Blog from April, 2022

VSS-CLI v2022.4.0 is available for download via PyPI or GitLab. Latest version includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

Bug Fixes

core: auto-completion errors during option and argument completion. (#514)

Description

The vss-cli has the ability to auto-complete option arguments when properly configured and this feature was not working properly.

vss-cli compute vm mk from-clib --source <tab> <tab>
feac979d-ae53-45a5-aabb-469f516e2dce  -- 2103D-SI-MSW2019_Dev_master_template - OVF
986b53de-cc0c-4286-a59b-1af48bc18510  -- Cisco-ASAV-9.16.2.3 - OVF
03634015-f746-45d3-9d93-4b90476c617e  -- fedora-coreos-35.20220131.3.0-vmware.x86_64 - OVF
8e5206fa-0975-4dd9-973a-1737b82bf8a2  -- photon-os-4rev2-uefi-v11 - OVF
cc5990a8-56fe-411d-a13e-88d60112796b  -- photon-os-4rev2-uefi-v13 - OVF
c361a226-5dd4-458b-9eae-a7c6e2d38d63  -- photon-os-4rev2-v11 - OVF
407ded67-fd08-4973-81f4-5fc5c8c4912f  -- ubuntu-1804-bionic-server-cloudimg-amd64 - OVF
0192d28e-cee4-4563-a7e8-9672d19456de  -- ubuntu-2004-focal-server-cloudimg-amd64 - OVF
00bca5f6-2330-4737-b46e-fca141d056f4  -- ubuntu-2110-impish-server-cloudimg-amd64 - OVF
ed56b00a-5c52-4d29-8e46-fd85a76f66d5  -- ubuntu-2204-jammy-server-cloudimg-amd64 - OVF

compute vm mk from-clone: option --snapshot auto-completion throws exception. (#515)

Description

Cloning virtual machines from a given snapshot is also possible and auto-completion works by looking up the --source virtual machine snapshots. If a single snapshot is found, it will auto-complete the option argument with the snapshot_id, however if the lookup finds many, it will prompt for selection as follows:

vss-cli compute vm mk from-clone --source vm-1234 --snapshot <tab><tab>
3  -- SR-1633 - Before super upgrade  from 2022-04-29 11:35:00-04:00 valid for 1
4  -- SR-1634 - After super upgrade  from 2022-04-29 11:35:00-04:00 valid for 1

request retirement get: auto-completion throws exception. (#516)

Improvements

core: update pyvss to 2022.4.0. (#510)

core: update click to 8.1.3. (#511)

core: update pre-commit hook blackto 22.3.0. (#512)

core: update pre-commit hook flake8 to 3.7.9. (#512)

Upgrade

Remember, VSS-CLI documentation is now available in VSS-CLI and the full Change Log is available here. Upgrade or install VSS-CLI as follows:

# using vss-cli
vss-cli upgrade 

# upgrade with pip
pip install vss-cli --upgrade

# install
pip install vss-cli 

For more information, please refer to the official documentation site.

In our continuous effort to deliver high-quality service to all of our clients across the University of Toronto, we are excited to announce that we are upgrading the ITS Private Cloud core component, VMware vCenter Server to version 7.0 on May 14, 2022 (Sat) from 08:00AM to 08:00PM.

During the upgrade process:

• vCenter Server will be unavailable.

• Virtual Machines will continue to run uninterrupted.

• Access to your VM(s) using existing remote connections such as SSH, RDP, HTTPS, will continue to be available.

• The vSphere Client will be unavailable (https://vctr5-1.dcb.eis.utoronto.ca).

• The ITS Private Cloud Portal will be unavailable (https://cloud-portal.eis.utoronto.ca).

• The ITS Private Cloud API will be unavailable (https://vss-api.eis.utoronto.ca).

• The ITS Private Cloud CLI will be unavailable (vsscli-demo.eis.utoronto.ca and https://vss-cli.eis.utoronto.ca)

• Scheduled Virtual Machine Snapshots or Changes will not be processed.

• Updates will be posted to https://www.systemstatus.utoronto.ca .

If you have any questions, please visit FAQ - vCenter Upgrade or contact us at vss@eis.utoronto.ca.

Thank you for your patience.

We are pleased to announce a new and refreshed https://vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca/. The new vskey-stor provides standard VSS user sub-directories ( aka "folders" aka "buckets" ) via SSH and HTTP based protocols with the following structure:

• /ut-vss: for files transferred to and/or from vCenter.

• /saved: for any files previously accessed via CrushFTP.

• /dot-ssh: for the user's SSH authorized_keys file.

As always, please contact vss (at) utoronto dot ca if you have any questions or comments and we will be happy to help.

Available storage access methods

SCP and SFTP

File transfers over SSH channels: SCP and SFTP:

scp myTestImg.ova {vss.username}@vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca:ut-vss/
   myTestImg.ova                                                 100%  567MB  50.2MB/s   00:11    

sftp {vss.username}@vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca 
Connected to vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca.
sftp> ls
dot-ssh   saved     ut-vss    
sftp> cd ut-vss
sftp> ls
README.txt   junk.iso     
sftp> get README.txt
Fetching /ut-vss/README.txt to README.txt
/ut-vss/README.txt                            100%   84    44.3KB/s   00:00    
sftp> 
sftp> quit

MinIO

MinIO provides an AmazonS3-compatible API access and interactive access via web browser:

Deep integration with the vss-cli

Once upgraded with the vss-cli upgrade command to v2022.3.1 the minio module can be installed with:

python3 -m pip install 'vss-cli[stor]'

At this point, it’s enough to execute vss-cli stor ls to initialize, start and browse your vskey-stor space with the vss-cli:

vss-cli stor --help
Usage: vss-cli stor [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Manage your VSS storage account.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  dl   download file
  get  get info
  la   launch ui
  ls   list remote dir contents
  sh   share with pre-signed link
  ul   upload file

If you would like to launch the minIO interface and upload your files through a web browser, the following command will launch a web browser and display the default credentials:

vss-cli stor la --show-cred
Launching 🌎: https://vskey-stor.eis.utoronto.ca:{port}
username: ...
password: ...

To upload a file from your workstation, do:

vss-cli stor ul ~/Downloads/vm-disk-1.vmdk