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How to Generate VM Remote Console URL for vSphere 5.x Web Client

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There was a question last week on the VMTN community forums about generating a shortcut URL to a virtual machine's remote console in the new vSphere 5 Web Client. For those of you who have used the vCenter's Web Access may recall the option to generate a desktop shortcut to a particular virtual machine's remote console which includes ability to obfuscate the generated URL that could then be provided to your users.

With the updated vSphere 5 Web Client, there is not an option to generate the remote console URL but there is a link that you could manually copy and provide to your users. This of course is not ideal but after a tinkering, I was able to figure out how to generate the remote console URL for any virtual machine in the new vSphere 5.x Web Client.

I also created a vSphere SDK for Perl script awhile back called generateVMRemoteConsoleURL.pl which helps users automate the URL generation for vSphere 4.x environments, it has now been updated to support vSphere 5.

Here is an example of what the URL looks like for vSphere 5.0:

https://reflex.primp-industries.com:9443/vsphere-client/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8:VirtualMachine:vm-1506

Here is an example of what the URL looks like for vSphere 5.1 & 5.5:

https://reflex.primp-industries.com:9443/vsphere-clien/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=urn:vmomi:VirtualMachine:vm-1506:EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8

There are basicallythree important components to the URL:

  • Hostname of the vCenter Server - reflex.primp-industries.com
  • The vCenter instanceUUID which used to uniquely identify a vCenter Server - EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8
  • The MoRef ID of the virtual machine - vm-1506

Since the Web Client does not support URL customization, you only need to provide the name of a virtual machine to the generateVMRemoteConsoleURL.pl script and the URL will be generated for you.

Here is an example execution of the script:

Now you can take the URL output from the script and enter it into a supported web browser. You will then be asked to authenticate before it allows you to access the remote console of a particular virtual machine.

You can now provide links to specific virtual machines

Automating Storage DRS & Datastore Cluster Management in vSphere 5

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Storage DRS is probably one of, if not the coolest feature in vSphere 5. Storage DRS allows you to cluster your datastores into what is known as a datastore cluster (storage pod) and automatically balances both your storage I/O and capacity just like DRS does with your compute. The user interface is extremely easy to use but as always, if you need to click through several screens to get to the outcome, some automation can never hurt 🙂

I decided to create a vSphere SDK for Perl script called datastoreClusterManagement.pl which allows you to automate all aspects of creating and managing your storage pod/cluster. You will need a system that has the vCLI installed or you can use VMware vMA 5 to run the script. You will also need to connect to a vCenter Server 5 for all SDRS operations.

The script supports 8 different types of operations and are describe below:

Operation Description
List List all available datastore clusters
Query  Query details for a specific datastore cluster
Create  Create a datastore cluster
Delete  Delete a datastore cluster (Datastores are left intact)
Add Datastore  Add datastore(s) to an existing datastore cluster
Remove Datastore  Remove datastore(s) from an existing datastore cluster
Enter Maintenance Mode  Put a datastore into maintenance mode
Exit Maintenance Mode  Take a datastore out of maintenance mode
Here is an example of performing the "list" operation: 

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation list

Here is an example of performing the "query" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation query --pod homer-NFS-pod

Here is an example of performing the "create" operation w/single datastore:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation create --datacenter MN-physical --enable_sdrs true --enable_sdrs_iometric true --pod moe-NFS-pod --sdrs_automation automated --sdrs_evaluate_period 480 --sdrs_imbal_thres 30 --sdrs_latency 15 --sdrs_util_diff 20 --sdrs_util_space 60 --datastore himalaya-NFS-moe-primp-1

Here is an example of performing the "create" operation w/datastore file:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation create --datacenter MN-physical --enable_sdrs true --enable_sdrs_iometric true --pod moe-NFS-pod --sdrs_automation automated --sdrs_evaluate_period 480 --sdrs_imbal_thres 30 --sdrs_latency 15 --sdrs_util_diff 20 --sdrs_util_space 60 --datastore_file dsfile

Here is an example of performing the "delete" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation delete --pod moe-NFS-pod

Here is an example of performing the "add_datastore" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation add_datastore --pod moe-NFS-pod --datastore himalaya-NFS-moe-primp-2

Here is an example of performing the "remove_datastore" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation remove_datastore --pod moe-NFS-pod --datastore himalaya-NFS-moe-primp-1

Note: Both "add_datastore" and "remove_datastore" operation support single datastore and/or datastore file

Here is an example of performing the "ent_maint" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation ent_maint --pod homer-NFS-pod --datastore himalaya-NFS-moe-primp-5

Here is an example of performing the "ext_maint" operation:

./datastoreClusterManagement.pl --server vcenter50-1 --username root --operation exi_maint --pod homer-NFS-pod --datastore himalaya-NFS-moe-primp-5

There is also complete perl docs for this script which can be called using the following command:

perldoc datastoreClusterManagement.pl

How to extract host information from within a VM?

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From time to time, I see this question come up asking how one might be able to extract a certain piece of information from either ESX(i) or the management APIs (vSphere API) from within a virtual machine. The simple answer is you can not, by default the guest operating system has no idea of the underlying hypervisor nor does it have the access to the management APIs. This of course, assumes you are following VMware's best practices in isolated and segregating off your management network from your virtual machine network.

Having said that, there are certain bits of information that you can extract about your ESX(i) host from within the guestOS using some of the utilities that is installed with VMware Tools. The first utility is called VMware Toolbox command which can be found on both UNIX/Linux and Windows systems that have tools installed.

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