[vbox-dev] SOLVED: VirtualBox Teleporting and SOAP API "waitForCompletion"

[Knut Osmundsen]

On Sep 19, 2010, at 3:18 AM, Joseph Smith wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I had the chance to follow-up and do some very extensive testing and with Klaus's insight via our discussion on IRC, have found the error of my ways ... Thanks Klaus.  Your feedback was instrumental in helping me find the problem!!!
> 
> For anyone else that might be interested, I'll describe the mistake I made and outline the steps that through testing I have confirmed works every time.
> 
> First:  What am I trying to do and why:
> On occasion, though not often, I need to take a live host off-line (to upgrade memory, replace/change internal hardware, etc).  These live hosts can have anywhere from 9 - 15 VMs running at a time.  To take this host offline without powering-down the VMs, the VirtualBox teleport feature is ideal.  My goal then was to teleport each of the VMs from the existing host to another host (must be on the same network and have access to the same networked storage subsystem where the virtual drives are).  VBoxManage does provide a command line option to initiate the teleport request but does require coordinating the execution on both the source and target hosts.  As I have control of all the VirtualBox hosts via the SOAP Webservice APIs, I decided to automate the entire process.
> 
> What I was doing wrong:
> The steps I outline in the original message (see below) are actually correct except for Step #7.  The call to power-up the VM with a new Session via the IConsole object returnes a progressRef object and I assumed it was necessary to wait for completion before moving forward.  THIS IS WRONG!  In reality, the correct way to determine the VM is ready for the teleport-in step is to watch the state of the target VM and wait for the state to change to 'TELEPORTINGIN'.  Once in this state, the teleport step on the source VM can be done.

If you are using IVirtualBox::openRemoteSession (renamed on trunk) it's NOT the right way either. Take a look at what http://www.virtualbox.org/sdkref/interface_i_virtual_box.html#915f7609a00e888a15cbf74aef743bcc  and http://www.virtualbox.org/sdkref/interface_i_console.html#0191f0ffb739504065c05f6e33a65a7c says about teleportation. Before attempting call IConsole::teleport() you should wait for the progress object to reach the penultimate operation (IProgress::OperationCount - 2).

-- 

Kind regards / Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Vennlig hilsen,
 bird

--

ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG  Knut St. Osmundsen
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71384 Weinstadt, Germany          mailto:bird at sun.com

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