Making VCL do something

[Michael Jinks <mj...@uchicago.edu>]

I have the following set up as a VCL pilot project:

VCL itself;

A VMware ESXi server.

The VCL host can ssh to the ESXi server using, e.g.:

 $ sudo ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key root@<my ESXi server>

Now I'm trying to use VCL to do... anything at all, really.  Deploy a
VM, schedule a VM, capture a base VM image... and so far nothing has
worked.

I've followed the how-to docs at:

 https://cwiki.apache.org/VCL/vmware-configuration.html

In the VCL admin UI, under "Virtual Hosts" -> "VM Host Profiles", I
created a new profile with the following:

 Name: TEST vcl0001
 Type: vmware ESXi
 Image: No Image
 Repository Path: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1
 Data Store Path: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1
 VM Path: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1
 Virtual Switch 0: VMnet0
 Virtual Swtich 1: VMnet2
 VM Disk: localdisk
 Generate eth0 MAC: No
 Generate eth1 MAC: No
 Username: root
 (Password and Confirm match successfully)


Next, I followed:

 https://cwiki.apache.org/VCL/vcl-221-further-steps-if-using-vmware.html

That page doesn't always describe what I see in my VCL UI, but I did
manage to get my ESXi server listed.  Parameters currently showing under
"Manage Computers":

 Hostname: vcl0001
 IP Address: 10.50.36.59
 State: available
 Owner: admin@Local
 Schedule: VCL 24x7
 Current Image: No Image
 Next Image: No Image
 VM Host: N/A

Following the directions under "Adding Virtual Machines", first I tried
to match an existing VM on my ESX host, hoping to use it as a template;
when that didn't work I tried creating a list of machines that don't
exist on the hypervisor currently.  So now, under "Manage Computers",
"allComputers", I can get a list of a number of VM's, all with state
"available", owner "admin@Local", platform "i386", schedule "VCL 24x7",
type "lab", and provisioning engine "VMware".

When I try to go on to the final step on that page, "Assign a VM to
a Virtual Host", I can find my ESX host listed under "VM Hosts", "Select
a Virtual Host".  Clicking "Configure Host", I get two blank lists, "VMs
assigned to host" and "Unassigned VMs".  I don't have the option of
adding any of my VMs to the ESX server.

Poking around the docs site, I found:

 https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Capture+A+Base+Image

Thinking this might provide another angle to work from, I tried those
instructions.  But it seems like it expects the "image" to be a running
VM.  From the prompts:

 Enter the hostname or IP address of the computer to be captured: ('c'
 to cancel): 

Since my VMs don't have any networking, I'm stuck here.

Next, I tried poking around at random in the UI.  If I go to "New
Reservation", I get:

 You don't have access to any environments and, therefore, cannot make
 any reservations.

Fair enough.  What's an "environment" in VCL?  None of the docs I've
found have covered how to create an environment, what it is, or how to
give access to it.

What I really want is to follow this simple use case:

 - Define a VM, either a fully-installed VM or a base disk image to
	clone from;
 - Using VCL, schedule the VM to either clone and run, or just start up
	 and shut down.

What should I be reading instead of the procedural docs I've found?

Thanks,
--Michael

-- 
Michael Jinks :: mjinks@uchicago.edu :: 773-469-9688
Technical Lead or something, Academic Technologies
University of Chicago IT Services
Sorry this took so long.