Setting VM memory reservation with knife vsphere vm clone

Chef Infra (archive)
1

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred VMs,
and it’s working well. One issue we can’t figure out though is how to set
the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm clone"
command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

2

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu for
that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the customization
specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred VMs,
and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to set
the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm clone"
command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

3

Hi Terry,

By memory reservation, do you mean the amount of virtual RAM allotted to a
VM OR memory reservation as used in resource management and allocation,
i.e reservation, shares etc.? The former can be specified using the
'--cram' option as mentioned by Johnny. The latter cannot be specified
using knife-vsphere. Setting memory reservation would be done via a
ResourceAllocationInfo managed data object as a part of the
VirtualMachineConfigSpec and I don't think knife-vsphere caters to this as
of now.

Regards,
Aditya

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Johnny Tan johnnydtan@gmail.com wrote:

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu for
that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the
customization specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred
VMs, and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to
set the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm
clone" command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

4

Thank you Aditya, I was indeed referring to the memery reservation setting,
not the memory allocation which --cram is used for.

I'll look into ResourceAllocationInfo to see what I can find out about it.
Even if I cannot set it using knife vsphere, do you know of any other way I
can adjust that setting programmatically from a Linux host?

Thanks in advance,
Terry
On Aug 8, 2014 1:57 AM, "Aditya Karanjkar" <
aditya.karanjkar@relevancelab.com> wrote:

Hi Terry,

By memory reservation, do you mean the amount of virtual RAM allotted to a
VM OR memory reservation as used in resource management and allocation,
i.e reservation, shares etc.? The former can be specified using the
'--cram' option as mentioned by Johnny. The latter cannot be specified
using knife-vsphere. Setting memory reservation would be done via a
ResourceAllocationInfo managed data object as a part of the
VirtualMachineConfigSpec and I don't think knife-vsphere caters to this as
of now.

Regards,
Aditya

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Johnny Tan johnnydtan@gmail.com wrote:

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu
for that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the
customization specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred
VMs, and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to
set the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm
clone" command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

5

Hi Johnny,
Actually I set ram, CPUs, etc without creating a custom spec in vcenter, it
works just fine without it. I was referring to memory reservation, not
allocation.

But I'll take a look at the docs you pointed to and see if THAT allows me
to set the reservation!

Thanks,
Terry
On Aug 7, 2014 10:16 PM, "Johnny Tan" johnnydtan@gmail.com wrote:

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu for
that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the
customization specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred
VMs, and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to
set the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm
clone" command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

6

Hi Terry,

Try the code given below to set the memory reservation. You will need the
RbVmomi gem for this. It searches for a VM called 'test_vm' in a folder
called 'vm_folder' and sets the memory reservation to 1024 MB.

#change_memory_reservation.rb
require 'rbvmomi'
vim = RbVmomi::VIM.connect host: '10.10.10.1', user: 'me', password:
'complex_password', insecure: true
vm = vim.serviceInstance.find_datacenter.find_vm("vm_folder/test_vm") or
abort("VM not found")
vm_config_spec = RbVmomi::VIM.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
vm_config_spec.memoryAllocation = RbVmomi::VIM.ResourceAllocationInfo
reservation: 1024
task = vm.ReconfigVM_Task spec: vm_config_spec
task.wait_for_completion

Regards,
Aditya

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Johnny,
Actually I set ram, CPUs, etc without creating a custom spec in vcenter,
it works just fine without it. I was referring to memory reservation, not
allocation.

But I'll take a look at the docs you pointed to and see if THAT allows me
to set the reservation!

Thanks,
Terry
On Aug 7, 2014 10:16 PM, "Johnny Tan" johnnydtan@gmail.com wrote:

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu
for that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the
customization specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred
VMs, and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to
set the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm
clone" command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry

7

Forgot to mention. I referred to the vSphere API docs for this. You can
find them here:

-Aditya

On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 12:23 PM, Aditya Karanjkar <
aditya.karanjkar@relevancelab.com> wrote:

Hi Terry,

Try the code given below to set the memory reservation. You will need the
RbVmomi gem for this. It searches for a VM called 'test_vm' in a folder
called 'vm_folder' and sets the memory reservation to 1024 MB.

#change_memory_reservation.rb
require 'rbvmomi'
vim = RbVmomi::VIM.connect host: '10.10.10.1', user: 'me', password:
'complex_password', insecure: true
vm = vim.serviceInstance.find_datacenter.find_vm("vm_folder/test_vm") or
abort("VM not found")
vm_config_spec = RbVmomi::VIM.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
vm_config_spec.memoryAllocation = RbVmomi::VIM.ResourceAllocationInfo
reservation: 1024
task = vm.ReconfigVM_Task spec: vm_config_spec
task.wait_for_completion

Regards,
Aditya

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Johnny,
Actually I set ram, CPUs, etc without creating a custom spec in vcenter,
it works just fine without it. I was referring to memory reservation, not
allocation.

But I'll take a look at the docs you pointed to and see if THAT allows me
to set the reservation!

Thanks,
Terry
On Aug 7, 2014 10:16 PM, "Johnny Tan" johnnydtan@gmail.com wrote:

You use --cram option. --cram 3 means 3GB RAM.

But yes before being able to specify RAM via cram (or CPU via ccpu
for that matter), you do need to specify --cspec. To do that, in Vcenter,
just create a customization specification (it's really basic info like
timezone, dns, etc):

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-58E346FF-83AE-42B8-BE58-253641D257BC.html

Then you can use --cspec NAME where NAME is the name of the
customization specification you created.

On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Terry P. texpilot@gmail.com wrote:

Greetings all,
We are using knife vsphere to automate the birthing of over a hundred
VMs, and it's working well. One issue we can't figure out though is how to
set the VM memory reservation during execution of the "knife vsphere vm
clone" command.

I see there is the --cspec CUST_SPEC option, but I cannot find anything
that explains what the format / syntax should be. Can anyone please point
me to where I can find that?

Thanks in advance,
Terry