VMWorld – Day 0 – September 10, 2007
I was at VMWorld last week. Unfortunately, my network connectivity was limited so I was unable to post my notes during the conference.
Due to a long line, I actually missed the first lab I had scheduled for the day. That lab was on performance benchmarking (which I later heard a talk on so I think I made out about even…)
Lab06 – VI Perl Toolkit Scripting to Administer VMWare Infrastructure
Overall this lab was a nice introduction to the perl API. However, if you had any experience at all with the API, there probably would not be a whole lot new learned during this lab. Some of the items I took away from the lab:
- Perl API can be executed against Virtual Center or ESX server
- Realtime information can be gathered directly from the ESX server
- "If you can do it in VirtualCenter, you can do it with the perl toolkit"
Generic Perl Script Pattern:
- Import VI runtime modules
- Customize options (datacenter, virtual center, etc.)
- Parse & validate options
- Connect to server
- Obtain, process and display results
- Close the server connection
http://www.vmware.com/communiti
Currently just sample scripts but will eventually be expanded to include user generated scripts
SDK Reference Guide:
http://www.vmware.com/download
Forum: http://www.vmware.com/community
Trouble Shooting:
Use "Managed Object Browser" (MOB) – web interface to get object names and what responses will look like. Viewable via web interface on Virtual Center.