Back in December, I created a VTMN document - How to browse the internal vSphere APIs which shows you how to access some of the undocumented vSphere API properties and methods. This was done prior to vSphere 4.1 release, but by looking at the python SDK stubs located on an ESX or ESXi host, you can see some of the some of the upcoming features that would eventually be released in vSphere 4.1.
Here is a look at some of these features found in the vSphere 4.0 SDK stubs:
Features known:
| API STRING | FEATURE |
|---|---|
| vim.version.drs | Distributed Resource Scheduler |
| vim.version.dvs | Distributed Virtual Switch |
| vim.version.ft | Fault Tolerance |
| vim.version.ipv6 | IPv6 |
Features eventually known:
| API STRING | FEATURE |
|---|---|
| vim.version.iorm | I/O Resource Management what is now known as Storage I/O Control or SIOC |
Features unknown:
| API STRING | FEATURE |
|---|---|
| vim.version.fed | Unknown - (Federation?) |
| vim.version.lc | Unknown - (Related properties in API referenced Linked Clones) |
| vim.version.logan | Unknown - (Related properties in API referenced MediaAnalysisManager |
| vim.version.policy | Unknown - (Rrelated properties in API referenced PolicyManager |
| vim.version.svm | Unknown - (Rrelated properties in API referenced svmVmxDiskCopy) |
| vim.version.uber | Unknown |
Now, looking at vSphere 4.1 SDK stubs, I noticed a slew of new "potential" features that VMware is or maybe working on:
vim.version.cvp - ?unknown? (Client Virtualization Platform? below are properties and methods associated with this feature)
- SetDisplayTopologyModes
- VirtualMachinePowerPolicyPowerMode
- VirtualMachinePowerPolicyCpuMode
- requestedReplicationCanBeDeferred
- userAllowedToDeferReplication
- policyCacheLifetime
vim.version.dev - ?device? (below are properties and methods associated with this feature which seem to be related to FCoE support with vSphere)
- DiscoverFcoeHbas
- FcoeConfigFcoeSpecification
- removeFcoeHba
- userAllowedToDeferReplication
vim.version.h20 - (unknown, but related properties in API referenced PropertyProviderManager)
- InternalPropertyProviderManager
vim.version.hbr - ?unknown? (Host Based Replication? below are properties and methods associated with this feature)
- hostBasedReplicationSupported
vim.version.vcp - ?unknown? (VM Component Protection? below are properties and methods associated with this feature)
- ClusterVmComponentProtectionSettings
- ClusterVmComponentProtectionSettingsFtVmReaction
What you see here are not just string text found in the SDK stubs, these features are actually implemented in the current release of vSphere 4.1. Though undocumented, if you can reverse engineer where these methods and properties are located, you can actually execute them.
Here is an example of executing discoverFcoeHbas method via the MOB which is part of the Host's StorageSystem:
I am no fortune teller, but I suspect we may see some of these features much sooner than later 😉
vim.version.uber - Pretty sure this feature will open up hole in space time to allow for LAN-like VMotion across continents.
Host Based Replication is part of SRM.next (5?), they talked about this at VMworld, it will reduce the dependency on strict SAN -> SAN replication for SRM, among other things.