This script retrieves informations from guestInfo.ovfEnv and print the OVF properties. In second time, it use OVF properties to reset the root password.

get-ovfenv.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
    This script retrieves information from guestInfo.ovfEnv and
    print the OVF properties.

    In second time, it use OVF properties to reset the root password.
"""

import subprocess
from xml.dom.minidom import parseString
from pprint import pprint


ovfenv_cmd="/usr/bin/vmtoolsd --cmd 'info-get guestinfo.ovfEnv'"
chpasswd_cmd = "/usr/sbin/chpasswd"


def get_ovf_properties():
    """
        Return a dict of OVF properties in the ovfenv
    """
    properties = {}
    xml_parts = subprocess.Popen(ovfenv_cmd, shell=True,
                                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read()
    raw_data = parseString(xml_parts)
    for property in raw_data.getElementsByTagName('Property'):
        key, value = [ property.attributes['oe:key'].value,
                       property.attributes['oe:value'].value ]
        properties[key] = value
    return properties


def change_linux_password(user, new_password):
    """
        Change linux password for a user
    """
    print("Setting new password for %s" % user)
    _sp = subprocess.Popen([chpasswd_cmd],
                            stderr=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
    _sp.communicate(input='%s:%s' % (user, new_password))
    _sp.wait()
    if _sp.returncode != 0:
        print("Failed to set new password for %s" % user)


properties = get_ovf_properties()
pprint(properties, indent=1, width=80)
change_linux_password('root',   properties['root_password'])