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Before jobs can utilize virtual machines it is necessary to configure one or more machine centers, that connect to vSphere installations, and one or more machine pools from within those machine centers, from which builds may acquire machines.
From the main page click on "Pooled Virtual Machines", then click on "Configure" to goto the plugin configuration page.
After configuration the "Pooled Virtual Machines" page will display the current list of configured machine centers. From this page the click on a machine center to see the list of machine pools, and from that page click on a machine pool to see the list of machines.
To configure a machine center enter a name for the center, which will be referred to later when configuring clouds or jobs, the host name where the vCenter service is located that manages the vSphere installation, and the user name/password of the user to authenticate to the vCenter and who is authorized to perform appropriate actions on machines in pools.
One or more machine centers may be configured to the same or different vCenter. For example, different pools may require different users that have authorized capabilities to the same vCenter, or there may be multiple vCenters that can be used. Details can be verified by clicking on the "Test Connection" button.
One or more machine pools may be added to a machine center. There are currently two types of machines pool that can be added. A static pool and a folder pool. In either case power-cycling and power-on wait conditions may be configured for all machines in such pools.
It is guaranteed that a virtual machine will be acquired at most once, even if that machine is a member of two or more pools of two or more centers.
To configure a static machine pool enter a name for the pool, which will be referred to later when configuring clouds or jobs. Then, add one or more static machines to the pool. The name of the static machine is the name of the virtual machine as presented in the vCenter.
Note that there can be two or more virtual machines present in the vCenter with the same name, for example if those machines are located in separate folders or vApps. In such cases it is undetermined which machine will be associated with the configuration.
If the machine is assigned to a build then a set of optional properties, "Injected Env Vars", can be declared that will be injected into the build as environment variables.
To configure a folder machine pool enter a name for the pool, which will be referred to later when configuring clouds or jobs. Then, declare the path to a folder or vApp where the machines contained in that folder or vApp comprise of the pool of machines. If the "recurse" option is selected then machines in sub-folders or sub-vApps will also be included in the pool.
If the machine is assigned to a build then IP address of the virtual machine will be declared in environment variable "VMIP" that is injected into the build.
Virtual machines may be added and removed from the folder or vApp without requiring changes to the configuration. Such pools are more dynamic than static pools.
Power-on actions can be specified after a machine has been acquired from a pool, but before the machine has been assigned to a build. Power-off actions can be specified after a build has finished with the machine, but before that machine has been released back to the pool.
The set of power-on actions are as follows:
- Power up
- Powers up the machine. If the machine is already powered up this action does nothing.
- Revert to last snapshot and power up
- Revert the machine to the last known snapshot, and then power up. This can be useful to power up the machine in a known state.
- Do nothing
- No actions are performed on the machine and it is assumed the machine is already powered on.
The set of power-off actions are as follows:
- Power off
- Powers off the machine. This can be useful to save resources. Note that it can take some time for a machine to be powered on and fully booted, hence builds may take longer if the power-cycling represents a significant portion of the overall build time.
- Suspend
- Suspend the machine. This can be useful to save resources while being able to power on the machine more quickly.
- Take snapshot after power off
- Power off the machine, and then take a snapshot.
- Take snapshot after suspend
- Suspend the machine, and then take a snapshot.
- Do nothing
- No actions are performed on the machine, and it will be left powered-on.
After a machine is powered on, if power-on actions are configured, and before the machine is assigned to a build, certain wait conditions may be configured that ensure the machine is in an appropriate state.
The set of power-on wait conditions are:
- Wait for a TCP port to start listening
- A timeout, default of 5 minutes, can be specified. If waiting for the TCP port to become active takes longer that the timeout, then the machine will be released back to the pool and an error will result.
- Wait for VMware Tools to come up
- Optionally, also wait for the machine to obtain an IP address. A timeout, default of 5 minutes, can be specified. If waiting for VMware Tools takes longer that the timeout, then the machine will be released back to the pool and an error will result.