Vmware Aiops

Use this skill whenever the user needs to manage VMs in VMware/vSphere/ESXi — it's the entry point for all VM operations. Directly handles: power on/off, clone, snapshot, migrate, deploy from OVA or templates, run commands inside VMs, batch operations, cluster management, vCenter alarm acknowledgment, a one-glance cluster-health triage ("is anything on fire?"), and VM/host/datastore investigation drill-downs. Always use this skill for any "power on", "clone", "deploy", "migrate", "batch", "guest exec", "alarm", or VM lifecycle task, and for triage like "is anything on fire" / "what needs attention now" / "investigate this VM", when the context is explicitly VMware, vSphere, or ESXi. Do NOT use for general read-only queries (inventory/events/VM details — use vmware-monitor), NSX networking (use vmware-nsx), storage/iSCSI/vSAN (use vmware-storage), or Kubernetes cluster lifecycle (use vmware-vks). For multi-step workflows use vmware-pilot. For load balancing/AVI/AKO use vmware-avi.

Disclaimer: This is a community-maintained open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by VMware, Inc. or Broadcom Inc. "VMware" and "vSphere" are trademarks of Broadcom. Source code is publicly auditable at github.com/zw008/VMware-AIops under the MIT license.

VMware family entry point — AI-powered VM lifecycle, deployment, and alarm management — 49 MCP tools.

Start here: install vmware-aiops first, then add modules as needed. Run vmware-aiops hub status to see which family members are installed. Family: vmware-monitor (inventory/health), vmware-storage (iSCSI/vSAN), vmware-vks (Tanzu Kubernetes), vmware-nsx (NSX networking), vmware-nsx-security (DFW/firewall), vmware-aria (metrics/alerts/capacity), vmware-avi (AVI/ALB/AKO), vmware-harden (compliance baselines). | vmware-pilot (workflow orchestration) | vmware-policy (audit/policy)

What This Skill Does

Category	Tools	Count
VM Lifecycle	power on/off, create, reconfigure, clone, migrate, delete, snapshot CRUD, TTL auto-delete, clean slate	16
Deployment	OVA, template, linked clone, batch clone/deploy	8
Guest Ops	exec commands, upload/download files, provision	5
Plan/Apply	multi-step planning with rollback	4
Cluster	create, delete, HA/DRS config, add/remove hosts	6
Datastore	browse files, scan for images	2
Alarm Management	list alarms, acknowledge, reset	3
Triage & Investigation (read-only, delegates to vmware-monitor)	one-glance cluster health summary, object-centered VM/host/datastore drill-down bundles, cross-vCenter "what needs attention now?"	5

Quick Install

bash

uv tool install vmware-aiops
vmware-aiops doctor
vmware-aiops hub status   # see which family members are installed

VMware Family — Install What You Need

vmware-aiops is the entry point. Add modules for additional capabilities:

Module	Install	Adds
vmware-monitor	uv tool install vmware-monitor	Read-only inventory, alarms, events
vmware-storage	uv tool install vmware-storage	iSCSI, vSAN, datastore management
vmware-vks	uv tool install vmware-vks	Tanzu Kubernetes (vSphere 8.x+)
vmware-nsx	uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt	NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT
vmware-nsx-security	uv tool install vmware-nsx-security	DFW microsegmentation, security groups
vmware-aria	uv tool install vmware-aria	Aria Ops metrics, alerts, capacity
vmware-avi	uv tool install vmware-avi	AVI load balancer, ALB, AKO, Ingress

Each module stays independent — small tool count keeps local models (Ollama, Qwen) accurate.

When to Use This Skill

• Power on/off, create, delete, snapshot, clone, or migrate VMs
• Deploy VMs from OVA, templates, linked clones, or batch specs
• Run commands or transfer files inside a VM (Guest Operations)
• Create/configure clusters (HA/DRS)
• Browse datastores for deployable images
• Plan and execute multi-step operations with rollback
• List, acknowledge, and clear vCenter triggered alarms (clear matches by entity type + status — see MCP Tools section)

Use companion skills for:

• Inventory, health, alarms, VM info → vmware-monitor
• iSCSI, vSAN, datastore management → vmware-storage
• Tanzu Kubernetes (Supervisor, Namespace, TKC) → vmware-vks
• Load balancing, AVI/ALB, AKO, Ingress → vmware-avi

Related Skills — Skill Routing

User Intent	Recommended Skill
Read-only monitoring, zero risk	vmware-monitor (uv tool install vmware-monitor)
Storage: iSCSI, vSAN, datastores	vmware-storage (uv tool install vmware-storage)
VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops	vmware-aiops ← this skill
Tanzu Kubernetes (vSphere 8.x+)	vmware-vks (uv tool install vmware-vks)
NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT	vmware-nsx (uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt)
NSX security: DFW rules, security groups	vmware-nsx-security (uv tool install vmware-nsx-security)
Aria Ops: metrics, alerts, capacity	vmware-aria (uv tool install vmware-aria)
Multi-step workflows with approval	vmware-pilot
Compliance baselines (CIS / 等保 / PCI-DSS), drift detection, LLM remediation advisor	vmware-harden (uv tool install vmware-harden)
Load balancer, AVI, ALB, AKO, Ingress	vmware-avi (uv tool install vmware-avi)
Audit log query	vmware-policy (vmware-audit CLI)

Common Workflows

Diagnostic investigations: Before remediating any "why is X slow / failing / down" issue, follow references/investigation-protocol.md. It enforces the four root-cause completeness criteria (falsifiability / sufficiency / necessity / mechanism) and the up-to-three-rounds deepening loop. Only invoke L3+ write tools after the four criteria are satisfied AND the user has approved a remediation plan.

Cluster Health Triage ("what's wrong right now?")

Start here when the ask is "is anything on fire?" before diving into a specific VM. This is a read-only rollup delegated to vmware-monitor, exposed here so triage-then-act stays in one conversation.

1. One glance --> cluster_health_summary (MCP) or vmware-aiops summary (CLI). Read top_issues first — ranked anomalies (disconnected hosts, red/yellow alarms, capacity pressure), each with a drill-down hint; the per-cluster table is context
2. Act on what it surfaces --> a host_down row → investigate the host; an alarm → acknowledge_vcenter_alarm / reset_vcenter_alarm; a hot VM implicated → vm_migrate or vm_reconfigure (after the investigation protocol)
3. Save/share a snapshot --> vmware-aiops summary --html writes an offline, timestamped HTML file (identical to vmware-monitor summary --html — same shared renderer)
4. If vmware-monitor is not installed --> this command/tool is unavailable (AIops delegates to it); install vmware-monitor, or use the deeper per-object read tools in that skill

Object-Centered Investigation → Act (drill-down before you change anything)

Judgment: after triage points at a problem object, drill in with one correlated read before actuating — the bundle aggregates the object with its surrounding infrastructure and recent history so you (and the operator) see the full picture, not a guess. AIops is the conversational entry point, so triage → investigate → act stays in one conversation.

1. Estate-wide --> cross_vcenter_attention ("what needs attention now?" across every vCenter). One vCenter configured → skip to cluster_health_summary
2. Drill into the flagged object (offer the level; skip the question when unambiguous):
   • a VM --> vm_investigation_bundle → state, host it runs on, cluster context, backing datastores, snapshots, alarms & recent changes, performance signals, correlated event timeline
   • a host --> host_investigation_bundle; a datastore --> datastore_investigation_bundle
3. Then act on the evidence --> e.g. bundle shows a wedged VM on a hot host → vm_migrate; a full datastore → vm_delete_snapshot on the sprawl the bundle surfaced. Follow the investigation protocol before any destructive action
4. Widen the window with hours=72; render an offline snapshot with --html (drill-down sections collapse natively, nothing uploaded)
5. If the object name is unknown --> the bundle returns a teaching error naming how to list objects; get the exact name and retry. If vmware-monitor is not installed --> these delegated tools are unavailable

Deploy a Lab Environment

Pre-flight (judgment, not blind sequence):

• Free space: target datastore must have ≥ OVA size × 2 (delta files + thin-provision overhead). If multiple datastores qualify, prefer one with lowest current IOPS pressure (cross-check vmware-aria if available).
• Name hygiene: prefix with date or owner (lab-2026-04-30-alice) so the TTL cleanup audit trail is meaningful.
• TTL: always set. 480 min for a single test session, 7200 min for a week-long sandbox. Never deploy a "lab" VM without a TTL — that is how datastores fill up at 3 AM.
• Snapshot timing: take the baseline after provisioning succeeds, not before — a pre-provision snapshot is just an empty checkpoint.

Steps:

1. vmware-aiops datastore browse <ds> --pattern "*.ova" → confirm image present and size
2. vmware-aiops deploy ova <path> --name <date>-<owner>-<purpose> --datastore <ds>
3. vmware-aiops vm guest-exec <name> --cmd /usr/bin/python3 --args "setup.py" --user admin → if exit ≠ 0, stop, do not snapshot a half-provisioned VM
4. vmware-aiops vm snapshot-create <name> --name baseline (only if multi-iteration testing; skip for one-shot)
5. vmware-aiops vm set-ttl <name> --minutes 480

Batch Clone for Testing

Pre-flight:

• Source VM state: powered-off is safest. If powered-on, VMware Tools must be running and quiesce-capable, else clones may have inconsistent disk state.
• Capacity math: free_space ≥ source.size × count × 1.2 (full clone) or ≥ count × 2 GB (linked clone, delta-only).
• Decision rule: count > 10 → use linked clones (deploy linked-clone); seconds vs minutes per clone, ~100× less storage. Tradeoff: linked clones depend on source snapshot — deleting the snapshot breaks all children.
• Network exhaustion: each clone gets a unique MAC from the vSphere pool; if you batch > 200, verify pool capacity in advance.
• TTL: every clone must have one. Use the plan's metadata to track ownership.

Steps:

1. vm_create_plan with clone + reconfigure + set-ttl steps grouped per VM (atomic per clone)
2. Review the plan with the user — surface count, datastore, irreversible warnings
3. vm_apply_plan — stops on first failure (intentional, do not auto-resume)
4. On failure: vm_rollback_plan → reverses completed clones; manually verify rollback before retrying

Migrate VM to Another Host

Pre-flight (ALL must pass before issuing migrate):

• CPU compatibility: target host CPU family must match source, OR cluster must be in EVC mode. Live migration across mismatched CPUs fails mid-flight and may leave the VM stunned.
• Network parity: every portgroup the VM uses must exist on the target host's vSwitch with the same VLAN. Missing portgroup → vNICs disconnected post-migration.
• Storage visibility: target host must see all of the VM's datastores; otherwise this is a Storage vMotion, not a host migration — different (slower) operation.
• Affinity rules: if the VM is pinned to source by a DRS host-affinity rule, migration silently violates intent. Check cluster info first.
• Hardware passthrough: VMs with PCI passthrough (GPU, USB) cannot live-migrate — schedule a cold migration window.

Steps:

1. Verify VM state and current host via vmware-monitor vm info <name>
2. Verify target host: same cluster, EVC compatible, has required networks/datastores
3. vmware-aiops vm migrate <name> --to-host <target> — wait for task completion, do not assume success on return
4. Post-check: vm info confirms new host AND power state unchanged AND vNICs connected

Usage Mode

Scenario	Recommended	Why
Local/small models (Ollama, Qwen)	CLI	~2K tokens vs ~8K for MCP
Cloud models (Claude, GPT-4o)	Either	MCP gives structured JSON I/O
Automated pipelines	MCP	Type-safe parameters, structured output

MCP Tools (49 — 14 read, 35 write)

Category	Tools	R/W
VM Lifecycle (16)	vm_list_ttl, vm_list_snapshots, vm_task_status	Read
	vm_power_on, vm_power_off, vm_create, vm_reconfigure, vm_clone, vm_migrate, vm_delete, vm_create_snapshot, vm_revert_snapshot, vm_delete_snapshot, vm_set_ttl, vm_cancel_ttl, vm_clean_slate	Write
Deployment (8)	deploy_vm_from_ova, deploy_vm_from_template, deploy_linked_clone, attach_iso_to_vm, convert_vm_to_template, batch_clone_vms, batch_linked_clone_vms, batch_deploy_from_spec	Write
Guest Ops (5)	vm_guest_download	Read
	vm_guest_exec, vm_guest_exec_output, vm_guest_upload, vm_guest_provision	Write
Plan/Apply (4)	vm_list_plans	Read
	vm_create_plan, vm_apply_plan, vm_rollback_plan	Write
Datastore (2)	browse_datastore, scan_datastore_images	Read
Cluster (6)	cluster_info	Read
	cluster_create, cluster_delete, cluster_add_host, cluster_remove_host, cluster_configure	Write
Alarm Management (3)	list_vcenter_alarms	Read
	acknowledge_vcenter_alarm, reset_vcenter_alarm	Write
Cluster Triage (1)	cluster_health_summary (delegates to vmware-monitor)	Read
Object Investigation (4)	vm_investigation_bundle, host_investigation_bundle, datastore_investigation_bundle, cross_vcenter_attention (all delegate to vmware-monitor)	Read

List envelope: the read list tools — browse_datastore, list_vcenter_alarms, vm_list_plans, vm_list_snapshots, vm_list_ttl — return {items, returned, limit, total, truncated, hint} rather than a bare array. Read the rows from items and check truncated before concluding a listing is complete; empty items with truncated: false means checked-and-none, not a failure. The write batch_* tools keep their bare list (complete by construction). Rationale, total semantics, error shape: references/capabilities.md.

Read/write split: 14 tools are read-only (per [READ] docstring marker), 35 modify state. All write tools require explicit parameters and are audit-logged. Destructive operations (vm_delete, vm_revert_snapshot, vm_delete_snapshot, vm_set_ttl (schedules an unattended auto-delete), force power-off, cluster delete/remove-host, alarm reset) require double confirmation at the CLI layer and support --dry-run.

Alarm reset blast radius: vSphere has no per-alarm clear API. reset_vcenter_alarm uses AlarmManager.ClearTriggeredAlarms, which clears all triggered alarms matching the named alarm's entity type (host/VM/all) and current status (red/yellow) — not just the one named. The response's scope field states exactly what was cleared. The named alarm is looked up first, so a typo fails fast without clearing anything.

Read-Only Mode

If a write tool described above is absent from list_tools(), this deployment is in read-only mode: VMWARE_READ_ONLY=true (or VMWARE_AIOPS_READ_ONLY, or read_only: true in config.yaml) withholds all 36 write-effecting tools at start-up — the 35 writes plus vm_guest_download, which writes to a local path. That is a deliberate lockdown, not a fault — do not retry, and do not look for another tool that achieves the same change. Name the operation that is blocked and say an operator must clear the switch and restart the server. The 13 read tools are unaffected. vmware-aiops doctor reports the current state and its source. Running with local or small models? See references/agent-guardrails.md.

CLI Quick Reference

bash

# VM operations
vmware-aiops vm power-on <name> [--target <t>]
vmware-aiops vm power-off <name> [--force]
vmware-aiops vm create <name> --cpu 4 --memory 8192 --disk 100
vmware-aiops vm delete <name>
vmware-aiops vm clone <name> --new-name <new> [--to-host <host>] [--to-datastore <ds>] [--power-on]
vmware-aiops vm migrate <name> --to-host <host> [--to-datastore <ds>]
vmware-aiops vm snapshot-create <name> --name <snap> [--description <text>] [--memory]
vmware-aiops vm snapshot-list <name>
vmware-aiops vm snapshot-revert <name> --name <snap>
vmware-aiops vm snapshot-delete <name> --name <snap> [--remove-children] [--no-wait]
vmware-aiops vm task-status <task-id>                      # poll an async (--no-wait) operation by id
vmware-aiops vm set-ttl <name> --minutes 480 [--dry-run]   # double confirm; daemon auto-deletes VM on expiry

# Guest operations (requires VMware Tools)
vmware-aiops vm guest-exec <name> --cmd <script-path> --args "<args>" --user <username>
vmware-aiops vm guest-upload <name> --local ./script.sh --guest /tmp/script.sh --user <username>

# Deploy
vmware-aiops deploy ova <path> --name <vm> --datastore <ds>
vmware-aiops deploy linked-clone --source <vm> --snapshot <snap> --name <new>

# Cluster
vmware-aiops cluster create <name> --ha --drs
vmware-aiops cluster info <name>

# Datastore
vmware-aiops datastore browse <ds> --pattern "*.ova"

# Alarm management
vmware-aiops alarm list [--target <t>]
vmware-aiops alarm acknowledge <entity_name> <alarm_name> [--target <t>]
vmware-aiops alarm reset <entity_name> <alarm_name> [--target <t>]   # double confirm; see blast radius above

# Family
vmware-aiops hub status        # show installed family members + install commands

Full CLI reference: see references/cli-reference.md

Troubleshooting

"VM not found" error

VM names are case-sensitive in vSphere. Use exact name from vmware-monitor inventory vms.

Guest exec returns empty output

Use vm_guest_exec_output instead of vm_guest_exec — it auto-captures stdout/stderr. Basic vm_guest_exec only returns exit code.

Deploy OVA times out

Large OVA files (>10GB) may exceed the default 120s timeout. The upload happens via HTTP NFC lease — ensure network between the machine running vmware-aiops and ESXi is stable.

Snapshot delete is slow / "still running after Ns"

Deleting an old or large snapshot consolidates its delta disk into the parent — the slowest write operation, often several minutes. vm snapshot-delete waits up to 30 min by default; if it still returns a "still running, NOT failed" message with a task id, the delete did not fail — poll it with vm task-status <task-id>. Do not re-issue the delete or hand-roll polling. For very large snapshots, prefer vm snapshot-delete <name> --name <snap> --no-wait to get the task id immediately and poll.

Plan apply fails mid-way

Run vmware-aiops plan list to see failed plan status. Ask user if they want to rollback with vm_rollback_plan. Irreversible steps (delete_vm) are skipped during rollback.

Connection refused / SSL error

1. Verify target is reachable: vmware-aiops doctor
2. For self-signed certs: set disableSslCertValidation: true in config.yaml (lab environments only)

Warning: "ran against a target that declares no environment"

Policy scopes its rules by each target's environment: declaration, not its name — an unlabelled target matches none of them. Today an undeclared write still runs and logs this warning; the next major release refuses it. Add environment: production (or staging, lab, your own label) to that target in ~/.vmware-aiops/config.yaml now and the upgrade is a no-op. Read-only operations are never affected. Labelling a target production activates the two-person rule for irreversible work — set VMWARE_AUDIT_APPROVED_BY (and VMWARE_AUDIT_RATIONALE) when running those. Check what is in force with vmware-audit policy; config example and exact refusal text: references/setup-guide.md.

Setup

bash

uv tool install vmware-aiops
mkdir -p ~/.vmware-aiops
vmware-aiops init  # generates config.yaml and .env templates
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-aiops/.env

All tools are automatically audited via vmware-policy. Audit logs: vmware-audit log --last 20

Full setup guide, security details, and AI platform compatibility: see references/setup-guide.md

Audit & Safety

All operations are automatically audited via vmware-policy (@vmware_tool decorator):

• Every tool call logged to ~/.vmware/audit.db (SQLite, framework-agnostic)
• Policy rules enforced via ~/.vmware/rules.yaml (deny rules, maintenance windows, risk levels)
• Risk classification: each tool tagged as low/medium/high/critical
• View recent operations: vmware-audit log --last 20
• View denied operations: vmware-audit log --status denied

vmware-policy is automatically installed as a dependency — no manual setup needed.

License

MIT — github.com/zw008/VMware-AIops