When you have created a DRS cluster the virtual machines in this cluster are automatically migrated to the least busy ESX host. These migrations depend on VMotion. The most common show stopper for VMotion is a connected CD. This application checks if one of your virtual machines is connected to a CD and displays witch ISO image is connected. I’ve written this application in VB.net and it depends on the VIClient.dll witch is written by Robert Baumstark. Some features like disconnecting all the CD’s with one click of a button are not implemented yet, but I’m so proud of my first application that I published it on my weblog anyway :). If you want to give it a try, you can get a free copy here.
Update: 21-05-2007
It seems that some people are experiencing problems when they try to logon to a VC server. The application crashes. I haven’t received any direct info about the circumstances when CDConnected doesn’t work so when you have some information for me please send me an email.
Update: 22-05-2007
I was a bit to enthusiastic with the fancy three view. I ripped it out because in very small or very large environment it caused some errors. I replaced the three view with a normal textbox so when you have the opportunity to test it again I would appreciate it very much.
Update: 06-06-2007
I fixed some bugs and finally I got the disconnect function working. It finally works :-). I had some hard time to figure out why some VM's where failing till I added some code to detect templates. I also had to find out how to address the VM with the connected CD and get a good object reference. Tomorrow I will release a beta to the students in my VI class and let them test it. It just displays a textbox with the VM name and some variables of the VM so it's not that fancy at the moment. That why I bought the Deitel Vb 2005 book. What I'm gone do now is pimp my application and after that I can release it.
Update: 12-06-2007
The application is ready for testing, you get get a copy here : http://www.ntpro.nl/software/VMCDConnected.zip
