Category: Python

Horizon 8 2111 GA: What’s new in the rest api’s?

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So just found out that Horizon 8 2111 dropped today and there have been some welcome changes to the rest api’s. Luckily VMware does have these covered by now in THIS kb article.

In short these are the changes:

Inventory : Desktop Pools
Create desktop pool
Update desktop pool
Delete desktop pool
v5 version of List
v5 version of Get
Inventory : Desktop Actions
Validate Installed Applications
Validate VM Names Info
Resume Task on Desktop pool
Pause task on Desktop pool
Inventory : Farms
v3 version of List
v3 version of Get
v2 version of Create
v2 version of Update
Inventory : Farm Actions
Add RDS servers to farm
Remove RDS servers from farm
Schedule Maintenance (and image management schedule maintenance)
Cancel Schedule Maintenance
Validate Installed Applications
Inventory : Global Application Entitlements
v2 version of List
v2 version of Get
Create Global Application Entitlements
Update Global Application Entitlements
Delete Global Application Entitlements
List Compatible Backup Global Application Entitlements
Inventory : Global Desktop Entitlements
version of List
v2 version of Get
Create Global Desktop Entitlements
Update Global Desktop Entitlements
Delete Global Desktop Entitlements
List Compatible Backup Global Desktop Entitlements
Inventory : Global Sessions
List
Disconnect
Logoff
Reset
Restart
Send Message

so finally we’re able to create desktop pools using REST and to push a new image to rds farms. I will make sure to update the Python module ®Soon and create some blog posts on the new options.

Getting Session information using the Python Module for VMware Horizon with filtering

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Since Horizon 8 it is possible to retrieve session information using the REST api’s. In the python module for Horizon I have translated that functionality to the get_sessions function.

import requests, getpass, urllib, json

import vmware_horizon

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
url = input("URL\n")

username = input("Username\n")

domain = input("Domain\n")

pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()
print("connected")

inventory=vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
sessions = inventory.get_sessions()
for i in sessions:
    for ii in i:
        print(ii, '=', i[ii] )


end=hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()
print(end)

You see a lot of the information is returned using an id but there are plenty of functions that you can use to get the readable information for those.

Since Horizon 2103 VMware has added an option use filtering when getting session information. In the example above you can see that I have a connected and a disconnected session, let’s get the connected one. First I create the filter.

filter = {}
filter["type"] = "And"
filter["filters"] = []
filter1={}

filter1["type"] = "Equals"
filter1["name"] = "session_state"
filter1["value"] = "CONNECTED"

filter["filters"].append(filter1)

Next I run the action with the filter argument.

sessions = inventory.get_sessions(filter=filter)

And now you see only the connected one is returned

And when I switch to disconnected

The new python module has been pushed to github together with example scripts for retrieving all sessions and with filtering.

Creating a RDS farm using the Python module for VMware Horizon

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One of the goals and hopes I had with my 100DaysOfCode (I am writing this on day 100!) was that the Horizon REST api’s to create desktop pools and RDS farms would have been available at the end. Only half of that came out and with Horizon 8 2103 we can finally create a RDS farm using those rest api’s. I have decided to add this to the Python module based on a dictionary that the user sends to the new_farm method. I could still add a fully fetched function but that would require a lot of arguments and using **kwargs is an option but than the user would still need to find out what to use.

First I will need to know what json data I actually need, let’s have a look at the api explorer page to get a grip on this

{
  "access_group_id": "6fd4638a-381f-4518-aed6-042aa3d9f14c",
  "automated_farm_settings": {
    "customization_settings": {
      "ad_container_rdn": "CN=Computers",
      "cloneprep_customization_settings": {
        "post_synchronization_script_name": "cloneprep_postsync_script",
        "post_synchronization_script_parameters": "p1 p2 p3",
        "power_off_script_name": "cloneprep_poweroff_script",
        "power_off_script_parameters": "p1 p2 p3",
        "priming_computer_account": "a219420d-4799-4517-8f78-39c74c7c4efc"
      },
      "instant_clone_domain_account_id": "6f85b3a5-e7d0-4ad6-a1e3-37168dd1ed51",
      "reuse_pre_existing_accounts": false
    },
    "enable_provisioning": true,
    "max_session_type": "LIMITED",
    "max_sessions": 50,
    "min_ready_vms": 0,
    "nics": [
      {
        "network_interface_card_id": "c9896e51-48a2-4d82-ae9e-a0246981b473",
        "network_label_assignment_specs": [
          {
            "enabled": true,
            "max_label": 1,
            "max_label_type": "LIMITED",
            "network_label_name": "vm-network"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "pattern_naming_settings": {
      "max_number_of_rds_servers": 5,
      "naming_pattern": "vm-{n}-sales"
    },
    "provisioning_settings": {
      "base_snapshot_id": "snapshot-1",
      "datacenter_id": "datacenter-1",
      "host_or_cluster_id": "domain-s425",
      "im_stream_id": "6f85b3a5-e7d0-4ad6-a1e3-37168dd1ed51",
      "im_tag_id": "3d45b3a5-e7d0-4ad6-a1e3-37168dd1ed51",
      "parent_vm_id": "vm-2",
      "resource_pool_id": "resgroup-1",
      "vm_folder_id": "group-v1"
    },
    "stop_provisioning_on_error": true,
    "storage_settings": {
      "datastores": [
        {
          "datastore_id": "datastore-1"
        }
      ],
      "replica_disk_datastore_id": "datastore-1",
      "use_separate_datastores_replica_and_os_disks": false,
      "use_view_storage_accelerator": false,
      "use_vsan": false
    },
    "transparent_page_sharing_scope": "VM",
    "vcenter_id": "f148f3e8-db0e-4abb-9c33-7e5205ccd360"
  },
  "description": "Farm Description",
  "display_name": "ManualFarm",
  "display_protocol_settings": {
    "allow_users_to_choose_protocol": true,
    "default_display_protocol": "PCOIP",
    "grid_vgpus_enabled": true,
    "session_collaboration_enabled": false
  },
  "enabled": true,
  "load_balancer_settings": {
    "cpu_threshold": 10,
    "disk_queue_length_threshold": 15,
    "disk_read_latency_threshold": 10,
    "disk_write_latency_threshold": 15,
    "include_session_count": true,
    "memory_threshold": 10
  },
  "name": "ManualFarm",
  "rds_server_ids": [
    "5134796a-322g-5fe5-343f-4daa5d25ebfe",
    "2a43f96c-102b-4ed3-953f-35deg43d43b0ge"
  ],
  "server_error_threshold": 0,
  "session_settings": {
    "disconnected_session_timeout_minutes": 5,
    "disconnected_session_timeout_policy": "NEVER",
    "empty_session_timeout_minutes": 5,
    "empty_session_timeout_policy": "AFTER",
    "logoff_after_timeout": false,
    "pre_launch_session_timeout_minutes": 10,
    "pre_launch_session_timeout_policy": "AFTER"
  },
  "type": "MANUAL",
  "use_custom_script_for_load_balancing": false
}

This also includes some that are not required so for my own farm I settled with this json. This is for an Instant Clone farm.

{
    "access_group_id": "6fd4638a-381f-4518-aed6-042aa3d9f14c",
    "automated_farm_settings": {
        "customization_settings": {
            "ad_container_rdn": "OU=Pod1,OU=RDS,OU=VMware,OU=EUC",
            "instant_clone_domain_account_id": "6f85b3a5-e7d0-4ad6-a1e3-37168dd1ed51",
            "reuse_pre_existing_accounts": true
        },
        "enable_provisioning": false,
        "max_session_type": "LIMITED",
        "max_sessions": 50,
        "min_ready_vms": 1,
        "pattern_naming_settings": {
            "max_number_of_rds_servers": 2,
            "naming_pattern": "vm-{n}-sales"
        },
        "provisioning_settings": {
            "base_snapshot_id": "snapshot-1",
            "datacenter_id": "datacenter-1",
            "host_or_cluster_id": "domain-s425",
            "parent_vm_id": "vm-2",
            "resource_pool_id": "resgroup-1",
            "vm_folder_id": "group-v1"
        },
        "stop_provisioning_on_error": true,
        "storage_settings": {
            "datastores": [
                {
                    "datastore_id": "datastore-1"
                }
            ],
            "use_separate_datastores_replica_and_os_disks": false,
            "use_view_storage_accelerator": false,
            "use_vsan": false
        },
        "transparent_page_sharing_scope": "VM",
        "vcenter_id": "f148f3e8-db0e-4abb-9c33-7e5205ccd360"
    },
    "description": "demo_farm",
    "display_name": "demo_farm",
    "display_protocol_settings": {
        "allow_users_to_choose_protocol": true,
        "default_display_protocol": "BLAST",
        "grid_vgpus_enabled": false,
        "session_collaboration_enabled": true
    },
    "enabled": false,
    "load_balancer_settings": {
        "cpu_threshold": 10,
        "disk_queue_length_threshold": 15,
        "disk_read_latency_threshold": 10,
        "disk_write_latency_threshold": 15,
        "include_session_count": true,
        "memory_threshold": 10
    },
    "name": "demo_farm",
    "server_error_threshold": 0,
    "session_settings": {
        "disconnected_session_timeout_minutes": 5,
        "disconnected_session_timeout_policy": "NEVER",
        "empty_session_timeout_minutes": 5,
        "empty_session_timeout_policy": "AFTER",
        "logoff_after_timeout": false,
        "pre_launch_session_timeout_minutes": 10,
        "pre_launch_session_timeout_policy": "AFTER"
    },
    "type": "AUTOMATED",
    "use_custom_script_for_load_balancing": false
}

As said I send a dictionary to the method so let’s import data into a dict called data and I will print it to screen. The dictionary needs to follow this specific order of lines so that’s why a json is very useful to start with.

with open('/mnt/d/homelab/farm.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

As you can see in both the json and the output there’s a lot of things we can change and some things that we need to change lik id’s for all the components like vCenter, base vm, base snapshot and more. First I need the access_group_id this can be retreived using the get_local_access_groups method. For all of these I will also set the variable in the dictionary that we need.

local_access_group = next(item for item in (config.get_local_access_groups()) if item["name"] == "Root")
data["access_group_id"] = local_access_group["id"]

Than it’s time for the Instant Clone Admin id

ic_domain_account = next(item for item in (config.get_ic_domain_accounts()) if item["username"] == "administrator")
data["automated_farm_settings"]["customization_settings"]["instant_clone_domain_account_id"] = ic_domain_account["id"]

For the basevm and snapshot id’s I used the same method but a bit differently as I had already used this method in another script

vcenters = monitor.virtual_centers()
vcid = vcenters[0]["id"]
dcs = external.get_datacenters(vcenter_id=vcid)
dcid = dcs[0]["id"]

base_vms = external.get_base_vms(vcenter_id=vcid,datacenter_id=dcid,filter_incompatible_vms=True)

base_vm = next(item for item in base_vms if item["name"] == "srv2019-p1-2020-10-13-08-44")
basevmid=base_vm["id"]

base_snapshots = external.get_base_snapshots(vcenter_id=vcid, base_vm_id=base_vm["id"])

base_snapshot = next(item for item in base_snapshots if item["name"] == "Created by Packer")

snapid=base_snapshot["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["base_snapshot_id"] = snapid
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["parent_vm_id"] = basevmid

Host or cluster id

host_or_clusters = external.get_hosts_or_clusters(vcenter_id=vcid, datacenter_id=dcid)
for i in host_or_clusters:
    if (i["details"]["name"]) == "Cluster_Pod1":
        host_or_cluster = i
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["host_or_cluster_id"] = host_or_cluster["id"]

Resource Pool

resource_pools = external.get_resource_pools(vcenter_id=vcid, host_or_cluster_id=host_or_cluster["id"])
for i in resource_pools:
    # print(i)
    if (i["type"] == "CLUSTER"):
        resource_pool = i
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["resource_pool_id"] = resource_pool["id"]

VM folder again is a bit different as I have to get the id from one of the children objects

vm_folders = external.get_vm_folders(vcenter_id=vcid, datacenter_id=dcid)
for i in vm_folders:
    children=(i["children"])
    for ii in children:
        # print(ii["name"])
        if (ii["name"]) == "Pod1":
            vm_folder = i
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["vm_folder_id"] = vm_folder["id"]

Datacenter and vcenter id’s I already had to grab for the base vm and base snapshot so I can just add them

data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["datacenter_id"] = dcid
data["automated_farm_settings"]["vcenter_id"] = vcid

Datastores is a bit more funky as there can be multiple so I needed to create a list first and than populate that based on the name of the datastores I have.

datastore_list = []
datastores = external.get_datastores(vcenter_id=vcid, host_or_cluster_id=host_or_cluster["id"])
for i in datastores:
    # print(i)
    if (i["name"] == "VDI-500") or i["name"] == "VDI-200":
        ds = {}
        ds["datastore_id"] = i["id"]
        datastore_list.append(ds)
data["automated_farm_settings"]["storage_settings"]["datastores"] = datastore_list

For my final script I put them in a bit different order and I decided to change a whole lot more options but if you have your json perfected this shouldn’t always be required. Also take note that for true/false in the json that I use the True/False from python.

import requests, getpass, urllib, json

import vmware_horizon

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
url = input("URL\n")

username = input("Username\n")

domain = input("Domain\n")

pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()
print("connected")

monitor = obj=vmware_horizon.Monitor(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
external=vmware_horizon.External(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
inventory=vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
config=vmware_horizon.Config(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

with open('/mnt/d/homelab/farm.json') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

vcenters = monitor.virtual_centers()
vcid = vcenters[0]["id"]
dcs = external.get_datacenters(vcenter_id=vcid)
dcid = dcs[0]["id"]

base_vms = external.get_base_vms(vcenter_id=vcid,datacenter_id=dcid,filter_incompatible_vms=True)

base_vm = next(item for item in base_vms if item["name"] == "srv2019-p1-2020-10-13-08-44")
basevmid=base_vm["id"]

base_snapshots = external.get_base_snapshots(vcenter_id=vcid, base_vm_id=base_vm["id"])

base_snapshot = next(item for item in base_snapshots if item["name"] == "Created by Packer")

snapid=base_snapshot["id"]

host_or_clusters = external.get_hosts_or_clusters(vcenter_id=vcid, datacenter_id=dcid)
for i in host_or_clusters:
    if (i["details"]["name"]) == "Cluster_Pod1":
        host_or_cluster = i

resource_pools = external.get_resource_pools(vcenter_id=vcid, host_or_cluster_id=host_or_cluster["id"])
for i in resource_pools:
    # print(i)
    if (i["type"] == "CLUSTER"):
        resource_pool = i

vm_folders = external.get_vm_folders(vcenter_id=vcid, datacenter_id=dcid)
for i in vm_folders:
    children=(i["children"])
    for ii in children:
        # print(ii["name"])
        if (ii["name"]) == "Pod1":
            vm_folder = i

datastore_list = []
datastores = external.get_datastores(vcenter_id=vcid, host_or_cluster_id=host_or_cluster["id"])
for i in datastores:
    # print(i)
    if (i["name"] == "VDI-500") or i["name"] == "VDI-200":
        ds = {}
        ds["datastore_id"] = i["id"]
        datastore_list.append(ds)

local_access_group = next(item for item in (config.get_local_access_groups()) if item["name"] == "Root")
ic_domain_account = next(item for item in (config.get_ic_domain_accounts()) if item["username"] == "administrator")

data["access_group_id"] = local_access_group["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["customization_settings"]["ad_container_rdn"] = "OU=Pod1,OU=RDS,OU=VMware,OU=EUC"
data["automated_farm_settings"]["customization_settings"]["reuse_pre_existing_accounts"] = True
data["automated_farm_settings"]["customization_settings"]["instant_clone_domain_account_id"] = ic_domain_account["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["enable_provisioning"] = False
data["automated_farm_settings"]["max_sessions"] = 50
data["automated_farm_settings"]["min_ready_vms"] = 3
data["automated_farm_settings"]["pattern_naming_settings"]["max_number_of_rds_servers"] = 4
data["automated_farm_settings"]["pattern_naming_settings"]["naming_pattern"] = "farmdemo-{n:fixed=3}"
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["base_snapshot_id"] = snapid
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["parent_vm_id"] = basevmid
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["host_or_cluster_id"] = host_or_cluster["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["resource_pool_id"] = resource_pool["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["vm_folder_id"] = vm_folder["id"]
data["automated_farm_settings"]["provisioning_settings"]["datacenter_id"] = dcid
data["automated_farm_settings"]["stop_provisioning_on_error"] = True
data["automated_farm_settings"]["storage_settings"]["datastores"] = datastore_list
data["automated_farm_settings"]["transparent_page_sharing_scope"] = "GLOBAL"
data["automated_farm_settings"]["vcenter_id"] = vcid
data["description"] = "Python_demo_farm"
data["display_name"] = "Python_demo_farm"
data["display_protocol_settings"]["allow_users_to_choose_protocol"] = True
data["display_protocol_settings"]["default_display_protocol"] = "BLAST"
data["display_protocol_settings"]["session_collaboration_enabled"] = True
data["enabled"] = False
data["load_balancer_settings"]["cpu_threshold"] = 12
data["load_balancer_settings"]["disk_queue_length_threshold"] = 16
data["load_balancer_settings"]["disk_read_latency_threshold"] = 12
data["load_balancer_settings"]["disk_write_latency_threshold"] = 16
data["load_balancer_settings"]["include_session_count"] = True
data["load_balancer_settings"]["memory_threshold"] = 12
data["name"] = "Python_demo_farm"
data["session_settings"]["disconnected_session_timeout_minutes"] = 5
data["session_settings"]["disconnected_session_timeout_policy"] = "NEVER"
data["session_settings"]["empty_session_timeout_minutes"] = 6
data["session_settings"]["empty_session_timeout_policy"] = "AFTER"
data["session_settings"]["logoff_after_timeout"] = False
data["session_settings"]["pre_launch_session_timeout_minutes"] = 12
data["session_settings"]["pre_launch_session_timeout_policy"] = "AFTER"
data["type"] = "AUTOMATED"

inventory.new_farm(farm_data=data)

end=hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()
print(end)

How does this look? Actually you don’t see a lot happening but the farm will have been created

As always the script can be found on my github in the examples folder together with the json file.

With this I am closing my 100DaysOfCode challenge but I pledge to keep maintaining the python module and I will extend it when new REST api calls arrive for VMware Horizon.

Pushing a new image using the VMware Horizon Python Module

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One of the REST api calls that where added for Horizon 8 2012 was the ability to push images to Desktop Pools (sadly not for farms yet). This week I added that functionality to the VMware Horizon Python Module. Looking at the swagger UI these are the needed arguments:

So the source can be either the streams from Horizon Cloud or a regular vm/snapshot combo. For the time you will need to use some moment in epoch. The optional items for adding the virtual tpm, stop on error I have set the default for what they are listed. As logoff policy I have chosen to set a default in WAIT_FOR_LOGOFF.

For this blog posts I have to go with the vm/snapshot combo as I don’t have streams setup at the moment. First I need to connect:

import requests, getpass, urllib, json, operator, numpy, time
import vmware_horizon


requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
url="https://pod2cbr1.loft.lab"
username = input("Username\n")
domain = input("Domain\n")
pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()
print("connected")

Than I open the ports for the classes I will be using

monitor = obj=vmware_horizon.Monitor(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
external=vmware_horizon.External(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
inventory=vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

Now let’s look at what the desktop_pool_push_image method needs

First I will grab the correct desktop pool, I will use Pod02-Pool02 this time. There are several ways to get the correct pool but I have chosen to use this one.

desktop_pools=inventory.get_desktop_pools()
desktop_pool = next(item for item in desktop_pools if item["name"] == "Pod02-Pool02")
poolid=desktop_pool["id"]

To get the VM and Snapshots I first need to get the vCenter and datacenter id’s

vcenters = monitor.virtual_centers()
vcid = vcenters[0]["id"]
dcs = external.get_datacenters(vcenter_id=vcid)
dcid = dcs[0]["id"]

I created a new golden image last Friday and it has this name: W10-L-2021-03-19-17-27 so I need to get the compatible base vm’s and get the id for this one

base_vms = external.get_base_vms(vcenter_id=vcid,datacenter_id=dcid,filter_incompatible_vms=True)
base_vm = next(item for item in base_vms if item["name"] == "W10-L-2021-03-19-17-27")
basevmid=base_vm["id"]

I had Packer create a snapshot and I can get that in a similar way

base_snapshots = external.get_base_snapshots(vcenter_id=vcid, base_vm_id=base_vm["id"])
base_snapshot = next(item for item in base_snapshots if item["name"] == "Created by Packer")
snapid=base_snapshot["id"]

I get the current time in epoch using the time module (google is your best friend to define a moment in the future in epoch)

current_time = time.time()

For this example I add all the arguments but if you don’t change fromt he defaults that’s not needed

inventory.desktop_pool_push_image(desktop_pool_id=poolid,parent_vm_id=basevmid,snapshot_id=snapid, start_time=current_time, add_virtual_tpm=False, stop_on_first_error=False, logoff_policy="FORCE_LOGOFF")

And closing the connection

end=hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()
print(end)

and when I now look at my desktop pool it’s pushing the new image

I have created a new folder on Github for examples and the script to deploy new images is the first example. I did move a couple of the names to variables so make ie better usable. You can find it here. Or see the code below this.

import requests, getpass, urllib, time
import vmware_horizon

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()

url                     = "https://pod2cbr1.loft.lab"
desktop_pool_name       = "Pod02-Pool01"
base_vm_name            = "W10-L-2021-03-19-17-27"
snapshot_name           = "Snap_2"

username = input("Username\n")
domain = input("Domain\n")
pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()
print("connected")
monitor = obj=vmware_horizon.Monitor(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
external=vmware_horizon.External(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
inventory=vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

desktop_pools=inventory.get_desktop_pools()
desktop_pool = next(item for item in desktop_pools if item["name"] == desktop_pool_name)
poolid=desktop_pool["id"]

vcenters = monitor.virtual_centers()
vcid = vcenters[0]["id"]
dcs = external.get_datacenters(vcenter_id=vcid)
dcid = dcs[0]["id"]

base_vms = external.get_base_vms(vcenter_id=vcid,datacenter_id=dcid,filter_incompatible_vms=True)
base_vm = next(item for item in base_vms if item["name"] == base_vm_name)
basevmid=base_vm["id"]

base_snapshots = external.get_base_snapshots(vcenter_id=vcid, base_vm_id=base_vm["id"])
base_snapshot = next(item for item in base_snapshots if item["name"] == snapshot_name)
snapid=base_snapshot["id"]

current_time = time.time()
inventory.desktop_pool_push_image(desktop_pool_id=poolid,parent_vm_id=basevmid,snapshot_id=snapid, start_time=current_time)

end=hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()
print(end)

 

 

Quickly grabbing all available REST api url’s for your Horizon version

  By , , , , , , , ,

One of the challenges with the Horizon REST API’s is that they are not feature complete yet and if you ain’t on the latest version you need to scroll trough the api explorer or Swagger UI to find if the URL you need is available. I have created a short script for both python and powershell that will show all the available urls.

If you’ve taken a good look at the Swagger page you’ll see there’s a link to the api docs almost at the top

If you open this you get something that looks like a json but it’s not readable (yet!)

Let’s grab the url’s with powershell first

$data = Invoke-WebRequest https://pod2cbr1.loft.lab/rest/v1/api-docs?group=Default
$json = $data |ConvertFrom-Json
$json.paths

this will give you all the available url’s from the docs and the methods they support

Now if you want to drill down deeper you can do a select -expandproperty on the url’s and with a get-member you get the available calls

$json.paths | select -expandproperty "/inventory/v1/rds-servers/{id}" | Get-Member

and with another select -expandproperty you see all the details

$json.paths | select -expandproperty "/inventory/v1/rds-servers/{id}" | select -ExpandProperty get

With Python you can start with something similar

import json,requests,urllib 
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings() 
response = requests.get("https://pod2cbr1.loft.lab/rest/v1/api-docs?group=Default" , verify=False) 
data = response.json() 
for i in data["paths"]: 
    print(i)

but this will just give the url’s

To be able to drill down I decided to bring the url, method and the description into a list and print that if needed. This example is just with the method and url but you can add the description as well. The list is to make it easier to filter on.

import json,requests,urllib
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
response = requests.get("https://pod2cbr1.loft.lab/rest/v1/api-docs?group=Default" , verify=False)

data = response.json()

list=[]
paths=data["paths"]

for i in paths:
    for method in paths[i]:
        obj = {}
        obj["method"] = method
        obj["url"] = i
        obj["description"] = paths[i][method]
        list.append(obj)

for i in list:
    print(i["method"], i["url"])

Managing application pools using the VMware Horizon Python Module

  By , , , , , ,

Earlier this week I added several methods to the VMware Horizon Python Module that are centered about application pools and I promised a blog post so here it is 🙂 In the module we have the following methods in the Inventory about Application Pools:

Preparation

In order to use the methods I am using this as standard configuration in my script

import requests, getpass, urllib, json, operator
import vmware_horizon
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()

url="https://loftcbr01.loft.lab"
username = "m_wouter"
domain = "loft.lab"
pw = getpass.getpass()


hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()
print("connected")
monitor = obj=vmware_horizon.Monitor(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
external=vmware_horizon.External(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
inventory=vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)
entitlements=vmware_horizon.Entitlements(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

All of the connects at the bottom is so I don’t need to think to do those if I need them when testing.

I end with

end=hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()
print(end)

Both the connected and end prints aren’t required at all but give me feedback about the status of the connection.

[sta_anchor id=”get_application_pools” /]

get_application_pools

This is the easiest method to use as it doesn’t require anything. It does allow for setting page sizes and filtering if needed. See this article if you want to know more about filtering: https://www.retouw.nl/2021/02/14/filtering-searching-and-pagination-with-the-python-module-for-vmware-horizon/ The method will return a list of dicts, for the first example I will show only the names of the items.

ap = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
for i in ap:
    print(i["name"])

Or just with the entire list returned

ap = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
print(ap)

[sta_anchor id=”get_application_pool” /]

get_application_pool

To get a single application pool you can use get_application_pool and it requires an application_pool_id, I will use the first one of the list of application to show it.

ap = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
firstap=ap[0]
print(inventory.get_application_pool(application_pool_id=firstap["id"]))

[sta_anchor id=”delete_application_pool” /]

delete_application_pool

To delete an application pool we again only need the application_pool_id I will combine both the get methods to show all application pools before and after the deletion. (with some prints not relevant for the code so I won’t show them below)

ap = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
for i in ap:
    print(i["name"])
firstap=ap[0]

print(inventory.get_application_pool(application_pool_id=firstap["id"]))

inventory.delete_application_pool(application_pool_id=firstap["id"])

ap = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
for i in ap:
    print(i["name"])

[sta_anchor id=”new_application_pool” /]

new_application_pool

Since I just deleted my firefox pool I will need to recreate it. The new_application_pool method requires a dict with quite a lof of values. This is the standard list that the swagger-ui gives you

{
  "anti_affinity_data": {
    "anti_affinity_count": 10,
    "anti_affinity_patterns": [
      "*pad.exe",
      "*notepad.???"
    ]
  },
  "category_folder_name": "dir1\\dir2\\dir3\\dir4",
  "cs_restriction_tags": [
    "Internal",
    "External"
  ],
  "description": "string",
  "desktop_pool_id": "0103796c-102b-4ed3-953f-3dfe3d23e0fe",
  "display_name": "Firefox",
  "enable_client_restrictions": false,
  "enable_pre_launch": false,
  "enabled": true,
  "executable_path": "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Firefox.lnk",
  "farm_id": "855ea6c5-720a-41e1-96f4-958c90e6e424",
  "max_multi_sessions": 5,
  "multi_session_mode": "DISABLED",
  "name": "Firefox",
  "parameters": "-p myprofile",
  "publisher": "Mozilla Corporation",
  "shortcut_locations": [
    "START_MENU"
  ],
  "start_folder": "string",
  "supported_file_types_data": {
    "enable_auto_update_file_types": true,
    "enable_auto_update_other_file_types": true,
    "file_types": [
      {
        "description": "Firefox Document",
        "type": ".html"
      }
    ],
    "other_file_types": [
      {
        "description": "Firefox URL",
        "name": "https",
        "type": "URL"
      }
    ]
  },
  "version": "72.0.2"
}

This does not say that all of these are required, what I have found to be an easy way to find what the minimums are is to  create an application pool with a single key value pair. display_name is always required so I will use that one. Experience has learned that this might require several tries so let’s go.

new_app_pool = {}
new_app_pool["display_name"] = "Firefox"

inventory.new_application_pool(application_pool_data=new_app_pool)

So the first hard requirements are display_name, executable_path and name, let’s add these and see what happens

new_app_pool = {}
new_app_pool["display_name"] = "Firefox"
new_app_pool["name"] = "Firefox"
new_app_pool["executable_path"] = "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Firefox.lnk"

inventory.new_application_pool(application_pool_data=new_app_pool)

It looks like we actually need some more: at least desktop_pool_id or farm_id since I am doing this against a connection server with no farms I’ll use a desktop pool.

desktop_pools = inventory.get_desktop_pools()
firstpool = desktop_pools[0]

new_app_pool = {}
new_app_pool["display_name"] = "Firefox"
new_app_pool["name"] = "Firefox"
new_app_pool["executable_path"] = "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Firefox.lnk"
new_app_pool["desktop_pool_id"] = firstpool["id"]

inventory.new_application_pool(application_pool_data=new_app_pool)

No errors and a peak in the admin console shows me that I again have a firefox application

[sta_anchor id=”update_application_pool” /]

update_application_pool

To update the pools we need the application_pool_id and again a dict, this time the dict needs things we want to update. Experience again learned me there are a few required key value pairs while the example in the swagger-ui shows lots, so let’s find those. I am going to use my new firefox app as the source for this. What I actually am going to try to change is the display_name so I will use that as the first key value pair.

filter = {}
filter["type"] = "And"
filter["filters"] = []
filter1={}

filter1["type"] = "Equals"
filter1["name"] = "name"
filter1["value"] = "Firefox"
filter["filters"].append(filter1)
ap = (inventory.get_application_pools(filter=filter))[0]
appid = ap["id"]
update_app = {}
update_app["display_name"] = "FF2"
inventory.update_application_pool(application_pool_id=appid, application_pool_data=update_app)

So here different key value pairs are required than when creating a new application pool, strange but there is nothing I can do about it! I will add these from the ap object I retrieve earlier in the script.

aps = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
for i in aps:
    print(i["display_name"])
filter = {}
filter["type"] = "And"
filter["filters"] = []
filter1={}

filter1["type"] = "Equals"
filter1["name"] = "name"
filter1["value"] = "Firefox"
filter["filters"].append(filter1)
ap = (inventory.get_application_pools(filter=filter))[0]
appid = ap["id"]
update_app = {}
update_app["display_name"] = "FF2"
update_app["executable_path"] = ap["executable_path"]
update_app["multi_session_mode"] = ap["multi_session_mode"]
update_app["enable_pre_launch"] = ap["enable_pre_launch"]

inventory.update_application_pool(application_pool_id=appid, application_pool_data=update_app)

aps = inventory.get_application_pools(maxpagesize=100)
for i in aps:
    print(i["display_name"])

So with that you have the basics to retrieve, create, update and delete application pools using python

Filtering/Searching and pagination with the Python module for VMware Horizon

  By , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday I added the first method to the VMware Horizon Python module that makes use of filtering while the day before that I added pagination. VMware{Code} has a document describing available options for both but let me give some explanation.

Pagination

Pagination is where you perform a query but only get an x amount of objects returned by default. The rest of the objects are available on the next page or pages. This is exactly what I ran into with the vmware.hv.helper Powershell module a long time ago. With the REST api’s this is rather easy to add since if there are more pages/objects left the headers will contain a key named HAS_MORE_RECORDS. For all the methods that I add where pagination is supported you don’t need to handle this though as I have added it to the method itself. What I did add was the option the change the maximum page size. I default to 100 and the maximum is 1000, if you supply an interrupt higher than 1000 this will be corrected to 1000.

Filtering

Filtering needs some more work from the user of the module to be able to use it.

What options are there for filtering?

For the type we have: And, Or and Not

For the filters themselves there are: Equals, NotEquals, Contains, StartsWith and Between.

The formula is you pick one from the first row and combine that with one or more from the second row.

To apply these the document describes the base schema like this:

{
    “type”: ”And”,
    “filter”: <filter object>
}

and a filter object looks like this:

{
    "type":"Equals",
    "name":"domain",
    "value":"ad-example0"
}

or this for a range:

{
    "type":"Between",
    "name":"assignedUsers",
    "fromValue":"10",
    "toValue":"20"
}

Combining both into a single object looks like this:

{
    "type":"Not",
    "filter": {
        "type":"Equals",
        "name":"domain",
        "value":"ad-example0"
    }
}

This all looks like a dictionary with a nested dictionary when translating it to Python but when you have multiple filters it suddenly looks like this:

{
    "type":"And",
  "filters": [
        {
            "type":"Equals", 
            "name":"domain",
            "value":"ad-example0"
        },
        {
            "type":"StartsWith", 
            "name":"name",
            "value":"test"
        }
    ]
}

otherwise know as a dictionary with a list of dictionaries in it and since the latter also works with a single dict inside the list I have taken that route. The document also describes encoding and minifying the code to it works for a REST api call but I have done all of that for you so no need to worry about it, just build the dictionary and you are good!

Now let’s actually perform a search

First I create my base object with the type AND and a list for the filters key

filter_dict = {}
filter_dict["type"] = "And"
filter_dict["filters"] = []

Next I create the filters object where the type is contains and I filter on the field name with the value LP-00

filter1={}
filter1["type"] = "Contains"
filter1["name"] = "name"
filter1["value"] = "LP-00"

And now I add the filters1 object to the filter_dict filters list

filter["filters"].append(filter1)

and I get the machines with a pagesize of 1 to show the pagination (the pool with these machines only has 2 😉 )

machines = obj.get_machines(maxpagesize=1, filter = filter_dict)

And this would be the entire python script

import requests, getpass, urllib, json
import vmware_horizon

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()

url="https://loftcbr01.loft.lab"
username = "m_wouter"
domain = "loft.lab"
pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()

obj = vmware_horizon.Inventory(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

filter_dict = {}
filter_dict["type"] = "And"
filter_dict["filters"] = []
filter1={}
filter1["type"] = "Contains"
filter1["name"] = "name"
filter1["value"] = "LP-00"

filter["filters"].append(filter1)

machines = obj.get_machines(maxpagesize=1, filter = filter_dict)

for i in machines:
    print(i["name"])

hvconnectionobj.hv_disconnect()

And it shows this in python:

My #100DaysOfCode #Python Challenge == VMware_Horizon Module

  By , , , , , , , ,

So after 5 weeks of following the #Python training for my 100DaysOfCode challenge I have decided that my main goal for the challenge itself will be to work on the Horizon Python Module. With the course some things I find really boring and I need a real target to really learn things instead of just repeating someone else is doing as well.

I will still do some of the fun parts of it in time like databases and such when I need it but for now I will focus on the module. This weekend I added handling of the Instant Clone domain accounts to the module and also added documentation both in the module and the github repository. I know I will still learn heaps because almost all of it is still rather new and repetition works best for me.

Added Methods to the module

  • External Class
    • get_ad_domains
  • Settings class
    • get_ic_domain_accounts
    • get_ic_domain_account
    • new_ic_domain_account
    • update_ic_domain_account
    • delete_ic_domain_account

The VMware Labs flings monthly for January 2021 – it’s OSOT time again!

  By , , , , , ,

January was a good month for me as I started the Python 100DaysOfCode challenge but the VMware engineers also did plenty of work. Seven flingss received an update and it looks like we have a single new release.

New Release

Desktop Container Tools

Updates

Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

Power vRA Cloud

DRS Dump Insight

vSphere Software Asset Management Tool

VMware OS Optimization Tool

Workspace ONE Discovery

Python Client for VMC on AWS

New Releases

[sta_anchor id=”dct” /]

Desktop Container Tools

Desktop Container Tools is a free tool that allows you to do basic management of vctl (a CLI tool shipped with VMware Fusion) container engine on macOS for running containers and Kubernetes clusters.

Features

  • Easy&Access

Handy management of vctl container engine through the user interface and Touch Bar. Configure your virtual machines for containers and Kubernetes cluster without CLI.

  • Multi-language Support

Currently support English & Simplified Chinese. More languages are underway.

  • Light & Free

It’s light and it’s free.

Updated Flings

[sta_anchor id=”daftkg” /]

Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

The Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is a sample appliance to help customers to learn and deploy Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

Changelog

Jan 05, 2021 – v1.2.1

  • Support for latest TKG 1.2.1 release
  • Support for TKG Workload Cluster upgrade workflow from K8s 1.18.10 to 1.19.3
  • Updated embedded Harbor to use self-sign TLS certificate (new feature of TKG 1.2.1)
  • Updated to latest version of Harbor (2.1.2)

Known Issue:

DNS resolution issue when installing TKG Extensions. Workaround is to add the following snippet to kapp-controller.yaml

volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /etc/hosts
name: etc
subPath: hosts
volumes:
- name: etc
hostPath:
path: /etc

[sta_anchor id=”pvrac” /]

Power vRA Cloud

PowervRA Cloud is a PowerShell module that abstracts the VMware vRealize Automation Cloud APIs to a set of easily used PowerShell functions. This tool provides a comprehensive command line environment for managing your VMware vRealize Automation Cloud environment.

Changelog

Version 1.3

  • 4 x New Cmdlets for VMC
  • 5 x New Cmdlets for AWS
  • Powershell 7 on Windows Support
  • Bugfixes

[sta_anchor id=”drsdi” /]

DRS Dump Insight

DRS Dump Insight is a portal that vSPhere administrators can use to analyze why DRS performed actions.

Changelog

Version 2.0

  • Added support for 7.0 and 7.0U1 dumps.
  • Toggle added for selective analysis of all full dumps.
  • Bug fixes and backend improvements

[sta_anchor id=”vsamt” /]

vSphere Software Asset Management Tool

The vSphere Software Asset Management (vSAM) is a tool that collects and summarizes vSphere product deployment information. It calls on vSphere APIs for deployment data and produces a PDF report that the customer can consult as a part of their infrastructure review and planning process. This lightweight Java application runs on Windows, Linux or Mac OS.

Changelog

Version 1.3 Update

  • Show Tanzu products in the report.
  • Bug fixes.

[sta_anchor id=”osot” /]

VMware OS Optimization Tool

Building a new golden image? Use the OS Optimizer tool to let it perform better but please test test test if all your apps are working.

Changelog

January 2021, b2001 Bug Fixes

  • All optimization entries have been added back into the main user template. This allows manual tuning and selection of all optimizations.
  • Fixed two hardware acceleration selections were not previously controlled by the Common Option for Visual Effect to disable hardware acceleration.

Optimize

  • During an Optimize, the optimization selections are automatically exported to a default json file (%ProgramData%\VMware\OSOT\OptimizedTemplateData.json).

Analyze

  • When an Analyze is run, if the default json file exists (meaning that this image has already been optimized), this is imported and used to select the optimizations and the Common Options selections with the previous choices.
  • If the default selections are required, on subsequent runs of the OS Optimization Tool, delete the default json file, relaunch the tool and run Analyze.

Command Line

  • The OptimizedTemplateData.json file can also be used from the command line with the -applyoptimization parameter.

Optimizations

  • Changed entries for Hyper-V services to not be selected by default. These services are required for VMs deployed onto Azure. Windows installation sets these to manual (trigger) so these so not cause any overhead on vSphere, when left with the default setting.

[sta_anchor id=”wsoned” /]

Workspace ONE Discovery

VMware Workspace ONE UEM is used to manage Windows 10 endpoints, whether it be Certificate Management, Application Deployment or Profile Management. The Discovery Fling enables you to view these from the device point of view and review the Workspace ONE related services, which applications have been successfully deployed, use the granular view to see exactly what has been configured with Profiles, view User & Machine certificates and see which Microsoft Windows Updates have been applied.

Changelog

January 14, 2021 – Version 1.1

  • Updated application icon (ICO)
  • Monitoring the VMware Horizon Client, VMware Digital Experience Telemetry and VMware Hub Health services

[sta_anchor id=”pcfvrmcoaws” /]

Python Client for VMC on AWS

Python Client for VMware Cloud on AWS is an open-source Python-based tool. Written in Python, the tool enables VMware Cloud on AWS users to automate the consumption of their VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC.

Changelog

Version 1.2

  • Added a Dockerfile to build a Docker image to run PyVMC
  • Added Egress counters visibility
  • Added routing table visibility
  • Added L2VPN support
  • Added Nested Group support

Updates to the VMware Horizon Python Module

  By , , , , , , ,

I have just pushed some changes to the Horizon Python module. With these changes I am more complying with the Python coding standards by initiating an object before being able to use the functions inside a class. Also I added a bunch of the api calls available in the monitor parts.

To connect you now start like this:

import requests, getpass
import vmware_horizon

requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
url = input("URL\n")
username = input("Username\n")
domain = input("Domain\n")
pw = getpass.getpass()

hvconnectionobj = vmware_horizon.Connection(username = username,domain = domain,password = pw,url = url)
hvconnectionobj.hv_connect()

so technically you first initiate a Connection class object and than you use the hv_connect function inside that class after which the access token is stored inside the object itself.

Now to use the monitors for example you create an object for this.

monitor = vmware_horizon.Monitor(url=hvconnectionobj.url, access_token=hvconnectionobj.access_token)

To see what functions are available you can combine print with dir.

print(dir(monitor))

and the full list, the ones with (id) require an id:

  • ad_domain
  • connection_servers
  • connection_server(id)
  • event_database
  • farms
  • farm(id)
  • gateways
  • gateway(id)
  • rds_servers
  • rds_server(id)
  • saml_authenticators
  • saml_authenticator(id)
  • view_composers
  • view_composer(vcId)
  • virtual_centers
  • virtual_center(id)
  • remote_pods
  • remote_pod(id)
  • true_sso

As you can see I had to work with underscores instead of hyphens as python doesn’t like those in the names of functions

As said some of these might require an id but connection_servers works without one for example
print(monitor.connection_servers())

Todo: Error handling for wrong passwords, documentation