vapprun 1.0.1

UNKNOWN

VMware vApprun v1.0
January, 2010

System Requirements
-------------------

VMware vApprun is supported on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It requires the following
software installed:

. Python 2.5 or 2.6 (www.python.org)
. VMware Workstation 6 or later (Windows/Linux)
. VMware Fusion 2 or later (Mac OS X)

Installation
------------

1. Unzip the vmware-vapprun-1.0.zip file into the installation directory. For example,
into c:\vapprun (Windows) or ~/vapprun (Linux/OS X).

That will create the following directory structure:

<install-dir>/README (this file)
<install-dir>/vapprun.bat
<install-dir>/vapprun
<install-dir>/src/

2. Change your PATH, so that the installation directory is in the path. For example:

set PATH=c:\vapprun;%PATH% (windows)

or

export PATH=$HOME/vapprun:$PATH (linux/OS X)

3. Ensure that the python interpreter is in your path. If you can execute the python
command in your shell, you should be fine.

>python
Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jul 7 2009, 23:51:51)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^D

Make sure that the version is 2.5.x or 2.6.x.

Alternatively, you can set the PYTHON_HOME environment variable to point to your python
installation directory.

4. Finally, vapprun needs access to three utilities that are installed as part of VMware
Workstation or VMware Fusion, namely vmrun, mkisofs, and vmware-vdiskmanager.

The <install-dir>/vapprun.bat (Windows) and <install-dir>/vapprun (Linux/OS X) scripts
are pre-configured with the default location of these tools. If you have installed
VMware Fusion or VMware Workstation at a non default location, you will need to modify
your PATH to include these tools.

The default location of these tools are:
. /usr/bin (Linux)
. /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/ (Mac OS X)
. C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation and
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VIX\ (Windows)
. C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation and
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware VIX\ (Windows 64-bit)

For Windows, you can set the VMWARE_HOME environment variable to point to your
installation directory. For example:

set VMWARE_HOME=f:\Program Files (x86)

Getting Started
---------------

To validate the installation, let's first check that the vapprun command works:

>vapprun
Usage: vapprun <command> [options] [<target> [<arguments>]]
Type 'vapprun help' for help

Ok, so far so good. Next step is to create a workspace where we can create our vApps and
virtual machines:

>mkdir vapp_workspace # Creates a directory for your vapprun workspace
# (any name will do)
>cd vapp_workspace
>vapprun init # Initializes vapprun workspace
>vapprun list # Views the content of the workspace
Empty workspace

Let's create a vApp, a VM, and move the VM into the vApp:

>vapprun create-vapp myFirstVApp # Creates an empty vApp

>vapprun create-vm myVm # Creates a blank VM
Creating disk '/Users/renes/vapprun_workspace/myVm/vmx/disk.vmdk'
Virtual disk creation successful.
Created VM entity myVm successfully

>vapprun edit myVm parent=myFirstVApp # Makes myVm part of myFirstVApp

Note: On Windows, you need to quote arguments that includes an equal sign (=), so use the
following command: vapprun edit myVm "parent=myFirstVApp"

>vapprun list
Name Type State IP AppUrl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
myFirstVApp vApp Powered Off
myVm VM Powered Off

Let's add an OVF property to our vApp. The property will be passed into the OVF environment
of the myVm VM when we power on the vApp in a moment.

>vapprun def-property myFirstVApp key=myProperty type=string
>vapprun list myFirstVApp
Name.......: myFirstVApp
Type.......: vApp
IP Policy..: fixed

Children:
Name Order StartWait WaitForTools StopWait
------------------------------------------------------------
myVm 30 30 True 30

Property Definitions:
Key Type Value UserConfig
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
myProperty string True

Property Settings:
Key Value
------------------------------------------------
myProperty CHANGE-ME

Let's set a value for the property, and see how the OVF environment for myVM will look like:

>vapprun set-property myFirstVApp myProperty=testValue
>vapprun list myVm
Name.......: myVm
Type.......: VM
VMX........: /Users/renes/vapp_workspace/myVm/vmx/vm.vmx
Parent.....: myFirstVApp
Transport..: iso com.vmware.guestInfo

OVF environment:
Key Value
------------------------------------------------
myProperty testValue

Finally, let's run our first vApp. But first, we will reconfigure the default start and
stop delays to be a bit shorter.

>vapprun edit myVm startWait=5 stopWait=5
>vapprun start -gui myFirstVApp # Default is to start VMs in headless mode
Starting myFirstVApp
Starting myVm
Waiting for 5 secs...

Well, maybe not that exciting since it is just a blank VM. But the VM actually got
started with an OVF environment initialized on an auto-generated ISO! Just as it would
have on vSphere 4. Behind the scenes, vapprun created the OVF environment XML file (vmx/ovf-env.xml),
wrapped it in an iso image (vmx/ovf-env.iso), and reconfigured the VM to mount this ISO (vmx/vm.vmx).
The OVF environment is also available using the guestinfo.ovfEnv variable.

Let's shut it down again.

>vapprun stop myFirstVApp
Stopping myFirstVApp
Stopping myVm

Ok, that is the end of the getting started. Hopefully, you have gotten an idea of how
vapprun works.

A good next step is to read the user guide stored in the doc/ directory.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2009-2015 VMware, Inc. January