Category Archives: vSphere API

posts on vSphere API/SDK samples/scripts

Tutorial PART II: How to access/navigate vCenter server or ESXi host Inventory using vSphere API

December 5, 2014HOME, vSphere APIvSphere API using JavaVikas Shitole

Before going to start this tutorial on how to access/navigate your vCenter server or ESXi inventory, lets see how do managed objects vCenter & ESXi hierarchy looks like.

Organization of managed objects in the vCenter inventory.

Organization of managed objects in the ESXi host inventory

The host agent i.e. ESXi hierarchy has the same general form as the vCenter hierarchy, but most of the objects are limited to one instance. As you could see in both of these screenshots, ServiceInstance managed object is on top, hence first managed object we should create in our application is ServiceInstance. We have seen how to create ServiceInstance object in my Part I Tutorial on how to initialize connection with ESXi or vCenter. Now in part II, we will look into how to navigate/access your vCenter or ESXi inventory. Here we go.

We can access/navigate all managed entities by leveraging “InventoryNavigator” class from VI JAVA. As part of this tutorial, we are interested in one constructor & two methods offered by this class. Please refer highlighted sections from below Javadoc screenshot.

Let us start accessing major managed objects in order to demonstrate the use of InventoryNavigator class from VI JAVA.

1.Datacenter: The Datacenter managed object is container object for ESXi hosts, VMs, networks & datastores.

[java]
package com.vmware.vijava;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import com.vmware.vim25.InvalidProperty;
import com.vmware.vim25.RuntimeFault;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Datacenter;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedEntity;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
public class VCESXInventoryNavigator {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InvalidProperty,
RuntimeFault, RemoteException, MalformedURLException {
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL("https://192.168.1.1/sdk"), "root", "vmw", true);
System.out.println(si);
String dcName = "IND-BLR";
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();
Datacenter datacenter = null;
datacenter = (Datacenter) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("Datacenter", dcName);
System.out.println("Data center Name::" + datacenter.getName());
ManagedEntity[] dcenters = new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntities("Datacenter");
System.out.println("Number of Datacenters in vCenter::" + dcenters.length);
}
}
[/java]

Line 15: It is ServiceInstance object creation which is top object in hierarchy. We learned this object in PART I of this tutorial
Line 18: This is the object creation for rootFolder, which would be passed as parameter in InventoryNavigator class constructor, refer JAVADOC screenshot posted above.
Line 20: Here we are accessing single datacenter managed entity object by passing existing vCenter datacenter name in searchManagedEntity() method of InventoryNavigator class. Once we get this object, we can access any other entities that come under datacenter such as hosts,VMs, datastores, networks etc.
Line 22: Here we get array of managed entity objects of all the datacenters available in vCenter Server. This gives us ability to play with all the objects across vCenter Server.
Learn more about Datacenter Managed object here

Similar to accessing datacenter managed entities the way we did above, below all snippets will give you idea on using searchManagedEntity() & searchManagedEntities() methods for accessing hosts, clusters, datastores from single ESXi or across vCenter Server.

2. HostSystem: The HostSystem managed object type provides access to a virtualization host platform i.e. ESXi

[java]
package com.vmware.vijava;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import com.vmware.vim25.InvalidProperty;
import com.vmware.vim25.RuntimeFault;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.HostSystem;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedEntity;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
public class VCESXInventoryNavigator {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InvalidProperty,
RuntimeFault, RemoteException, MalformedURLException {
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL("https://192.168.1.1/sdk"), "root", "vmw", true);
System.out.println(si);
String hostName = "10.192.34.2";
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();
HostSystem host = null;
host = (HostSystem) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("HostSystem", hostName);
System.out.println("Host Name::" + host.getName());
ManagedEntity[] hosts = new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntities("HostSystem");
System.out.println("Number of hosts in vCenter ::" + hosts.length);
}
}
[/java]
Learn more about HostSystem Managed object here

3.ClusterComputeResource: This data object aggregates HostSystem objects into a single compute resource.

[java]
package com.vmware.vijava;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import com.vmware.vim25.InvalidProperty;
import com.vmware.vim25.RuntimeFault;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ClusterComputeResource;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedEntity;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;

public class VCESXInventoryNavigator {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InvalidProperty,
RuntimeFault, RemoteException, MalformedURLException {
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL("https://192.168.1.1/sdk"), "root", "vmw", true);
System.out.println(si);
String hostName = "BLR-NTP";
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();
ClusterComputeResource cluster = null;
cluster = (ClusterComputeResource) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder)
.searchManagedEntity("ClusterComputeResource", hostName);
System.out.println("Cluster Name::" + cluster.getName());
ManagedEntity[] clusters = new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder)
.searchManagedEntities("ClusterComputeResource");
System.out.println("Number of clusters in vCenter ::" + clusters.length);
}
}

[/java]
Learn more about ClusterComputeResource managed object here

4. Datastore: The Datastore managed object represents storage location for VMs.

[java]
package com.vmware.vijava;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import com.vmware.vim25.InvalidProperty;
import com.vmware.vim25.RuntimeFault;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Datastore;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ManagedEntity;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
public class VCESXInventoryNavigator {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InvalidProperty,
RuntimeFault, RemoteException, MalformedURLException {
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL("https://192.168.1.1/sdk"), "root", "vmw", true);
System.out.println(si);
String DS = "VMFS_3";
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();
Datastore datastore = null;
datastore = (Datastore) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntity("Datastore", DS);
System.out.println("Datastore Name::" + datastore.getName());
ManagedEntity[] datastores = new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder).searchManagedEntities("Datastore");
System.out.println("Number of datastores in vCenter ::"+ datastores.length);
}
}

[/java]

Learn more about Datastore data object here

In the same way you can navigate/access to many other managed objects & play around it.

Noteworthy points:
1. Note that “Datacenter”, “ClusterComputeResource” are vCenter inventory objects. Hence it makes sense to initialize connection with vCenter Server. At the same time, “HostSystem” & “Datastore” are applicable to both ESXi host or vCenter server. Overall, initialize connection with either server as applicable and play around it.
2. Due to above reason, InventoryNavigator class methods may work on ESXi but not on vCenter & some may work fine on vCenter but not on ESXi host.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please provide your feedback & stay tuned for future blog posts on vSphere API.

References:
1. Getting started with vSphere API using VI JAVA
2. Tutorial Part I: Initialize connection with vCenter Server/ESXi
3.vSphere API reference

Vikas Shitole

Vikas Shitole is a Senior Tech Lead at VMware by Broadcom, VCF division, India, where he leads system test efforts—including scale, stress, and resiliency testing—and drives product quality across VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Broadcom’s flagship private cloud platform. He is an AI and Kubernetes enthusiast, and is passionate about VMware customers and automation around vSphere and VCF. Vikas has been honoured as a vExpert for 13 consecutive years (2014–2026) for his sustained technical contributions and community leadership. He is the author of two VMware Flings, holds multiple industry certifications including VCF admin 9.0, and is one of the top contributors to the VMware API Sample Exchange, where his automation scripts have been downloaded over 50,000 times. Vikas has shared his expertise as a speaker at international conferences such as VMworld Europe and VMworld USA, and was selected as an official VMworld 2018 blogger. He also served as lead technical reviewer for the Packt-published books vSphere Design and VMware Virtual SAN Essentials. Beyond tech, Vikas is a dedicated cricketer, cycling enthusiast, and a lifelong learner in fitness and nutrition, with the personal goal of completing an Ironman 70.3

vThinkBeyondVM.com

Tutorial PART-I :How to initialize connection with vCenter server or ESXi host using vSphere API

December 2, 2014HOME, vSphere APIvcenter server connection, VI Java, vSphere API, YAVI JAVAVikas Shitole

If you want to manage VMware Infrastructure efficiently, it is must that we should leverage vSphere APIs & automate admin tasks wherever possible. When we start automating vSphere admin tasks, first question comes in mind that how to initialize connection with VMware vCenter Server or ESXi host using VI JAVA. Once we connect what is next? Next is how to navigate through the VMware ESXi host inventory or vCenter Server inventory & retrieve various inventory objects such as Datacenters, Clusters, Hosts, Virtual Machine etc. If you also have same queries then this tutorial is for you. Before getting into this tutorial in detail, please do make sure that you have already setup your Java Environment, if not, please refer my blog post on Getting Started with vSphere API. In part I of this tutorial, we will see how we can initialize the connection with VMware ESXi & vCenter. Let us start addressing first question

How to initialize the connection with VMware ESXi & vCenter Server.
vSphere API client application begins by connecting to a server & obtaining reference to “ServiceInstance”. ServiceInstance managed object is the singleton root object of the inventory on both vCenter and standalone ESXi host. In order to access VMware infrastructure objects such as Datacenters, Clusters, Hosts, Virtual Machine etc we first should create ServiceInstance managed object. Here we go.

[Java]
package com.vmware.vim25.mo.Samples.cluster;
import java.net.URL;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
public class VCESXInitializer {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
if (args.length != 3) {
System.out.println(“Usage: java SearchDatastore url ”
+ “username password”);
return;
}
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL(args[0]), args[1],
args[2], true);
System.out.println(si);
}
}
[/Java]

In above snippet, we need to pass 3 parameters from eclipse as shown in below screen shot

Note:You may be wondering on 4th parameter that we are passing in ServiceInstance, it is “IgnoreCert” boolean parameter, at the moment, we are just passing “TRUE”. I will write other blog post on when to care about SSL certificates while initializing connection. However note that even if we pass TRUE, all the communication with server is encrypted.

Alternatively we can create ServiceInstance object the way shown below & use it wherever required.

[java]
package com.vmware.vim25.mo.Samples.cluster;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;
public class VCESXInitializer {
public ServiceInstance initialization() throws RemoteException,
MalformedURLException {

ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL(
"https://192.168.1.1/sdk"), "username", "password", true);
return si;
}
}
[/java]
Note:IP address that we PASS as parameter can be of ESXi host or vCenter server, if you want to deal with just standalone ESXi host, then just pass ESXi IP address, otherwise, pass vCenter Server IP.
Creating ServiceInstance object is just 1 liner code, is not it too simple? Once we get ServiceInstance Object, we can access/navigate to all the VMware ESXi or vCenter Server objects.

Please stay tuned for my next tutorial on navigating various VMware Infrastructure objects such as Datacenter, Hosts, Resource pools, Virtual Machines etc.

To learn more on ServiceInstance managed object & lot: Refer: ServiceInstance Managed object API reference

Vikas Shitole

vThinkBeyondVM.com

How to get Datastore Summary for all data-stores connected to a ESXi host using vSphere API

November 23, 2014HOME, vSphere APIdatastore summary, storage, vSphere APIVikas Shitole

This post is motivated by this VMTN thread , also I wanted to start with small tutorials on vSphere APIs using JAVA, I thought lets start with answering this query which can cover tutorial on DatastoreSummary data object as well. I hope you have already setup your eclipse environment by referring my Getting started blog post. Here we go.

Query on VMTN was: How to get datastore type connected to ESXi programmatically using vSphere APIs. As datastore type is part of DatastoreSummary data object, lets see how to get datastore summary (Datastore Name, Datastore Type, Datastore Capacity, Datastore free capacity etc.)

DatastoreSummary Data Object Description:

Complete code :

[java]
package com.vmware.vim25.mo.Samples.cluster;
import java.net.URL;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Datastore;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.Folder;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.HostDatastoreBrowser;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.HostSystem;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.InventoryNavigator;
import com.vmware.vim25.mo.ServiceInstance;

public class DatastoreSummary {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
if (args.length != 3) {
System.out.println("Usage: java SearchDatastore "
+ "username password");
return;
}

/*
* you need to pass 3 parameters
* 1. https://ESXi_IP/sdk
* 2. username
* 3. password
*/
ServiceInstance si = new ServiceInstance(new URL(args[0]), args[1],
args[2], true);
String hostname = "XYZ.vmware.com"; //Pass the FQDN i.e. DNS name of the ESXi host, ESXi host IP will not work
Folder rootFolder = si.getRootFolder();
HostSystem host = null;

host = (HostSystem) new InventoryNavigator(rootFolder)
.searchManagedEntity("HostSystem", hostname);

if (host == null) {
System.out.println("Host not found");
si.getServerConnection().logout();
return;
}

HostDatastoreBrowser hdb = host.getDatastoreBrowser();

System.out.println("Datastore Summary connected to ESXi host");
System.out.println();
Datastore[] ds = hdb.getDatastores();

for (int i = 0; ds != null && i < ds.length; i++) {
System.out.println("DatastoreName:" + ds[i].getName() + " "
+ "DSType:" + ds[i].getSummary().getType() + " "
+ "TotalCapacity(in GB):"
+ (ds[i].getSummary().getCapacity()) / (1024 * 1024 * 1024)
+ " " + "FreeSpace (in GB): "
+ (ds[i].getSummary().getFreeSpace())
/ (1024 * 1024 * 1024) + " ");
System.out.println();

}
si.getServerConnection().logout();
}
}

[/java]

Program Output::

Datastore Summary connected to host


DatastoreName:Local Datastore DSType:VMFS TotalCapacity(in GB):131 FreeSpace (in GB): 130 
DatastoreName:Shared DS_3 DSType:VMFS TotalCapacity(in GB):24 FreeSpace (in GB): 8 
DatastoreName:Shared DS_1 DSType:VMFS TotalCapacity(in GB):49 FreeSpace (in GB): 8 
DatastoreName:Shared DS_4 DSType:VMFS TotalCapacity(in GB):49 FreeSpace (in GB): 13

DatastoreName:Shared DS_2 DSType:VMFS TotalCapacity(in GB):49 FreeSpace (in GB): 15

Compare output with datastore summary from VI client

You could see output is matching with screenshot from VI client, is not it cool?

Refer: vSphere API reference documentation I highly recommend you to spend some time on getting familiarize with vSPhere API reference.

Stay tuned for more specific/basic tutorials. please let me know if you want specific tutorial on vSphere API

Vikas Shitole

vThinkBeyondVM.com

Getting started with vSphere API using VI Java

September 9, 2014HOME, vSphere APIGetting started VI JavaVikas Shitole

Recently I got introduced to VMware Infrastructure (aka vSphere) Java & I should say “VI Java is an incredible open source project I have ever come across”. I am really humbled with the impact that Steve Jin’s contribution to the VMware community. I am sure this open source project is asset for thousands of VMware customers & partners. In the purview of the same, VI Java project inspired me to add “vSphere API” section in my blog. Under this section you can expect small utilities to manage your VMware environment which will be useful specially to most of the VMware administrators. Here we go with first post under “vSphere API” section. I am going to share how I got started with VI Java application development. i.e. Step by step tutorial on getting started with vSphere API using Java.

Update: VI Java project has now YAVI JAVA, please start using this guide to get started with YAVI JAVA instead of below steps. Since it supports vSphere 5.5 as well as vSphere 6.0 SDK, it is recommended to use YAVI JAVA. All the automation written using VI JAVA will work fine on YAVI JAVA.

1. Goto VI java website Here. Click on “Download” tab on the top as shown in below screenshot.

2. Click on the latest release as shown below.

Note: For future releases Zip file name would be different. Just you need to download latest one

3. Extract the downloaded file at any location of your choice.

4. You should see below jar files inside extracted Zip file.

5. Now it is time to install Eclipse. Download eclipse from “https://www.eclipse.org/downloads” as shown below .Please make sure you have JDK/JRE 1.6 or higher

6. Create java project as shown below .

7. Configure the 2 jars files that were extracted above in step 5 as follows.

8. Create first java program “HelloVM.java” as follows: Download source code from here:HelloVM.java. (Source code originally written by Steve Jin). Add this source code in java class created below.

9. You need to modify source code with vCenter IP, vCenter username & vCenter password as shown in below screenshot.

10. Run your first VI Java program as follows.

Great! Finally you got started with VI SDK and executed first VI SDK program. Stay tuned for more meaningful programs to manage your VMware environment.

Vikas Shitole

vThinkBeyondVM.com