Anybody program for the VMWare APIs?

JDMurray

Does anyone have any experience writing code that uses any of the VMWare APIs VI, VIX, or VIMA? I need to know what can be done with ESXi via any of these APIs. I know there's an enormous amount of control API possible with ESX, but I'm looking to only work with the free stuff for now.

HeroPsycho

You might want to check out a lot of the articles and community activity around PowerShell VI Toolkit, if anything to see what can be done with the APIs, not to mention there are impressive things you can do leveraging PowerShell to make use of those APIs.

Check out the VESI project for example.

JDMurray

I'm reading that the VI API exposed by ESX is not fully supported by ESXi. The VI SDK docs only indicate support for ESX and VirtualCenter, but not ESXi. Any ideas about that?


It looks like the APIs are read-only on ESXi: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006543

astorrs

Yes ESXi is read-only (although ESXi 3.5 U3 had a bug and allowed full read/write but it goes away with U4). They use it as a differentiating feature between VI3 and the free ESXi.

Note if you are wanting to test and such a new install of ESXi is automatically licensed with a VI3 evaluation license for 60 days giving you time to test. worst case you reinstall every 2 months - don't worry, it only takes ~10 mins.

JDMurray

ESXi 3.5 U4 operates as ESX for 60 days? With full access to the VI API? I can live with that!

And yes, I read about the accidental VI API exposure in U3. Maybe I need to try a copy of that release as well.

astorrs

JDMurray wrote: »

ESXi 3.5 U4 operates as ESX for 60 days? With full access to the VI API? I can live with that!

And yes, I read about the accidental VI API exposure in U3. Maybe I need to try a copy of that release as well.

Everyone gets confused by VMware's use of "ESXi" as the name of the free product. ESXi and ESX are two hypervisors available from VMware (with subtle differences) as a part of Virtual Infrastructure or VI, which is available in 3 versions (Foundation, Standard and Enterprise). ESXi also happens to be available as a free product (while ESX is not). I really wish VMware would have made things clearer and called it "ESXi Free" or something, I've spent hours explaining the difference to people when I tell them we are deploying ESXi as a part of VI Foundation (for example) and they complain "but then why are we paying for ESX", etc.

All VMware products are available as 60 day evals. Just sign up for Virtual Infrastructure 3 eval and download just ESXi 3.5 U3 Installable.

JDMurray

astorrs wrote: »

Everyone gets confused by VMware's use of "ESXi" as the name of the free product.

Boy, ain't that the truth! The host-based VMWare Server is free, and I assumed that ESXi was the free, machine-based variation of it.

astorrs wrote: »

ESXi and ESX are two hypervisors available from VMware (with subtle differences) as a part of Virtual Infrastructure or VI, which is available in 3 versions (Foundation, Standard and Enterprise).

It took me quite a while to find the VMWare KB article on the differences between ESX and ESXi. I wish they'd post a link to this KB article on their ESX and ESXi product pages.

astorrs wrote: »

All VMware products are available as 60 day evals. Just sign up for Virtual Infrastructure 3 eval and download just ESXi 3.5 U3 Installable.

OK, so what happens 60 days after the installation of ESXi? Is the VI API locked or made read-only? Is the performance throttled? Does the maximum number of concurrently running VMs get capped?


Thanks for the expert help; this is saving me a lot of time and experimentation grief.

astorrs

JDMurray wrote: »

OK, so what happens 60 days after the installation of ESXi? Is the VI API locked or made read-only? Is the performance throttled? Does the maximum number of concurrently running VMs get capped?

The VI API will go read only, you will loose the ability to use VMware Consolidated Backup and VMware Update Manager with the host, and Virtual Center will be unable to manage it.

You will also get warning messages that can be disabled by entering a free ESXi license code (you will recieve one when you d/l the free version of the product).

Unlike with the free Hyper-V Server, there are no differences between the free and paid versions of ESXi with respect to number of VMs, vCPUs, memory, etc.