[pve-devel] [PATCH esxi-import-tools] listvms: exclude VMs without datastore_name from manifest.json.

[Wolfgang Bumiller]

On Mon, Apr 07, 2025 at 05:04:22PM +0200, Daniel Herzig wrote:
> On newer ESXI-8.x.y versions, the diskless vCLS machines in an
> ESXI-cluster are not stored on a datastore anymore.
> 
> Instead, they are placed under `/var/run/crx` on the ESXI-hosts'
> filesystem. This can lead to issues with the ESXI-storage not being
> activated on the PVE-side [0].
> 
> This commit changes the default behaviour of `manifest.json` creation by
> excluding any machine that has an empty datastore-string in its config
> and by that prevents querying a file that we cannot reach anyway.
> 
> [0] https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/new-import-wizard-available-for-migrating-vmware-esxi-based-virtual-machines.144023/post-759288
> 
> Signed-off-by: Daniel Herzig <d.herzig at proxmox.com>
> ---
> This acts silently for now, if we'd prefer logging exclusion
> of these VMs, please drop an idea!
> 
>  listvms.py | 6 ++++++
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/listvms.py b/listvms.py
> index a2fb2a5..7a4aa06 100755
> --- a/listvms.py
> +++ b/listvms.py
> @@ -265,6 +265,12 @@ def main():
>      with connect_to_esxi_host(connection_args) as connection:
>          data = {}
>          for vm in list_vms(connection):
> +            # skip vms with empty datastore_name
> +            datastore_name, relative_vmx_path = parse_file_path(
> +                vm.config.files.vmPathName
> +            )
> +            if not datastore_name:

While this works as a stop-gap, I think we should use the example code
here[1] to test if this is such an embedded(?) vCLS VM, and if it is
*not* such a VM, print a warning to stderr that we're skipping this VM,
so that in the future, if VMs magically disappear, we should see log
messages about this.

[1] https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/370219/script-identification-for-embedded-vcls.html

> +                continue
>              try:
>                  fetch_and_update_vm_data(vm, data)
>              except Exception as err:
> -- 
> 2.39.5