How to allocate/unallocate an IP address in a network profile IP addresses range by vRO ?

[jacquesperrin]

I have the following problem :

Some of my colleagues have deploy some VMs by vRA and change the IP address in the Guest OS after the deployment.

So the IP address displayed on the VM properties is not correct, and it's the same for the IP address reserved in the network profile range.

I know how to update the IP address displayed in the properties, it's quite simple, I have build a workflow to update the custom property "VirtualMachine.Network0.Address".

But this action doesn't update the IP address in the network profile ip addresses range, so I have to do it.

I tried to do this by REST API like this:

1) First, I get the network profile properties in an XML object :

GET /iaas-proxy-provider/api/network/profiles/"networkprofileID"

{
  "@type": "ExternalNetworkProfile",
  "id": "4860fc89-1518-4a0e-8047-7162a1bc61c8",
  "name": "TEST-NET1",
  "description": "Configured by vRO",
  "createdDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z",
  "lastModifiedDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z",
  "isHidden": false,
  "definedRanges": [
    {
      "id": "d5e88c81-3195-4afb-83db-6ad0cca88ac3",
      "name": "range",
      "description": "Configured by vRO",
      "beginIPv4Address": "1.252.128.34",
      "endIPv4Address": "1.252.128.62",
      "state": "UNALLOCATED",
      "createdDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z",
      "lastModifiedDate": "2019-05-16T15:27:45.000Z",
      "definedAddresses": [

      {

          "id": "675e6ec3-a498-44da-a16f-52d92fb150f0",

          "staticIPv4RangeId": "d5e88c81-3195-4afb-83db-6ad0cca88ac3",

          "IPv4Address": "1.252.128.38",

          "IPSortValue": 33325094,

          "state": "UNALLOCATED",

          "stateValue": 1,

          "createdDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z",

          "lastModifiedDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z"

        },
        {
          "id": "f80cc5ed-6be6-4845-b1cb-3ea8b3036a0e",
          "staticIPv4RangeId": "d5e88c81-3195-4afb-83db-6ad0cca88ac3",
          "virtualMachineId": "6526b667-fcf9-4be9-aa47-98c0dc95a79a",
          "virtualMachineName": "test-000094",
          "IPv4Address": "1.252.128.45",
          "IPSortValue": 33325101,
          "state": "ALLOCATED",
          "stateValue": 0,
          "createdDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z",
          "lastModifiedDate": "2018-01-17T14:37:03.000Z"
        },


2) Then I parse the "defineAddresses" section and  update the XML subnode object to free an IP address like :

defineAddress.state              = "UNALLOCATED"

defineAddress.stateValue         = 1

delete defineAddress.virtualMachineId

delete defineAddress.virtualMachineName

3) And a run a PUT REST API request to update the network profile, the return code is 204 meaning than the update is succeed,  BUT if I perform a new GET or check in the vRA web  console, the update was not performed.

Any idea on this behavior ?

is it possible to perform an ip address allocation or unallocation by another way or trick ?  (excepted by a SQL query in the database of course, because I find this method ugly and unsupported)

Thanks for your help

Regards

[daphnissov]

There's not a supported way to do this. That's one reason network profiles are too basic to be used in production. Your real problem is of course this:

Some of my colleagues have deploy some VMs by vRA and change the IP address in the Guest OS after the deployment.

They shouldn't be doing that, so tell them to stop :smileyhappy: Seriously though, that's not what a cloud management platform was built to allow (people going behind the scenes making custom changes).

[jacquesperrin]

Hi daphnissov

I'm totally agree with you, my colleagues shouldn't change the IP address in the Guest OS,

but ... they did,  and now i have to fix their foolishness.

Maybe moving from internal IPAM to an external could be be the best solution, but currently it seems to me to complex to migrate 3000 Vms  (only 200 vms are concerned)

So, any other proposition ?

Thanks

[daphnissov]

Sorry, I don't have any good ideas. Network profiles are just so basic that there's not a whole lot you can do with them and very little flexibility. Your best option may be to remove from vRA management those VMs your colleagues re-IPd and import them back in as something else.

[qc4vmware]

Yes, the network profiles are horrid.  Stay away from them in almost all cases.  We maneuvered around them long ago... I always fear something is going to come back to bite us but so far it hasn't.  Hopefully in the next version they will make some changes to make them more useful and/or dynamic.

Paul

[xian]

How do you allocate IP addresses then?

[daphnissov]

External IPAM.

[qc4vmware]

We also do it all with our external ipam.  We use event subscriptions to update the ipam appropriately during deploy and destroy operations and update the properties of the vm as well.

[xian]

I just integrated external IPAM as a provider (using the SDK), so far it worked.

 

That is why I'm asking what issues I can expect.

[daphnissov]

Hopefully in the next version they will make some changes to make them more useful and/or dynamic.

Having worked with the vRA.NEXT release, all I will say is this:  Don't get your hopes up :smileyhappy:

[qc4vmware]

Good to know... hopefully everything we have in place now will play nicely with the new releases!

[xian]

Is this vRA internal IPAM? This should be possible with an external one.

[GeiAll]

Hi jacquesperrin.

I do have the same problem, people changing IP of a deployed VM. I do not have a solution for allocating an IP (my users uses IP's outside the vRA Networkprofiles with they set a new IP. But the old IP's are still stuck.  Anyway, this is the action I use to clean up the IP (used in vRA 7.3)

 

function FindAndDestroyIP(IP){ var entitySetName = "StaticIPv4Addresses"; var host = Server.findAllForType("vCAC:vCACHost")[0]; var model = "ManagementModelEntities.svc";    var property = new Properties();    property.put("IPv4Address",IP); var computeResources = vCACEntityManager.readModelEntitiesByCustomFilter(host.id, model, entitySetName, property, null);      var entityKeyId = ""; if ( computeResources.length == 0) {    ErrTextStep1 = "No machine found with IP: "+IP+" in vRA";  return false; } else if ( computeResources.length != 1) {    ErrTextStep1 = "OUCH, Multiple machines found with IP: "+IP+" in vRA";  return false; }     System.log("HostID "+computeResources[0].hostId); System.log("modelName = "+computeResources[0].modelName); System.log("entitySetName = "+computeResources[0].entitySetName); System.log("entityIdString = "+computeResources[0].keyString);   // entity key is needed for the delete action entityKeyId = computeResources[0].keyString; var Props = computeResources[0].getProperties(); var Links = computeResources[0].getLinks(host);  // Links = Array of Properties   System.log("Removing: "+entityKeyId);            try          {       vCACEntityManager.deleteModelEntityBySerializedKey(host.id , model , entitySetName , entityKeyId, null);        }          catch(e)          {       System.warn(e);              return false;        }          return true;}

 

This will release the IP from the internal IPAM database. You would also need to update the Custom Properties of the VM to reflect the new IP.

[Hazenet]

Just for readability here is the same function (i think), in a slightly more readable format:

function FindAndDestroyIP(IP) {
    var entitySetName = "StaticIPv4Addresses";
    var host = Server.findAllForType("vCAC:vCACHost")[0];
    var model = "ManagementModelEntities.svc";
    var property = new Properties();
    property.put("IPv4Address", IP);
    var computeResources = vCACEntityManager.readModelEntitiesByCustomFilter(host.id, model, entitySetName, property, null);
    var entityKeyId = "";
    if (computeResources.length == 0) {
        ErrTextStep1 = "No machine found with IP: " + IP + " in vRA";
        return false;
    } else if (computeResources.length != 1) {
        ErrTextStep1 = "OUCH, Multiple machines found with IP: " + IP + " in vRA";
        return false;
    }
    System.log("HostID " + computeResources[0].hostId);
    System.log("modelName = " + computeResources[0].modelName);
    System.log("entitySetName = " + computeResources[0].entitySetName);
    System.log("entityIdString = " + computeResources[0].keyString); // entity key is needed for the delete action
    entityKeyId = computeResources[0].keyString;
    var Props = computeResources[0].getProperties();
    var Links = computeResources[0].getLinks(host); // Links = Array of Properties
    System.log("Removing: " + entityKeyId);
    try {
        vCACEntityManager.deleteModelEntityBySerializedKey(host.id, model, entitySetName, entityKeyId, null);
    } catch (e) {
        System.warn(e);
        return false;
    }
    return true;
}

[jacquesperrin]

Hi GeiAll  and Mads Fog Albrechtslund

Thanks for your answer, even if the deletion of the IP address in the network profile was not exactly what I wanted, you gave me the way to find the solution.

The workflow below, unallocates an IP address in an IP range of a network profile, now I have to work on another one to reallocate the IP address to a VM ...

Thanks again my friends ...

System.log("Unallocate IP address")
System.log("+-- IP address : [" + ipAddress + "]")

// Check inputs
if (!ipAddress)
{
  throw "IP address is invalid"
}

var vraHost       = Server.findAllForType("vCAC:vCACHost")[0] 
var entitySetName = "StaticIPv4Addresses"
var model         = "ManagementModelEntities.svc" 

var filter        = new Properties() 
filter.put("IPv4Address", ipAddress) 
var vmEntities = vCACEntityManager.readModelEntitiesByCustomFilter(vraHost.id, model, entitySetName, filter, null) 
if (vmEntities.length > 1)
{
  throw "Multiple machines found with this IP"
}

if (vmEntities.length == 0)
{ 
  System.warn("No machine found") 
}
else
{ 
  var vmEntity = vmEntities[0]
  System.log("+-- HostID : [" + vmEntity.hostId + "]") 
  System.log("+-- Model name : [" + vmEntity.modelName + "]") 
  System.log("+-- Entity set name : [" + vmEntity.entitySetName + "]")
  System.log("+-- Entity key : [" + vmEntity.keyString + "]")

  var vmEntityProperties = vmEntity.getProperties()
  var vmEntityLinks      = vmEntity.getLinks(vraHost)

  System.log("+-- Current properties :")
  System.log(JSON.stringify(vmEntityProperties, null, 2))
  System.log(JSON.stringify(vmEntityLinks, null, 2))

  try
  { 
    // Update properties
    vmEntityProperties.StaticIPv4AddressState = 1
    vmEntityLinks.VirtualMachine = []
   
    // Show properties updated
    vCACEntityManager.updateModelEntityBySerializedKey(vraHost.id, vmEntity.modelName, vmEntity.entitySetName, vmEntity.keyString, vmEntityProperties, vmEntityLinks , null)
  }
  catch (err)
  { 
    System.error("An error occurded when trying to unallocate IP addrees, reason : " + err)
  } 
}

[jimmyvandermast]

  did you find a way to ALLOCATE?

I am searching for that because we need to bulk-import machines that have an IP address inside the Network Profile's internal ipam range.

It kinda works when I set vmEntityProperties.StaticIPv4AddressState = 0 (defines ALLOCATED), but how do I set the vmEntityLinks.VirtualMachine to the correct VM?

[Swap]

vRA8.9 : Do we have anyway to allocate / release an IP address from Network Profiles (Internal PAM) in vRA 8 .

Using VRO workflow or VRA REST API .

 

[Swap]

Hi ,

vRA8.9 : Do we have anyway to allocate / release an IP address from Network Profiles (Internal PAM) in vRA 8 .

Using VRO workflow or VRA REST API .