VMware VIX API FindItems() method never returns when querying for registered VMs

Question

Hi,

I am using VMware Workstation 6.5 on Windows Vista x64. I am trying to write some C# code that uses VMware Vix v1.6.1 COM API to get a list of registered virtual machines.

The code I am using is as follows:

using System;
using VixCOM;

namespace ConsoleApplication48
{
    internal class Program
    {
     private static void Main()
     {
      var lib = new VixLibClass();
      object results = null;

      var job = lib.Connect(Constants.VIX_API_VERSION, Constants.VIX_SERVICEPROVIDER_VMWARE_WORKSTATION, null, 0,
null, null, 0, null, null);

      var err = job.Wait(new[] {Constants.VIX_PROPERTY_JOB_RESULT_HANDLE}, ref results);

  if (lib.ErrorIndicatesFailure(err))
   Console.WriteLine("Error: " + err);

  var host = (IHost)((object[])results)[0];

  job = host.FindItems(Constants.VIX_FIND_REGISTERED_VMS, null, -1, new DiscoveryCallback(lib));
  job.WaitWithoutResults();

  host.Disconnect();
 }
}

internal class DiscoveryCallback : ICallback
{
 protected VixLibClass lib;

 public DiscoveryCallback(VixLibClass lib)
 {
  this.lib = lib;
 }

 #region ICallback Members

 public void OnVixEvent(IJob job, int eventType, IVixHandle moreEventInfo)
 {
  // this method is never called
 }

 #endregion
    }
}

I am aware that the COM dll is 32-bit, so I made sure that the test application is compiled as 32-bit. Also I made sure that all VMware services are running.

There are no exceptions thrown, no errors returned (as far as I can see) and no events written into the event log.

Strangely enough the above code works when I try to get a list of running VMs using constant VIX_FIND_RUNNING_VMS.

Any ideas on what might be causing this?

Thanks,

Arnie

Answer 1

Quick update on the situation.

I've had a closer look at the official documentation for the FindItems() method. Constant VIX_FIND_REGISTERED_VMS is not listed as a supported parameter - only constant VIX_FIND_RUNNING_VMS is.

My guess is this means that currently VIX API offers no way to get a list of VMs registered on a VMware Workstation instance.

That also would explain why the vmrun.exe command-line utility offers no way of getting registered VMs.

I guess I'll just have to wait until the next version of the VIX API is released.