Puppet users - Oct 2012 - [facter] ESX/vSphere version detection without vmware tools

Hi Everyone,
I''m looking for a way to identify (if possible) the ESX/vSphere version
that a particular VMWare guest server is running on without the use of 
vmware tools related commands, such as vmware-checkvm, which does seem to 
do the trick from what I can gather.

[root@server ~]# vmware-checkvm -h
VM''s hw version is 4
VMware software version 6 (good)
[root@server ~]#

The reason behind this is that we have brought online a new site that uses 
ESX5, and I''d like new VM''s to be able to self classify what
ESX specific
packages and services to install and manage without any admin intervention, 
ie, Do I install the ESX4 tools, or the ESX5 ones.

I have had a bit of a poke around to see if this is possible, but have so 
far come up empty handed, and feel it may not be possible in a way that I 
can roll it into a custom fact, so i may have to go down the route of 
pushing some new values into our ENC that define the version of ESX in use 
at each particular site, which isnt perfect, but will also do the job.

Has anyone ever had to deal with this chicken/egg situation ?
And if so, did you find a solution ?

Thanks in advance,

K

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Hi Keiran,

I wrote this and posted it to the list awhile ago:

https://github.com/wolfspyre/vmware_puppetfact

there''s been some suggestion that the source I used as a basis for this
fact is slightly inaccurate, however I don''t have a suite of esx
servers to test on.. (it''s on my list)

feel free to inform me of changes that are required, and I''ll happily
make them.


W

On Oct 31, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Keiran Sweet <keiran@gmail.com>
 wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
> I''m looking for a way to identify (if possible) the ESX/vSphere
version that a particular VMWare guest server is running on without the use of
vmware tools related commands, such as vmware-checkvm, which does seem to do the
trick from what I can gather.
>
> [root@server ~]# vmware-checkvm -h
> VM''s hw version is 4
> VMware software version 6 (good)
> [root@server ~]#
>
> The reason behind this is that we have brought online a new site that uses
ESX5, and I''d like new VM''s to be able to self classify what
ESX specific packages and services to install and manage without any admin
intervention, ie, Do I install the ESX4 tools, or the ESX5 ones.
>
> I have had a bit of a poke around to see if this is possible, but have so
far come up empty handed, and feel it may not be possible in a way that I can
roll it into a custom fact, so i may have to go down the route of pushing some
new values into our ENC that define the version of ESX in use at each particular
site, which isnt perfect, but will also do the job.
>
> Has anyone ever had to deal with this chicken/egg situation ?
> And if so, did you find a solution ?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> K
>
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Cheers for this, it''s given me some food for thought.

Given the backwards/forwards compatibility of some versions of VMWare 
Tools, my issue isn''t as serious as I initially thought, however I
would
like to go down this path long term so that our VM''s perform optimally.

My only concern with using the BIOS strings is that an unexpected update to 
the ESX nodes (it is managed by a different team) may cause some of my 
puppet code/infrastructure to experience unexpected results without fail 
safe type logic, which may not be pretty.

Thanks again,

K

ps, If anyone at EMC/VMWare is listening, a sneaky string with the version 
number in the BIOS or other accessible firmware would be amazing :)

On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 6:30:21 PM UTC, Wolf Noble
wrote:
>
> Hi Keiran, 
>
> I wrote this and posted it to the list awhile ago: 
>
> https://github.com/wolfspyre/vmware_puppetfact 
>
> there''s been some suggestion that the source I used as a basis for
this
> fact is slightly inaccurate, however I don''t have a suite of esx
servers to
> test on.. (it''s on my list) 
>
> feel free to inform me of changes that are required, and I''ll
happily make
> them. 
>
>
> W 
>
> On Oct 31, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Keiran Sweet <kei...@gmail.com
<javascript:>>
>
>  wrote: 
>
> > Hi Everyone, 
> > I''m looking for a way to identify (if possible) the
ESX/vSphere version
> that a particular VMWare guest server is running on without the use of 
> vmware tools related commands, such as vmware-checkvm, which does seem to 
> do the trick from what I can gather. 
> > 
> > [root@server ~]# vmware-checkvm -h 
> > VM''s hw version is 4 
> > VMware software version 6 (good) 
> > [root@server ~]# 
> > 
> > The reason behind this is that we have brought online a new site that 
> uses ESX5, and I''d like new VM''s to be able to self
classify what ESX
> specific packages and services to install and manage without any admin 
> intervention, ie, Do I install the ESX4 tools, or the ESX5 ones. 
> > 
> > I have had a bit of a poke around to see if this is possible, but have
> so far come up empty handed, and feel it may not be possible in a way that 
> I can roll it into a custom fact, so i may have to go down the route of 
> pushing some new values into our ENC that define the version of ESX in use 
> at each particular site, which isnt perfect, but will also do the job. 
> > 
> > Has anyone ever had to deal with this chicken/egg situation ? 
> > And if so, did you find a solution ? 
> > 
> > Thanks in advance, 
> > 
> > K 
> > 
> > -- 
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google 
> Groups "Puppet Users" group. 
> > To view this discussion on the web visit 
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/puppet-users/-/0-kAK--l5IcJ. 
> > To post to this group, send email to
puppet...@googlegroups.com<javascript:>.
>
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
> puppet-users...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. 
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> http://groups.google.com/group/puppet-users?hl=en. 
>
>
> ________________________________ 
>
> This message may contain confidential or privileged information. If you 
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> further information on confidentiality and the risks of non-secure 
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> us by reply message and we will send the contents to you. 
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