Summary
VMware Boomerang is a radically simple client application that allows you to use multiple vSphere servers simultaneously. Simply select “Add a Server…” to connect and login to an ESX server, vCenter server, or View Connection Server and you will be presented with a list of all available virtual machines.
For vSphere VMs, you are able to perform power operations on the virtual machine or connect to it using the VMware Remote Console (VMRC), which is provided with vSphere Client. You can also easily add virtual machines as favorites so you can quickly view the subset of virtual machines that you are interested in.
For View desktops, you are able to choose between the RDP or PCoIP protocol and launch a remote desktop. Once you have launched a desktop, you will have a fully functional remote desktop experience that matches the existing Windows View Client.
Features
- Supports connecting to multiple ESX and VC servers simultaneously.
- Supports connecting to multiple View Connection Servers simultaneously.
- Graphical installer lets you disable support for vSphere or View if you have no use for it.
- Connect to View desktops using PCoIP or RDP.
- Automatic redirection of client printers to View desktops with ThinPrint.
- Allows you to save your credentials for easy login to servers.
- Favorites pane enables easy browsing through multiple virtual machines on different servers.
- Simple user interface gives you quick access to connecting to a virtual machine or issuing power operations.
- Keyboard navigation allows you to type the name of the virtual machine you want to use or to use directional keys to navigate.
- Servers with large numbers of virtual machines are automatically collapsed into hyperlinks, which you can click to view subsets of the inventory or the entire thing.
- Configurable automatic update checking.
- See virtual machines you have recently connected to in the Recently Used section.
- Search for virtual machines quickly across all your servers.
- Users needing access to more than basic virtual machine power operations should use VMware vCenter Server to manage vSphere hosts and virtual machines.
- vCenter supports activities like vMotion, High Availability, storage configuration, host provisioning cloning, templates, monitoring, alerts and more.
VMware Boomerang does not support connecting directly to free ESXi servers.
System Requirements
Requires Windows XP or later.
Instructions
Download and run the installer. The application will automatically launch when installation is completed and add an icon to the system tray.
Video
Change Log
Updates in version 2.0.0
- Adds support for connecting to multiple View Connection Servers simultaneously.
- Adds a graphical installer in case you want to disable View or vSphere functionality.
- Alphabetically sorts servers to provide a more consistent ordering.
- Automatically expands collapsed servers if a search is active.
Updates in Version 1.1.0
- Added a search box that allows you to enter a VM name.
- Added a "Recently Used" section for VMs that you have recently connected to or performed power operations on. The number of days that the list encompasses is configurable in the preferences dialog.
- Added a confirmation dialog when performing power operations.
- Added logic to automatically append DNX suffixes when entering an unqualified server name.
- Added support for high-DPI configurations.
- Fixed a few rare crashes.
- Added a better error message when attempting to add a free ESXi server (license check failure).
Engineers
 | Adam GrossWorks in the Enterprise Desktop group. |
Hi,
Will it be possible to add IP column in the view for VM.
It will be very grateful as its not possible to remember the names of VM.
regards,
Ajay
I just tried the Boomerang application.
I installed it.
5 mn later it was uninstalled.
Reasons:
- it is not possible to manage BOTH licenced AND unlicenced servers. Only licenced servers can be added, so if I manage one licenced server plus a couple of free, small ESXi servers as well it is not useful
- MOST importantly, the VMs list DOES NOT SHOW any state information until one right clicks it. No way to see at a glance which machines are up or down.
Alltogether the tool is completely useless.
It’s a very good, almost perfect, product. I miss one thing. A feature that allows you to transfer a file from and to the open VM. I know, you can attach a USB-stick and do a via-via transfer but a direct approach would be more elegant. This way it’s very useful and very easy for us to divide management and regular traffic in our DMZ by simply not allowing management protocols through the firewall and on de hosts (in the DMZ) and force the system- and network-engineers to use Boomerang.
Is there a way to backup the settings so I can pass them to other admins?
Take a look at %APPDATA%\VMware\VMware Boomerang. There will be a prefs.txt file that you can move to the corresponding location on other machines, as long as VMware Boomerang is not running (otherwise it could overwrite that file again). The password saved to the file is protected to your user account so you don’t need to delete it before transferring the file, although it’s a good idea to do so anyway.
The “recently used” menu item may be nice to some people but i find it annoying that it cannot be removed. A setting to “not display it on the menu” would be great.
Thanks for the feedback. Is it just because the Recently Used section can grow indefinitely? That is, if I switched it to only store the 5 most recently used items, would that make it more useful? Or do you still want it disabled entirely?
Hi Adam,
How I can do to get crededencial store?
I commented, I perform the login correctly in Virtual Centers, select the tab to save the credentials,
and restart the PC or when starting the PC, credentials go away and I have to retake all the login in the VC’s.
Is there any way to save the credentials?
Is there any program file where you can put the credentials and the FQDN of VC’s??
It’s Possible to enable the clipboard?
I believe you have to enable clipboard directly in the vSphere Client configuration. I think you can Google around to find it, although I’m not entirely sure.
Where can I submit the bug reports?
You can e-mail them to me at grossag @AT@ vmware .DOT. com
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Does Boomerang work with ESXi 5.1. When I try to connect to the console of a vm running on a ESXi 5.1 host, I receive an error.
“VMware vSphere Client was not found on your computer. Install VMware vShpere Client 4.0 or later to allow connecting to vSphere VMs”.
I have the vSphere 5.1 installed on the computer running Boomerang.
I haven’t updated the application to detect vSphere 5.1 yet. It turns out the command-line approach I use is no longer compatible with vSphere 5.1 so it requires a fairly big overhaul of how I issue connections. I hope to update it to do this by early next year but am not sure.
Hi, I have Boomerang working with vCenter 5.1 appliance fine under Windows 7, but on Windows 8, when I try to connect to a VM I get a busy mouse icon for a few seconds but no window opens up, and no error msg. Looking at the boomerang logs I can’t see any particular error mentioned.
Is it incompatible with Windows 8?
Last I knew, there was an issue with Windows 8 and VMRC that kept it from connecting successfully. So it would be a VMRC problem, not Boomerang.
Since I don’t know if that issue still exists or not, are you able to open a console to the same VM on Windows 8 from a regular vSphere Client?
Hi James
Sorry for the necro-reply, but this issue does still exist. I was hoping it might have been fixed by now as I miss boomerang alot. Using the full blown vSphere client for remote consoles is far more clunky compared to the neat full screen window that boomerang provides.
So on Windows 8 I can get full console access fine via the vSphere Client, but boomerang just launches the process “VMware Remote Console (32 bit)” (shown in task manager processes), but nothing shows on the screen. This process will then just stay lingering until you end-task it.
Hey Adam,
First thanks a lot for creating this great tool! VMware should make it an official product as it saves me and many others lots of time.
Need your help here…
I am using vSphere on 2 ESX’s that I have. I am able to use Boomerang on the 1st one w/o any problems/
However, I cannot use Boomerang on the 2nd ESX – Boomerang says ‘Failed to open the VM.’ on all guests on that ESX.
I am able to use vSphere on this ESX and connect to the console of the guests. And this worked last week, but not today :-(.
Maybe our IT did something, but can you offer any hints?
Thanks,
Amir
The logs should be able to give more information about why the VM open is failing. The logs will be in %TEMP%\vmware-. You may see some lines like:
2012-10-19 11:29:37.635 [1528] VMItem::UIThreadVMOpenStateChanged: VM ‘View Connection Server’ open state changed to STATE_OPEN_FAILED.
2012-10-19 11:29:37.637 [176C] VixVM::OnVMOpened: Opening VM ‘View Connection Server’ failed with asyncError 30028 (Network operation timed out).
It should give you the specific reason for the error.
Found this message in the logs:
2012-10-28 17:12:17.138 [1548] VixVM::OnVMOpened: Opening VM ‘UBDEV01′ failed with asyncError 3014 (Insufficient permissions in the host operating system).
According to our IT guy (the VMware guru), Boomerang has a problem if I log in to the ESX server with my Active Directory creds (domain\user+password).
Is this indeed the case?
Thanks
Sorry, but I don’t know. This may be an issue with the VIX library that I use but it’s hard to know.
Hi Adam,
Do you know what are minimum permissions required to be able to connect to ESX server using boomerang?
I dont want to connect using root everytime :)
thanx
I also get this error using my AD user:
2013-02-12 13:17:58.957 [1864] 2013-02-12 13:17:58.957 [17A4] VixVM::OnVMOpened: Opening VM ‘Linux_2′ failed with asyncError 3014 (Insufficient permissions in the host operating system).
VMItem::UIThreadVMOpenStateChanged: VM ‘Linux_2′ open state changed to STATE_OPEN_FAILED.
Any chance this can be fixed? Thanks!
Downloaded this yesterday. Looks promising! The list of VM’s is not consistent, though. Just a guess, but it looks like any VM that was cloned has the same name listed twice, even though the VM name was changed.
Thanks for the feedback Steve. Unfortunately this is a result of the API I use; it’s a very expensive operation to “open” a VM to find what the real name is so I just guess by parsing the filename. However, I have it on my to-do list to update a VM’s name after it is opened and remember it for future runs of the application.
When I use 2-factor authentication to connect to a view security server boomerang does not let me specify the domain. We have 3 domains and my account is not in the selected domain so I can not connect. The RSA authentication succeeds. But the boomerang login screen for view greys out the user name and domain.
Joe, could you e-mail me at grossag @AT@ vmware .DOT. com so we could talk about this more? I would need logs to find out why it is doing that.
Hi there,
Some reason VMware Boomerang automatically boots VM’s which are off when you connect to them.
Would be nice if there was an option to simply connect to console so it will give you the option to boot or not.
Thanks,
Amit
I think that’s VMRC’s default behavior and I don’t think I can override it. Is there a reason why you want to be able to connect to VMs without powering them on?
Hello Adam Gross,
Can you tell me if it’s possible to add a vcloud serveur in Boomerang ?
My first test gave me the following message : “- The supplied certificate is expired or not yet valid.”
Thank you for your very good work and your future answer :)
Regards,
Vincent
Sorry, but vCloud servers are not supported in Boomerang. You could add the underlying vCenter or ESX server in, but that’s it. You are seeing the confusing error message because we first try to treat it as a vSphere server, fail, and then try to treat it as a View server and similarly fail. However, we can’t tell whether the View server failure is due to the bad certificate or due to it not being a View server, so we play it safe and show the certificate error message.
Can this go mobile ?, I am not sure how you could get the VMRC console part but if we assume that view client is installed ?
Thanks
Natraj
Sorry, but this is Windows only. It would take a significant amount of time to port it to any other platform.
GREAT VIDEO. I just ran across this tool and can’t wait to try it at work this morning. One feature that would be great is to be able to take the favorites and group them within folders.
Thanks for the suggestion, Michael. Hope you like the fling when you try it out.
Thanks for the new release! It really save us a lot of time switching from this server to that server and input the credentials again and again.
Glad to hear! Out of curiosity, are you planning on using it more for the vSphere or the View support? Just trying to get an understanding of how people are hoping to use it.
Personally we are using it for vSphere we have a large number of VICs.
I just released 2.0.0 with some bug fixes and support for View desktops. Give it a try!
Have been using it for about a week, and I have the following suggestions (don’t know if any of them is possible at all to do):
- RemoteApp compability, it is a perfect tool to have at a monitoring server that has connections to a lot of networks, and then streaming it as an RemoteApp to your own computer would be awesome!
- A setting to define how often it should reload the inventory from the vCenter servers, I’ve found more than once that a machine created in the morning isn’t visible during lunch.
- Indication to wether a machine is showing any alerts (perhaps a popup that says “VMx now has CPU state RED” or something like that, perhaps suitable for another product?)
- Support for vApps
- The ability to search “minimized” (collapsed?) vcenters as well. If we collapse a vCenter, VMs that match the search will not show up in the list if they are located at that vCenter.
Thanks for the feedback Andreas. Here is my response:
- For RemoteApp, I don’t have any current plans to implement support for this.
- For reloading the inventory regularly, I think that is a fantastic idea. I will add it to the feature request list.
- For alerts and vApps, unfortunately the API I use doesn’t expose any of those. If I switch to a newer API at some point I may be able to do that.
- For minimized vcenters, are you talking about minimizing through the Boomerang API where you click the collapse arrow button or are you talking about an operation through vSphere directly? If through vSphere directly, which operation are you referring to?
I see what you are saying about showing collapsed vCenters. The search code doesn’t automatically expand them (you still can manually though). I will fix this in the next release.
Thanks!
Another suggestion would be to use the “Use Windows Credentials” for connecting, if that is possible. I’ve shown your tool to most of my support coworkers, and everyone so far loves it!
/Andreas
Hi Adam,
Thanks a lot for such a great tool!
Since the application stays running in the systray, it would be nice to have some keyboard shortcut to show the program.
I believe you can show the program by hitting Windows+B, using the arrows to get to the Boomerang icon, and hitting Space. The application is mostly keyboard navigable but I don’t have the internal tab order working correctly.
This again might be an oddity of the API you are using. I’ve found that I cannot connect to a server, either an ESXi host or a VCenter server by host name only, it requires the FQDN or an IP address. While this makes no practical difference it just looks sloppy as my company has a ridiculously long dotted MS domain name.
Also, it would be nice to HIDE certain machines. I have a couple of TEMPLATES that always show on the list, they are of course never turned on and used for deployment of new guests only, yet they show up on the machine guest list. I also have a few test servers that are seldom turned on that I’d like NOT to see.
Thanks again for the cool app.
I have written code in Boomerang that should automatically append the DNS suffixes that are configured for your machine. I look for them in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\SearchList. You should be able to configure them in the adapter settings for your currently used connection > TCP/IPv4 > Properties > Advanced > DNS. If you have configured this correctly but Boomerang still isn’t respecting them, let me know because it is probably a bug in my program.
Been a while, just wandered over after using your itility again for the umteenth time. Still cool!
The issue with connecting via FQDN or IP is on our end in my case, we have PCs and VMCenter hosts which appear with the same dotted MSDomain.domain names as our working PCs, but our VMware hosts are only in DNS under the domain.com name, so your utility isn’t resolving the host name.
Still a cool app, thanks again.
Hello,
I was recently testing your Boomerang application for managing ESXI hosts. I am finding it pretty impressive as I can manage with it lots of different ESXI hosts at once, but there’s a small issue. I have plenty of Proliant DLxxx servers installed and some of them are running original ESXI 5.0 U1 (downloaded from vmware.com), but some of them also use HP customized ESXI 5.0 U1 (downloaded from HP.com repositories). Both ESXI instances are licensed (the one from HP has preinstalled key), but with boomerang I can only manage those hosts which run on original ESXI. Whenever I try to add a hosts which runs on HP customized ESXI 5.0 U1 I get the following error: “Login failed. Boomerang does not support unlicensed ESXI servers.”
I find this error strange, as those hosts are also fully licensed. I would need support for those HP customized ESXI servers, as they have some special drivers/sensors/services added from HP for managing those servers which aren’t available in original ESXI installations.
Would it be possible somehow to fix this error for this great application?
Thank you in advance, Tomaz Kavcic.
I’m not very familiar with ESXi licensing, but are you sure that you aren’t mistaking your HP server being licensed with HP and your HP server being licensed with VMware?
Thanks for your answer. My text above was probably a bit disturbing, so I will try to make it short and clear this time. Here are two situations (on the same server):
1. Latest ESXI 5.0 U1 downloaded from vmware.com, fresh install, added that new ESXI to Boomerang, works like a charm.
2. Same latest ESXI 5.0 U1 downloaded from HP.com (this is a bit modified ESXI for HP servers – contains some additional drivers, sensors, etc.), fresh install on same server, same partition, added to Boomerang, got response “Login failed. Boomerang does not support unlicensed ESXI servers.”
I don’t really know what you meant in your comment above about HP server being licensed with VMware, but there’s really nothing I could do differently. The only thing that’s different between those two installations is that the image downloaded from vmwware.com doesn’t have any key installed (trial version), so I have to install my key which I was assigned when I registered my account at vmware.com. But the image which you can download from HP.com for HP servers already has “preinstalled” some kind of key for ESXI, so I don’t have to enter my own. I also tried to replace it with my vmware.com assigned key, but I get same error each time.
However, if you have an option, please try this yourself. I tried this on few different servers, and I always get same response…original ESXI from vmware.com works ok with boomerang, but HP build doesn’t.
Thanks again for you help! Tomaz…
One more thing I forgot to add. I can normally connect to all these servers using vSphere Client. Also the license Key which comes bundled with HP ESXI 5.0 U1 is: N4600-62JEJ-J8U49-0C3H6-CECN1. Also if I change that key with my own other key, Boomerang responds the same and it throws the error mentioned before…
Huh, sorry for all this mess. I have to correct myself a little. I logged in to my vmware account and that serial number I posted above is actually my own ESXI key assigned by Vmware.
I tried to remove that key in my ESXi server (put it to trial mode) and I tried to add it to Boomerang …and it worked! Then I entered that key again to my ESXI server and Boomerang again refused to work with it.
So, now I am wondering… Should I re-register at vmware to gey new ESXi key which would actually work with Boomerang OK or is there something else I should try? As I see it, the same ESXI installation works normally with Boomerang when in “trial mode”, but as soon as I enter that key, it’s impossible to add it to Boomerang as I always get that error: “Login failed. Boomerang does not support unlicensed ESXI servers.”
Lastly, please remove the key I posted above…it was clearly my mistake.
Ok, I hope this is my last reply. I made a huge mess, I’m sorry. I created a new test account at vmware and I got another free ESXI 5 license key. I entered it in my ESXi installation and the same thing happens with boomerang which refuses to work with any of those free keys I have.
So, if I got that right, Boomerang only works with non-free ESX servers? I mean, it is possible to use Boomerang also with ESXi, but only when in “trial” mode. As soon as you enter and valid free ESXi production key, it’s impossible to use Boomerang anymore.
Therefore I am wondering, is it possible to “fix” Boomerang somehow so it would also work with free ESXi servers?
I’m sorry but I am not familiar enough with ESXi licensing to be able to help you. All I can say is that the VIX API that I use to connect to the server and login is giving me an error that the server is registered as “free ESXi” which means that it can’t be managed with Boomerang. I don’t have the expertise to say whether it’s a configuration issue or whether it’s a bug. Others may be able to help more.
Just a wild guess here but being that other flings seldom work with free licenses (and perhaps by extension odd OEM licenses like the OP’s) I would guess it is a policy by VMWare that these extensions NOT work with them and the API is adhering with that policy. Just an educated guess though.
Doesn’t support FREE licensed ESXi servers :(
I can use it at work but can’t at home.
Also would be cool to HIDE certain guests, like Templates or servers that may be OFF for some reason or other.
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately these are all limitations of the API I use (VIX) but if I ever switch to a newer API I may be able to implement these.
Cool, I am anxious for this as it is so useful for me at work, I’d like to do the same with my free licensed server at home – it’s just not worth the cost to me to buy a “real” ESXi license for my plaything at home.
Please, keep us updated.
Since vmware-rc isn’t accepting -u -p option for an auto-authenticated connection, but Boomerang *IS* able to do this (presumably using the AcquireCloneTicket API?), might you be able to provide a command line way to connect to a named VM, passing through similar parameters, e.g.:
boomerang.exe -h (host) -M (vmid) -u (username) -P
Either that, or get your buddies at VMware to enable a -passthroughAuth command parameter for vmware-rc?
Oh, and I should add – thanks for this GREAT TOOL!
The way I pass credentials to vmware-vmrc.exe is by overriding its stdin and providing credentials securely through that method. I can’t do any sort of login as current user mostly just because of the limitations of the VIX API, which require that I use a username/password and don’t give me access to the underlying ticket. If I ever switch to use a different API, I will likely be able to clone the ticket and use that instead.
This is awesome! Any way it can support ability to revert snapshots?
Thanks for the feedback! I am considering adding this functionality in a future release but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Creating and deleting Snapshots would make this a perfect tool for View Administrators. Just saying.
I second that :)
Good morning my friends, today I the company we are using the VMware vSphere Client 4.0, rse would like to know there is a manual in Portuguese Island, and have tried to find anything, if you guys can help me I appreciate it.
a great day everyone.
Francisco
bom dia meus amigos, hoje eu na empresa estamos usando o VMware vSphere Client 4.0, gostaria de sabe rse existe um manual em portugues do console, já tentei encontrar e nada, se vcs poderem me ajudar eu agradeço.
um ótimo dia a todos.
Francisco
Salam,
Thank you :).
Hi Adam,
I like the design of the tool and that it is very compact, exact what I was locking for.
Unfortunately it doesn’t support ESXi and I get the very same message like Mathieu Bouffard
VMItem::OnVMOpenStateChanged: VM ‘SERVERNAME’ open state changed to STATE_OPEN_FAILED.
VixVM::OnVMOpened: Opening VM ‘SERVERNAME’ failed with asyncError 3014 (Insufficient permissions in host operating system).
Is there support for ESXi planned?
There is nothing more to say than great work! Keep it up! :)
Best regards,
Max
Sorry, no support for ESXi is planned. This is a licensing limitation that I have no control over.
If it possible to get this for Apple mac osx ?
Sorry, but I have no plans to port this to Linux or Mac.
:( Sad comment! But anyhow thanks for this great app, running it on the vmwbox!
Great little utility… would be even better if it displayed vApps too.
Great Work!
Amazing job!
1) Is it possible to use the VM Names and folders found in the vi client, => Inventory => VMs and Templates ?
2) Also, could we have the folder names as well?
I am using vSphere v4.1 with vcenter v4.1.
3) Also, I’ve noticed that if vi Client is not installed, vmware boomerang will not connect to the vms.
4) An indicator to the right of the vm name, displaying if the vm is powered on or powered off would be great.
5) Boomerang does not seem to work with a DNS name, for the vcenter server, and only with IP Addressses when connecting to a specific vm, however does login/connect to the vcenter server.
Thanks for the comments Anthony. For #1, #2, and #4 I am unable to implement them as the vix API that I use does not allow operations like that without costly operations to “open” a VM so I can’t offer them to all VMs automatically. ESX 5.0 offers a better API that I may selectively use but that wouldn’t be for a while.
For #3, that is correct. I hope the error message that is shown is helpful enough. I depend on the VMware Remote Console, which is installed with the vSphere Client, to connect a console to a VM.
For #5, this should work. Are you sure that your client machine is able to resolve the DNS name and the IP address that it resolves to matches the one you would expect? With 1.1 I also added the ability to automatically append default DNS suffixes to a request if it doesn’t already include one, so all cases should work.
For #4 , Is it possible to use the same code which highlights/depressed the Green PoweredOn or Red PoweredOff buttons, and create a indicator beside the VM name, to show that the VM is powered on or off?
For #5, If I use the full FQDN boomerang works fine, if I use the shortened DNS name it will not connect. However if I use vi client v4.1, ping and tracert it works with both the FQDN & the DNS name.
Also, is it possible I could have a copy of the code for boomerang?
Thanks,
Anthony
For #4, with the API I use, this is only possible if you have “opened” the VM which takes a few seconds (you can count the time when you select a VM to expand it). As a result, it isn’t immediately available for all VMs so I am hesitant to put it on the main row.
For #5, if you are using Boomerang 1.1 and the server name you entered doesn’t have the “.” character in it, I try to append each DNS suffix in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\SearchList. If this still doesn’t work, you may want to check the most recent log file in “%TEMP%\vmware-” to see which DNS suffixes I try to append. The log file would say something like “Retrying hostname as” then tell the new address it’s trying. You may want to see if any match the one that you want it to match.
Also, currently, Boomerang is not open-source.
For #4, then how about once a person clicks on the VM name, then when it’s expanded, showing the start, stop, pause restart button, also have a status indicator to the right showing powered on/powered off & paused?
I know that a green/red (yellow for pause?) status indicator would only show for the VM that is currently selected, but it would be more noticeable than just the poweron/poweroff buttons being “depressed/ highlighted”.
The reason for this is my users don’t look at the “highlighted/depressed” buttons and start powering on/powering off vms when they shouldn’t.
They claim not to not easily see the status on the buttons.
What do you think of this though?
It seems that the tool cannot search the VM’s that are members of a vApp.
May be a good idea to check that out for the next version :)
Excellent APP, I like it a LOT !
Hello Team!
Great App! :)
There is a way to share the desktop between the end user and support team?
Thanks.
Best,
Eduardo.
Thanks! Are you referring to a VMware View desktop running over PCoIP?
Hello,
thanks for the tool, i search a long time for this.
It is possible to insert the notes from the virtuel machine when the mouse is over the Virtuell Machine button.
can i start a virtuell machine with boomerang in the comand line.
Thanks for the feedback! It is not possible to start a virtual machine with boomerang in the command line. I will look into the notes thing, that’s a good idea.
Very nice little app which is handy to do quick VM operations.
Alas when I was testing this fling to connect to a different port rather than the defaults for HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443), the application fails to connect. The server is setup correctly on a different port since I can connect with other applications yet wire traces show that Boomerang, even though the port in the “Add Server” dialog is set to the server port, still tries to connect to the default 80/443.
Still, thumbs up for this handy project.
Thanks for the comment, I will look into this. It appears that my application is passing the correct values into the library I use so I will have to find out why it’s not respecting those values.
I may have jumped the gun a little bit here but I did some little analysis with Process Monitor to see the VIX API and Boomerang log files to try and help if possible.
I am currently assuming that this Boomerang log:
2011-08-30 07:31:59.294 [02C8] AddServerDlg::Connect: Attempting to connect to hostname ’0.0.0.0′.
maps to the VIX API log:
Aug 30 07:31:59.544: app-712| VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 10, hostName http://0.0.0.0/sdk, hostPort 8080, options 0
With another custom VIX application which I use to connect to my server produces the following log:
Aug 30 07:35:57.185: app-428| VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 10, hostName http://0.0.0.0:8080/sdk, hostPort 0, options 0
The hostPort is 0 and it is set as part of the hostName as requested by VixHost_Connect in the VIX API reference.
Hope that those be of help.
I noticed that this tool requieres administrative permissions on Datacenter level. not good, not good…
Any fix? Thanx
I am seeing a similar issue. We want this for some of our admins who should have minimal access.
This may be a bug in the API I use. Can you guys e-mail me the Boomerang log and the VIX log where this happens? My e-mail address is grossag @AT@ vmware .DOT. com. You can find the Boomerang log in %TEMP%\vmware-. You should be able to find the VIX log either in that same directory or in a similarly named folder of the form %TEMP%\vmware–.
Sent you the logs. Check it, please
Same thing here.
When trying to add permissions for a user at a VM level, it gives me “Failed to open the VM” if I try to connect through Boomerang.
If I add the user on the Datacenter permissions level, it works.
But I want to limit the user to manage only a bunch of VMs, not all VMs.
Little request: It will be good if this little soft could support Linked-Mode Vcenters. A user could easily access to all VMs he has access through all Vcenters, using only one connection.
These are the errors that I’ve got in the boomerang log:
2011-08-10 12:56:26.020 [0110] VMItem::OnVMOpenStateChanged: VM ‘SERVERNAME’ open state changed to STATE_OPEN_FAILED.
2011-08-10 12:56:26.020 [0110] VixVM::OnVMOpened: Opening VM ‘SERVERNAME’ failed with asyncError 3014 (Insufficient permissions in host operating system).
When vSphere 5.0 is released, I would be interested in seeing whether it has the same problem. It may be a permissions issue with vSphere that I would need to file internally.
same issue with 5, let me know if you still want logs. This is an amazing fling (my personal fav) and want to get it out to more users!
Assigning permissions to folders works
I talked to someone on the VIX team and they said that you could do 1 of the following 2 things to remedy this:
1. Provide backup operator administrator privileges on the Datacenter that hosts the ESX, or
2. Create a Role that just has “System.View” privilege. Assign backup operator this role at Datacenter level and administrator privileges on the ESX.
Adam,
For some reason I can’t reply to your latest message on Feb 23rd, however when you said provide “backup operator” administrator privileges or in option 2 you said to create a new role with system.view.
first, what “backup operator” do you mean? Is this the server’s builtin group “Backup Operators”, or something special?
Second, as far as creating a new role with just “System.View”, I assume this would need to be done via the SDK, any way you can shed some light on the specific command(s) to run?
>> first, what “backup operator” do you mean? Is this the server’s builtin group “Backup Operators”, or something special?
The backup operator is not a built-in group or any existing role. It was a specific role that other customer has created for performing backup operation with selective privileges.
>> Second, as far as creating a new role with just “System.View”, I assume this would need to be done via the SDK, any way you can shed some light on the specific command(s) to run?
This can be done by connecting vSphere client to vCenter too. The “System.View” privilege is available by default to all Roles. Thus, to create a custom role with “System.View” privilege, click Home > Administration > Roles > Add Role, and give a name to the role. You do not need to add any other privilege. The following privileges are created by default for this role:
“System.Anonymous”
“System.Read”
“System.View”
Thanks dude, keep it rocking. Definitely come out with a new version with any tweaks and new ideas. Great program and thanks for sharing.
It would be helpful, if we have Green arrow icons, if the VM is running. After looking at the video, The tool doesnt show, whether the VM is powered on or off or suspended, which is really dangerous for production environments, before we even click connect, we should know, whether the VM is running or not.
Apart from this, I see this as a helpful tool,. Nice work,,,,
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, the API I use doesn’t offer me a scalable way to get the power state of all VMs so I am hesitant to put a power icon next to the VMs. However, when you click a VM to open it, you should be able to tell the power state based on the state of the power controls. The VM’s current state should be shown as a depressed button that cannot be pressed again, which will indicate whether the VM is suspended or powered off.
First off great app!
We have multiple VC’s and one of them is for a labmanager setup. We have a lot of hosts flying up and down and we need to troubleshoot some of them. It would be great if you could at a filter/search bar at the top so we could quickly locate the vm and connect.
Great work!
Kevin
Thanks for the recommendation! I am working on exactly that and am hoping to have an update released in the next few weeks.
This will be great.
Just wanted to let you know that the new version that is available now includes this functionality. Let me know if you find any problems with it.
Hi Adam,
First, Cool App! and very useful!
I have one question – I want my developer to use this application for the same reason as you… less application are open in the same time.
but if i give two different developers to use Boomerang, and they both have different permissions, Boomerang will know how to show them the VMs that they have permission to control in the vCenter?
Thanks!
Roey
I am not too familiar with setting up permissions for users in vCenter, but I believe that it is fairly easy to do. You can test whether this works on Boomerang by adding a server for a specific user. Then you can remove the server using the red “-” icon and then re-add it with another user’s info. Pete confirmed below that this is possible.
Hi,
Whay about porting Boomerang to Android for free? :D
Eps.
Great little tool. Here’s some suggestions that I have:
- have preference setting (THAT DEFAULTS TO ON) to prompt before performing the power operations. This is a pretty dangerous thing to not have that reminder
- How about a MRU (most recently used) list? This would work in addition to favorites, but it is automatic. In other words, if I just rebooted a VM, it would be nice for that VM to float to the top of a list so that I can know to check its power state or console later. Combine that with the other suggestions of showing power state inline and this would be very powerful.
- How about adding a pushpin icon that would turn the window into a real ‘tooltip’ window? Then we could move it over to a second monitor or unused part of the screen and have that quick access without going to the tray each time.
Thanks for the feedback; those are all great ideas I agree about the importance confirming before power operations; I’m not quite sure how I forgot to do that. MRU also sounds good and so does a pushpin icon. I have implemented a pushpin icon in previous applications that I have used but wasn’t sure whether people would actually use it.
Very cool app! I love the favorites feature.
Yes, it is very great. I entered the adress of the vcenter server and it works. only bad think is, that i must enter the credentials at opening the remote console. i hope this will fix very fast!
It’s quite useful and convenient to do basic VM management. I got two questions after a quick trial:
1. It doesn’t accept short hostname (full FQDN and IP address work fine), it’s better to do a name resolution first.
2. The main window is fixed, it’s better to support drag and zoom to customize the window size.
Thanks for the feedback. I will look into implementing the features you requested.
Nice tool.
It could be very nice to implement some search when dealing with large/multiple infrastructure.
I totaly agree with Ammesiah…nice app but you must add search in the next release.
As long as a VM is not collapsed into a hyperlink, you are able to type the name of the VM to navigate over to it. Just try select one VM with the mouse then typing the name of another one. Is this what you’re looking for or are you looking for something more powerful?
All my free esxi hosts do not authenticate with boomerang(while my production vcenter does) either in ssl or plain connections. Any special requirements to make it work with free esx?
Is the same for me with my ESXi Host, I received back the message: “Login failed” when I try the autenthication.
info:
VMware ESXi Version 4.1.0 Build 381591
License: Product: vSphere 4 Hypervisor Licensed for 1 physical CPUs (1-6 cores per CPU)
Someone else has tried ?
Kind Regards
Same problem also for me.
You should be able to get more information from the Boomerang log. Open up the %TEMP%/vmware- directory and find the most recently modified log with “boomerang” in the file name. There should be an entry for the login error detailing the error code and a description string. Can you post it? Thanks!
Nevermind, it looks like VIX doesn’t support free ESXi. I will have someone update this page to make this clearer and will try to change the app to make it clearer as well in a future version. I apologize for the confusion.
ok, thank you adam for the notification.
Regards,
Govanni
A few wishes:
- detect the proxy used when checking for updates
- the ability to use SSON (like vSphere client itself also does)
Thanks for the feedback. The application should be able to auto-detect the proxy that you have set. How did you set your proxy in Start > Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings?
Proxy settings are autodetect. We’re using a MS proxy server, so maybe there is an issue with ports?
The expected behavior is that the application automatically uses the current Windows proxy settings. So to confirm, you are clicking the “Check For Updates” button but it is saying that the check for updates failed? If so, can you try clicking the button again then opening the log by going to %TEMP%\vmware- then finding the most recently modified log file with “boomerang” in the title. There should be a few lines at the end that will say something like:
2011-07-11 06:32:55.324 [11FC] utils::HttpOpenUrl: InternetOpenUrl() failed: http://www.vmware.com/info?id=1047 (12007).
2011-07-11 06:32:55.334 [11FC] utils::ReadURL: InternetOpen failed for direct connection. Checking for proxy.
2011-07-11 06:32:57.897 [11FC] utils::HttpGetHostProxySettings: Failed to get winhttp proxy info with error 0x2f94.
2011-07-11 06:32:57.897 [11FC] utils::ReadURL: Unable to open url at ‘http://www.vmware.com/info?id=1047′.
Can you post those? Thanks!
Very nice, very handy. I added my production vCenter server and tested it with a free ESXi server I have in my lab and it seems to work just fine for both.
Couple of things that would be nice – filter out templates and make it easier to tell if a VM is powered on or off (change the link color, add a icon to indicate the VM is running).
I did a quick write up on it here http://www.vhersey.com/2011/07/boomerang-fling-handy-little-app/
Thanks for the fling.
Hersey
Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you and will look at those requests for a future release.
I looked into this further and unfortunately it appears that I can’t implement either. The VIX API that I use requires that I “open” a VM (which takes 5 seconds per VM) to get any power information or determine whether it’s a template. It doesn’t scale to open each VM so I just have to parse the VMX path (which is all I get) to determine the VM name and not do anything else until the user selects the VM.
I’m looking to see if this addresses one specific use case we have. We have several linux VM’s for our development team. Our internal build processes require these systems to be logged in as a particular user, and “xhost +” run so that X windows can be released to other remote displays. In order for Xhost + to work, it has to be run on the local console. (and no, this cannot be automatically started at boot). Not a big deal when these were physical boxes, but definately something to be concerned about when they are VMs. I’m reluctant to give any of our developers access to a vcenter console just so they can do this, so I’m considering to see if I can make this work for that purpose. The specific VM’s they would need access to are already in a designated folder inside of vsphere, and I added a special user that would just have permission to that folder, but if I add any permission setting minus administrator, it fails to work. Any thoughts?
Sorry… spoke to soon. Just a little top-level permissions issue with my in regards to my earlier comment. All seems to be working well. Very very interesting little app. Nice work.
Glad to hear it worked out, and thanks for the compliment! Let me know if you have any further feedback or questions.
Why are these flings not supporting Free Hypervisors.
Have you tried it? I haven’t tested it but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works. This fling uses VIX ( https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vix-api/ ) so if it supports free ESX then the fling should as well.
Hi Adam,
I tried to login into my ESXi server and I also have installed the 1.10.3 version of VIX API but I’m unable to complete my login getting back the “login failed” message.
Kind regards
info: VMware ESXi Version 4.1.0 Build 381591
Hi,
I got the same error…
Thanks
+1
ESXi 4.1.0 build 260247
Login failed with correct account
anyone handle with that?
Same error. I have VIX for Windows 64-bit installed and ESXi 4.1 with free licence applied.
You should be able to get more information from the Boomerang log. Open up the %TEMP%/vmware- directory and find the most recently modified log with “boomerang” in the file name. There should be an entry for the login error detailing the error code and a description string. Can you post it? Thanks!
vmware-boomerang-….txt:
2011-07-11 08:40:26.967 [1A24] State::AddServer: Adding ESX/VC server failed with error 32 (This operation is not supported with the current license).
vmware-vix….log:
Jul 11 08:40:26.967: app-5856| Vix: [5856 vixVIMProxy.c:1023]: Error VIX_E_LICENSE in VixVIMHostOnLicenseManagerLoaded(): host has basic license and does not support remote management
Thanks for the info. I talked to some developers of the VIX API and confirmed that they do not support free ESXi. I will make this clearer on the web page and in the application in a future version. I apologize for the confusion.
Could you add support for free licenced ESXi?
Actually VIX API does not support Free ESXi, it requires that ESX(i) is licensed
May want to put that in the requirements section
It’s licenced with free licence
I have same problem with ESXi, it does not work, Same complain about license, but if you check another log in temp vmware-vix-…. you can see similar to mine:
—
Jul 11 10:29:27.160: app-18292| Vix: [18292 vixVIMProxy.c:1023]: Error VIX_E_LIC
ENSE in VixVIMHostOnLicenseManagerLoaded(): host has basic license and does not
support remote management
—
so it seems that ESXi does not support remote management and this is ESXi limitation not this tool so cannot be “fixed” or added to Boomerang.