vrb is meant to bring the ease of use of VMware’s PowerCLI to unix/ruby people by way of exposing a friendlier set of actions and information than just using rbvmomi on its own.

Disclaimer¶ ↑

I am not a ruby developer, I just play one on Github. I am a systems/virtualization/devops engineer with much more of a scripting background. Besides the obvious goal of creating vrb to make my own life easier at work, I am also using this project to attempt to elevate my understanding of ruby (and frankly, OOP in general).

Patience and grace are requested, as well as your contributions.

Usage¶ ↑

>> vc = Vrb::Vcenter.new(vcenter_name, username, password)
 => Vrb::Vcenter(vcenter_name)
>> vc.list_datacenters
 => ['Seattle', 'Chicago', 'London']
>> dc = vc.get_datacenter('Seattle')
 => Vrb::Datacenter(Seattle)
>> cl = dc.get_cluster 'Prod'
 => Vrb::Cluster(Prod)
>> host = cl.get_host 'host1.domain.tld'
 => Vrb::Host(host1.domain.tld)
>> vm = host.get_vm 'myvm'
 => Vrb::VM(myvm)
>> vm.os
 => 'CentOS 4/5/6'
>> vm.ip
 => '10.0.1.2'

Notable features¶ ↑

• Friendly names everywhere you look (or inspect)

• Clone a VM using an existing vCenter customization specification! Even pass IPs!

• Change network labels on an existing VM

• If you’re already using fog, Vrb::Vcenter.new will recognize and pick up your ~/.fog file

• Mix and match Vrb and RbVmomi methods! Just call .mob on any Vrb object to get direct access to the RbVmomi managed object reference

• Access a VM direct from vCenter without traversing the hierarchy: vc.get_vm_by_path('Seattle/vm/Folder1/myvm'

• View hard to get to data like vNIC information as simple ivars

Known Issues¶ ↑

• vNIC-related actions currently only support the VMware vDS. Sorry, that’s mostly what I use at work. Support for sVS networks will be added eventually.

Todos¶ ↑

• VM NIC information needs cleanup

• Add more info to cluster/host/vm objects. some ideas:

  • HA/DRS state

  • active alarms

• Add more common actions. some ideas:

  • maintenance mode

  • power on/off