Installing

To install the tools, download with the command

git clone https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi-community-samples

Then, after the tool is installed we can run a program in python to execute some simple scripts in the VM.

Executing a Program

In the test, the ls command is used. And the script, or program of this command is in /bin.

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By running the code that executes program in vm the configuration is as follows:

-s (the address of database) -u (username) -p (password) -i (address of VM) -r (username of VM) -w (password of VM) -l (the script to run,with path) -f "(other arguments）"

After running the program，the python program will output a success/failure message. And we can find the output in the VM.

Upload and Download file with Commands

scp is a helpful command that send file between VMs. And the usage is scp file destination

For example: If a file, ~/1.txt is to be uploaded to a VM at 10.11.16.140 as a file named 'test.txt' in directory '/home/ve450', and the username of that VM is ve450

scp ~/1.txt [email protected]:/home/ve450/text.txt

And if we want to download test.txt back in directory '~':

scp [email protected]:/home/ve450/1.txt ~

However, scp has a problem. That is, if the remote vm needs a password to login, it will prompt for the user to enter password. In our case, to control the process with code, we also need to use sshpass.

We install sshpass by using command sudo apt install sshpass in Ubuntu linux.

To upload file, we can use command:

/usr/bin/sshpass -p password scp ~/1.txt [email protected]:/home/ve450

sshpass can also read the password from the first line of a text file.

If the password is the first line of '2.txt',then we can access the file with

/usr/bin/sshpass -f ~/2.txt scp [email protected]:/home/ve450/1.txt ~/test.txt

Upload/download file with python

We can control the Upload/download process all with python scripts.

We write a script '~/a.py', and write a brief command like:

import os

os.system("/usr/bin/sshpass -f ~/2.txt scp ~/1.txt [email protected]:/home/ve450")

And we excecute executes program in vm with the configuration:

-s [database address] -u [vsphere username] -p [vsphere password] -i [address of vm] -r [usrname of VM] -w [user password of vm] -l /usr/bin/python3 -f "~/a.py"

And thus the upload/download command in 'a.py' will be executed.