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.
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
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
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.
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:
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
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
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.
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:
Halfway at day 50 for my #100DaysOfCode Challenge. Rolled back some name changes and added a couple new methods to the @VMwareHorizon#Python Module. A blogpost will follow on how to use new_application_pool and update_application_pool. pic.twitter.com/nJOywEzUDj
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Yesterday I added the first method to the VMware HorizonPython 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:
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:
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
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.
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.
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.
This week I learned about Object Orientated Programming, classes, modules, tuples and other things. I decided on skipping some days of the course because my goal of the 100 days is to learn new techniques to be used with Python. Some of the days are more about how to think in solving challenges than new techniques so I did look at the videos where it was clear that new stuff is being thought bit I do my own thing for the rest. I have also create a first version of a module to use the VMware Horizon REST API’s and blogged about it yesterday. On the positive side I learned that even though I was making long evenings with ControlUp’s yearly SKO I was still able to take in new information during my morning 100DaysOfCode ritual.
Learning points:
Even when making long days I can still take in new information during the mornings
I can’t be arsed to create code that I don’t care about
As you probably have seen from my tweets the last three weeks I have been doing the 100DaysOfCode challenge specifically for Python. Today I was actually a bit bored with the task we got (sorry, I hate creating games) so I decided on checking if I was actually able to consume the Horizon api’s from Python. This was something entirely new for me so it was a boatload of trial & error until I got it working with this script:
First I import the requests json and getpass modules. The requests module does the webrequests, the json is used to transform the data to be usable and getpass is used to get my password without showing it. After this I add a line to get rid of the warnings that my certificates aren’t to be trusted (it’s a homelab, duh!).
The most important part is that for the authentication I send username,password and domain as json data in the data while the headers contain the content type. The response gets converted to json data and I use that json data to build the access token. For future requests I only need to pass the access token for authentication.
Now this looks fun but wouldn’t it be better if I create a module for it? Yes it does and that’s what I have done and I have even added a simple function to list desktop pools.
And with a simple script I consume this module to show the display name of the first pool.
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()
at = vmware_horizon.Connection.hv_connect(username=username,password=pw,url=url,domain=domain)
pools = vmware_horizon.Pools.list_hvpools(url=url, access_token=at)
print(f'The first Desktop pool is {pools[0]["display_name"]}')
vmware_horizon.Connection.hv_disconnect(url=url, access_token=at)
The module is from from ready and I need to find a better way to make it optional to ignore the certificate erros but if you want to follow the progress of the module it can be found on my Github.
And with a higher or lower game I finished the second week of my 100DaysofCode #Python challenge. Sometimes when I don’t see the solution for something it takes ma ages to get on the right path but when I see it I finish the project pdq! The debugging that I have been applying for years in my powershell code also seems to apply to python and google is a coders best friend 🙂 Besides the python course I actually didn’t do a whole lot of coding in Powershell, maybe a couple of hours spread over the week and my “big project” is finally finished and ready to be published.
Good things:
focus
when it works it works
Bad things:
when my I start thinking in the wrong direction it will keep going wrong
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