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What can I do to avoid receiving a SocketTimeout exception while executing WaitForUpdates? SDK users must code their clients to accept SocketTimeout and retry the WaitForUpdates operation. Also, if you are using Axis, you can set the timeout on a Java stub. VimPortType service = serviceLocator.getVimPort(new URL(urlStr)); //Example, set socket timeout to 30 minutes or 1800 seconds. ((org.apache.axis.client.Stub)service).setTimeout(1800000); // or no timeout //((org.apache.axis.client.Stub)service).setTimeout(0); Where are the server side log files? See the Basic System Administration documentation’s External System Logs section for details. The document is available at The document is available at VMware Docs Can VirtucalCenter inventories have virtual machines that are not associated with a host? Virtual machines (or virtual machine files) must be stored in a datastore. A datastore can be host independent, but to run a virtual machine, that virtual machine must be associated with a valid host. What is the minimal interval between calls if I am collecting performance data? No specific recommendation exists. Note that if the pulling interval is short, it might hurt performance. What are the VMware Tools within the Guest Operating System? See the Basic System Administration documentation’s “Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools” section. The document is available at VMware Docs. Can a VMware VirtualCenter 2.0 client communicate with VMware ESX 3.5? Yes, but the client must talk to a VMware VirtualCenter Server that can connect and communicate with VMware ESX 3.5. Do we need to recompile the client side code that was created using 2.0 SDK with 2.5 SDK libraries? Is any porting needed? No, you do not need to recompile and no extra porting is needed. Can VI SDK 2.5 based clients communicate to 3.0.1 VMware ESX server? Yes, through VMware VirtualCenter Server 2.5. Which versions of Apache Axis and Sun’s JDK are used to generate and compile the VI SDK client stub in Java? Please see the Installation Guide for VMware Infrastructure SDK 2.5, chapter “Setting Up for Java Development”, section “Requirements.” What programming languages are supported by the VMware® Infrastructure SDK? Please see the Installation Guide for VMware Infrastructure SDK 2.5, chapter “Introducing the VMware Infrastructure SDK”, section “Programming Language Support by the VI SDK” and chapter “Setting Up for Java Development”, section “Requirements”. How can a virtual machine use multiple IP addresses? By assigning multiple network adapters. Can administrator passwords be changed in the virtual machine cloning process? When Windows virtual machines are customized during a cloning process, the administrator password can be changed if the conditions described in the following sections are met. Guest customization requires that the source virtual machine used to create the clone or templates has the following virtual hardware: VMware Tools installed At least one network interface card (NIC) configured – When a virtual machine is cloned or used for a template, the new virtual machine has the same number and type of NICs, for example, AMD VLance/PcNet compared with high-performance VMware vmxnet. This cannot be changed during the deployment or guest customization process. SCSI disks – VirtualCenter customization operates on the disk attached to the virtual SCSI node with the lowest address on the SCSI controller with the lowest index. As a result, you must make sure that the guest operating system being customized resides on a disk attached as SCSI 0:0 node in the virtual machine configuration, as follows: Windows guest operating systems – Both the active partition (the partition containing boot.ini) and the system partition (the partition containing the system directory, for example, \WINNT or \WINDOWS), must be on the same virtual disk and attached the SCSI 0:0 virtual SCSI node. Active and system partitions do not have to be the on same partition. Linux guest operating systems – The virtual disk containing the system partition (the partition containing the /etc directory) must reside on the SCSI 0:0 nodes. Hardware correspondence – 32-bit or 64-bit hardware on the source virtual machine must correspond to the 32-bit or 64-bit operating system being installed. Guest customization of a Windows guest operating system can occur if these conditions are met: The guest operating system is not a primary or backup domain controller.* The clone or template has one of the following Windows versions installed: Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, or Professional Windows XP Professional Windows Server 2003, Web, Standard, or Enterprise Editions Microsoft Sysprep tools are installed on the VirtualCenter server Windows XP Home or Windows NT4 operating system guest customization is not supported. Guest customization of 64-bit Windows operating systems is not supported Does Vista support MKS controllers? If your system contains the older version of quickMksAx.dll i.e 2.0.0.0 in the WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files folder, the MKS controller does not work. Newer versions, such as 2.0.1.0, must be registered using the command regsvr32 quickMksAx.dll. Is it possible to submit a power operation to a virtual machine with the MKS controller? No. If you want to do this, you must use one of the other SDKs for issuing operations that affect VM state. The MKS controller is used strictly for the mouse, keyboard, and screen. How do I control the visibility of CustomFields in VMware Infrastructure Client? A CustomField created in VirtualCenter always appears in VI Client. Currently, no feature is available to control this. How I change a virtual disk’s label? This feature is not available in current version. In thinprovisioning, how disk determined file size can be compared to total size of disk? No direct way to do, except by checking the VMDK file size via a standard DataStoreSearch and could compare the allocated bytes of the File with the capacity noted by the VirtualDisk. Sample code for reference. Do VMware APIs support sessions time out? Yes, just like other HTTP services. Can client session timeouts be configured using VMware Infrastructure Client? Yes. What is the default value for client session timeout? 30 seconds. What happens if an uncompleted SOAP message is sent to a host? This known issue is fixed in VMware ESX 3.0.2. How can I retrieve translated events or tasks based on a locale? This functionality is not currently available. How can I obtain the raw values on which some metrics are calculated? Raw numbers are available in vmPerl but by using VI API PerfQuerySpec with direct connections to VMware ESX 3.x only and parameter can be retrieved. There needs some interpolation conversion from milliseconds to seconds, or bytes to KB which can be related back to vmPerl data. intervalId = 0; maxSamples = 1; startTime = NOT SET endTime = NOT SET What is the relevance of the key value associated with an event? The key property is associated with the event. This contains the eventid. This key is not static or predetermined and is populated at the time the event occurs. What might cause QueryPerf to return corrupted XML? XML might be corrupted while manipulating data returned from an API into XML format for a customize usage, or while parameters are being passed to the API extracted from the XML. What might cause poor performance when calling RetrieveProperties in asp.net for ~500 objects? There might be two reasons: A. Time taken during connecting itself being the reason for a slow down. B. XML Serialization. Why might I encounter a SOAP error while running the code for cloning virtual machines in Java? Make sure you are using Axis 1.4, which is the tested version. How can I set up my development system to have access to VMware and CIM classes? VMWare ESX server 3.0 and above (COS full version) ship with Pegasus installed and turned on by default. Pegasus is the CIM server (or CIMOM). What approach needs to be taken to generate the classes or wrappers using mgmtclassgen? You can write your own CIM clients that talk to Pegasus or use CIM client utilities, for example, WbemCLI or Pegasus client library. No issues exist when writing with C# with mgmtclassgen or using MOF to build an object model. MOF is available in the downloaded zip package. What precautions need to be taken for creation of multiple disks? The unit number must be unique for each device attached to a controller. Normally, two devices on the same controller cannot be assigned the same unit number. unitNumber* - xsd:int - Unit number of this device on its controller. This property is null if the controller property is null (for example, when the device is not attached to a specific controller object). What might cause the error Number of virtual devices exceeds the maximum for a given controller? This error occurs when multiple devices with same unit number are attached with a controller. Why might the getguestinfo parameter fail to retrieve a variable? The issue is with vmware-cmd, which is part of the Scripting API (or VmPerl). These are now legacy interfaces and VMware has no plans to update this package in the near future. Use the VI Perl Toolkit to retrieve a variable. Why isn’t a VirtualCenter created when a DRS recommendation is created? In general, the recommendations that are given by DRS are applied on the basis of the automation level set for the DRS cluster. For the manual setting, administrators must apply the recommendations at their discretion. For partial automated settings, the DRS automatically places the virtual machine on a host based on the resources available when the virtual machine is powered on. For the running virtual machines, it makes recommendations and administrators decide whether to follow those recommendations. For the fully automated setting, DRS makes all migration decisions based on the migration threshold set by the administrator. How can I get DRS migration recommendation alerts? You can use either the VI Client or the VI SDK. Can I add variables in VMX? This feature is not currently available. How can I determine VMDK file sizes? Attached is the sample code for reference.

What kind of events can we detect by using the SDK? Please provide a link to documentation, or a sample script Go to the API reference page. Click the Data Object types. Type Event in the Quick Index text box. The list that appears under the text box is the complete list of classes that represent one or the other events. The class names are intuitive, so you can easily locate the event you are interested in. Can we get asynchronous notifications for events from VMware ESX? If so, can we have a sample script that explains this? The CheckForUpdates method defined in the PropertyCollector managed object allows you to receive managed object updates asynchronously. The SDK package includes samples that provide the method usage. See the GetUpdates.java file in the com.vmware.samples.general package. What performance and use information (CPU use, memory use, disk use, and so on) can we query using the SDK? Go to the API reference page. Scroll down to Performance Counter Values, to the links for the resources like CPU, Disk, Memory, and so on. Click a link to view the details and complete descriptions of each performance counter that can be tracked. Where can I find pointers or a sample application of how to create and delete VMware snapshots if they are not posted externally? Sample programs are included with the VI SDK that provides samples for creating, deleting, and applying the snapshots for the virtual machines. The VMSnapshot.java sample provided in the com.vmware.samples.vm package illustrates these functions. Is there an API method to hot add or remove a virtual disk? If so, can you provide a pointer to a sample script? You can only add a virtual disk to a virtual machine when the virtual machine is powered on. To remove a virtual disk, power off the virtual machine. The VMReconfig.java file in the com.vmware.samples.vm package illustrates these operations. Can I perform end-to-end relationship mapping from a data store to the devices on the storage array? You can do this through the VI SDK and CIM APIs. The CIM SDK includes a sample that shows end-to-end topology discovery. See vm-storage-info.cpp and cim-storage-discovery.cpp in the CIM C++ samples. Are CIM commands passive only? For example, how can I initiate snap on a storage array? The VMware ESX 3.0 CIM implementation is read-only, therefore you cannot initiate an operation by using the CIM API. Can I gather storage-array performance metrics through CIM, and what are the methods? Performance metrics are not available through CIM. You can use the VI SDK to obtain the performance metrics. See Q 3. for the types of metrics available through the VI SDK. What is the discovery capability through SDK, API, or CIM to provide information about the back-end storage array? Some basic SCSI inquiry information is available in the VMWARE_StorageExtent CIM class and ScsiLun data object in the VI SDK. What is the array-based replication capability to trigger array-based snapshots or remote replication? These capabilities are not supported through VMware APIs. Can I correlate performance metrics with a storage array? VI SDK provides stats for each LUN (ScsiLun) that can be mapped to an array. Can I integrate with array-based storage management applications? VMware does not currently integrate with any storage management applications directly.

How do I retrieve all the hosts and virtual machines managed by VirtualCenter? The mob page of a VirtualCenter Server helps you understand how to do this. Start from the ServiceInstance page (type <VC_server_host_name_or_IP>/mob in a browser) and click through the value link of the following property names: content > rootFolder > childEntity* > hostFolder > childEntity. For each childEntity, you see the host and all the virtual machines on that host. To get all of the virtual machines, from the ServiceInstance page, traverse property content > rootFolder > childEntity > vmFolder > childEntity to get all the virtual machines. For each virtual machine, click through its property datastore > host to get the host for that virtual machine. How can I get a HostSystem or VirtualMachine object more efficiently when I know its DNS name or IP address? You can use the managed object SearchIndex to achieve this. For more information, please refer to this tech notes. VMware tools must installed in the virtual machine for this feature to work properly. What does the AnswerVM method do? The AnswerVM method answers a virtual machine question that is blocking a virtual machine. Virtual machine questions (abstracted by VirtualMachineQuestionInfo data object) are special conditions in the platform that must be answered before the virtual machine can resume. They are almost always issues that prevent a virtual machine from powering on or getting into the BIOS boot until they are answered. For example, if the configured hard disk is marked being formatted on a virtual machine that used a BusLogic SCSI controller but the current virtual machine has an LSI Logic controller, the VMKernel wants to verify that it is OK to change the disk marking and continue booting. Virtual machine questions are not intended for or available to guest software. They are a low-level intrusive solution for egregious but closed-ended problems, as an alternative to simply refusing to boot until the problem is fixed. What are the Data Objects related to ISO images and VM? How should I use them? The related data objects are VirtualMachineConfigInfo, VirtualHardware, VirtualDevice, VirtualDeviceBackingInfo, VirtualCdrom, VirtualCdromIsoBackingInfo. The VirtualMachineConfigInfo data object provides virtual machine settings and virtual hardware configuration for the same. The hardware property (VirtualHardware data object type) provides the set of virtual devices available. This list has the one device of type VirtualCdrom that inherits the VirtualDevice. Get the backing property of the VirtualCdrom. If the returned object VitualDeviceBackingInfo is an instance of VirtualCdromIsoBackingInfo, that object provides the ISO backing for the virtual CD-ROM. The virtual machine configuration can be changed by using ReconfigVM_Task. This task takes in VirtualMachineConfigSpec. Any changes to devices can be configured using VirtualDeviceConfigSpec. This data object contains a list of devices. What are the measuring units for the objects HostFileSystemVolume and HostNicFailureCriteria? HostFileSystemVolume is measured in bytes. HostNicFailureCriteria is measured in mBps (megabytes per second). How can historical data and updates be retrieved? By using TaskHistoryCollector. This object updates when server appends a new task by adding a new item in this collector. Use one of two methods to retrieve it: latestPage property readNextTasks and readPreviousTasks methods, which return the subsequent page in the corresponding direction How can a list of users currently logged in to the system be retrieved? By using the APIs. Use the SessionManager managed object for this purpose. Complete information is available by following these steps: 1. Retrieve the service content. 2. Use the service content to get a managed object reference of a session manager. 3. Use the sessionList property of SessionManager to fetch an array of UserSession. The UserSession array contains the list of all the currently active sessions and their respective details, including the full name of the user, user name, login time, session ID, and so on. What is the advantage of QueryPerf over QueryPerfComposite? QueryPerfComposite uses the startTime and endTime properties in PerfQuery object. Setting the maxSample property of object PerfQuery to one with QueryPerfComposite provides the most recent sample available, not real-time statistics. Do not use this property with QueryPerfComposite. Sometimes CreateVM() tasks show timeout errors. How can the timeout value for CreateVM() be changed? The default timeout value for client-side HTTP is 90 seconds. This value can be set as per requirements of applications. After creating the object of the VimService, it can be changed by Timeout property in .Net. Use timeouts of 5 minutes or more in Axis Java to avoid this problem. Which functions are best suited to monitor the state change of a virtual machine? GetContents() and GetUpdates(). If a client is making so many GetContents() calls the load on the server increases, resulting update delays, use GetUpdates(). Why is ComputeResourceSummary.totalMemory returned as a negative value? This is known issue and is fixed in VMware VirtualCenter v2.5, VMware ESX 3.5 and VMware ESXi 3.5. What is the use of summary.guest.ipAddress? If multiple IP addresses are assigned to a virtual machine, guest.ipAddress or summary.guest.ipAddress return the primary IP address assigned to the guest operating system. How can the listing of all IP address assigned to a virtual machine be retrieved? guest.net returns array of GuestNicInfo, holding guest information about the network adapters. ipAddress property returns the IP addresses of the adapter. How can events be notified as they occur? Managed object EventHistoryCollector provides a mechanism for retrieving historical data and updates when the server appends new events. The latestPage property returns all the events on the latest page. This can be used unders certain the limitation of page size, you need to change the page size to a large number using method SetCollectorPageSize. What is the reason for error HTTP: 503 Service Unavailable when using the RetrieveServiceContent API? 503 errors related to session limits on VMware ESX and VMware VirtualCenter and we have found SOAP session limit messages in our VMware ESX hostd.log files. What is the return type of VirtualMachine.info.tools.toolsVersion? Integer. The current SDK documentation for this incorrectly states Boolean. This will be updated in next documentation release. How can the name of a virtual machine be retrieved? APIs are available in the SDK for this task, as follows: 1. Using the RetrieveProperties API, find the datacenter reference object and the virtual machine folder for this datacenter. 2. Retrieve all the virtual machines in this folder. 3. Use the config.name property; find the name of a particular virtual machine. 4. (Optional) If a guest operating systemis installed on the virtual, call the FindByIp API. This returns the ManagedObjectReference of the virtual machine. You can retrieve the name property from it. Can a VM be created with multiple disks? Yes, multiple disks can be created during the CreateVM_Taks. How to enable the "Hide the Nx flag from the guest"? By setting CpuFeatureMask property of VirtualMachineConfigInfo data object of Virtual Machine. Are the DRS recommendations published through the VI API. Yes, the DRS recommendations are published through the VI API. So you can track them using your custom application using the SDK. For fetching the list you might want to use the Managed Object -"ClusterComputeResource" and then retrieve the property "drsRecommendation". How BIOS related field can be read using API? This feature is not available in current version and would be available in future versions. How license level information can be retrieved with APIs? Currently, No API is available to get this information. How to get the “device Id” of an already existing virtual disk? "key" property of VirtualDevice object is the device Id of that device. This property is a unique key that distinguishes this device from other devices in the same virtual machine. Which API returns the list of Numa Nodes available on the host? HostSystem->hardware->numaInfo->numaNode contains the information about each of the NUMA nodes on the host. The array is empty if the host is not NUMA-capable. What parameters we need to provide when creating a Virtual Device and add it to VM in creation of VM process? To create a new Virtual Device, we need to provide the parameters key, controllerKey, unitNumber and backing. During “Update Network Config” operation, which changeOperation works? The only mode that is implemented is incremental mode. Only add operations are supported for instances. Singleton configuration is not supported. Does VirtualDeviceConfigSpecFileOperation.replace support on the disks? No, this operation supports only for the floppy images. How can an existing VMDK are replaced with a new unformatted one? This can be done by using RecofigVM_Task API and performing "edit' file operation Device. Following are the steps to replace a vmdk. 1. First get the device on which the Virtual Disk to be replaced exist. 2. Then create a new backing info, with new file name 3. Set this new backinginfo in the Virtual device 4. To create a new backing file, use the "Create" fileOperation or To edit the existing device operation use the "Edit" fileoperation.“edit”. Can a virtual machine be created with multiple disks? Yes, during the CreateVM_Task. Sample code for reference. How can I enable Hide the Nx flag from the guest? By setting the CpuFeatureMask property of VirtualMachineConfigInfo data object of the virtual machine. sample code for reference. Are DRS recommendations published through the VI API? Yes. You can track them using your custom application using the SDK. To retrieve list, use managed object ClusterComputeResource and retrieve the drsRecommendation property. How can BIOS-related fields be read using APIs? This feature is not available in the current version. How can license-level information be retrieved using APIs? This feature is not available in the current version. Sample code for reference. How can I get the device ID of an already exis(ting virtual disk? The key property of the VirtualDevice object is the device ID. This property is a unique key that distinguishes this device from other devices in the same virtual machine. How can the list of NUMA nodes available on the host can be retrieved? How the list of NUMA nodes available on the host can be retrieved? A: HostSystem > hardware > numaInfo > numaNode contains the information about each of the NUMA nodes on the host. The array is empty if the host is not NUMA capable. What virtual device parameters are required at the creation of a virtual machine process? To create a new virtual device, provide the parameters key, controllerKey, unitNumber, and backing. During an Update Network Config operation, which changeOperation works? The only mode that is implemented is incremental mode. Only add operations are supported for instances. Singleton configuration is not supported. Does VirtualDeviceConfigSpecFileOperation.replace support disks? No, this operation supports only floppy images. How can I replace an existing VMDK with a new, unformatted one? By using the RecofigVM_Task API and performing edit file operation device. Follow these steps to replace a VMDK: 1. Get the device on which the virtual disk to be replaced exists. 2. Create new backing info with a new filename. 3. Set the new backing info in the virtual device. 4. To create a new backing file, use the "Create" file operation or To edit the existing device operation use the "Edit" fileoperation.“edit”. Why does the EventFilterSpec object behave differently on VMware VirtualCenter and VMware ESX? Event filtering is done on VMware VirtualCenter, not on VMware ESX. Can a virtual machine be created with static MAC provided? Yes. Sample code for reference. Can basic datastore information be retrieved using an API? Yes, using the datastores API. Sample ode for reference. Can CPU shares be changed during cloning process? Yes. Sample code for reference. How can QueryEvent API be used with VMware ESX? The QueryEvent API works with VirtualCenter only and is not supported by VMware ESX. Sample code for reference.

What are shares, reservation, and limit? Shares specify the relative priority or importance of a virtual machine. Each virtual machine is entitled to resources in proportion to its specified shares, bounded by its reservation and limit. Reservation specifies the guaranteed reservation for a virtual machine. The server allows you to power on a virtual machine only if the CPU and memory reservation are available. The reservation is expressed in concrete units (MHz or MB). When resources are not used, the VMware ESX host makes them available to other virtual machines. Limit specifies the upper limit for CPU or memory for a virtual machine. A server can allocate more than the reservation to a virtual machine, but never allocates more than the limit. The limit is expressed in concrete units (MHz or MB). For more information about shares, reservation, and limit, see VMware Resource Management Guide. What is the difference between VirtualMachine.runtime.maxCpuUsage and VirtualMachine.summary.quickStats.overallCpuUsage? VirtualMachine.runtime.maxCpuUsage is a property of the virtual machine, indicating the limit value. This value is always equal to the limit value set for that virtual machine. VirtualMachine.summary.quickStats.overallCpuUsage gives basic utilization statistics. Obtain additional fine-grained information by using the performance counters that are available for host and virtual machine. For more information about performance counters, see Appendix B in the VMware Infrastructure SDK Programming Guide and the SDK API Reference Guide. When a virtual machine’s CPU limit is 2GHz and reservation is 1GHz, what is the range of CPU utilization? Between 0 and 2. CPU limit represents the cap of the CPU time used by the virtual machine, and hence the upper value cannot be more than 2. CPU reservation represents the guaranteed CPU time when the virtual machine needs it. If it is not using the reserved CPU time, the unused CPU time can be used by other virtual machines, and hence the lower value can be as low as 0. Can virtual machines start if the sum of the reservation is greater than the available resources? A virtual machine will only start if its reservation can be satisfied. So, in this case, all the virtual machines whose reservation can be met start. Are the limit, reservation, and shares interpreted similarly for memory utilization? Yes. Can a virtual machine use two or more physical processors? Yes. By default VMware ESX takes care of this internally. However, you can configure the CPU affinity to assign a virtual machine to one or more specific physical processors. For information on how to configure this in VI Client, please refer to VMware document “Resource Management Guide”, chapter “Advanced Resource Management”, section “CPU Virtualization”. In which order can virtual disks be created? Virtual disks can always be created in sequence. Why does PermGen/Memory Size sometimes increase by 10-20MB when using Java? This is a known JDK and Axis issue. Does CIM support performance counters for network, CPU, memory, and so on? CIM does not offer counters. VI API offers counters for CPU, ResCpu, Memory, Network, Disk, System, and ClusterServices. Why does ReconfigureVM_Task take so long to execute? Performance of ReconfigureVM_Task is depending on the inventory or the rate of reconfiguration of virtual machines, as follows: *If a customer has a large inventory, recomputing the resource pool decreases the performance of ReconfigureVM_Task. *If the rate of reconfiguration of a virtual machine is high (around 1 configuration per second) it creates a lot of queuing in host syncs and taskinfolistener waiting becomes longer, causing the performance of ReconfigureVM_Task to decrease. Can vms cpu/memory shares be changed? Yes, they can be changed by using ReconfigureVM_Task. Do not make frequent changes to a virtual machine’s cpu/memory shares because these changes are costly and result in changes to the resource management policies that, in turn, result in DRS invocation and redistribution of adjusted resource settings to all the hosts in the cluster. Share changes are expected to occur infrequently (less than 15-minute intervals) because they are policies for the relative resource priority of a virtual machine. How can the DRS policy be recalculated within the default interval? You cannot prevent DRS from being called when resource policies change except by disabling DRS on the cluster. However, disabling DRS on the cluster causes you to lose your RP hierarchy. Why does the config.hardware.device property show different values on VMware VirtualCenter and VMware ESX after a snapshot is taken? This is a known issue and fixed in VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.2. Sample code for reference. How can the volumes in disk files be retrieved? This information cannot be retrieved directly from the APIs. Use MSFT tools to get the volume information. What are CPU counters? Properties that provide the performance of the CPU in statistics. How can CPU counters be retrieved? ManagedObject PerformanceManager should refer in data object PerfQuerySpec with the description of CPU. How can all CPU counters for all instances of a CPU be retrieved? All the cpu counters do not show the individual statistics only. Some counters show the aggregated statistics value for all the CPU instances like CPU Usage in MHz (Min/Max/Average Rate), Reserved capacity. Sample code for reference.

I am new to virtualization, where can I get more information ? Start by reviewing VMware information on virtualization. Introduction to Virtualization Managing your Virtualization through the VMware APIs What are the names of the VMware vSphere SDKs and CLIs and how can I find out what is new ? (Updated for vSphere SDK 4.1 Release) The VMware SDKs are organized into two categories, for Developers and  Administrators. We encourage you to visit the SDK / CLI product pages  and review the Release notes and Documentation. Audience vSphere VMware Infrastructure 3.x Developer vSphere Web Services SDK 4.1 VMware Infrastructure SDK Developer vSphere SDK for Perl 4.1 VMware Infrastructure Perl Toolkit Developer vSphere SDK for Java (Tech Preview) VMware Infrastructure for Java (Tech Preview) Developer vSphere Guest SDK 4.0 VMware Guest SDK Developer VIX API 1.6 VIX API Developer Virtual Disk Development Kit 1.2 Virtual Disk Development Kit Developer VMware Studio VMware Studio 1.0 Developer CIM SDK 4.1 CIM SDK Administrator vSphere Management Assistant 4.1 VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant Administrator vSphere Command Line Interface (vCLI) 4.1 VMware Infrastructure RCLI Administrator VMware OVF Tool 1.0 Not Available Administrator vSphere PowerCLI 4.1 VMware Infrastructure Toolkit for Windows What can I do with the VMware vSphere SDKs and APIs ? The VMware vSphere SDKs and APIs allow developers, and administrators to  integrate and automate solutions using the vSphere APIs. Administrators  can use our easy to use tools such as the vSphere PowerCLI to automate  day to day tasks using PowerShell. Software developers can integrate  with existing appications using standards based solutions. As a general  rule of thumb our SDKs and Toolkits can do what the vSphere Client can  do. What are the common tasks that can be automated using the vSphere APIs ? Provisioning Hardware Health Monitoring VM Lifecycle TroubleShooting Performance Monitoring Where can I download the latest SDKs, get Knowledge Base Articles, Code Sample and Community postings? Visit the http://developer.vmware.com/ I need to create scripts for ESXi - where can I go to find out more about what tools are available ? Visit the VMware Automation Tools site for CLI downloads, documentation, sample code and community contributions http://vmware.com/go/sysadmintools Where can I find a high level overview of our APIs ? Brief description of our APIs can be found here Where can I learn about latest webinar events ? We have started a webinar program we call VMware Coffee Talk Webinars.  We update the latest event on our calendar visit http://developer.vmware.com/ Home page Events. You can also see our reference links for past recorded events: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10751 Can you briefly describe the vSphere API architecture? The VMware  vSphere API provides a complete set of language-neutral  interfaces to the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Management (VIM)  Framework. The vSphere API I is implemented as industry-standard Web  services hosted on VirtualCenter Server and ESX Server systems. The  vSphere API complies with the Web Services Interoperability Organization  (WS-I) Basic Profile 1.0, which includes XML Schema 1.0, SOAP 1.1, WSDL  1.1. For more information see the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 The Web service provides all the operations necessary, including  life-cycle operations, to monitor and manage virtual infrastructure  components—compute resources, virtual machines, networks, and storage. VMware has Perl (vSphere Web Services SDK) and PowerShell (vSphere  PowerCLI) bindings to facilitate management for Perl and Windows  developers / administrators. What is the vSphere Web Services SDK, and what does it include? The vSphere Web Services SDK facilitates development of client  applications that target the vSphere API. The vSphere API is exposed as a  Web service on the vSphere 4.x, VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms (ESX  Server, VirtualCenter Server systems). The vSphere Web Services  includes: Pre-compiled Java client libraries -- vim.jar, vim25.jar -- for development and testing; A complete set of documentation for setup, programming guide, and the API reference. Sample code for Web-services client applications Java and Microsoft C# environments. I am new to the vSphere Web Services SDK where do I start ? (Updated for vSphere Web Services SDK 4.1) 1. Download the Software Development Kit. 2. Read the Developer Set Up Guide 3. Understand the capabilities by reading the Programming Guide 4. Review Reference Guide which provides a complete description of objects, methods, and properties. 5. Review Release Notes I am stuck what kind of help can I get for me or my organization ? VMware now offers dedicated developer support for your organization when  using the vSphere SDKs / APIs and CLIs. Developer support contracts  sold per developer seat with unlimited usage. Please be sure to read the  scope of support. Developer Support can be purchased online, through a  VMware Partner or by calling VMware directly. Developer Support Program  Information http://vmware.com/go/sdksupport What programming languages does VMware recommend when using the vSphere Web Services SDK? The following are recommended languages when interfacing with the VMware vSphere Web Services SDK. Developer Community Development Environment / Framework Java: J2SE 1.5_0_08 or later C#: Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft Visual Studio 2003, Microsoft Visual C# Web services client development tool set Java: Apache Axis 1.4 C#: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Which versions of Apache Axis and Sun’s JDK are used to generate and compile the VI SDK client stub in Java? Apache Axis uses Apache Axis 1.4 (recommended) or Apache Axis 1.2.1 Java uses Java Standard Edition 2, version 5.0 (J2SE 1.5.x) or J2SE 1.4.x. VMware recommends using J2SE 1.5.0_08 (or later). For further details on the above please refer to the chapter  “Setting Up for Java Development”, chapter in the “Developer’s Setup  Guide. Where can I find more information about Web Services? See the following industry sites: Web Services Web Services Tutorials .Net Axis Web Service Frameworks Where can I find more information on the vSphere and VI SDK Licensing Agreements ? Please review our VMware SDK Frequently Asked Questions Document http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-7983 What is the VMware Perl Toolkit and when should I consider using it? The VI Perl Toolkit provides an easy-to-use Perl Scripting interface to  the VMware Infrastructure API (VI API). Administrators and developers  who may be more familiar with Perl can readily leverage the VI API. The  VI Perl Toolkit has many uses ranging from day to day management,  automation of VI, to prototyping concept projects and applications. What is the vSphere PowerCLI ? The VI Toolkit for Windows provides Windows administrators with a  familiar and easy to use interface to manage VMware infrastructure. If  you would like to download, please visit http://vmware.com/go/powershell for more information. We recommend you review our Managing VMware with PowerShell Frequently Asked Questions.