getting started vmware apps

www.virtualizeplanet.com

Author: Ricky El-Qasem: 2011

Virtualize Planet

Getting Started, writing VMware APPs for novice programmers

Sponsored by

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Breaking the magicians code

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No Programmers Allowed

I’m not a programmer

I do not speak in Fortran or C++

The point of this session is that its for novices like me


A word from the sponsors

All apps mentioned in this presentation are not the products of Canopy Cloud. Ricky developed these apps before joining Canopy.

Canopy Private Cloud

Canopy Appstor

e

Solutions Catalogue: Vertical & Horizontal Workloads

Management & Orchestration vCloud Director - vSphere

Canopy Cloud InfrastructureVblock - Best-of-Breed


My Apps

VPsnapper = where it all started Resource Pool Scheduler vDisk Waste Finder vSphere Plug-in Wizard = Best Free Tools

VMworld 2011 vDisk Informer


Different APIs

COM API Web server API =

SDK PowerCLI Etc etc


What you need before you begin .Net IDE = Visual Studio .Netor Java IDE = Netbeans


So how did I do it?

VPsnapper

I needed a way to revert the default snapshots on all my VMs with one click

+ COM API Document


VPSnapper


The SDK is the future Resource Pool

Scheduler•Student gave me an idea. I needed to be able to shift resource allocation from pool to pool• Once again I used the book and the SDK programmers guide but failed at stage 1• Stage 1 was to list all VMs running• I posted my failure on VMTN = VMware Communities• Few days later VMware sent me a fixed version of my test app.• This was a huge springboard


Another Useful Book

Samples are in JAVA

However I found I could easily copy from JAVA to C# .NET


The SDK Tree

ExtensibleManagedObject

ManagedEntity

ResourcePool

ComputeResource

Hostsystem

Datacenter Folder VirtualMachine

ClusterComputeResource


MOB = Managed Object Browser

https://yourserver/mob


How to work with the SDK

Make a connection Filter only what you need – Proprerty Spec Which hierarchy objects to search -

Traversal Spec


VIMAPI in .net

2 x Dlls – import in to your code

Using Statement:


MOREF Managed Object Reference You do not manipulate the VMware

objects like VMs, Folders, Hosts and Datastores directly

You work with a representation of those objects known as a Managed Object Reference aka MOREF

Its all about the MOREF!


Data model

Managed Object Types = objects that have properties and methods

MOREF = local representation Data Object = just pure data and no

actions


vSphere Plug-in Wizard

Finalist in Best Free vSphere Tools VMworld 2011

Plugs in Website of your choice into vSphere Client


vSphere Plug-in Wizard


vDisk Informer

Helps you find wasted vDisk space

Helps you find misaligned vDisks

Use Gparted to fix


vDisk Waste Finder

Previous version of vDisk Informer

VMUG can have copy of code.

Demo


Extreme GUI Makeover

Before After


Tips on creating a sexy GUI


Writing Config


Performing an action

ManagedObjectReference moref_task = _service.PowerOffVM (moref_VM, moref_Host);


My best tip as a novice

Take an existing example and hack it to death with trial and error until you get it working for your needs

If something doesn’t work post it on VMware's Community forum

After today code for vDisk Waste Finder will be available from my blog www.virtualizeplanet.com

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Disclaimer:

Virtualize Planet will not be held liable for any actions you perform in your environment. Anything you learn from this material should be used at your own discretion and be warned actions you perform can be damaging. Always consult a professional.

www.virtualizeplanet.com

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