Example of appliance import with name changed. about virtualbox-python

[mjdorma]

Does this do the job you're after?

https://gist.github.com/mjdorma/d4a2b126be02c9763d8c

You may also be interested in my other gist examples which are prefixed with pyvbox: https://gist.github.com/mjdorma

As a future reference, it is important to understand IVirtualBox and ISession:

• http://pythonhosted.org//pyvbox/virtualbox/library.html#virtualbox.library.IVirtualBox
• http://pythonhosted.org//pyvbox/virtualbox/library.html#virtualbox.library.ISession

The overview given by http://pythonhosted.org//pyvbox/virtualbox/library.html#module-virtualbox.library is also very useful.

Cheers

[nilp0inter]

It's not exactly what I was intended to do; but it's working well.

For the record, I was trying to do the same thing that the GUI does in the "Import Appliance" wizard when it let you change the values of the machine being imported before the importation.

Anyhow, I'm happy with your solution.
Much appreciated! Thanks a lot.

[mjdorma]

Thanks for the coding challenge 👍 it gave me some light entertainment for the morning. When I get around to it I'll role this into library_ext for the appliance class.

The interface was a little clunky to use, but I'm guessing it needs to be this way to take into account all of the complexities of bundling loose metadata with N many components and machines.

from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import virtualbox
from virtualbox.library import VirtualSystemDescriptionType as DescType
from virtualbox.library import VirtualSystemDescriptionValueType as DescValueType

class MyAppliance(virtualbox.library.IAppliance):
    def __init__(self, appliance):
        super(MyAppliance, self).__init__(appliance._i)

    def read(self, ova_path):
        "Read and interpret ova file into this Appliance object."
        p = super(MyAppliance, self).read(ova_path)
        p.wait_for_completion()
        self.interpret()
        for warning in self.get_warnings():
            print("WARNING: %s" % warning, file=sys.stderr)

    def find_desc(self, name):
        "Find a description for the given appliance name."
        for desc in self.virtual_system_descriptions:
            values = desc.get_values_by_type(DescType.name,
                                             DescValueType.original)
            if name in values:
                break
        else:
            raise Exception("Failed to find description for %s" % name)
        return desc

    def change_name(self, original_name, new_name):
        "Change the name of the appliance."
        desc = self.find_desc(original_name)

        types, _, _, vbox_values, extra_config = desc.get_description()

        # find offset to Name
        nameoffset = 0
        for nameoffset, t in enumerate(types):
            if t == DescType.name:
                break
        else:
            raise Exception("Failed to find name type")

        enabled = [True] * len(types)
        vbox_values = list(vbox_values)
        extra_config = list(extra_config)
        vbox_values[nameoffset] = new_name
        desc.set_final_values(enabled, vbox_values, extra_config)

Example usage:

##  Using MyAppliance
vbox = virtualbox.VirtualBox()
appliance = MyAppliance(vbox.create_appliance())
appliance.read("~/Documents/ubuntu.ova")
appliance.change_name('ubuntu', 'foobarmoo')
p = appliance.import_machines([])
p.wait_for_completion()

[mjdorma]

With commit 3c41f92 you can now use the following gist:

https://gist.github.com/mjdorma/d134f437c16df1871fcd

This will be available in version 0.1.5+.

[nilp0inter]

Wow, definitely the data given by get_description and co. needs a high level API :)

This is overwhelming:

        enabled = [True] * len(types)
        vbox_values = list(vbox_values)
        extra_config = list(extra_config)
        vbox_values[nameoffset] = new_name
        desc.set_final_values(enabled, vbox_values, extra_config)

I don't know all the scenarios and corner cases. But I'd like to give you feedback from my user point of view.

I feel that one interface like the used in the settings of the vm network adapters would fit well here.

I'm doing something like this with my VM NIC:

session = virtualbox.Session()

... locking the machine ...                                                                                

iface = session.machine.get_network_adapter(0)
iface.enabled = True
iface.host_only_interface='vboxnet0'
iface.attachment_type = virtualbox.library.NetworkAttachmentType(4)  # Hostonly

... save config & release session ...

So, what about something like this?:

appliance = MyAppliance(vbox.create_appliance())
appliance.read("~/Documents/ubuntu.ova")

mynewbox = appliance.find_machine('ubuntu')  # If the appliance can contain N machines you have to find the one you want.
mynewbox.config.name = 'foobarmoo'
mynewbox.config.cpu = 4

appliance.import_machines([mynewbox]).wait_for_completion()  # Or empty list for ALL (the default behavior).

One more thing. The first time I used the IAppliance object took me a lot to figure out that the machines attribute is not the machines contained in the appliance, but the machines imported after the import_machines is called. Why not rename it to imported_machines or something?

+1 for the call to interpret() in the read() method.

Thank you!

[mjdorma]

There is quite a lot of oach in IAppliance and its aggregate objects.

If you have more requirements to add "easier" setters into IVirtualSystemDescription feel free to crack opened another issue and I'll give it a go.

If you have already solved the various "setter" functions for the IVirtualSystemDescription object, feel free to post the code or submit a patch.

https://github.com/mjdorma/pyvbox/blob/master/virtualbox/library_ext/virtual_system_description.py

I'll hold off pushing a new release for a few days until this interface has settled.

Cheers

[nilp0inter]

I haven't any code yet, but definitely I'll have a look at this.

I really like to contribute in this but I don't understand the vbox_values and extra_config data. Is there any documentation about?

[mjdorma]

Yeah I have no idea about vbox_values and extra_config. I also don't understand how one would add extra values (or if that's even possible).

6431b60 > generalises the function (but I've only tested it on name.).

https://github.com/mjdorma/pyvbox/blob/master/virtualbox/library_ext/virtual_system_description.py

[nilp0inter]

Wow, 6431b60 looks great!
I'll test it as soon as possible.

[mjdorma]

Hmm.. yeah, just realised it probably won't work as we'd expect because we'll be blatting the "final" values with each additional value we're setting (this is an assumption, not tested.

I think the Python IVirtualSystemDescription will need to build up a list of things "set" and the Python IAppliance will have to interrogate it before doing the import_machines operation through the real IAppliance interface.

I won't do this today, but I'll need to do it before I release 0.1.5.

[mjdorma]

Scrap that previous comment... VirtualBox keeps the state of the updates are passed through.

Let me know how your testing goes.

Thanks for your help!

[mjdorma]

Thanks for your contribution and the neat code you put into test_appliance.py.

Cheers

[nilp0inter]

Thanks to you for your excellent support!