suppress pkg_resources DeprecationWarning from vmware-vapi-runtime on setuptools >= 81

[dirtycache]

Problem

Users running netbox-sync with a vSphere source on systems where setuptools >= 81 is installed receive a UserWarning on every run:

/path/to/vmware/vapi/l10n/bundle.py:59: UserWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API.
See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html. The pkg_resources package is
slated for removal as early as 2025-11-30. Refrain from using this package or pin to Setuptools<81.
  from pkg_resources import resource_string

This warning originates in vmware-vapi-runtime 2.52.0 (vmware/vapi/l10n/bundle.py), which imports pkg_resources at runtime. setuptools 81.0.0 (released February 2026) added a DeprecationWarning to pkg_resources/__init__.py, causing this to surface for anyone on a current setuptools.

Because the warning is emitted to stderr, it bypasses the >/dev/null in the documented cron entry and produces unwanted email noise for cron-based deployments.

Root cause

vmware-vapi-runtime 2.52.0 uses pkg_resources.resource_string() to load .properties resource files from the package. The modern stdlib replacement is importlib.resources, which is available in all Python versions netbox-sync supports (3.6+).

Broadcom has already made this fix in vmware-vapi-runtime 9.1.0.0, where the import is replaced with importlib.resources. However, upgrading the full vapi stack (vmware-vapi-runtime, vmware-vapi-common-client, vmware-vcenter) from 2.52.0/8.0.3.0 to 9.1.0.0 is a non-trivial change:

• The 9.x packages come from a new repo (vcf-sdk-python, the rebranded VMware Cloud Foundation SDK)
• VCF SDK 9.x officially targets vCenter 8.x/9.x and drops vCenter 7.x support, which conflicts with netbox-sync's stated compatibility

That upgrade is worth pursuing separately once the compatibility implications are fully assessed.

Fix

Suppress the specific warning at startup in netbox-sync.py, before any vmware modules are imported:

import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings("ignore", message="pkg_resources is deprecated", category=UserWarning)

The filter is scoped to the exact warning message rather than suppressing all UserWarnings. It will become a harmless no-op once the vapi stack is eventually upgraded to 9.x.

Alternatives considered

• Pin setuptools < 81: Treats the symptom, keeps the codebase on aging build tooling, and still leaves a time bomb when pkg_resources is eventually removed from setuptools entirely.
• -W flag on the Python invocation: Only helps users following the exact documented cron entry; does not help systemd, Docker, Kubernetes, or direct invocations.
• Suppress stderr entirely (2>&1): The documented cron entry already does this; the problem affects users who route stderr to logs or rely on cron email for error alerting.

[semx]

This branch carries the #509 changes as well (config.py / connection.py / settings-example.ini) and no longer merges onto development. Could you rebase onto current development with only the warning suppression, and check whether the warning still appears there? development pins pyvmomi 9.1.0.0, whose vapi runtime uses importlib.metadata and only falls back to pkg_resources, so the suppression may no longer be needed.

[dirtycache]

Ack, will try the rebase and report. Thanks!

[semx]

With vcf-sdk 9.1.1.0 (vmware-vapi-runtime 9.1.1.0), l10n/bundle.py no longer imports pkg_resources: python -W error::UserWarning -c "import vmware.vapi.l10n.bundle" passes on Python 3.14 with setuptools 84 and in the development image. The one remaining reference is the except fallback in protocol/client/msg/user_agent_util.py after importlib.metadata, which is not reached. pip install --upgrade vcf-sdk removes the warning, so netbox-sync does not need to suppress it; closing. Please reopen if it still shows after the upgrade.