Powercli to set "Autostart" on VM on ESXI not working - virtual-machine

I am using versions:
ESXI 6.5.0 Update 3 (Build 14990892)
Power CLI VMware PowerCLI 11.0.0 build 10380590.
I have a VM that I am importing (ISO) into an ESXI and trying to set Autostart on the VM to "enabled" programmatically via some scripts, but it is not working. I am using the powercli command:
Set-VMHostStartPolicy (Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostStartPolicy) -Enabled:$true
I've also tried some variants of this command but none seem to work. I see the "event" get logged as "Reconfigure Autostart" under the "Recent Tasks" menu on the ESXI Web GUI as soon as I input the command, so its definitely configurating something, but when I double-check the state of the VM to see if Autostart is enabled, it still lists "Enable" as an option, implying Autostart is NOT enabled. Here's a screenshot:
Can anyone help me please? I just want to have this VM start automatically incase there is a power outage or server crash; But only in these cases, I want it to import powered OFF for the first time (as you can see in screen shot the EPS VM is imported but in a powered down state, which is what I want)

I think what you're doing is setting the host's default policy... You would think that would work. I'm using this code on ESXi 7.0 Update 1 to set the guest's policy:
$vmstartpolicy = Get-VM "$vm_name" | Get-VMStartPolicy
Set-VMStartPolicy -StartPolicy $vmstartpolicy -StartAction PowerOn
It has the same issue that it doesn't show in the web UI, (which somebody will complain about, and I'll have to fix) but it does auto-start the VM after a reboot, so at least it's a start (pun not intended).
Edit: After playing around a bit, I managed to find a solution that updates the UI.
plink -batch -ssh $user#$IP -l "$user" -pw "$password" vim-cmd hostsvc/autostartmanager/update_autostartentry "`$(vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep `"$vm_name`" | awk '{print `$1}')" "PowerOn" 0 1 "systemDefault" "systemDefault" "systemDefault"
Using plink to ssh into the host and run this vim-cmd, it updates the UI properly. Take note of the back-ticks (`) to escape the dollar signs (except the one with the $vm_name variable) and quotes in the sub command, so that powershell doesn't try to interpret them before sending them through the ssh tunnel. All the sub command does is get the all the VMs, use grep to filter down to the output line with the vm_name you specify, and use awk to print only the 1st column (the vm id required for the outer vim-cmd).

Related

How to create a Linux GUI app short cut for WSL2 on Windows10?

I have properly installed and setup WSL2. It works fine.
I also setup X11 forwarding and X server (VcXsrv). I can launch GUI apps such like konsole or gvim or even google-chrome from a bash shell.
Now I want to launch konsole by simply double clicking a short cut on the desktop without launching the bash command mode terminal. How should I do it?
I tried running this in cmd:
> wsl /usr/bin/konsole
and it reports:
qt.qpa.xcb: could not connect to display
qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc, wayland-egl, wayland, wayland-xcomposite-egl, wayland-xcomposite-glx, xcb.
I'm guessing it is because some X11 forwarding configurations were not properly setup, so I created a k.sh as follows:
#!/usr/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
/usr/bin/konsole &
The first two lines were the X11 settings in my .bashrc, the last line launches konsole.
It works fine under bash environment; but when I ran
wsl k.sh
from windows cmd environment, it silently quitted without launching the konsole.
I'm out of ideas. What should I do to directly launch konsole or other Linux GUI apps under windows without having to getting into bash?
Thanks in advance.
You are asking about two different command-lines, and while the failures in running them via the wsl command have the same root-cause, the underlying failures are likely slightly different.
In both cases, the wsl <command> invocation results in a non-login, non-interactive shell where the command simply "runs and exits".
Since the shell is non-login/non-interactive, your startup files (such as ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile, among others) are not being processed.
When you run:
wsl /usr/bin/konsole
... the DISPLAY variable is not set, since, as you said, you normally set it in your ~/.bashrc.
Try using:
wsl -e bash -lic "/usr/bin/konsole"
That will force bash to run as a login (-l), interactive (-i) shell. The DISPLAY should be set correctly, and it should run konsole.
Note that the quotes probably aren't necessary in this case, but are useful for delineating the commands you are passing to bash. More complicated command-lines can be passed in via the quotes.
As for:
wsl k.sh
That's likely a similar problem. You are doing the right thing by setting DISPLAY in your script, but I notice that you aren't using a fully-qualified path it. This would normally work, of course, if your script is in a directory on the $PATH.
But I'm guessing that you might add that directory to the $PATH in your startup config, which means (again) that it isn't being set in this non-login, non-interactive shell.
As before, try:
wsl -e bash -lic "k.sh"`
You could also use a fully-qualified path, of course.
And, I'm fairly sure you are going to run into an issue with trying to put konsole in the background via the script. When WSL exits, and the bash shell process ends, the child konsole process will terminate as well.
You could get around this with a nohup in the script, but then you also need to redirect the stderr. It's probably easiest just to move the & from the script itself to the command-line. Change your k.sh to:
#!/usr/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
/usr/bin/konsole
Then run it with:
wsl -e bash -lic "k.sh &"`
Finally, a side note that when and if you can upgrade to Windows 11, it will automatically create Windows Start Menu entries for any Linux GUI app you install that creates a .desktop file. You can manually create .desktop files to have WSL create Start menu items for most applications.
For reference, in Windows 11 it's easier. To run a GUI application without a terminal window popping up, you just need to call wslg.exe instead of wsl.exe.
So, for example:
target: C:\Windows\System32\wslg.exe konsole
start in: C:\WINDOWS\system32
shortcut key: None
comment: Konsole
This tutorial shows how to install VcXsrv and and edit .bashrc to ensure that the "DISPLAY env var is updated on every restart".
DISPLAY env var needs to be dynamic setting.
I've used it successfully with WSL2 on Windows10 Version 21H2 (OS build 19044.2130) to run Chrome, Edge, and thunar. I'm using the Ubuntu 20.04 Linux distro.
To edit .bashrc follow these instructions.

Copying ssh key from windows machine to windows server 2019

I've been trying to get access to Windows Server 2019 without password through OpenSSH protocol.
So I've created new key which I need it to be copied to the Windows Server, I've tried this:
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user#server
But I get this after entering correct password:
'exec' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
The system cannot find the path specified.
The system cannot find the path specified.
My issue is how to transfer key from one windows machine(using gitbash, WSL, powershell or whatever)
to Windows Server 2019 location of authorized keys if I am not mistaken.
I am desperate enough to do it manually but location of those keys is mystery to me, do I need to set something on Windows Server first so that it can accept keys for authentication ?
What is the alternative on ssh-copy-id from Windows machine to Windows Server 2019 ?
Found solution:
Followed this helpful youtube guide, props to the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs3wBl_mMH0&ab_channel=IT%2FOpsTalk-Deprecated-SeeChannelDescription
Also, installing OpenSSHUtils worked with:
Install-Module -Name OpenSSHUtils -RequiredVersion 0.0.2.0 -Scope AllUsers
Also this guide helped:
https://www.cloudsma.com/2018/03/installing-powershell-modules-on/
My server didn't have access so I manually copied file from:
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules to the server's:
Server:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
First, this error message is followed by microsoft/vscode-remote-release issue 25
Current workaround (the context is VSCode, but should apply also for regular SSH connection):
Also, for anyone else here that loves their bash on windows but still wants to be able to use VSCode remote, the workaround I have currently setup is to use an autorun.cmd deployed on the servers that detects when an SSH connection is coming in and has a terminal allocated:
#echo off
if defined SSH_CLIENT (
:: check if we've got a terminal hooked up; if not, don't run bash.exe
C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe -c "if [ -t 1 ]; then exit 1; fi"
if errorlevel 1 (
C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --login
exit
)
)
This is known to work with Cygwin bash, unsure about bash that ships with windows; I imagine it's very sensitive to how the TTY code works internally.
This way, launching cmd.exe works normally, using VSCode (because it does not allocate a PTY) works normally, but SSH'ing into the machine launches bash.exe.
I suspect it would also work using the bash.exe which comes with Git for Windows, should it be installed on the target server.
The destination file should be on the server:
%USERPROFILE%\.ssh\authorized_keys
If you can do it manually, simply try and scp it instead of using ssh-copy-id
scp user#server:C:/Users/<user>/.ssh/authorized_key authorized_key
# manual and local edit to add the public key
scp authorized_key user#server:C:/Users/<user>/.ssh/authorized_key
(again, I would use the scp.exe coming with Git For Windows, installed this time locally)
Found solution:
Followed this helpful youtube guide, props to the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs3wBl_mMH0&ab_channel=IT%2FOpsTalk-Deprecated-SeeChannelDescription
Also, installing OpenSSHUtils worked with:
Install-Module -Name OpenSSHUtils -RequiredVersion 0.0.2.0 -Scope AllUsers
Also this guide helped:
https://www.cloudsma.com/2018/03/installing-powershell-modules-on/
My server didn't have access so I manually copied file from:
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules to the server's:
Server:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

Get DISPLAY environment variable from a local terminal to the Visual Studio Code terminal through SSH

I'm using VScode with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and working through an SSH connection.
Unfortunately, the Remote - SSH extension by Microsoft doesn't enable X11 forwarding (#267), and thus an extension such as Remote X11 has been created.
Sadly, this extension doesn't work for me as I'm working through a jump host/gateway, and therefore have to manually change the DISPLAY variable in the VScode terminal to the DISPLAY variable found in another terminal that is used for displaying stuff.
I guess it is possible to get the DISPLAY variable by running tr '\0' '\n' < /proc/<pid>/environ | grep DISPLAY(Environment variables of a running process on Unix?), with the <pid> being run from the local terminal, and now it's just a problem of automating the search for this process.
So i guess the stuff I'm asking for, is a way to:
Get the pid from a process on a local terminal
Get the DISPLAY variable from this process
Set the DISPLAY variable in every newly opened terminal in VScode (perhaps running step 2 in the workspace-settings.json)
PS. I'm using the VcXsrv X Server

How to enable X11 forwarding in PyCharm SSH session?

The Question
I'm trying to enable X11 forwarding through the PyCharm SSH Terminal which can be executed via
"Tools -> Start SSH session..."
Unfortunately, It seems there is no way of specifying the flags like I would do in my shell for enabling the X11 Forwarding:
ssh -X user#remotehost
Do you know some clever way of achieving this?
Current dirty solution
The only dirty hack I found is to open an external ssh connection with X11 forwarding and than manually update the environment variable DISPLAY.
For example I can run on my external ssh session:
vincenzo#remotehost:$ echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0
And than set on my PyCharm terminal:
export DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
or update the DISPLAY variable in the Run/Debug Configuration, if I want to run the program from the GUI.
However, I really don't like this solution of using an external ssh terminal and manually update the DISPLAY variable and I'm sure there's a better way of achieving this!
Any help would be much appreciated.
P.s. Making an alias like:
alias ssh='ssh -X'
in my .bashrc doesn't force PyCharm to enable X11 forwarding.
So I was able to patch up jsch and test this out and it worked great.
Using X11 forwarding
You will need to do the following to use X11 forwarding in PyCharm:
- Install an X Server if you don't already have one. On Windows this might be the VcXsrv project, on Mac OS X the XQuartz project.
- Download or compile the jsch package. See instructions for compilation below.
- Backup jsch-0.1.54.jar in your pycharm's lib folder and replace it with the patched version. Start Pycharm with a remote environment and make sure to remove any instances of the DISPLAY environment variable you might have set in the run/debug configuration.
Compilation
Here is what you need to do on a Mac OS or Linux system with Maven installed.
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsch/files/jsch/0.1.54/jsch-0.1.54.zip/download
unzip download
cd jsch-0.1.54
sed -e 's|x11_forwarding=false|x11_forwarding=true|g' -e 's|xforwading=false|xforwading=true|g' -i src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/*.java
sed -e 's|<version>0.1.53</version>|<version>0.1.54</version>|g' -i pom.xml
mvn clean package
This will create jsch-0.1.54.jar in target folder.
Update 2020:
I found a very easy solution. It may be due to the updated PyCharm version (2020.1).
Ensure that X11Forwarding is enabled on server: In /etc/ssh/sshd_config set
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost no
On client (MacOS for me): In ~/.ssh/config set
ForwardX11 yes
In PyCharm deselect Include system environment variables. This resolves the issue that the DISPLAY variable gets set to the system variable.
EDIT: As seen in the below image it works. For example I used the PyTorch implementation of DeepLab and visualize sample images from PASCAL VOC:
X11 forwarding was implemented in 2021.1 for all IntelliJ-based IDEs. If it still doesn't work, please consider creating a new issue at youtrack.jetbrains.com.
By the way, the piece of advice about patching jsch won't work for any IDE newer than 2019.1.
In parallel, open MobaXTerm and connect while X11 forwarding checkbox is enabled. Now PyCharm will forward the display through MobaXTerm X11 server.
This until PyCharm add this 'simple' feature.
Also, set DISPLAY environment variable in PyCharm run configuration like this:
DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
(the right hand side should be obtained with the command echo $DISPLAY in the server side)
Update 2022: for PyCharm newer than 2022.1: Plotting in SciView works by only setting ForwardX11 yes in .ssh/config (my laptop OS is ubuntu 22.04). I did not set any other parameters either on the server or local side.

Vagrant stuck in "Waiting for VM to Boot"

I want to preface this question by mentioning that I have indeed looked over most if not all vagrant "Waiting for VM to Boot" troubleshooting threads:
Things I've tried include:
vagrant failed to connect VM
https://superuser.com/questions/342473/vagrant-ssh-fails-with-virtualbox
https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/410
http://vagrant.wikia.com/wiki/Usage
http://scotch.io/tutorials/get-vagrant-up-and-running-in-no-time
And more.
Here's how I setup my Vagrant:
Note: We are using Vagrant 1.2.2 since we do not at the moment have time to change configs to newer versions. I am also using VirtualBox 4.2.26.
My office has an /official/ folder which includes things such as Vagrantfile inside. Inside my Vagrantfile are these custom settings:
config.vm.box = "my_box"
config.ssh.private_key_path = "~/.ssh/github_rsa"
config.ssh.forward_agent = true
config.ssh.forward_x11 = true
config.ssh.max_tries = 300
config.vm.provision :shell, :inline => "/etc/init.d/networking restart"
I installed our custom box (called package.box) via vagrant box add my_box absolute_path/package.box which went without a hitch.
Running vagrant up, I would look at the "preview" of the VirtualBox, and it would simply be stuck at the login page. My Terminal would also only say: Waiting for VM to boot. This can take a few minutes. As far as I know, this is an SSH issue. Or my private key issues, though in my Vagrantfile I explicitly pointed to my private key location.
Interesting Notes:
Running dhclient within the VirtualBox GUI, it says command no found. Running sudo dhclient eth0 was one of the suggested fixes.
This fix: https://superuser.com/a/343775/298915 of "modify the /etc/rc.local file to include the line sh /etc/init.d/networking restart just before exit 0." did nothing to fix the issue.
Conclusion:
Having tried to re-install everything thinking I messed up a file, it did not seem to ameliorate the issue. I am unable to work with this issue. Could someone give me some insight?
So after around twelve hours of dejected troubleshooting, I was able to (finally) get the VM to boot.
Setup your private/public keys using the link provided. My box is a Debian Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64, so instead of /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, you have to use /home/vagrant/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (and the respective id_rsa path for the private key).
Note: make sure your files have the right permissions. Check using ls -l path, and change using chmod. Your machine may not have /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys, so generate that file with touch /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys.
Boot your VM using the VirtualBox GUI using (through either Vagrantfile boot-GUI command, or starting your VM using VirtualBox). Login using vagrant and vagrant when prompted.
Within the GUI, manually start dhclient using sudo dhclient eth0 -v. Why is it off by default? I have no idea. I found out that it was off when I tried to wget the private/public keys in the tutorial above, but was unable to.
Go to your local machine's command line and reload vagrant using vagrant reload. It should boot, and no longer hang at "Waiting for VM to Boot."
This worked for me. Though it may be different for other machines, for whatever reason Vagrant likes to break.
Suggestion: can this be saved as a script so we don't need to manually do this everytime?
EDIT: Update to the latest version of Vagrant, and you will never see this issue again. About time, huh?