Introduction to Java SWT REST client application Vadeployer

Overview

The application developed in this article, called Vadeployer, implements hypertext Secure Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) requests for the IBM Systems Director Vmcontrol REST API to mimic virtual devices via IBM Systems Directo R Web Interface deployment process. Vadeployer can also be used to modify other settings, such as memory and processor allocations before deployment.

Vadeployer is built on Java 1.6, the graphical user interface (GUI) is developed using Eclipse Juno and Windowbuilder Pro SWT, followed by the Eclipse Public License v 1.0 license. The REST API versions of IBM Systems Director and Vmcontrol used by Vadeployer are 6.3.0 and 2.4.0, respectively.

In the following sections, we'll look at the relationship between Vmcontrol and the virtual device model, giving you an idea of how vadeployer interacts with Vmcontrol to configure and deploy a virtual device.

Virtual devices (appliances) and Vmcontrol

IBM and other vendors in the virtualization Marketplace have adopted the Distributed Management Task Force (Distributed Management Task Force, DMTF) OVF specification as the standard way to build and deploy software virtual devices, simplifying The process of integrating complex software solutions into a self-contained binary open virtualization device (OVA) package. Vmcontrol enables you to import a virtual device (a OVA package or OVF file as input) and store it in the image repository. You can also capture a virtual server in which you configure and run your software solution to create a new virtual device in the image repository.

In an image repository (possibly based on network setup management (network installation Management, NIM) or the Storage Replication Service (Storage Copy Services, SCS), you may have a different software solution Multiple virtual devices for a scenario. Depending on your business needs, you can select a virtual device from the directory and deploy it quickly so that it knows its deployment context. Vmcontrol enables you to specify configuration values for each product section defined in the virtual device OVF file. A product segment may refer to networking, operating system tuning, operating system security, or any software product configuration that should be completed at deployment time. Virtual device creation is another topic that will not be covered in this article, which is done by the virtual Solution Activation engine (VM Solutions activation Engine, vsae) solution, a solution that is in activating the application A script engine that starts when the first boot is initiated before the service is ordered. Vsae primarily resolves OVF envelope files (the default name is Ovf-env.xml) and is based on well-defined activation logic, and then the activation engine passes all configuration parameters to the appropriate activation script to perform the required configuration.

Custom properties

Each configurable property in a product section of the OVF file is converted to a custom attribute in Vmcontrol. You can use the Vmcontrol REST API at deployment time to retrieve all of the custom properties that can be used to configure a virtual device. For example, you can submit a get operation to the REST API shown in Listing 1, to retrieve custom attributes that can be used at run time for a virtual device that will be deployed on a specific target host, which means that you can find the available properties based on the host resource and the OVF file that describes the virtual device.

Listing 1. Retrieving the REST API for custom properties at deployment time

/vmcontrol/virtualappliances/{virtualapplianceoid}/targets/{targetoid}/customization

IBM Systems Director supports different virtualized environments, including VMWare Esx/esxi, IBM PowerVM, kernel based virtual machines (KVM), and IBM Z/VM. However, Vadeployer was only tested on PowerVM. Within the OVF file, the Virtual hardware section describes virtualized or logical hardware required by a virtual device, such as disk, network adapter, memory, and processor allocations. This section also contains the virtual system type (a direct child element of system) that specifies the virtualized environment in which the virtual device can be deployed. For example, for VMware fourth generation virtual hardware, the virtual system type identifier can be set to vmx-4, and for IBM power processor-based hardware, it can be set to Ibm:power:[os], where [OS] can be AIX, Linux, or IBM i[x] (X is IBM I version number). According to the description in the Virtual Hardware section, Vmcontrol allows you to select the correct target host for the deployment of the virtual device.

You can retrieve all valid target hosts for deploying virtual devices by sending a get operation to the REST API, as shown in Listing 2.

Listing 2. Vmcontrol REST API with target host filters

/vmcontrol/virtualappliances/{virtualapplianceoid}/targets?type=host