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Folks,

Just wanted to let you know that we have just published a document to help you get started when using the VI Toolkit for Windows.

Document Title: Managing VMware with PowerShell - Frequently Asked Questions.

Document contains frequently asked questions and code samples to help you get going.

A big thank you to the Product Management, Developer Support Engineering and R&D teams who contributed to document. We hope the document is useful, and please feel to comment so we can improve our products.

Link: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-4210

Regards,

Pablo

This week VMware announces the latest Software Development Kit and I had a chance to catch up with Hari Krishnan the VMware Infrastructure Product Manager for the VDDK.

Pablo: Please tell us about your professional background?
Hari: My professional background includes over 10 years of varied experience in product management, product marketing and technology development for software, security and networking products. Before joining VMware, I was a product manager at F5 Networks for SSL VPN product line. Prior to that I co-founded a start-up ISPsoft, Inc. where I managed IP service provisioning software product. Earlier in my career, I worked in Bell Labs (Lucent) where I developed technologies for IP network management. I got my MS degree in Computer Science from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Bachelor of Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. On the personal side I enjoy the great outdoors and thought it would be nice to have an image of my favorite vacation spots; Yosemite National Park.

Pablo: You must be excited about releasing the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit, can you tell us why our developers should be interested in it?
Hari: Yes. With VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit we are enabling a new eco-system of partners to develop solutions that integrate with VMware virtual disk. The VDDK is an open SDK that developers can use to build cutting edge applications for creating and accessing VMware virtual disk storage.

Pablo: What are some of the use cases for using the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit?
Hari: Virtual Disk Development Kit provides easy access to VMware virtual disk storage.

This enables a wide range of use-cases for application vendors including:
o Creation of virtual machine disk files to store backup of physical images
o Read access to virtual disk to enable off-line centralized scanning of virtual machines for anti-virus
o Write access to virtual disk to enable off-line centralized patching of virtual machines Read access to virtual disk
to enable off-line software package analysis of virtual machines

Pablo: Can you tell us how the VDDK compare contrast to our other SDKs ?
Hari: Sure. It’s important to understand the focus of various VMware APIs and SDKs when developing a solution that supports VMware virtual infrastructure. VMware Developer Center is a good place to start.

In particular, if you are developing a backup solution it is important to understand how VDDK compares with VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) and VI API. VI API is a Web Service / XML interface focused on management of virtual machines and ESX host configuration. Virtual Consolidated Backup enables LAN free backup of virtual machines from a centralized proxy server and eliminates backup traffic from your LAN to improve performance of production virtual machines. VDDK is focused on efficient access and transfer of data on virtual disk storage. VDDK can be used in conjunction with other APIs to offer a complete integrated solution for management of virtual infrastructure. For example, you can use VI API to discover virtual machines deployed on ESX. VDDK can be used to read or write information onto virtual disk associated with a virtual machine. Backup vendors can augment VCB with VDDK to tightly integrate with VMware virtual disk storage.

Pablo: What is the relationship between Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and the VDDK?
Hari: Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open, industry standard for packaging and distributing virtual machines. OVF can be used to encapsulate meta-data about a virtual machine such as virtual hardware requirements, licensing information, virtual disk information and product information for virtual appliance. OVF is extensible so virtual appliance vendors can also embed additional meta-data about their product in OVF. OVF supports multiple virtual disk formats including VMware’s VMDK format as well as Microsoft’s VHD format. OVF simplifies deployment of virtual machines by offering a standard way to package and distribute virtual appliances for multiple hypervisor platforms.

VDDK is an open API and SDK to create and access information on VMware virtual disk storage (VMDK). Future versions of VDDK will include support for creating and accessing virtual disks packaged in OVF format.

Pablo: What should our developers do?
Hari: I would encourage developers to check out the VMware developer center, download the VDDK, get involved in VMware developer community, ask questions as well as give us your feedback.
For Download http://vmware.com/go/virtualdisksdk . Bookmark link to VDDK Forum VDDK forums