com.vmware.vim25.InvalidArgument while cloning a template

[Jeff Keegan]

Hi,

I've searched everywhere for an answer to this before posting here. I found at least one similar post but it had no answer.

I can successfully clone a VirtualMachine to another VirtualMachine with my code, but if I attempt to clone a template to a VirtualMachine, I get a com.vmware.vim25.InvalidArgument exception, with this stacktrace:

com.vmware.vim25.InvalidArgument
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:408)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:433)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:205)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:333)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXML(XmlGenDom.java:190)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXML(XmlGenDom.java:104)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.WSClient.invoke(WSClient.java:118)
    at com.vmware.vim25.ws.VimStub.retrieveProperties(VimStub.java:72)
    at com.vmware.vim25.mo.PropertyCollector.retrieveProperties(PropertyCollector.java:107)
    at com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedObject.retrieveObjectProperties(ManagedObject.java:155)
    at com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedObject.getCurrentProperty(ManagedObject.java:179)
    at com.vmware.vim25.mo.Task.waitForMe(Task.java:121)
    (...and then my stuff that called waitForMe)

The account I'm performing this from has full administrator rights, so I should have all permissions (I'm aware of the different permissions required for cloning from (template|VM) to (template|VM)).

The code I'm running that does the clone is essentially:

void clone(ServiceInstance serviceInstance, String origVMName, String destVMName)
           throws Exception {
  Folder rootFolder = serviceInstance.getRootFolder();

  VirtualMachine vm = (VirtualMachine) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("VirtualMachine", origVMName);
  if (vm==null) {
    // Fail
    return;
  }

  if (vm.getSummary().getConfig().template) {
    System.out.println("Warning - original VM is a template - this will fail"); 
  }

  VirtualMachineCloneSpec vmCloneSpec = new VirtualMachineCloneSpec();
  vmCloneSpec.setLocation(new VirtualMachineRelocateSpec());
  vmCloneSpec.setPowerOn(true);
  vmCloneSpec.setTemplate(false);

  Folder parentFolder = (Folder) vm.getParent();

  Task cloneTask = vm.cloneVM_Task(parentFolder, destVMName, vmCloneSpec);          
  if (cloneTask.waitForMe() == Task.SUCCESS) {   // <-- This throws exception if Template
     // ...
  }
}

Ideally I'd like to be able to support cloning either a template or a VM into a VM, so I'd really like to nail this down.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your time,
..Jeff Keegan
jkeegan@keegan.org

[Jeff Keegan]

I'm thinking maybe I have an idea about my own problem, but I'm not sure.

First, I looked through the vijava source code to see where the exception was happening. It was right before grabbing the Info property on the Task object.

So then I used this trick I'd learned about when reading the threads:
https://x.x.x.x/mob/?moid=task-698

That brought up a browsable web page showing me the Task managed object in question.

The "description" field looked suspicious - it's key was com.vmware.vim.vpxd.vpx.vmprov.SelectDestination.. Maybe I need to specify which Host a clone should go on when it's from a template?

[Jeff Keegan]

Nope. I tried changing the code to this:

void clone(ServiceInstance serviceInstance, String origVMName, String destVMName, String destHost)
           throws Exception {
  Folder rootFolder = serviceInstance.getRootFolder();

  VirtualMachine vm = (VirtualMachine) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("VirtualMachine", origVMName);
  if (vm==null) {
    // Fail
    return;
  }

  HostSystem host = null;
  if ((destHost != null) && (!(destHost.equals("")))) {
    host = (HostSystem) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("HostSystem", destHost);
    if (host == null) {
      System.out.println("host \"" + destHost + "\" was specified but could not be found. Aborting.");
      return;
    }
  }

  if (vm.getSummary().getConfig().template) {
    System.out.println("Warning - original VM is a template - this will fail"); 
  }

  VirtualMachineCloneSpec vmCloneSpec = new VirtualMachineCloneSpec();
  VirtualMachineRelocateSpec vmrs = new VirtualMachineRelocateSpec();
  if (host != null) {
    vmrs.setHost(host.getMOR());
  }
  vmCloneSpec.setLocation(vmrs);
  vmCloneSpec.setPowerOn(true);
  vmCloneSpec.setTemplate(false);

  Folder parentFolder = (Folder) vm.getParent();

  Task cloneTask = vm.cloneVM_Task(parentFolder, destVMName, vmCloneSpec);          
  if (cloneTask.waitForMe() == Task.SUCCESS) {   // <-- This throws exception if Template
     // ...
  }
}

That doesn't work. It generates this:

com.vmware.vim25.InvalidArgument
        at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
        at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
        at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:383)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:205)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:341)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXml(XmlGenDom.java:333)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXML(XmlGenDom.java:190)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.XmlGenDom.fromXML(XmlGenDom.java:104)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.WSClient.invoke(WSClient.java:118)
        at com.vmware.vim25.ws.VimStub.retrieveProperties(VimStub.java:72)
        at com.vmware.vim25.mo.PropertyCollector.retrieveProperties(PropertyCollector.java:107)
        at com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedObject.retrieveObjectProperties(ManagedObject.java:155)
        at com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedObject.getCurrentProperty(ManagedObject.java:179)
        at com.vmware.vim25.mo.Task.waitForMe(Task.java:121)
        (...and then my stuff that called waitForMe)

So I've hit a wall again. I welcome any/all help and or suggestions. Thanks.