Using the vSphere SDK

Objective

Actions within your infrastructure can be automated using the vSphere SDK.

This guide explains the implementation and usage in various programming languages.

Instructions

Python

Setting up the environment

OS

This example uses a VM installed with Debian 9, deployed from templates available for your Hosted Private Cloud infrastructure.

Requirements

It is necessary to install these packages:

apt-get install python git python-pip

vSphere SDK

Download the vSphere SDK with the following command:

git clone https://github.com/vmware/vsphere-automation-sdk-python.git

The directory "/vsphere-automation-sdk-python" will be created. Switch to this folder to perform the installation command:

pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall -r requirements.txt --extra-index-url file:///<absolute_path_to_sdk>/lib

In this example, it is the following command:

pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall -r requirements.txt --extra-index-url file:///root/vsphere-automation-sdk-python/lib

Once the SDK is installed, you can make use of scripts.

Script example

Connection

This example tests the connection and disconnection to vCenter. It will also help to verify if everything is properly installed.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import time
import atexit
import ssl
from pyVim import connect
from pyVmomi import vim


def vconnect():
    s = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS)
    s.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE

    service_instance = connect.SmartConnect(host="pcc-149-202-xxx-xxx.ovh.com",
        user="damien",
        pwd="MyPassword",
        sslContext=s)

    atexit.register(connect.Disconnect, service_instance)

print("Connecting....")

time.sleep(2)

print("Disconnecting..")
vconnect()

Listing the VMs of a Private Cloud infrastructure

This example lists all VMs of a Private Cloud infrastructure.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import time
import atexit
import ssl
from pyVim import connect
from pyVmomi import vim


def vconnect():
    s = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS)
    s.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE

    service_instance = connect.SmartConnect(host="pcc-149-202-xxx-xxx.ovh.com",
        user="damien",
        pwd="MyPassword",
        sslContext=s)

    atexit.register(connect.Disconnect, service_instance)

    print("Connecting....")

    time.sleep(2)

    content = service_instance.RetrieveContent()
    container = content.rootFolder
    viewType = [vim.VirtualMachine]
    recursive = True
    containerView = content.viewManager.CreateContainerView(container, viewType, recursive)
    children = containerView.view

    for child in children:
        summary = child.summary
        print(summary.config.name)

    time.sleep(2)
    print("Disconnecting...")
vconnect()

Perl

Setting up the environment

OS

This example uses a VM installed with Ubuntu 18.04, deployed from templates available for your Hosted Private Cloud infrastructure.

Requirements

It is necessary to install these packages:

apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5 uuid uuid-dev libssl-dev perl-doc libxml-libxml-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libsoap-lite-perl libdata-compare-perl libmodule-build-perl libuuid-perl libsocket6-perl libnet-inet6glue-perl libarchive-zip-perl

cpan install Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA UUID::Random Exception::Class Crypt::X509 List::MoreUtils

vSphere SDK

Download the vSphere SDK using this link:

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-download?downloadGroup=VS-PERL-SDK67

Make sure to download the version that is compatible with your operating system.

In this example the file downloaded is: "VMware-vSphere-Perl-SDK-6.7.0-8156551.x86_64.tar.gz"

Extract the file you just downloaded using this command:

tar –zxvf VMware-vSphere-Perl-SDK-6.7.0-8156551.x86_64.tar.gz

Start the installer using the following commands:

cd vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib

./vmware-install.pl

After reading the terms, accept them and continue by pressing Enter.

After the installation, additional modules will be installed. Hit Enter to continue the installation.

In order to complete the installation, you will need to select a directory in which the SDK will install. By default, the directory is "/usr/bin".

Script example

Connection

This example tests the connection and disconnection to vCenter. It will also help to verify if everything is properly installed.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

use VMware::VIRuntime;

Opts::set_option('server', 'pcc-149-202-xxx-xxx.ovh.com');
Opts::set_option('username', 'damien');
Opts::set_option('password', 'MyPassword')


print "Connecting \n";

Util::connect();

Util::disconnect();
print "Disconnected \n";

Listing the VMs of a Private Cloud infrastructure

This example lists all VMs of a Private Cloud infrastructure.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

use VMware::VIRuntime;

Opts::set_option('server', 'pcc-149-202-xxx-xxx.ovh.com');
Opts::set_option('username', 'damien');
Opts::set_option('password', 'MyPassword');


print "Connecting \n";

Util::connect();

my $vm_views =
  Vim::find_entity_views(view_type => 'VirtualMachine',
                       properties => ['name'], );

foreach  my $view ( sort @$vm_views) {     
  print ' - '.$view->{'name'}, "\n";
}

Util::disconnect();
print "Disconnected \n";

Using samples

In this example, a script that is already created and present in the directory "vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib/apps/vm/" is called.

Here is a list of the scripts already available in this directory:

ls vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib/apps/vm/
guestinfo.pl  sharesmanager.pl  snapshotmanager.pl  vdiskcreate.pl  vmclone.pl  vmcontrol.pl  vmcreate.pl  vminfo.pl  vmmigrate.pl  vmreconfig.pl  vmregister.pl  vmsnapshot.pl  vmtemplate.pl

To create a snapshot "test" of the VM "Debian1", use this command (replacing the example placeholders with your credentials):

perl snapshotmanager.pl --server pcc-149-202-xxx-xxx.ovh.com --username damien --password MyPassword --operation create --vmname Debian1 --snapshotname test

Go further

Join our community of users on https://community.ovh.com/en/.