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

Perl Script Repository:

http://www.vmware.com/communities/content/developer/viperlscripts.html

Currently just sample scripts but will eventually be expanded to include user generated scripts

SDK Reference Guide:
http://www.vmware.com/download/sdk/

Forum: http://www.vmware.com/community/forum.jspa?forumID=393

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.

This entry was posted on September 16, 2007 at 8:56 pm and is filed under conferences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.