Scheduling Virtual Machine Changes

Scheduling changes provides flexibility to execute API actions at any given time. For instance, scheduling to automatically upgrade VMware Tools, or to Shutdown VM and then increase memory or CPU can be accomplished by just adding the schedule attribute to any vss-cli compute set <moref> <attribute> as described below:

vss-cli compute vm set --help

  Manage virtual machine attributes such as cpu, memory, disk, network
  backing, cd, etc..

Options:
  -s, --schedule [%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S|%Y-%m-%d %H:%M]
                                  Schedule change in a given point in time
                                  based on format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
  -u, --user-meta TEXT            User metadata in key=value format. These
                                  tags are stored in the request.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

This guide exemplifies the scheduling process for the following actions:

Shutdown/Power Off VM to run at 2019-04-06 00:08: state
Add CPU to run at 2019-04-06 00:10: cpu count
Update boot delay at 2019-04-06 00:11: boot-delay
Add Memory to run at 2019-04-06 00:12: memory size
Power On VM to run at 2019-04-06 00:15: state
Reschedule the memory size change.
Cancel boot-delay change.

Virtual Machine ID

Optional. Get virtual machine MOREF or UUID with vss-cli compute vm ls and apply any filtering if required:

Note

This version of the VSS CLI supports managing virtual machines not only using the MOREF, but using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.

vss-cli compute vm ls -f name=Front

moref    name             folder.path                  cpu_count    memory_gb  power_state    ip_address
-------  ---------------  -------------------------  -----------  -----------  -------------  ------------
vm-2183  2004T-Frontend2  VSS > Development > Dev02            2            2  poweredOff

Once you got the target virtual machine MOREF proceed to scheduling the changes.

Power Off

Schedule the power off task by adding the --schedule option with the desired value to the state off command as follows:

vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:08" cranky_sinoussi state off
# or
vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:08" vm-2183 state off

Add CPU

Schedule the task to add cpu with the --schedule option with the desired value to the cpu count <numCpu> command as follows:

vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:10" Frontend2 cpu count 2
# or
vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:10" vm-2183 cpu count 2

Update boot delay

Schedule the task to update boot-delay with the --schedule option and the desired value to the boot-delay <milliseconds> command as follows:

vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:11" cranky_sinoussi boot-delay 10000
# or
vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:11" vm-2183 boot-delay 10000

Add Memory

Schedule the task to add memory with the --schedule option with the desired value to the memory size <numCpu> command as follows:

vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:12" cranky_sinoussi memory size 2
# or
vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:12" vm-2183 memory size 2

Power ON

Schedule the power on task by adding the --schedule option with the desired value to the state on command as follows:

vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:15" cranky_sinoussi state on
# or
vss-cli compute vm set --schedule "2019-04-06 00:15" vm-2183 state on

Reschedule Memory Change

To reschedule a scheduled update, use the command vss-cli request change set {request_id} schedule with the option -d/--date-time:

Usage: vss-cli request change set schedule [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -c, --cancel                    Cancel scheduling
  -d, --date-time [%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S|%Y-%m-%d %H:%M]
                                  Update datetime YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Assuming you got change request 24542 as a result of submitting the memory change, the command to update the scheduled datetime should be something like:

vss-cli request change set 24542 schedule --date-time "2019-04-06T00:13:00"

Cancel Boot Delay Change

To cancel a scheduled update, use the command vss-cli request change set {request_id} schedule with the option -c/--cancel:

Usage: vss-cli request change set schedule [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -c, --cancel                    Cancel scheduling
  -d, --date-time [%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S|%Y-%m-%d %H:%M]
                                  Update datetime YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

Assuming you got change request 24545 as a result of submitting the memory change, the command to update the scheduled datetime should be something like:

vss-cli request change set 24545 schedule --cancel

For now, you just wait for the tasks to be executed in the requested date and time.