vCenter - Import static virtual machines into CloudShell

This solution is an implementation example of a CloudShell capability which allows you to model in CloudShell virtual machines which weren't deployed by CloudShell app feature and aren't managed as part of the reservation life-cycle processes. It allows you to create a resource that represents this virtual machine in CloudShell inventory and then associate it with the Cloud Provider resource (vCenter) so it will get the vCenterShell capabilities like power on, power off, connectivity etc.

The one thing that differentiates between the creation process of Static VM and a regular resource is the get_inventory command, which given the VM's full path in vCenter and the name of the vCenter resource (in CloudShell) it finds the VM in vCenter and creates the linkage between the resource to the vCenter resource, thus giving it the vCenterShell capabilities. In the attached example the get_inventory command gets this information from attributes on the root model ("vCenter Name" and "vCenter VM"). However, a static VM resource can have any modelling in CloudShell and be created by 1st Gen or 2nd Gen shells as long as its get_inventory command gets the relevant information and does the linkage process to the vCenter resource (see the driver in the attached example for reference). For details on how to create a static VM shell, see this CloudShell Dev Guide article.

The difference between a VM which was deployed by CloudShell to a Static VM is that the OOB Setup and Teardown identify the static VMs and don't automatically power them on/off or connect/disconnect them. Note that the Delete command that comes from the vCenterShell isn't available for Static VMs as they weren't deployed by CloudShell.

Compatible for VMware 6.5 and 6.7.