fence_vmware_pyvmomi

fence_vmware_pyvmomi is a STONITH plugin for fencing virtual machines on ESX/ESXi hosts and vCenter Server via pyVmomi (VMware vSphere API Python Bindings).

Why?

Yes, I know - there already some STONITH plugins for VMware - such as external/vmware and external/fence_vmware_soap. While the first one looks pretty outdated to me, the second alternative requires the VMware vSphere Perl SDK. Unfortunately, this SDK is only supported for some selected Linux distributions (such as Enterprise Linux and some Ubuntu versions). On the other hand, the (VMware vSphere API Python Bindings) are easier to handle and work on a broader range of Linux distributions.

Requirements

To use this plugin, you will need:

• pyVmomi Python bindings
  • Version 6.0 or higher! Use PIP if your Linux distribution's package is outdated! (otherwise you will get SSL errors)
• Python modules requests, socket, logging and urlparse
• vCenter access

vCenter permissions

In order to control a particular VM's power state, you will need the following permissions to the corresponding object:

• Virtual machine
  • Interaction
    • Power on
    • Power off

For the datacenter object, you will need read access - otherwise the user won't be able to "find" the VM.

Usage

Manually

The script utilizes shell variables to assign connection details:

Variable	Description
debug	Set to '1' to enable debugging
hostname	vCenter Server / ESXi hostname
port	SSL port
username	Service username
password	Appropriate password
vm_name	VM name

Examples

Retrieve VM power state:

$ hostname="vcenter.localdomain.loc" port="443" username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="giertz" debug=1 ./fence_vmware_pyvmomi.py status
poweredOff

Power-off VM:

$ hostname="vcenter.localdomain.loc" port="443" username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="giertz" debug=1 ./fence_vmware_pyvmomi.py off

Power-on VM:

$ hostname="vcenter.localdomain.loc" port="443" username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="giertz" debug=1 ./fence_vmware_pyvmomi.py on

Via stonith

Move fence_vmware_pyvmomi to /usr/lib/stonith/plugins/external.

Examples

Retrieve VM power state:

# stonith -t external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi hostname=vcenter.localdomain.loc username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="pinkepank" -S
info: external_run_cmd: '/usr/lib/stonith/plugins/external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi status' output: poweredOff

info: external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi device OK.

Power-off VM:

# stonith -t external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi hostname=vcenter.localdomain.loc username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="pinkepank" -T off pinkepank

Power-on VM:

# stonith -t external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi hostname=vcenter.localdomain.loc username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" vm_name="pinkepank" -T on pinkepank

Via pacemaker

The first step is to create primitives for your cluster nodes withing the crm shell:

primitive fence_vcenter_nodeA stonith:external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi \
    op monitor interval=60 timeout=120 \
    params username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" hostname=vcenter.localdomain.loc port=443 vm_name=nodeA
primitive fence_vcenter_nodeB stonith:external/fence_vmware_pyvmomi \
    op monitor interval=60 timeout=120 \
    params username="vsphere.local\giertz" password="chad" hostname=vcenter.localdomain.loc port=443 vm_name=nodeB
...

The next step is to create locations to ensure that cluster nodes are fencing each other:

location loc_stonith-deb9a fence_vcenter_nodeA \
	-inf: nodeA.localdomain.loc
location loc_stonith-deb9b fence_vcenter_nodeB \
   	-inf: nodeB.localdomain.loc

Finally, enable STONITH and - if required - disable the ignore quorum policy:

property cib-bootstrap-options: \
...
stonith-enabled=true \
stonith-action=poweroff \
no-quorum-policy=ignore \
...

Try fencing a particular node:

# crm node fence nodeA.localdomain.loc