How to use Vestris API to power on ESX Server Virtual Machines using VM Name Only?

Question

I'm using the Vestris.VMWareLib API to remotely control my VMs on an ESX 5.0 server. I use the VMWareVirtualMachine.Open method to power on my virtual images. My code is written in C#. The problem is that you need to know the path to the datastore before you can power on the image, which is a bit of a pain. Is there a way to power on images using just the VM name? Thanks, John

Answer 1

I'm using the same technology to power on the VMs, and we have a database with the VM names. And we have a naming convenction, the VM name must unique (do not contains any other server name! f.e: abc and abcd is not allowed).

And inside the code I use the following linq to search for the actual VM by name:

List<VMWareVirtualMachine> vitualMachines = virtualHost.RegisteredVirtualMachines.ToList();
VMWareVirtualMachine serverTofind = vitualMachines.Where(vm => vm.PathName.Contains("Your server name")).First();

I hope it hepls!