax needed would not need to even access the
>>     cobbler server the way --virt does today, ex:
>>
>>     koan --virt --virt-type=vmware --mac=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF 
>> --virt-name=foo
>>     [...other options...]
>>
>>     --virt-type could default to "xenparavirt" and current behavior.
>>
>>     --Michael
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Drew Einhorn
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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If someone with a VMware install wants to try to get some basic PXE 
guest creation functionality scripted, I did find some command line info 
that would be useful.

Search for "Command Line Here" ... 

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld/

Starting out shouldn't require any modifications to koan.   Basically 
all it would take is coming up with a script (any language is ok) that 
took various parameters for setting the MAC, ram, etc, and then 
initiating PXE (set up through cobbler) and I can see about 
incorporating that into koan (in other words, koan could invoke that 
script and foward the parameters it recieved from cobbler along, 
including any new parameters we would need to create).

There are probably other good docs available elsewhere too...

--Michael