Obtain Information About a VCH

You can obtain information about a virtual container host (VCH) by using the vic-machine inspect command.

The vic-machine inspect command does not include any options in addition to the common options described in Common vic-machine Options.

Prerequisites

You have deployed a VCH.

Procedure

1. On the system on which you run vic-machine, navigate to the directory that contains the vic-machine utility.

2. Run the vic-machine inspect command.

   The following example includes the options required to obtain information about a named instance of a VCH from a simple vCenter Server environment.

   • You must specify the username and optionally the password, either in the --target option or separately in the --user and --password options.
   • If the VCH has a name other than the default name, virtual-container-host, you must specify the --name or --id option.
   • If multiple compute resources exist in the datacenter, you must specify the --compute-resource or --id option.

   • If your vSphere environment uses untrusted, self-signed certificates, you must also specify the thumbprint of the vCenter Server instance or ESXi host in the --thumbprint option. To obtain the thumbprint of the vCenter Server or ESXi host certificate, run vic-machine without the specifying the --thumbprint option. The inspection of the VCH fails, but the resulting error message includes the required certificate thumbprint. You can copy the thumbprint from the error message and run vic-machine again, including the --thumbprint option.

     NOTE: If you obtain the thumbprint by other means, use upper-case letters and colon delimitation in the thumbprint. Do not use space delimitation.

   $ vic-machine-operating_system inspect
    --target vcenter_server_username:password@vcenter_server_address
    --thumbprint certificate_thumbprint
    --name vch_name

Result

The vic-machine inspect command displays information about the VCH:

• The VCH ID:

  VCH ID: VirtualMachine:vm-101

  The vSphere Managed Object Reference, or moref, of the VCH. You can use VCH ID when you run the vic-machine delete or debug commands. Using a VCH ID reduces the number of options that you need to specify when you run those commands.

• The version of the vic-machine utility and the version of the VCH that you are inspecting.

  Installer version: vic_machine_version-vic_machine_build-git_commit
  VCH version: vch_version-vch_build-git_commit

• The upgrade status of the VCH:

  VCH upgrade status: 
  Installer has same version as VCH
  No upgrade available with this installer version

  If vic-machine inspect reports a difference between the version or build number of vic-machine and the version or build number of the VCH, the upgrade status is Upgrade available.

• The address of the VCH Admin portal for the VCH.

  VCH Admin Portal:
  https://vch_address:2378

• The address at which the VCH publishes ports.

  vch_address

• The Docker environment variables that container developers can use when connecting to this VCH.
  • VCH with full TLS authentication with trusted Certificate Authority certificates:

    DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=1 
    DOCKER_CERT_PATH=path_to_certificates
    DOCKER_HOST=vch_address:2376

  • VCH with TLS authentication with untrusted self-signed certificates:

    DOCKER_HOST=vch_address:2376

  • VCH with no TLS authentication:

    DOCKER_HOST=vch_address:2375

• The Docker command to use to connect to the Docker endpoint.
  • VCH with full TLS authentication with trusted Certificate Authority certificates:

    docker -H vch_address:2376 --tlsverify info

  • VCH with TLS authentication with untrusted self-signed certificates:

    docker -H vch_address:2376 --tls info

  • VCH with no TLS authentication:

    docker -H vch_address:2375 info