Category: vExpertEUC

[HorizonAPI]Using the Datastore service (incl sizing calculation!)

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I was looking on my blog for information to use the datastore information using the Horizon api’s but couldn’t find it so here’s a post on that.

This posts uses the soap api’s next time I’ll see what we can do with the REST api.

Index

First I will make a connection like I always do

Now let’s see what methods are available under the Datastore service

Let’s start with the easy 3 first aka the bottom ones

[sta_anchor id=”datastore_listdatastoresbyhostorcluster” unsan=”Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster” /]

Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster

The name says enough with Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster you are able to list datastores using the HostOrClusterID.

I am cutting some corners here how to find this out but to get this HostOrClusterID we need to get the DatacenterId and to get that we’ll need the VirtualcenterId.

To get all virtualcenters in a pod you need to use virtualcenters_list() and what I do in this example is listing them first and than putting the first virtualcenter in an variable.

$hvservice.VirtualCenter.VirtualCenter_List()
$VC=$hvservice.VirtualCenter.VirtualCenter_List() | Select-Object -first 1

and the same for the datacenter using the virtualcenterID

$hvservice.Datacenter.Datacenter_List($vc.id)
$DC=$hvservice.Datacenter.Datacenter_List($vc.id) | Select-Object -first 1

With the datacenter ID I’ll retreive the info under HostOrCluster and store it in an variable.

$hvservice.HostOrCluster.HostOrCluster_GetHostOrClusterTree($dc.id)
$tree=$hvservice.HostOrCluster.HostOrCluster_GetHostOrClusterTree($dc.id)

Let’s browse this object and see what we can find

We can clearly see the name here and as I need Cluster_Pod2 I am putting that one in an object

$pod2cluster=$tree.TreeContainer.Children.info | select-object -last 1
$pod2cluster

And with this object I can get to my datastores and again I store them in an object

$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster($pod2cluster.id)
$datastores=$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster($pod2cluster.id)

Let’s see what’s in there

So we see most of the basic info in here that we might need including name, capacity and free space. Not sure why the numberofvm’s is empty as all of them have vm’s.

[sta_anchor id=”datastore_listdatastoresbydesktoporfarm” unsan=”Datastore_ListDatastoresByDesktopOrFarm” /]

Datastore_ListDatastoresByDesktopOrFarm

Let’s see what we need for this one

So an object is needed of the type VMware.Hv.DatastoreSpec let’s define the object and see what’s in it.

As I am not 100% sure if all are required or not and what might break I’ll have a look at the API explorer article of this.

So it requires either a DesktopID OR a FarmID wile you can provide the hostorclusterId but that will be populated if you don’t provide one.

I am not going to build the query here to get a desktop pool so I’ll just use get-hvpool and get-hvfarm from the vmware.hv.helper powershell module.

Next I put the $pool.id in the spec and get the details

$spec.DesktopId=$pool.id
$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_ListDatastoresByDesktopOrFarm($spec)
$datastores=$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_ListDatastoresByDesktopOrFarm($spec)
$datastores.datastoredata

So this lists all the datastores that I have available in this cluster. I know this 100% sure as the ISO datastore is a read-only datastore that doesn’t have any desktops.

Let’s do the same using the farmId

$spec.DesktopId=$null
$spec.FarmId=$farm.id
$datastores=$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_ListDatastoresByDesktopOrFarm($spec)
$datastores

Same amount of datastores so the same result.

[sta_anchor id=”datastore_listdatastoreclustersbyhostorcluster” unsan=”Datastore_ListDatastoreClustersByHostOrCluster” /]

Datastore_ListDatastoreClustersByHostOrCluster

As I don’t have any datastore clusters in my lab I cannot show it but you’ll need the same hostorclusterid as we used for Datastore_ListDatastoresByHostOrCluster

[sta_anchor id=”datastore_getusage” unsan=”Datastore_GetUsage” /]

Datastore_GetUsage

This method shows what desktop pools are using a particular datastore. When doing a dry run it shows that a DatastoreId is needed.

I will use one of the items that I still have stored in my $datastores variable

$datastore=$datastores |Select-Object -last 1
$datastore.DatastoreData
$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_GetUsage($datastore.id)

So this ia a rather boring datastore as it only has 1 pool configured to use it (and it doesn’t even have any vm’s from this pool on it) but you’ll see that there is another datastore configured for this pool as wel. I do have a more used datastore though on a local nvme drive.

$datastore=$datastores | where {$_.datastoredata.name -like "*nvme*"}
$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_GetUsage($datastore.id)

As you can see it shows the desktop pools and even the single farm I have that use this datastore each with their own disk usage.

[sta_anchor id=”datastore_getdatastorerequirements” unsan=”Datastore_GetDatastoreRequirements” /]

Datastore_GetDatastoreRequirements

The Datastore_GetDatastoreRequirements method does a calculation of what disk space might be needed for a desktop pool.

So let’s see what we need

$reqspec=new-object VMware.Hv.DatastoreRequirementSpec
$reqspec

That’s a lof and as a screenshot wouldn’t fit here is the link to the APi explorer page on it: here

To fill these things I will use the $pool variable that I still have stored.

$reqspec.DesktopId=$pool.id
$reqspec.Source="INSTANT_CLONE_ENGINE"
$reqspec.VmId=$pool.AutomatedDesktopData.VirtualCenterProvisioningSettings.VirtualCenterProvisioningData.parentvm
$reqspec.SnapshotId=$pool.AutomatedDesktopData.VirtualCenterProvisioningSettings.VirtualCenterProvisioningData.Snapshot
$reqspec.PoolSize=30
$hvservice.Datastore.Datastore_GetDatastoreRequirements($reqspec)

And when I change the poolsize

My Golden Image build using HashiCorp Packer

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After a Tweet last week by former colleague and fellow vExpert Jeroen Buren, my reaction on that and another question that we got  I decided to finally make some time and document how my Packer Golden Image build works. To be honest I don’t think that it’s anything spectacular and most of it has been borrowed from either Mark Brookfield or someone else but I forgot who, sorry for that! (if you recognize your work send me a note and I’ll update this piece) While my templates aren’t really complicated I am happy with them and they are exactly what I need in my lab. Things can definitely be done better but it’s enough for me.

I use 2 main files, 1 with the generic settings for the type of image and one that has the variables for the vCenter where it will be created. The last one looks like this:

{
    "vm_name":"W10-p2-{{isotime \"2006-01-02-15-04\"}}",
    "vcenter_server":"pod1vcr1.loft.lab",
    "username":"administrator@vsphere.local",
    "password":"hahahahanope!",
    "datastore":"NVME1TB (1)",
    "datastore_iso":"ISO",
    "cluster": "Cluster_Pod2",
    "network": "dpg_loft_102",
    "winrm_username": "Administrator",
    "winrm_password": "VMware1!"
}

The VM name is W10-p2-dateandtime the isotime combined with that default time makes sure that I get the current date and time of running the script. For more information see this page: https://www.packer.io/guides/workflow-tips-and-tricks/isotime-template-function. I have separate datastores for ISO’s and where the VM will be created while that port group is on a dVswitch.

The 2nd file is slightly more complicated:

{
    "builders": [
    {
        "type": "vsphere-iso",
        "vcenter_server":      "{{user `vcenter_server`}}",
        "username":            "{{user `username`}}",
        "password":            "{{user `password`}}",
        "insecure_connection": "true",
 
        "vm_name": "{{user `vm_name`}}",
        "datastore": "{{user `datastore`}}",
    "Notes": "Windows 10 1909 Instant Clone Image build using Packer {{isotime \"2006-01-02-15-04\"}}",
        "create_snapshot": true,
        "cluster": "{{user `cluster`}}",
        "network": "{{user `network`}}",
        "boot_order": "disk,cdrom",
 
        "vm_version":       15,  
        "guest_os_type": "windows9_64Guest",
    "firmware":	"bios",
 
        "communicator": "winrm",
        "winrm_username": "{{user `winrm_username`}}",
        "winrm_password": "{{user `winrm_password`}}",
    "winrm_timeout": "5h",
 
        "CPUs":             2,
        "RAM":              6064,
        "RAM_reserve_all":  false,
    "video_ram": 128000,
    
    "remove_cdrom": true,
 
        "disk_controller_type":  "pvscsi",
        "disk_size":        51200,
        "disk_thin_provisioned": true,
    
    "configuration_parameters": {
      "svga.autodetect" : "FALSE",
      "svga.numDisplays" : "2"
    },
 
        "network_card": "vmxnet3",
 
        "iso_paths": [
        "[{{user `datastore_iso`}}] Windows_10_1909_enterprise.iso",
        "[{{user `datastore_iso`}}] VMware-Tools-windows-11.0.5-15389592.iso"
        ],
 
        "floppy_files": [
            "{{template_dir}}/setup/"
        ],
        "floppy_img_path": "[{{user `datastore_iso`}}] floppy/pvscsi-Windows8.flp"
    }
    ],
 
    "provisioners": [
    {
            "type": "windows-shell",
      "script": "{{template_dir}}/setup/onedrive.cmd"
        },
    {
      "type": "windows-update",
      "search_criteria": "IsInstalled=0",
      "filters": [
        "exclude:$_.Title -like '*Preview*'",
        "include:$true"
      ],
      "update_limit": 25
    },
    {
      "type": "windows-restart",
      "restart_timeout": "15m",
      "restart_check_command": "powershell -command \"& {Write-Output 'restarted.'}\""
    },
        {
            "type": "powershell",
            "inline": [
        "Set-TimeZone -Id 'W. Europe Standard Time'",
                "Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Where {($_.name -notlike \"Photos\") -and ($_.Name -notlike \"Calculator\") -and ($_.Name -notlike \"Store\")} | Remove-AppXPackage -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue",
                "Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online | Where {($_.DisplayName -notlike \"Photos\") -and ($_.DisplayName -notlike \"Calculator\") -and ($_.DisplayName -notlike \"Store\")} | Remove-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"     
            ]
        },
    {
      "type": "windows-restart",
      "restart_timeout": "15m",
      "restart_check_command": "powershell -command \"& {Write-Output 'restarted.'}\""
    },
        {
            "type": "powershell",
            "scripts": [
                "{{template_dir}}/setup/Horizon_Agent_IC.ps1"
                "{{template_dir}}/setup/appvolumes.ps1",
                "{{template_dir}}/setup/dem.ps1",
        "{{template_dir}}/setup/fslogix.ps1",
                ,
        "{{template_dir}}/setup/CU.ps1"
            ]
        },
    {
      "type": "windows-restart",
      "restart_timeout": "15m",
      "restart_check_command": "powershell -command \"& {Write-Output 'restarted.'}\""
    },
    {
            "type": "powershell",
            "scripts": [
        "{{template_dir}}/setup/osot.ps1"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Some specifics: to mark my GI’s I always create a note with the type and build date again using the isotime.

"Notes": "Windows 10 1909 Instant Clone Image build using Packer {{isotime \"2006-01-02-15-04\"}}",

And as I am very lazy I also have it creating a snapshot for me

"create_snapshot": true,

These make sure I have more than the default ram for the build in graphics adapter

"RAM":              6064,
"RAM_reserve_all":  false,
"video_ram": 128000,


"configuration_parameters": {
  "svga.autodetect" : "FALSE",
  "svga.numDisplays" : "2"
},

Some versions of Packer had an issue with ejecting the cd-rom’s but that has been fixed now.

"remove_cdrom": true,

There are several optimizations that take place like the app volumes script at the beginning (onedrive.cmd) and the VMware OS Optimization Tool in the end (osot.ps1).

All the agents are shared from a webserver and this is one of the ps1 scripts that starts the installation, the horizon agent in this case.

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
 
$webserver = "loftfls01.loft.lab"
$url = "http://" + $webserver
$installer = "VMware-Horizon-Agent-x86_64-8.0.0-16530789.exe"
$listConfig = "/s /v ""/qn VDM_VC_MANAGED_AGENT=1 ADDLOCAL=Core,ClientDriveRedirection,RTAV,TSMMR,VmwVaudio,USB,NGVC,PerfTracker,HelpDesk"""
 
# Verify connectivity
Test-Connection $webserver -Count 1
 
# Get Horizon Agent
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ($url + "/" + $installer) -OutFile C:\$installer
 
# Unblock installer
Unblock-File C:\$installer -Confirm:$false -ErrorAction Stop
 
# Install Horizon Agent
Try 
{
   Start-Process C:\$installer -ArgumentList $listConfig -PassThru -Wait -ErrorAction Stop
}
Catch
{
   Write-Error "Failed to install the Horizon Agent"
   Write-Error $_.Exception
   Exit -1 
}
 
# Cleanup on aisle 4...
Remove-Item C:\$installer -Confirm:$false

and the osot.ps1 looks like this

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
 
$webserver = "loftfls01.loft.lab"
$url = "http://" + $webserver
$osot = "VMwareOSOptimizationTool.exe"
$osotConfig = "VMwareOSOptimizationTool.exe.config"
 
# Verify connectivity
Test-Connection $webserver -Count 1
 
# Get Files
ForEach ($file in $osot,$osotConfig) {
   Invoke-WebRequest -Uri ($url + "/" + $file) -OutFile C:\$file
}
 
# Run OSOT
C:\VMwareOSOptimizationTool.exe -o -t "VMware Templates\Windows 10 and Server 2016 or later" -f all
 
# Sleep before cleanup
Start-Sleep -Seconds 180
 
# Cleanup on aisle 4...
ForEach ($file in $osot,$osotConfig) {
   Remove-Item C:\$file -Confirm:$false
}

I have even created a simple powershell script that starts the build with a couple extra options. -Timestamp-ui to show the timestamp while the -force isn’t needed anymore as each build has it’s own name but I keep it in there.

[CmdletBinding()]
param(
Parameter(Mandatory)]
[string]$environmentfile,
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[string]$buildfile
)

c:\software\packer\packer.exe build -force -timestamp-ui -var-file $environmentfile $buildfile

So how does this look?

I understand that this is far from a full explanation of all the options in the json files but I think most things are rather generic with a few things that I have highlighted.

Total running time in my lab highly depends on what host I use (core speed) and what iso is used as I also install Windows Updates. The server 2019 ISO updated in sept 2020 takes 40 minutes while Windows 10 1909 without extra patches takes just over an hour.

Jon Howe also did a nice write-up with some more explanation: https://www.virtjunkie.com/vmware-template-packer/#Packer_Template_File_User_Variables

[HorizonAPI]Finding VDI or RDS machines based on wrong/old Golden Image

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One of the first thing I did years ago when I first learned of the Horizon API’s was to start working on the vCheck for Horizon as I at that point was managing a Horizon 6.2* environment with lots of pools and lots of issues. With the vCheck I didn’t need to log into all pod’s anymore and nor did I need to check each and every pool after a recompose if all desktops had the correct image. Last week Guy Leech asked me if there was a script that could do this for RDS farms as he was working on a script that has to do with App Volumes & RDS hosts. I was like hell yeah we have that but when I looked at the vCheck and had to admit that it was a actually a hell no.

So after creating a new RDS image that could be used with Instant Clones this week it was time to create that vCheck. This morning and I even splashed a bug in the VDI wrong snapshot check when a Desktop Pool doesn’t have any machines in it. This led to this tweet that you might have seen:

SO what is actually the magic behind these checks? To be honest it is rather simple as the names of both the VM and the Snapshot in use are embedded in object both on pool/farm level and in the machine objects themselves.

First I connect to the connection server so we’ll use a credentials file and I also define 2 variables that we will use later

$hvconserver="pod2cbr1.loft.lab"
$credsfile="D:\homelab\creds.xml"

$creds=Import-Clixml $credsfile

$hvserver=connect-hvserver -Server $hvconserver -Credential $creds
$hvservice=$hvserver.ExtensionData
$wrongsnapdesktops=@()
$wrongsnaphosts=@()

After this I use 2 query’s to gather Pool and Farm information. The summaryviews don’t contain the needed information so I have to use farm.farm_get with the id to get what we need.

# --- Get Desktop pools
$poolqueryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$pooldefn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$pooldefn.queryentitytype='DesktopSummaryView'
$poolqueryResults = $poolqueryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $pooldefn)
$pools = foreach ($poolresult in $poolqueryResults.results){$hvservice.desktop.desktop_get($poolresult.id)}
$poolqueryservice.QueryService_DeleteAll($hvservice)
# --- Get RDS Farms

$Farmqueryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$Farmdefn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$Farmdefn.queryentitytype='FarmSummaryView'
$FarmqueryResults = $FarmqueryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $Farmdefn)
$farms = foreach ($farmresult in $farmqueryResults.results){$hvservice.farm.farm_get($farmresult.id)}
$Farmqueryservice.QueryService_DeleteAll($hvservice)

So how does this look?

and inside the automateddesktopdata and automatedfarmdata we find a property called virtualcenternamesdata that has what we need

Next I will create object for both the first farm and the first pool to show what where we need to look for in the vdi/machine objects

$queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$defn.queryentitytype='MachineSummaryView'
$defn.filter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -Property @{ 'memberName' = 'base.desktop'; 'value' = $pool.id }
$queryResults = $queryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $defn)
$poolmachines=$hvservice.machine.machine_getinfos($queryResults.results.id)


$queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$defn.queryentitytype='RDSServerInfo'
$defn.filter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -Property @{ 'memberName' = 'base.farm'; 'value' = $farm.ID }
$queryResults = $queryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $defn)
$farmmachines=$queryresults.results

As you can see I take an extra step for the desktops as the information that we need is not visible in the MachineSummaryView and the MachineDetailsView is a mess to run query’s for. The VDI machines have the GI and snapshot data stored in $machines.managedachinedata.viewcomposerdata (yes also for Instant Clones) while the rds hosts have it stored in RdsServerMaintenanceData.

After this it’s a matter of combining that information into a nice script that will grab it all for you.

$hvconserver="pod2cbr1.loft.lab"
$credsfile="D:\homelab\creds.xml"

$creds=Import-Clixml $credsfile

$hvserver=connect-hvserver -Server $hvconserver -Credential $creds
$hvservice=$hvserver.ExtensionData
$wrongsnapdesktops=@()
$wrongsnaphosts=@()

# --- Get Desktop pools
$poolqueryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$pooldefn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$pooldefn.queryentitytype='DesktopSummaryView'
$poolqueryResults = $poolqueryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $pooldefn)
$pools = foreach ($poolresult in $poolqueryResults.results){$hvservice.desktop.desktop_get($poolresult.id)}
$poolqueryservice.QueryService_DeleteAll($hvservice)
# --- Get RDS Farms

$Farmqueryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
$Farmdefn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
$Farmdefn.queryentitytype='FarmSummaryView'
$FarmqueryResults = $FarmqueryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $Farmdefn)
$farms = foreach ($farmresult in $farmqueryResults.results){$hvservice.farm.farm_get($farmresult.id)}
$Farmqueryservice.QueryService_DeleteAll($hvservice)




foreach ($pool in $pools){
  $poolname=$pool.base.name

  if ($pool.type -like "*automated*"){
    $queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
    $defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
    $defn.queryentitytype='MachineSummaryView'

    $defn.filter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -Property @{ 'memberName' = 'base.desktop'; 'value' = $pool.id }

        $queryResults = $queryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $defn)

    if ($queryResults.results.count -ge 1){
      $poolmachines=$hvservice.machine.machine_getinfos($queryResults.results.id)
      $wrongsnaps=$poolmachines | where {$_.managedmachinedata.viewcomposerdata.baseimagesnapshotpath -notlike  $pool.automateddesktopdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.snapshotpath -OR $_.managedmachinedata.viewcomposerdata.baseimagepath -notlike $pool.automateddesktopdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.parentvmpath}
      if ($wrongsnaps){
        foreach ($wrongsnap in $wrongsnaps){
          $wrongsnapdesktops+= New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            "VM Name" = $wrongsnap.base.name;
            "VM Snapshot" = $wrongsnap.managedmachinedata.viewcomposerdata.baseimagesnapshotpath;
            "VM GI" = $wrongsnap.managedmachinedata.viewcomposerdata.baseimagepath;
            "Pool Snapshot" = $pool.automateddesktopdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.snapshotpath;
            "Pool GI" = $pool.automateddesktopdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.parentvmpath;
          }
        }
      }
    }
    $hvservice.QueryService.QueryService_DeleteAll()
  }
}

foreach ($farm in $farms){
  $farmname=$farm.data.name

  if ($farm.type -like "*automated*"){
    $queryservice=new-object vmware.hv.queryserviceservice
    $defn = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryDefinition
    $defn.queryentitytype='RDSServerInfo'

    $defn.filter = New-Object VMware.Hv.QueryFilterEquals -Property @{ 'memberName' = 'base.farm'; 'value' = $farm.ID }

    $queryResults = $queryService.QueryService_Create($hvservice, $defn)
    $farmmachines=$queryResults.Results
    if ($farmmachines.count -ge 1){
      $wrongsnaps=$farmmachines | where {$_.rdsservermaintenancedata.baseimagesnapshotpath -notlike  $farm.automatedfarmdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.snapshotpath -OR $_.rdsservermaintenancedata.baseimagepath -notlike $farm.automatedfarmdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.parentvmpath}
      if ($wrongsnaps){
        foreach ($wrongsnap in $wrongsnaps){
          $wrongsnaphosts+= New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            "RDS Name" = $wrongsnap.base.name;
            "VM Snapshot" = $wrongsnap.rdsservermaintenancedata.baseimagesnapshotpath;
            "VM GI" = $wrongsnap.rdsservermaintenancedata.baseimagepath;
            "Farm Snapshot" = $farm.automatedfarmdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.snapshotpath;
            "Farm GI" = $farm.automatedfarmdata.VirtualCenternamesdata.parentvmpath;
          }
        }
      
      }
      $hvservice.QueryService.QueryService_DeleteAll()
    }
  }
}
$wrongsnaphosts
$wrongsnapdesktops

Yes this is the same idea as what I use in the vCheck and what I will be using in the ControlUp Script Based Action that I will be creating soon.

 

The VMware Labs flings monthly for August 2020- Time for a new OSOT

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The schedule builder for VMworld is open but we should have been at VMworld US around this time if only that stupid virus would have stayed away. In august there where three new fling releases and eight got one or more updates.

New

Software-Defined Data Center Skywalk

Federated Machine Learning on Kubernetes

VMware Container For Folding@Home

Updates

FlowGate

VMware Machine Learning Platform

Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV

Workspace ONE UEM SCIM Adapter

VMware OS Optimization Tool

App Volumes Migration Utility

USB Network Native Driver for ESXi

New Releases

[sta_anchor id=”skywalk” /]

Software-Defined Data Center Skywalk

Even with the description it’s not always clear what Software-Defined Data Center Skywalk does but apparently it helps in building vpn’s between VMC & on-prem datacenters.

The current API/UI workflow requires multiple operations in different VMC Software Defined Data Centers’ (SDDC) either using API’s or UI. We are solving the problem to auto register, discover, connect VPN’s between VMC SDDC’s on single click event. The Distributed Firewall DFW firewall policies are also mapped on user inputs from on-premises to VMC SDDC using this interface.

[sta_anchor id=”fmlk” /]

Federated Machine Learning on Kubernetes

Federated Machine Learning (FML) is one of the most promising machine learning technologies to solve data silos and strengthening data privacy and security, which is accepted by more and more financial organization. FATE is an opensource project hosted by Linux Foundation to provide a federated learning framework. FATE has been used to increase the performance of predictions in credit reporting, insurance and other financial areas, as well as surveillance and visual detection projects. It helps organizations to comply with strict privacy regulations and laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

This Fling provides a tool to quickly deploy and manage a FATE cluster by either Docker-compose or Kubernetes. Its features include:

Test and develop models in Jupyter using Federated Machine Learning technologies;
Build a FATE cluster with full life-cycle management of federated learning platform.
In the Fling, a command line tool talks to Kubenetes to initiate an entire FATE cluster. The Fling includes a sample configuration which can be used to quickly deploy and try out federated learning. The configuration can be customized based on actual requirements.

[sta_anchor id=”vcfh” /]

VMware Container For Folding@Home

VMware Container for Folding@ Home is a docker container for running folding at home client. This container is supported on both Docker standalone clients and on a Kubernetes Cluster. Optional command line toggle GPU support on or off as well as all other common FAH client command line in puts.

The Folding@Home container is configured to automatically join Team VMware ID 52737. Everyone is welcome to join! Check out http://vmwa.re/fah for team and individual statistics.

Updated flings

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FlowGate

In enterprise data centers, IT infrastructure and facility are generally managed separately, which leads to information gaps. Collaboration between facility and IT infrastructure systems are limited or manual, and virtualization adds more complexity.

The goal of Flowgate is to make facility awareness in IT management system and make IT operations management and automation better on high availability, cost saving and improved sustainability, with more information on power, cooling, environment (e.g. humidity, temperature) and security.

Changelog

Version 1.1.2 Update

  • Add Chassis support in API
  • Add PDU phase data.
  • Upgrade Springboot from 1.4.7 to 2.3.7

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VMware Machine Learning Platform

The goal of vmlp is to provide an end-to-end ML platform for Data Scientists to perform their job more effectively by running ML workloads on top of VMware infrastructure.

Changelog

Version 0.3.0

  • Federated ML based on FATE
  • Istio 1.4.9
  • Horovod 0.19.2
  • Upgraded major components (MLflow 1.10.0, Pandas 1.0.3 and others)
  • Important stability bug fixes
  • Added documentation

Includes contributions from: Jiahao “Luke” Chen (bug fixes and Federated ML/FATE integration),
Shan Lahiri (Getting Started Guide), Jason Hutson (relentlessly debugging Kubernetes on VMware
infra), Nick Ford (sorting out VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer/AVI Networks configuration and issues)

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Demo Appliance for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid

A Virtual Appliance that pre-bundles all required dependencies to help customers in learning and deploying standalone Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) clusters running on either VMware Cloud on AWS and/or vSphere 6.7 Update 3 environment for Proof of Concept, Demo and Dev/Test purposes.

Changelog

Aug 10, 2020 – v1.1.3

  • Support for latest TKG 1.1.3 release
  • Support for TKG Workload Cluster upgrade workflow from K8s 1.17.9 to 1.18.6
  • TKG Crash Diagnostic utility (crash-diagnostics) included in appliance
  • Helm (3.2.4) included in appliance
  • Updated to latest version of Harbor (1.10.3), Docker Compose (1.26.2), Kubectl (1.18.6), Octant (0.14.1) and TMC (d11404fb) CLI in appliance
  • PowerCLI script to automate 100% of pre-req for running on TKG on VMware Cloud on AWS

TKG-Demo-Appliance-1.1.3.ova
MD5: 86ce0c263ebcb6d20addcb6e1767e55a

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Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV

Infrastructure Deployer for vCloud NFV is an automation-based deployment tool used for setting up the VMware vCloud NFV platform

Changelog

Version 3.3 Update

  • Updated RAID version from 3.2.1 vCloud NFV VCD to 3.3 vCloud NFV OSE (OpenStack Edition)

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Workspace ONE UEM SCIM Adapter

Workspace ONE UEM SCIM Adapter provides SCIM user/group management capabilities to Workspace ONE UEM. The middleware translates the System for Cross-Domain Identity Management, SCIM, to a CRUD REST framework that Workspace ONE UEM can interpret. This capability allows Workspace ONE UEM to synchronize cloud-based identity resources (users/groups/entitlements) without the need for an LDAP endpoint (service to service model). Examples include Azure AD, Okta, and Sailpoint.

Changelog

20.08 Release Notes & Update:

**Please Note:** If you have already setup WS1 SCIM Adapter, it is possible that moving to 20.08 will create new accounts. Please consider resetting Directory Services configuation for the OG you are connecting to.

New Features:

  • Deployments now exclusively supported on Docker. See install instructions for more details on how to orchestrate the deployment using the included Helm chart.

Bugs Fixed:

  • createGroup returns unexpected error due to missing payload return

Other Notes:

  • Bitnami deployment script introduced in 20.03 has been deprecated. Although it is still possible to deploy on Appliance form-factors, future development will be exclusively supported on Docker.

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VMware OS Optimization Tool

I have read in plenty of places that people managed to mess up their image with OSOT and that they’re never going to use it anymore and even worse accept unoptimized images in production. This is the wrong choice in my opinion. please use osot or other ways to optimize your image but think about what you need to optimize and test it!

Changelog

August, 2020, b1171 Version Update

Optimizations

Disable Passive Polling is no longer selected by default as this was shown to cause issues with some applications thinking they did not have internet connectivity. Note that this optimization entry was previously incorrectly named as Enable Passive Polling.
Added new setting to Use WDDM graphics display driver for Remote Desktop Connections.

UI Improvements

Brand new interface functionality to allow searching of the optimizations to find specific entries. This is available on both the Optimize and My Templates tabs and allows you to find and view settings based on what you type in.
Added a grid splitter to extend area of left tree view under My Templates.

Common Options

New controls to simplify keeping Cortana search and how the search box appears in the taskbar.

Generalize

New option to specify the Administrator account to use after running SysPrep. This defaults to the current user account. The account specified is also added to the Administrators and Remote Desktop Users groups.
New option to perform an automatic restart after the Generalize task has completed.

Bug Fixes

  • Common Options settings were reset after an optimization. These should now be retained.
  • Changed the way the default profile was used to ensure that this works when OSOT is run using the system account.
  • Windows Syspart Repair was being prevented from being disabled properly.
  • Windows Superfetch was being prevented from being disabled properly.
  • Windows Update was sometimes not disabled properly after running a generalize.
  • Updated templates were saved to the wrong location.

August, 2020, b1170 Update

Templates

New combined template for all versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 and 2019. Optimizations can have optional parameters to filter the version that a setting is applied to.

Optimizations

Turn off NCSI is no longer selected by default as this was shown to cause issues with some applications thinking they did not have internet connectivity.

New Optimizations added and some removed, For details see: https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/vmware-operating-system-optimization-tool-guide#Template_Updates

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issues with re-enabling Windows Update functionality on Server 2016 and 2019.
  • Fixed issue that was preventing Windows Antimalware from being disabled properly.

Common Options

Changed interface and language on the Common Options page for Windows Update to remove confusion. This option can only be used to disable Windows Update as part of an optimization task. To re-enable Windows Update functionality, use the Update button on the main menu ribbon.

Guides

Updated OSOT user guide: VMware Operating System Optimization Tool Guide.

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App Volumes Migration Utility

App Volumes Migration Utility allows admins to migrate AppStacks managed by VMware App Volumes 2.18, to the new application package format of App Volumes 4. The format of these packages in App Volumes 4 have evolved to improve performance and help simplify application management.

Changelog

1.0.4 Version Update

  1. Fix for “AppVolumes Manager is invalid” error shown in the UI when connecting to App Volumes Manager 4 version 2006.
  2. Fix for the bug “failed to get old appID from YML entries” in the AppCapture.log during migration of appstacks.

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USB Network Native Driver for ESXi

USB has become one the most widely adopted connection type in the world & USB network adapters are also popular among Edge computing platforms. In some platforms, there is either limited or no PCI/PCIe slots for I/O expansion & in some cases, an Ethernet port is not even available. Another advantage of a USB-based network adapter is that it can be hot-plugged into an system without a reboot which means no impact to the workload, same is true for hot-remove.

This Fling supports the most popular USB network adapter chipsets found in the market. The ASIX USB 2.0 gigabit network ASIX88178a, ASIX USB 3.0 gigabit network ASIX88179, Realtek USB 3.0 gigabit network RTL8152/RTL8153 and Aquantia AQC111U. These are relatively inexpensive devices that many of our existing vSphere customers are already using and are familiar with.

Changelog

Aug 24, 2020 – v1.6Add

  • support for Aquantia and Trendnet AQC111U (0xe05a:0x20f4)
  • Add support for Realtek RTL8153 (0x045e:0x07c6)
  • Add support for Realtek RTL8156 (0x0bda:0x8156)
  • Support for persistent VMkernel to USB NIC MAC Address mappings
  • Simplified USB NIC persistency
  • Resolved link speed issue for RTL8153 chipsets

Note 1: There are known issues when using Jumbo Frame 9K for RTL* chipset, this is still being investigated. For now, only up to 4K is supported.

Note 2: This will be the last release which will include support for ESXi 6.5

ESXi700-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-39035884-component-16770668.zip
ESXi670-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-39203948-offline_bundle-16780994.zip
ESXi650-VMKUSB-NIC-FLING-39176435-offline_bundle-16775917.zip

Using the Horizon 8 swagger page

  By , , , , ,

A couple weeks back when Horizon 8 was released they also made us happy with the Swagger page to browse the rest api methods. One thing it lacks though is a way to easily authenticate to actually try them. There is an Authenticate button but I couldn’t find any information on what it actually needs. While creating my previous blog post I was messing around with things and actually found a way to authenticate. First I tried to authenticate using the actual api method for that but trying any call afterwards still showed me as not being authenticated. You could copy/paste the access token though and you’ll see in the script how that might work, or check the 3rd screenshot.

the swagger can be found like this: https://loftcbr01.loft.lab/rest/swagger-ui.html

Let’s have a look at the script.

$url = read-host "url for connectionserver"

$username=read-host "Username"
$domain=Read-host "Domain"
$password=read-host "Password" -AsSecureString

$BSTR = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($password) 
$UnsecurePassword = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)

function Get-HRHeader(){
    param($accessToken)
    return @{
        'Authorization' = 'Bearer ' + $($accessToken.access_token)
        'Content-Type' = "application/json"
    }
}
function Open-HRConnection(){
    param(
        [string] $username,
        [string] $password,
        [string] $domain,
        [string] $url
    )

    $Credentials = New-Object psobject -Property @{
        username = $username
        password = $password
        domain = $domain
    }

    return invoke-restmethod -Method Post -uri "$url/rest/login" -ContentType "application/json" -Body ($Credentials | ConvertTo-Json)
}

function Close-HRConnection(){
    param(
        $accessToken,
        $url
    )
    return Invoke-RestMethod -Method post -uri "$url/rest/logout" -ContentType "application/json" -Body ($accessToken | ConvertTo-Json)
}
try{
$accessToken = Open-HRConnection -username $username -password $UnsecurePassword -domain $Domain -url $url
Set-Clipboard (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken).Authorization
}
catch{
    write-host "Error while authenticating"
}

To make it directly usable I have chosen to ask for web address of the server, username, domain and password and in the end I copy the token you need to the clipboard for you. Let’s have a look at it

No further output but I can paste what I have in the clipboard now in the Authenticate field at the swagger page, hit authorize and close.

And now I can try api calls, pulling machines from the inventory for example.

SO that’s how we can actually use the Swagger page to try api calls.

Horizon 8 released: Moar api’s!!

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So yesterday every VMware EUC person was going wild because Horizon 8 was released. I won’t go into all the stuf that’s new because plenty of other folks have already done that (love the parentless instant clones though!). So what exactly are the new things looking from the API perspective? From the good old soap api’s I didn’t expect any changes and couldn’t find any either but a new api explorer page was published anyway. From the REST side a lot as changed. First of all here also a new api explorer page was published. Besides that an explanation of the API’s was actually posted on Techzone over here. On this page some excellent things can be found like there’s a swagger page now on your connection server: https://connectionserverfqdn/rest/swagger-ui.html as of now I haven’t found a way on the page itself to authenticate as you need an api key for the authorize button but that’s something I had requested anyway to make available.

But also a set of postman collections if that’s your preferred method to test api’s it has collections for all the Horizon releases that contained public rest api’s.

In the swagger ui it’s possible to browse all the api calls we can do and I’ll use that in later blog posts to actually do new things because I have seen a shitload of new possibilities!

 

The VMware Labs flings monthly for July 2020- Reach is back!

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A couple of days late but I had  good excuse: I was away on a holiday. I needed it and enjoyed it and have a week left before I start work again. This month there was one new release and nine flings received an update. Overall it’s a EUC rich overview since no less than seven of those are Horizon / App Volumes related.

New Releases

App Volumes Packaging Utility

Updated flings

HCIBench

App Volumes Migration Utility

Horizon Session Recording

Power vRA Cloud

Horizon Reach

Desktop Watermark

App Volumes Entitlement Sync

vSphere Mobile Client

VMware OS Optimization Tool

New Releases

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App Volumes Packaging Utility

This App Volumes Packaging Utility helps to package applications. With this fling, packagers can add the necessary metadata to MSIX app attach VHDs so they can be used alongside existing AV format packages. The MSIX format VHDs will require App Volumes 4, version 2006 or later and Windows 10, version 2004 or later.

Updated Flings

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HCIBench

HCIBench is a VMware wrapper around VdBench or Fio to test the capabilities of your HCI environement. I would recommend always to test with your own settings so you can do an honest comparison.

Changelog

Version 2.4.0

  1. Fixed tvm deployment bug when specifying host
  2. enabled easy run to support stretched cluster
  3. fixed timezone issue on pdf report, and added more vSAN info into PDF report
  4. set testname and testcase as variables in grafana
  5. added CPU workload into fio config page
  6. updated rbvmomi to support vsphere 7.0+
  7. enhanced fio and vdbench graphite dashboards

MD5 Checksum: 0cfd6cc852e33e5ce32022a66539b4c9 HCIBench_2.4.0.ova

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App Volumes Migration Utility

The App Volumes Migration Utility helps the users in moving from App Volumes 2.18 to App VOlumes 4 so app stacks don’t need to be reprovisioned.

Changelog

Version 1.0.3 Update

  • Field “uniqueId” is added in the metadata JSON for migrated appstacks.

Version 1.0.2 Update

  • Fix for fling bug 983.
  • The customer bug on the fling, exposed an un handled scenario.
  • Prior to migration if the appstacks registry database contained registry keys with embedded NUL
  • (\0) chars in their name, Migration fails.
  • This scenario has now been addressed with this update.

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Horizon Session Recording

The Horizon Session Recording is a usefull tool when an Horizon Admin wants to be able to record sessions and see what the users are doing exactly when a problems happens.

Changelog

Version 2.1 Update

  • Many bugfixes in agent side

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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

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Horizon Reach

If you don’t have any other 3rd partly tooling (like ControlUp, sorry gotta plug my employer 😛 ) to manage your Horizon environment than Reach is a very useful tool. This is not an update but a re-release, read below why.

Warning: Horizon Versions 7.10 through 7.12 have a known issue which can cause Horizon Reach to trigger a low memory issue on the Horizon Connection Server.

For Horizon 7.10, ensure to deploy Horizon 7.10.2. For 7.11 and 7.12, please refer to the following document here.

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Desktop Watermark

The Desktop Watermark fling gives you the option to visible and unvisible mark the desktop that you are using.

Changelog

v1.2 – Build 20200713-signed Version Update

  • Added support for multiple displays.

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App Volumes Entitlement Sync

The App Volumes Entitlement Sync flings helps an APp VOlumes admin to sync various App Volumes Environments like test/dev/prod or different pod’s for example.

Changelog

Version 4.1 Update:

  • Get App Volumes version from an API value which always returns the build number.
  • App Volumes 2006 and later has a problem with version 4.0 of the Fling in returning a string value.

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vSphere Mobile Client

Manage vSphere from your phone or tablet with the vSphere Mobile Client fling, do I need to say more?

Changelog

Version 1.13.2 Update:

New:

  • Datastore details page (link from VM details page)

Improvements:

  • Fixed issues related to connecting to standalone ESXi VM console
  • Fixed issues when switching between servers

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VMware OS Optimization Tool

Do you build golden images or templates? Than use the VMware OS Optimization Tool to optimize them!

Changelog

August, 2020, b1170 Update

Templates

  • New combined template for all versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 and 2019. Optimizations can have optional parameters to filter the version that a setting is applied to.

Optimizations

  • Turn off NCSI is no longer selected by default as this was shown to cause issues with some applications thinking they did not have internet connectivity.
  • New Optimizations added and some removed, For details see: https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/vmware-operating-system-optimization-tool-guide#Template_Updates

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issues with re-enabling Windows Update functionality on Server 2016 and 2019.
  • Fixed issue that was preventing Windows Antimalware from being disabled properly.

Common Options

  • Changed interface and language on the Common Options page for Windows Update to remove confusion. This option can only be used to disable Windows Update as part of an optimization task. To re-enable Windows Update functionality, use the Update button on the main menu ribbon.

Guides

[Horizon]Creating applications using PowerCLI

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Something I didn’t handle previously was the creating of applications in Horizon. Since they are always hard wired to a farm or desktop it might happen that you need to re-create these so automation is preferred.

When looking at the api call for creating an application I find that we need to create an objetc of the type VMware.hv.ApplicationSpec

After defining this spec we’ll see that two objects are needed: Data and ExecutionData. This is also visible in the API Explorer.

Let’s define both of these and see what the options are.

Looking at the API explorer for Data only the name is actually required while for Executiondata only the Executablepath and the desktop or farm id is required

(going lazy here and using vmware.hv.helper to get the farmid)

And now I can create the application itself

The VMware Labs flings monthly for June 2020

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And another month gone, for some the Summer Holidays have already started while others might have to wait a few weeks or so. This month there have been two new fling releases and seven received an update.

New Releases

Workspace ONE App Analyzer for macOS

True SSO Configuration Utility

Update flings

Python Client for VMC on AWS

FlowGate

VMware OS Optimization Tool

VMware Event Broker Appliance

App Volumes Entitlement Sync

Unified Access Gateway Deployment Utility

vSphere Software Asset Management Tool

New Releases

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Workspace ONE App Analyzer for macOS

The Workspace ONE macOS App Analyzer will determine any Privacy Permissions, Kernel Extensions, or System Extensions needed by an installed macOS application, and can be used to automatically create profiles in Workspace ONE UEM to whitelist those same settings when deploying apps to managed devices.

 

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True SSO Configuration Utility

True SSO can be a though cookie to actually configure the True SSO Configuration utility might be help to help you with that.

This project is intended for the VMware Horizon customers in order to use True SSO Configuration Utility to help you configuring TrueSSO using View Connection Server, Enrollment Server and your Certificate Authoriry / Active Directory.

Updated Flings

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Python Client for VMC on AWS

If Python is your favorite programming language the Python Client for VMC on AWS will help you in automating things for VMC.

Changelog

Version 1.1

  • Added support for Distributed Firewall.

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FlowGate

Flowgate helps you integrate multiple systems like Infoblox, Pulse IoT center and PowerIQ with your IT management systems..

Changelog

Version 1.1

  • Refactor the powerIQ and Nlyte adapter to support more metrics and properties
  • Refactor the Metric api.
  • Enhance the manual facility mapping functionality, support pdu,switch and sensor mapping.
  • Support add IP and AssetName mapping.
  • Security bugs fixed.
  • largely reduce the images size

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VMware OS Optimization Tool

If you are into EUC the VMware OS Optimization Tool is THE tool to optimize your images or at least the base to use for scripting those optimizations.

Changelog

June, 2020, b1160

Windows Update

Brand new option called Update that make it easier to re-enable Windows Update functionality on a Windows image that has previously been optimized and had this disabled.

This process has the following four steps:

  • Enable – Changes the required registry values, local group policy and enables the required services.
  • Windows Update – Starts the Windows update process and open the Windows setting page. You can run the Windows Update process as often as required and reboot, if necessary, before progressing to the next step.
  • Restore – Returns all settings to their original values. This will also disable scheduled tasks that get regenerated when a Windows Update runs.
  • Recommendations – After updating Windows, it is recommended that you rerun an optimize and then a finalize task.

Generalize

Completely redesigned interface that makes it easier to change the settings to customize the unattend answer file. These include:

  • Time Zone.
  • Input, system, UI, and user locales.
  • Administrator account autologon and password.
  • Copy Profile.

You still have the ability to view and edit the generated unattend answer file, if required, before execution.
Added cleanup of the local administrator profile before performing a copy profile including deleting the following registry entries:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\FileAssociationsUpdateVersion
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations

Finalize

Commands added to disable App Volumes services, if installed, before running the Finalize steps.

Common Options

Selections are now retained between runs. This makes it easier to rerun an optimize with the same common option settings.

Command Line

Standardization for the main command line options.

  • Optimize can be run with either -optimize or -o
  • Generalize can be run with either -generalize or -g
  • Finalize can be run as either -finalize or -f

Optimizations

Remove optimizations that, while not selected by default, can cause issues if selected:

  • CloudExperienceHost – CreateObjectTask (Disable Scheduled Tasks)
  • CacheTask (3 items)

Guides
Updated OSOT user guide: VMware Operating System Optimization Tool Guide.

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VMware Event Broker Appliance

The VMware Event Broker Appliance provides functionality for event driven automation in your SDDC.

Changelog

https://github.com/vmware-samples/vcenter-event-broker-appliance/releases/tag/v0.4.1

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App Volumes Entitlement Sync

The App Volumes Entitlement Sync Tool will read, compare and sync entitlements from one App Volumes instance to another.

Changelog

Version 4.0 Update:

  • Still supports 2.x App Volumes Managers
  • Added support for 4.x – both Application Packages and Legacy 2.x AppStacks
  • Fixes Application / Package relationships on replication
  • Saves manager address, username and domain to registry
  • Improved logging and error trapping
  • Able to sync Application Package Markers
  • Able to delete empty Applications
  • Detects and displays selected assignment type
    Displays the version of the CURRENT marker or shows if none is set
  • Shows App Volumes manager version on main page

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Unified Access Gateway Deployment Utility

I personally prefer to deploy my uag’s using powershell but if you prefer a gui the Unified Access Gateway Deployment Utility will help you with that.

Changelog

1.1.0 Version Update

  • Bug fixes and minor improvements
  • New logo

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vSphere Software Asset Management Tool

The vSphere Software Asset Management (vSAM) is a tool that collects and summarizes vSphere product deployment information.

Changelog

Version 1.2 Update

  • Show vSAN product information in the report.
  • Show unmasked license keys in the report as an option.
  • Add a License Inventory Table in the report.

 

[HorizonRestAPI] Handling Instant Clone Administrator accounts

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One of the options already available using the Horizon REST API‘s is working with Instant Clone Administrators. In total there are 5 API calls available and I will give an explanation for al 5 on how to use them. As you can see you’ll run all of them against /rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts.

GET : for all Instant Clone Domain accounts

POST : to create a new Instant Clone Domain accounts

GET : To retreive a specific Instant Clone Domain account with it’s ID

PUT : to update an Instant Clone Domain account.

DELETE : To delete an Instant Clone Domain account

Getting Started

To start showing these I am starting with the same base that I used in my first blog post about the Horizon REST api’s:

$url = read-host -prompt "Connection server url" 
$username = read-host -prompt "Username" 
$password = read-host -prompt "Password" -AsSecureString 
$Domain = read-host -Prompt "Domain" 
$url = "https://pod1cbr1.loft.lab"


$BSTR = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($password) 
$UnsecurePassword = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)


function Get-HRHeader(){
    param($accessToken)
    return @{
        'Authorization' = 'Bearer ' + $($accessToken.access_token)
        'Content-Type' = "application/json"
    }
}
function Open-HRConnection(){
    param(
        [string] $username,
        [string] $password,
        [string] $domain,
        [string] $url
    )

    $Credentials = New-Object psobject -Property @{
        username = $username
        password = $password
        domain = $domain
    }

    return invoke-restmethod -Method Post -uri "$url/rest/login" -ContentType "application/json" -Body ($Credentials | ConvertTo-Json)
}

function Close-HRConnection(){
    param(
        $accessToken,
        $url
    )
    return Invoke-RestMethod -Method post -uri "$url/rest/logout" -ContentType "application/json" -Body ($accessToken | ConvertTo-Json)
}

$accessToken = Open-HRConnection -username $username -password $UnsecurePassword -domain $Domain -url $url

Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken)

[sta_anchor id=”get” unsan=”GET” /]

GET

The regular get is really straight forward, just invoke a get and you get the results.

Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken)

As you can see I currently have 2 accounts configured.

[sta_anchor id=”post” unsan=”POST” /]

POST

With post we can configure a new Instant Clone Domain account. Let’s see what we need. According to the API explorer it looks like we need to supply a domain ID, password and account.

To get the domain ID we’ll actually need to do a GET against another url:

$domains=Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -uri "$url/rest/external/v1/ad-domains" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken)

Now I will create the json that we’ll need to configure the account. The $data variable is just a regular powershell array that  afterwards convert to the actual json

$domainid=$domains |select-object -expandproperty id -first 1

$data=@{
ad_domain_id= $domainid;
password= "password";
username= "username"
}

$body= $data | ConvertTo-Json

Now let’s use the Post method to apply this

Oops, too slow let’s authenticate and try again

Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken) -body $body

There are a few remarks about this: no propper error is returned when a wrong username and password is used. Wen you try to create an account that already exists it will return a 409 conflict.

[sta_anchor id=”post” unsan=”GETID” /]

GET with ID

This is straightforward again, just extend the url for the get with the ID of the account you want to get. I grabbed this from the regular pul request and filtered on the user account I just created

$icaccounts= Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken) 
$accountid=($icaccounts | where {$_.username -eq "username"}).id 
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts/$accountid" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken)

[sta_anchor id=”post” unsan=”PUT” /]

PUT

Put can be used to change a users password. It’s requires a combination of the url with the ID from the get with id and a body like in the Post.

$data=@{password="Demo-02"}
$body = $data | ConvertTo-Json
Invoke-RestMethod -Method Put -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts/$accountid" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken) -Body $body

[sta_anchor id=”post” unsan=”DELETE” /]

DELETE

To delete an account simply use the url with the id in it with the DELETE method

Invoke-RestMethod -Method Delete -uri "$url/rest/config/v1/ic-domain-accounts/$accountid" -ContentType "application/json" -Headers (Get-HRHeader -accessToken $accessToken)