Create Clones of the Virtual Machine
Last Updated December 16, 2024

Create two clones of the virtual machine and build a PropertyFilterSpec that uses a ListView managed object to track the Tasks to completion.

For this task you need:

A virtual machine managed object reference in a variable named

vmRef

An authenticated Web Services session with the vSphere server that manages the virtual machine.

A VimPort binding provider referenced by the variable

methods

, which is attached to the vSphere server connection context.

The ViewManager object is referenced by the variable

viewMgr

A PropertyCollector instance referenced by the variable

pCollector

Given the MOref of a virtual machine and the MOref of its parent folder, this function initiates two clone operations, resulting in two

Task

managed objects that you can use to monitor progress of the clone operations. The function uses the

Task

objects to build a

PropertyFilterSpec

that you can use to report status updates for the two

Task

objects.

Declare a method that accepts a virtual machine MOref to clone it and monitor the

Task

objects.

private static void cloneVM(ManagedObjectReference vmRef) throws Exception {

Use the

getVMParent

method to get a MOref for the parent folder of the virtual machine.

If the parent object is a

Folder

, the

CloneVMTask

method will create the clones in the same folder that contains the specified virtual machine. If the parent object is a

VirtualApp

, the

VirtualMachine

cannot be cloned.

DynamicProperty parent = getVMParentProperty( vmRef );
  if (parent.getName().equals("parentVApp")) {
    System.out.println("Will not clone VM in a VApp.");
    throw new Exception();
  } else {
    ManagedObjectReference folder = (ManagedObjectReference) parent.getVal();
  }

Create a clone specification. Use default values whenever possible.

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

Create two clone virtual machines.

ManagedObjectReference cloneTask = methods.cloneVMTask( vmRef,
                                                             folder,
                                                             "clone__1",
                                                             cloneSpec);
    ManagedObjectReference cloneTask2 = methods.cloneVMTask( vmRef,
                                                             folder,
                                                             "clone__2",
                                                             cloneSpec);

The

CloneVMTask

method returns a

Task

object from each invocation. You can use PropertyCollector to track task completion.

Create a list view to reference the clone tasks.

List<ManagedObjectReference> taskList = new ArrayList<ManagedObjectReference>();
    taskList.add(cloneTask);
    taskList.add(cloneTask2);
    ManagedObjectReference cloneTaskList = methods.createListView(viewMgr,
                                                                  taskList);

Create an object spec to describe the property collection.

Add the list of

Task

objects to the object spec. Set the

skip

property to

true

so the PropertyCollector will ignore the properties of the

ListView

object itself.

ObjectSpec oSpec = new ObjectSpec();
    oSpec.setObj(cloneTaskList);
    oSpec.setSkip(true);

Create a traversal spec to tell the PropertyCollector how to move from the

ListView

object to the

Task

objects.

Set the

skip

property to

false

so the PropertyCollector will try to collect properties from the managed objects at the end of this traversal step.

TraversalSpec tSpec = new TraversalSpec();
    tSpec.setName("traverseTasks");
    tSpec.setPath("view");
    tSpec.setSkip(false);
    tSpec.setType("ListView");

Add the traversal spec to the object spec.

oSpec.getSelectSet().add(tSpec);

Create a property spec to collect the

Task.info.state

and

Task.info.result

properties.

PropertySpec pSpec = new PropertySpec();
    pSpec.setType("Task");
    pSpec.setAll(false);
    pSpec.getPathSet().add("info.state");
    pSpec.getPathSet().add("info.result");

Create a filter spec from the object spec and the property spec, and use the filter spec to create a

PropertyFilter

object to guide the property collection.

The filter managed object needs to persist on the server until the PropertyCollector finishes reporting task status.

PropertyFilterSpec fSpec = new PropertyFilterSpec();
    fSpec.getObjectSet().add(oSpec);
    fSpec.getPropSet().add(pSpec);
    ManagedObjectReference pFilter = methods.createFilter(pCollector,
                                                          fSpec,
                                                          true);

Two cloning operations are underway, with status of the operations reflected in

Task

objects. A

PropertyFitler

managed object is created and configured to monitor the task status.

Use the

PropertyCollector.WaitForUpdatesEx

method to monitor the status of the

Task

objects.

Task Monitoring Example Using the Listview Object

Get_Parent_Property