VMware APIs and SDKs Documentation
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VMware provides several different APIs and various SDK products, each intended for different developer communities and target platforms. Click the VMware product links below to view the release notes, manuals, guides, and other documentation available for all versions of that product.
Management
These SDKs and APIs are supported on VMware Infrastructure 3 platform (ESX Server, VirtualCenter Server) or virtual machines running on ESX Server systems.
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Client-side Perl framework that provides an easy-to-use scripting interface to the VMware Infrastructure API. Use with ESX Server 3.x, VirtualCenter 2.x, and subsequent VMware Infrastructure 3 releases.
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VMware Infrastructure SDK (VI SDK). A package that includes sample code, WSDL, and documentation to support creating Java or C# client applications that can leverage VMware Infrastructure API, the Web-services based API for managing, monitoring, and controlling the life-cycle of all VMware Infrastructure components. Supports ESX Server 3.x, VirtualCenter 2.x, and ESX Server 3i (Embedded Edition, Installable Edition).
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Programmatic interfaces that enable client applications to use the industry-standard Common Information Model (CIM) for datacenter management.
The VMware CIM APIs let you view virtual machines and associated resources using profiles defined by the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA),
and to manage hosts using the System Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).
ESX Server 3.x and ESX Server 3i support only.
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Virtual Disk APIs and SDKs
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Virtual Disk Development Kit. Includes a C function library and utilities for manipulating virtual disks that comply with the open VMDK (virtual machine disk) file format. The VMware VDDK can be used with any VMDK-formatted virtual disks, including those created by these VMware products—ESX Server 3, VMware Server, VMware Fusion, VMware Player, VMware Workstation 6, Workstation 5, Workstation 4, and GSX Server.
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VM Automation APIs and SDKs
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A high-level, popular, easy to use API (with C, Perl, and COM bindings) for writing scripts or applications that automate virtual-machine- and guest-OS-operations. Use it to automate test cases, help reproduce bugs, and customize virtual machine configurations. Code samples available. Compatible with VMware Server 1.1 and Workstation 6.0.x.
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VM Guest APIs and SDKs |
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A read-only API that enables management agents or other software running on a guest operating system (Windows or Linux installed on a virtual machine running on an ESX Server host system) to collect various statistics, such as virtual machine memory usage, CPU speed and shares, and elapsed time since last virtual machine power-on or reset. Supported on ESX Server 3.x and subsequent releases.
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Virtual Machine Communication Interface. Experimental APIs for fast, efficient communication between a virtual machine and the host operating system, and between two or more virtual machines on the same host. Bindings for C, C++. Available on Workstation 6 (with VMware Tools installed only). Experimental.
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Legacy APIs and SDKs |
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Available on VMware Server (VMware Server 1.0 and prior releases only). Used to create scripts and applications for automating virtual machine test- and development- operations. Replaced by VMware VIX API. |
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Legacy Perl and COM interfaces supported on ESX Server 3.0.x and GSX Server. (VMware strongly recommends that developers use the VI Perl Toolkit or the VMware Infrastructure SDK, rather than the Scripting APIs.)
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