LinuxKit interacts with VMware desktop products (Fusion/Workstation) through the
vmrun utility that is preinstalled with the desktop products. The interaction
for VMware vSphere (single hypervisor) or VMware vCenter (vSphere management
platform) is performed through the XML SOAP API using the govmomi SDK.
Links:
Supported (Tested) versions:
- VMware Fusion 8.0/8.5
- VMware vSphere 6.0/6.5
- VMware vCenter 6.0
The backend vmware currently supports the booting of a .vmdk file that is
created through the linuxkit build -format vmdk command and is typically called with
linuxkit run vmware <args> ./path.
The WS/Fusion backend will construct a config version 8 (Hardware version 12)
.vmx file from the arguments that are passed to the run backend and then
use the vmrun utility to start the virtual machine.
The backend vsphere currently supports booting through an iso file that is
created through the linuxkit build -o iso-bios and is started with linuxkit run vcenter <args> ./path.
The vSphere/vCenter backend requires a user to have pushed a linuxkit iso to
a datastore before attempting to issue the run command. The VMware GO SDK is
used to build a new Virtual Machine from the configuration that is passed, the
new VM is then registered to the host passed as part of the run arguments.
The waitForIP requires the powerOn argument and will make linuxkit wait
until the VM has both powered on and the VMware guest tools have started, it
will then print the guest IP address to stdout. This requires the
open-vm-tools container to be added to the linuxkit OS .yml otherwise the wait
will eventually timeout.
To push an iso to a remote VMware datastore:
linuxkit push vcenter \
-url=<https://username:password@VCaddress/sdk> \
-datastore=<datastore_name> \
-datacenter=<dc_name> [optional, only needed if multiple DCs] \
-folder=<folder_name> [optional, will create a folder from the image name] \
-path=<iso_path>
Alternatively most arguments can be passed as environment variables:
VCURL- VMware vCenter URL (ensure /sdk is appended)VCDATACENTER- VMware vCenter DataCenter name, if more than oneVCDATASTORE- Name of a Datastore on that DataCenter
VMware makes use of its own KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) console. With the WS/Fusion backend the console will be displayed as the VM starts to boot. With the vSphere/vCenter backend, the virtual machine will need finding in the management tools and connecting to its console.
NOTE: When building an instance for the vSphere/vCenter backend only a
single tty is needed as a serial device isn't added to the VM, adding a ttyS
will result in a debug message printed to the console every few seconds.
Adding a -disk will call on the vmware-diskmanager utility to create a disk
of the set size and add this to the .vmx configuration before starting the new
Virtual Machine.
The -persistentSize <size in MB> will create a persistent disk through the
VMware SDK and add this disk to the VM configuration. This disk will be created
in the same folder as the newly created VM.
Networking is automated and an interface as auto generated and will use NAT to create a provide network access.
The -network argument can specify the name of either a vSwitch or a
Distributed vSwitch. When the VM is created a new VMXNet3 device is created and
places on the designated virtual switch.
The open-vm-tools container can be added to provide additional functionality
within a VMware vSphere and vCenter environment.
For the vcenter backend, the decision was made to use only an iso as the
medium for the linuxkit VM instead of a vmdk file. The basis for this is in
the limitations between a vmdk on local storage and A vmdk that is hosted on
an actual VMware datastore (VMFS filesystem). Creating a local vmdk can make use
of thin provisioning, however it can't then be transferred to a VMware datastore
without converting the disk to a "fat" format. This has the result of turning a
relatively small upload, to an upload of perhaps 1GB.