Name

HostOpenVM

Description

($err, $vmHandle) = HostOpenVM($hostHandle,
                               $vmxFilePathName,
                               $options,
                               $propertyListHandle);

This function opens a virtual machine on the host that is identified by the hostHandle parameter and returns a context to that machine as a virtual machine handle. This function supercedes VMOpen.

Parameters

hostHandle: The handle of a host object, typically returned from HostConnect().
vmxFilePathName: The path name of the virtual machine configuration file on the local host.
options: Must be VIX_VMOPEN_NORMAL.
propertyListHandle: A handle to a property list containing extra information that might be needed to open the VM. This parameter is optional; you can pass VIX_INVALID_HANDLE if no extra information is needed.

Return Value

$err. The error code returned by the operation. For returned values, see Topics > Error Codes.

$vmHandle. The handle to the opened virtual machine.

Remarks

This function opens a virtual machine on the host that is identified by the hostHandle parameter. The virtual machine is identified by vmxFilePathName, which is a path name to the configuration file (.VMX file) for that virtual machine.
The format of the path name depends on the host operating system. For example, a path name for a Windows host requires backslash as a directory separator, whereas a Linux host requires a forward slash. If the path name includes backslash characters, you need to precede each one with an escape character. For VMware Server 2.x, the path contains a preceeding data store, for example [storage1] vm/vm.vmx.
For VMware Server hosts, a virtual machine must be registered before you can open it. You can register a virtual machine by opening it with the VMware Server Console, through the vmware-cmd command with the register parameter, or with RegisterVM().
For vSphere, the virtual machine opened may not be the one desired if more than one Datacenter contains vmxFilePathName.
To open an encrypted virtual machine, pass a handle to a property list containing the property VIX_PROPERTY_VM_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD set to the password for the virtual machine.
To enable SSL certificate checking, refer to the HostConnect function. If enabled, one must check the boolean property VIX_PROPERTY_VM_SSL_ERROR on the resulting Virtual Machine handle to determine if the host machine's SSL certificate was signed by a trusted certificate authority.
For ESX/ESXi hosts and vSphere, the user account specified in the call to HostConnect must have "System.View" privilege at the level of the Datacenter containing the ESX server that hosts the VM to be opened.
For ESX/ESXi hosts and vSphere, the user account specified in the call to HostConnect must have sufficient privileges to access guest operations in the virtual machine. For vSphere 4.1 and later, the privilege is "Virtual Machine.Interaction.Acquire Guest Control Ticket". For 4.0, the privilege is "Virtual Machine.Interaction.Console Interaction".

Requirements

use VMware::Vix::Simple;
use VMware::Vix::API::Constants;

since VMware Workstation 7.0

Example

The following sample illustrates how to open a regular virtual machine on a VMware Workstation host:

my $err = VIX_OK;
my $hostHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;
my $vmHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;

($err, $hostHandle) = HostConnect(VIX_API_VERSION,
                                  VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_WORKSTATION,
                                  undef, # hostName
                                  0, # hostPort
                                  undef, # userName
                                  undef, # password
                                  0, # options
                                  VIX_INVALID_HANDLE); # propertyListHandle

die "HostConnect() failed, $err ", GetErrorText($err), "\n" if $err != VIX_OK;

($err, $vmHandle) = HostOpenVM($hostHandle,
                               "c:\\Virtual Machines\\vm1\\win2000.vmx",
                               0, #options
                               VIX_INVALID_HANDLE); #propertyListHandle
die "HostOpenVM() failed, $err ", GetErrorText($err), "\n" if $err != VIX_OK;

The following sample illustrates how to open an encrypted virtual machine on a VMware Workstation host:

my $err = VIX_OK;
my $hostHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;
my $vmHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;
my $propertyListHandle = VIX_INVALID_HANDLE;

($err, $hostHandle) = HostConnect(VIX_API_VERSION,
                                  VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_WORKSTATION,
                                  undef, # hostName
                                  0, # hostPort
                                  undef, # userName
                                  undef, # password
                                  0, # options
                                  VIX_INVALID_HANDLE); # propertyListHandle

die "HostConnect() failed, $err ", GetErrorText($err), "\n" if $err != VIX_OK;

($err, $propertyListHandle) = AllocPropertyList($hostHandle,
                                                VIX_PROPERTY_VM_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD,
                                                "vmPassword",
                                                VIX_PROPERTY_NONE);

die "AllocPropertyList() failed, $err ", GetErrorText($err), "\n" if $err != VIX_OK;

($err, $vmHandle) = HostOpenVM($hostHandle,
                               "c:\\Virtual Machines\\vm1\\win2000.vmx",
                               VIX_VMOPEN_NORMAL, #options
                               $propertyListHandle); #propertyListHandle
die "HostOpenVM() failed, $err ", GetErrorText($err), "\n" if $err != VIX_OK;