Compaitability with Linux

[sahmed24]

Hi

Does vSphere Web Service SDK works with linux machines. Can start/stop/copy data in to / copy data from/ run programs etc on Linux machines from vSphere Web SDK?

//Rizwan

[lamw]

vSphere API does not provide these guest level operations, you will need to look into the VIX API - http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vix-api/ which provides this functionality as long as you can install VMware Tools within the guest.

[sahmed24]

thanks, but i am using vSphere Web Services SDK, because i need to control more than just automating one machine. I am not using VIX API.

[lamw]

You will need to use a combination of the two if you want both vSphere API for general vSphere management and VIX API for guest operations. The plan from VMware is to eventually merge the two APIs, as it stands today, you will need to use both to accomplish your tasks if you need guest operations as part of your workflow ( yes I know it's annoying)

If you want more details around this, take a look at this blog post - http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/11/what-is-vmware-vix-api-and-its-future.html

[sahmed24]

thanks lamw

does the vSphere webservices capable of managing linux machines and VIX API capable of running guest operations inside linux machines?

//Rizwan

[sahmed24]

ok, i see that VIX API works for Linux. i am writing code in C#, will the same code work for Linux?

and what about vsphere webservices sdk, will it manage linux machiens?

[lamw · Accepted solution]

VIX can be installed on both Linux and Windows, please take a look at the VIX documentation for more details. What do you mean "manage" Linux machines, if you're referring to managing the actual VM shell, yes it can manage the configuration or addition of virtual hardware/etc. but it that is independent of the guestOS type. If you're familar with the vSphere Client, anything you can do through that, you can automate through the vSphere API. If you want to run specific things within the guestOS, then VIX will allow you to do that and the functionality is exactly the same as if you logged into the guestOS itself. This means if you wanted to run the command "uptime" on a UNIX/linux system, you can do such with the VIX API, again I would recommend you take a look at the documentation for the details.