VMware vSphere Automation SDK for Python

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Supported vCenter Releases
• VMware Cloud on AWS Support
• Quick Start Guide
  • Installing the required Python Packages
  • Setting up a vSphere Test Environment
  • Running the SDK Sample Setup Script
  • Running a complex sample
• API Documentation
• Submitting samples
  • Required Information
  • Suggested Information
  • Contribution Process
  • Code Style
• Resource Maintenance
  • Maintenance Ownership
  • Filing Issues
  • Resolving Issues
  • VMware Sample Exchange
• Repository Administrator Resources
  • Board Members
  • Approval of Additions
• VMware Resources

Abstract

This document describes the vSphere Automation Python SDK samples that use the vSphere Automation python client library. Additionally, some of the samples demonstrate the combined use of the vSphere Automation and vSphere APIs. To support this combined use, the vSphere Automation Python SDK samples require the vSphere Management SDK packages (pyVmomi) to be installed on the client. The samples have been developed to work with python 2.7.x and 3.3+

Supported vCenter Releases

vCenter 6.0 and 6.5. Certain APIs and samples that are introduced in 6.5 release, such as vCenter, Virtual Machine and Appliance Management. Please refer to the notes in each sample for detailed compatibility information.

VMware Cloud on AWS Support

The VMware Cloud on AWS API and samples are currently available as a preview and are subject to change in the future.

Quick Start Guide

This document will walk you through getting up and running with the Python SDK Samples. Prior to running the samples you will need to setup a vCenter test environment and install local Python packages, the following steps will take you through this process.

Before you can run the SDK samples we'll need to walk you through the following steps:

1. Installing the required Python packages
2. Setting up a vSphere test environment
3. Running SDK Samples setup script

Installing the required Python Packages

Note: The SDK requires Python v2.7+ (preferably v3.6) to run the setup/samples, please make sure you have the appropriate version installed before continuing. If you are on macOS/OSX/Linux, please note that the system installed version of Python may be outdated and/or not be intended for development and we recommended you install Python yourself before installing the required packages. Virtualenv is also highly recommended.

The required packages are:

• pyVmomi
• suds (suds-jurko for python3+)
• vapi-client-bindings
• vmc-client-bindings
• vapi-vmc-client

These dependencies are listed in the requirements.txt file and installed using "pip install"; For more details on how to install python packages using pip please refer to the pip user guide.

pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall -r requirements.txt --extra-index-url <file:///abs_path/to/sdk/lib/>

NOTE: The SDK also requires OpenSSL 1.0.1+ if you want to connect to vSphere 6.5+ in order to support TLS1.1 & 1.2

Setting up a vSphere Test Environment

NOTE: The samples are intended to be run against a freshly installed non-Production vSphere setup as the scripts may make changes to the test environment and in some cases can destroy items when needed.

To run the samples a vSphere test environment is required with the following configuration

• 1 vCenter Server
• 2 ESX hosts
• 1 NFS Datastore with at least 3GB of free capacity

Please have the details of these available but do not have any configuration pre-created on vCenter server or ESXi Hosts, for example there should be no existing datacenters, clusters or attached hosts on the vCenter server.

Running the SDK Sample Setup Script

Before executing the samples we'll need to setup the vSphere test environment using one of the sample scripts. Before we run the script we'll need to edit one of the files and provide IP addresses for the various machine instances.

First, set PYTHONPATH to use SDK helper methods

• Linux/Mac:

  export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}:$PYTHONPATH

• Windows:

  set PYTHONPATH=%cd%;%PYTHONPATH%

Next, using a text editor open ../samples/vsphere/vcenter/setup/testbed.py and edit the following settings replace everything in < > brackets with your environment information. Leave the rest of the settings in this file at their default values.

config["SERVER"]    = "<vcenter_hostname_or_ip>"
config["USERNAME"]  = "<vsphere_username>"
config["PASSWORD"]  = "<vsphere_password>"

config["ESX_HOST1"] = "<ESX_host1_ipaddress>"
config["ESX_HOST2"] = "<ESX_host2_ipaddress>"
config["ESX_USER"]  = "<esx_username>"
config["ESX_PASS"]  = "<esx_password>"

config["USE_NFS"]   = True
config["NFS_HOST"]  = "<nfs_ipaddress>"
config["NFS_REMOTE_PATH"] = "/store1"

Save and close the file.

At this point, we're ready to run the setup script.

This script will perform the following:

• Create 2 test Datacenters
• Create a test Cluster
• Create Test Folders for VM Storage
• Attach the hosts
• Create a Distributed Switch
• Create a Distributed Portgroup
• Attach the NFS datastore (if Selected) to the hosts
• Copy the Photon OS ISO image downloaded from VMware's bintray server to the datastore
• Create directories to add sample ports

Note: The setup script may take several minutes to complete.

To view the available command-line options:

$ python ../samples/vsphere/vcenter/setup/main.py -h

To run the setup script:

$ python ../samples/vsphere/vcenter/setup/main.py -sv

After completion you will see from the output and also the vSphere Webclient that the environment has now been fully setup and is ready to easily run further samples.

Running a complex sample

This SDK includes a sample script which can be used to perform a number of actions and give you an indication of how to perform multiple vCenter actions, this script is located in the /samples/vsphere/vcenter/setup/ directory, use the following instructions to run this sample:

Run the vAPI vCenter sample suite:

$ python ../samples/vsphere/vcenter/setup/main.py -riv

API Documentation

The API documentation can be found here

Submitting samples

Developer Certificate of Origin

Before you start working with this project, please read our Developer Certificate of Origin. All contributions to this repository must be signed as described on that page. Your signature certifies that you wrote the patch or have the right to pass it on as an open-source patch.

Sample Template

Sample template contains boilerplate code that can be used to build a new sample. Please copy the file and use it as a starting point to write a new sample.

Required Information

The following information must be included in the README.md or in the sample docstring in case README already exists in same folder.

• Author Name
  • This can include full name, email address or other identifiable piece of information that would allow interested parties to contact author with questions.
• Minimal/High Level Description
  • What does the sample do ?
• Any KNOWN limitations or dependencies

Suggested Information

The following information should be included when possible. Inclusion of information provides valuable information to consumers of the resource.

• vSphere version against which the sample was developed/tested
• SDK version against which the sample was developed/tested
• Python version against which the sample was developed/tested

Contribution Process

• Follow the GitHub process
  • Please use one branch per sample or change-set
  • Please use one commit and pull request per sample
  • Please post the sample output along with the pull request
  • If you include a license with your sample, use the project license

Code Style

Please conform to pep8 standards. Check your code by running the pep8 tool. https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8

Resource Maintenance

Maintenance Ownership

Ownership of any and all submitted samples are maintained by the submitter.

Filing Issues

Any bugs or other issues should be filed within GitHub by way of the repository’s Issue Tracker.

Resolving Issues

Any community member can resolve issues within the repository, however only the board member can approve the update. Once approved, assuming the resolution involves a pull request, only a board member will be able to merge and close the request.

VMware Sample Exchange

It is highly recommended to add any and all submitted samples to the VMware Sample Exchange: https://code.vmware.com/samples

Sample Exchange can be allowed to access your GitHub resources, by way of a linking process, where they can be indexed and searched by the community. There are VMware social media accounts which will advertise resources posted to the site and there's no additional accounts needed, as the VMware Sample Exchange uses MyVMware credentials.

Repository Administrator Resources

Board Members

Board members are volunteers from the SDK community and VMware staff members, board members are not held responsible for any issues which may occur from running of samples from this repository.

Members:

• Tianhao He (VMware)
• Steve Trefethen (VMware)

Approval of Additions

Items added to the repository, including items from the Board members, require 2 votes from the board members before being added to the repository. The approving members will have ideally downloaded and tested the item. When two “Approved for Merge” comments are added from board members, the pull can then be committed to the repository.

VMware Resources

• vSphere Automation SDK Overview
• VMware Code
• VMware Developer Community
• VMware vSphere REST API Reference documentation.
• VMware Python forum