VIX with Freebie ESXi

[L3mming]

Hi all,

I'm trying to use VIX 1.7 remotely against a test ESXi 3.5 server (VMware ESX Server 3i, 3.5.0, 153875).

It fails from the API when connecting (no errors) so I've tried going to basics and using the vmrun.exe with the following command as root.

U:\vmrun -T esx -h https://10.*.**.223:443/sdk -u ****** -p ****** start "[[datastore1]] XYZ-XP02/XYZ-XP02.vmx"

When I do this I get the following error "Error: This operation is not supported with the current license"

Do I need a different licence? or am I missing something obvious?

Many thanks,

Sam.

[lamw · Accepted solution]

The primary reason is explained at the following article: http://vmetc.com/2009/03/31/esxi-u4-ends-free-version-read-and-write-access-from-the-rcli/

As of VIX 1.6.2 even with the fix in place for ESXi 3.5u4 & 4.0, it continued to work since the code in VIX has not been 'written' to adhere by the licensing policy of the VI/vSphere product line as explained here: ..... but it looks like with the latest version of VIX 1.7, this was remediated and much sooner than I would have thought.

Short story, you'll need to use a proper license other than the free version to be able to utilize VIX to manage your VM(s) or perform guest operations within the VM. If you 'some' functionality from VIX with free version of ESXi (any of them), install VIX 1.6.2 and you'll be able to circumvent licensing issue.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators

VMware Developer Comuunity

Twitter: @lamw

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