Introduction to vSphere APIs Using pyVmomi Slides to go along with the talk I gave at the SATX VMUG on 3-26-2015

1. Introduction to vSphere APIs Using pyVmomi
pyVmomi
Michael Rice
@VirtDevNinja
http://errr-online.com/
https://github.com/michaelrice

2. About Michael Rice
❖ Software Developer @ Rackspace
❖ Trust me, I have a Linux beard.
❖ http://linuxbeard.com/image/114385301362
❖ RPM Package Maintainer for pyVmomi
❖ Leading community contributor to pyVmomi & community-
samples
❖ Creator of YAVIJAVA the VIJAVA fork
❖ StackOverflow pyVmomi & VIJAVA

4. About pyVmomi
❖ Open Source python SDK for vSphere
❖ Released Dec 2013
❖ License: Apache 2.0
❖ Python VMWare Managed Object Management Interface
❖ Other Vmomi projects include GoVmomi & rbVmomi
❖ Wraps vSphere WebServices SOAP API very tightly
❖ Its been around a long time!! Look on your 4.0 HostSystems!
❖ Multiple versions. Whats on HostSystems != whats on GitHub

5. Why Use Python & pyVmomi
❖ Python is easy for beginners to learn
❖ vSphere 6.0 VMWare released VMWare vCloud Suite SDK for Python
❖ http://developercenter.vmware.com/web/sdk/60/vcloudsuite-python
❖ Python is in the top 10 languages you should be learning RIGHT NOW!
❖ If you work in a mixed environment of admins running Windows, Mac and Linux then
the same Python code works for everyone! (mostly)
❖ Integrate with ConfigManagement like Ansible & SaltStack
❖ pySphere and pSphere are much slower because they use SUDS
❖ pyVmomi is FAST! 360 milliseconds to inventory 576 VMs
❖ Do tasks you can normally only do from the UI — Reset Alarms from Red to Green

6. Setting Up a Development
Environment
❖ Setup a Development vCenter using Simulator
❖ Install Python and VirtualEnv on our desktop
❖ Install Python IDE — pyCharm/IntelliJ, pyDev, etc..
❖ No Intelli-Sense due to dynamic nature of library
❖ Install pyVmomi

7. Installing vCenter SA
❖ Download vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 ova
❖ 6.0 has a bug and Simulator DOES NOT WORK!
❖ Deploy the OVA to Fusion or Workstation
❖ Use simple shell script to configure VCSA Simulator
❖ https://gist.github.com/michaelrice/

8. #!/bin/bash
# See the original work from William Lam at http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/
echo "Accepting EULA ..."
/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg eula accept
echo "Setting default ports ..."
/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'ports' 'defaults'
echo "Configuring Embedded DB ..."
/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'db' 'write' 'embedded'
echo "Configuring SSO..."
/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'sso' 'write' 'embedded' 'password'
echo "Starting VCSIM ..."
/usr/bin/vmware-vcsim-start default
echo "Starting VCSA ..."
/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg service start

10. Install Python & VirtualEnv
❖ Please See one of the 1000’s of guides online
❖ I use 2.7 but pyVmomi supports the following versions
of Python: 2.6, 2.7, 3.3, 3.4
❖ On Mac consider brew install of python

11. Install an IDE
❖ pyCharm/IntelliJ
❖ pyDev
❖ Other

12. Install pyVmomi
❖ Universal/Recommended
❖ pip install -U pyvmomi
❖ RHEL/Fedora/CentOS
❖ yum install pyvmomi
❖ FreeBSD
❖ pkg install pyvmomi

13. Not So Fast!!

14. vSphere Object Model
❖ Managed Objects
❖ HostSystem, VirtualMachine, Folder, Network, etc..
❖ Managed Object Reference
❖ Used in MO to point to other associated managed objects
❖ Data Objects
❖ Information about a Managed Object. Properties of the
MO

15. Object Diagram

18. Basic Usage with Actual
Code!!
>>> from pyVim.connect import SmartConnect
>>> si = SmartConnect(host="vcsa", user="admin", pwd="password")
>>> host = si.content.searchIndex.FindByDnsName(None, “DC0_C0_H0”, False)
>>> print host.name
DC0_C0_H0
>>> print host.summary.hardware.model
ProLiant DL380 G5
3 Lines of Code to get a HostSystem!

19. List All HostSystems in
vCenter
service_instance = SmartConnect(User, Password, HostName)
Hosts = GetAllHosts(service_instance)
for host in Hosts:
PrintHostInfo(host)
def PrintHostInfo(host):
# print various property info for a given host
def GetAllHosts(service_instance):
# do work needed to get host related info here…

20. Solving Business Problems
❖ SAN Team has a “Non Impacting No Downtime Maintenance” to do on the SAN
Switches
❖ All customers have redundant connections
❖ Maint will require them to bring down A chan restore it then bring down B
chan and restore it
❖ Such a low risk VirtSupport not informed only customer is notified.
❖ vCenter Alarms monitor the SAN connections
❖ They see redundancy lost & trigger SNMP trap.
❖ Ticket is generated for each device!!
❖ 30 mins later its 3am & 100’s of tickets have hit the queue fire drill begins!

21. Solving Business Problems
❖ Already had SOP in place for how to manually work the Redundancy lost tickets
❖ Use python to connect to various APIs in company to gather data from ticket to
automate the SOP
❖ Use pyVmomi to connect vCenter to check for actual problem.
❖ Rescan HBA etc..
❖ Use pyVmomi to ack alarm & reset from red to green
❖ Use python to hit ticket API to close ticket if fixed or flag as real issue for
VirtSupport to go look at
❖ While this code was in production it worked 1000’s of tickets saving Rackers 100’s
of hours in NVA work.

23. Valuable Tools
❖ Onyx
❖ https://labs.vmware.com/flings/onyx
❖ Latest Version: 2.2.5
❖ Capture all traffic happening between client and server
❖ DoubleCloud Proxy
❖ Created by: Steve Jin
❖ http://www.doublecloud.org/doublecloud-proxy/
❖ Capture all traffic happening between client and server

24. Onyx & DoubleCloud Proxy
❖ Start the app and point them at your target vSphere
server
❖ Point your script or VIClient etc.. at proxy
❖ Profit

25. Things Ive Learned
❖ There are several “hidden” folders
❖ These can all be seen using the MOB
❖ HostSystems do not always have a unique UUID
❖ On Dell if Service Tag not set in BIOS it uses a generic default UUID
❖ When searching for them use the DNS Name or InventoryPath +
name
❖ InventoryPath can be tricky. Use MOB for help
❖ Using the UUID will return the first one it finds
❖ http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006250

26. Things Ive Learned
❖ VirtualMachine BIOS UUID is shared by VMS in a vApp
❖ The only thing unique for use in searching for a VM is
the instance UUID so use it or the InventoryPath +
name
❖ Property Collectors are complicated but worth the extra
work
❖ You CAN NOT SCALE with out them!!

27. Must Have Links
❖ pyVmomi docs: https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi/tree/master/docs
❖ community-samples: https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi-community-samples/
❖ ~30 samples and growing!! Contribute today!!
❖ Help us: https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi-community-
samples/labels/help%20wanted
❖ My Blog: http://www.errr-online.com/
❖ VMWare developer resources: http://developercenter.vmware.com/sdks
❖ Shawn Hartsock: http://hartsock.blogspot.com/
❖ VMWare employee currently maintaing pyVmomi
❖ youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO7-
YtwexdVIttJejhsBjo0TZPq0BSFfw

28. Getting Help
❖ pyVmomi: https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi
❖ IRC: Freenode —> #pyvmomi
❖ Mailing List: http://pyvmomi.2338814.n4.nabble.com/
❖ StackOver Flow: tag post with pyvmomi