community 
Assign IP to VMs
We're trying to assign IP addresses to reserved VMs at the time the reservation is instantiated so that different reservations of the same blueprint get different IP addresses. However, every idea we've tried has run into a roadblock. Could anyone please share how they've done this, or something similar? Here's what we've tried (or at least considered) so far:
- Making OVFs that accept IP addresses as parameters. However, this requires customization of the OVF and the guest OS to do something with the passed parameters, and that whole process is not well-documented. Also, it was not clear how to get CloudShell to pass in additional parameters when cloning VMs from OVFs.
- Setting the IP address through vCenter and VM Tools once the VMs are booted. The problem here is that CloudShell does not expose an interface to call vCenter, or to get at the underlying pyvmomi handle. We would have to fork our own version of the vCenterShell and implement this behavior ourselves.
- Using a DHCP server, but with a static reservation per MAC address to ensure each interface gets the IP address we want. We could not find how to get the MAC address of each VM's interfaces through CloudShell. Again, it seems we would have to fork the vCenterShell.
I would be embarrassed but grateful to find that we've overlooked a simple way to accomplish this.
Thank you!
Hi,
Just a few questions to better understand the use case. Is it important to set specific IPs rather than just any IP that get assigned automatically if you have VM Tools installed on the VM?
If so why?
Thanks,
Roni
It is important that we set specific IPs. Each reservation will have a range of addresses associated with, which is determined at reservation start time. Everything in the reservation (routers, switches, VMs, etc.) will be assigned addresses from this range. Ranges are determined in part by which circuits are reserved, so they must be configured at reservation start time.
Hi Jim,
I think the simplest approach might be to let all of the vms come up with their dynamic IP then log in via ssh , change the networking config to set a static IP, then restart to apply the changes. This workflow can be performed via the setup.
If this makes sense we can maybe have a session to go deeper into the implementation details.
Thanks,
Roni
To clarify: I mean changing the network config programatically not logging in manually to the machine of course.
I would definitely like to have a session to dig into this further. I didn't see how to DM you, so I'll reach out through our account manager.
@RoniDover did you get this working, is there a script out there I can use as a starting point? I am about to experience this same issue
We would like this capability as well!
