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Handy new vSphere 6.0 APIs to be aware of

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The number of new platform capabilities and features in vSphere 6.0 is by far the largest that I have seen in awhile. One of the things I like to do with each new vSphere release is review all the new APIs that are now available to be consumed. Here are some of the new vSphere APIs that I think are interesting from an Automation point of view for vSphere 6 that I think folks should be aware of. I know for myself, there are several new vSphere APIs that I have personally been waiting for quite some time and I am glad to finally see them available for our customers, developers and partners. Depending on my free time, I may go into more details on how some of these new APIs work and provide some sample codes.

If you would like to see the complete list of new vSphere 6.0 APIs, be sure to check out the vSphere 6.0 API Reference Guide (available when vSphere 6.0 GA's which is Q1 of 2015) which has a "What's New" section on all the new Managed Objects, Methods, Properties, etc.

CertificateManager - API to deploy and refresh VMCA (VMware Certificate Authority) SSL Certificates for ESXi hosts

  • CertMgrRefreshCACertificatesAndCRLs_Task
  • CertMgrRefreshCertificates_Task
  • CertMgrRevokeCertificates_Task

ClusterEVCManager - API to finally manage and configure EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) for a vSphere Cluster

  • CheckAddHostEvc_Task
  • CheckConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • ConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • DisableEvcMode_Task

IoFilterManager - API to manage the new IO Filter capability

  • InstallIoFilter_Task
  • QueryDisksUsingFilter
  • QueryIoFilterInfo
  • QueryIoFilterIssues
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnCluster_Task
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnHost_Task
  • UninstallIoFilter_Task
  • UpgradeIoFilter_Task

ClusterComputeResource - API to quickly lookup all the affinity and anti-affinity rules for a VM

  • FindRulesForVm

VSAN 6.0 / VVOL / NFS v4.1 APIs - Please take a look here

HostStorageSystem 

  • Marking a Disk device as either Local or Remote
    • MarkAsLocal_Task
    • MarkAsNonLocal_Task
  • Marking a Disk device as either an SSD or Magnetic Disk
    • MarkAsNonSsd_Task
    • MarkAsSsd_Task
  • Turn On of Off the LED on supported Disk device
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOn_Task
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOff_Task
  • VMFS UNMAP operation
    • UnmapVmfsVolumeEx_Task

HostCertificateManager - API to manage and update custom CA signed SSL Certificates on ESXi hosts

  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequest
  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequestByDn
  • InstallServerCertificate
  • ListCACertificateRevocationLists
  • ListCACertificates
  • ReplaceCACertificatesAndCRLs

HostActiveDirectoryAuthentication - API to manage Smart Card Authentication on ESXi hosts

  • DisableSmartCardAuthentication
  • EnableSmartCardAuthentication
  • InstallSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • ListSmartCardTrustAnchors
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchorByFingerprint
  • ReplaceSmartCardTrustAnchors

HostAccessManager - API to manage new Lockdown Mode capabilities and modify System Users

  • ChangeAccessMode
  • ChangeLockdownMode
  • QueryLockdownExceptions
  • QuerySystemUsers
  • RetrieveHostAccessControlEntries
  • UpdateLockdownExceptions
  • UpdateSystemUsers

VirtualMachine

  • Enable SMP-FT for VM
    • CreateSecondaryVMEx_Task
  • Send NMI (Non-Masking Interrupt) request to VM
    • SendNMI

GuestWindowsRegistryManager - API to manage registry keys for Windows Guest OSes

  • CreateRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryValueInGuest
  • ListRegistryKeysInGuest
  • ListRegistryValuesInGuest
  • SetRegistryValueInGuest

Completely automating vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 5.5 Configurations

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As promised, here is a new script called configureVCSA55.sh that I have put together after learning about a couple new VCSA automation tips here and here. This script will fully automate the configuration of a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 5.5 and once the script has completed, you will have a fully functional vCenter Server Appliance. There are several variables at the top of the script that you will want to edit prior to running the script.

Here is a summary of the high level operations the script is performing and not all operations will be performed, it will depend on the variables that you have configured.

  • Accept EULA
  • vSphere Inventory Size Configuration
  • Active Directory Configuration (optional)
  • DNS Search Domain Configuration
  • NTP Configuration
  • vCenter Server Database Configuration
  • vSphere SSO Configuration
  • vSphere SSO Identity Source Configuration for Active Directory (optional)
  • Active Directory default Identity Source Configuration (optional)
  • VMware Telemtry Configuration (optional)

To run the script, you can either SCP the script to a newly deployed VCSA and run it locally in the shell or remotely via SSH using the following command:

ssh root@[VC-IP] < configureVCSA55.sh

completely-automate-configuration-vcsa55.0
I almost never go through a manual configuration of the VCSA anymore (since 5.0) as it just takes way too long! Hopefully you will find this script handy when needing to quickly test something or automating the deployment of a few dozen VCSA which I know of a few customers that are doing on a regular basis 🙂

Quick Tip - Automate JVM Heap configurations after increasing VCSA memory

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If you are using the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance) and you wish to increase the VM memory settings to one of the three supported memory configurations: 8-16GB, 24GB & 32GB, there is on additional configuration change before the new memory configuration can take effect. This change is adjusting the JVM Heap memory settings for the following vCenter Server Services: vSphere Web Client, Inventory Service and SPS (vSphere Profile-Driven Storage). If you would like to do this from the UI, you can access the VCSA's VAMI interface and under vCenter Server->Services tab, there is a "Inventory Size" toggle that you will need to set based on your VCSA's configured memory. Once you have save the settings, you will need to restart the vCenter Server for the changes to take effect.

increase_memory_on_vcsa
Note: The text in the VAMI states that the appliance requires at least 16GB of RAM for a Medium configuration which is actually incorrect, it should actually say 24GB for Medium configuration. The correct supported VCSA memory configuration maximum can be found here.

The UI is great but what if you wish to automate this change? This is especially handy if you have already automated the memory increase for the VCSA itself. Luckily, we can turn to our handy vpxd_servicefg command which supports modifying the JVM Memory based on the three supported vSphere Inventory Sizes. Below is the chart with the respective Inventory Size and command to issue within the VCSA. The parameters reflect the JVM Heap configurations for the vSphere Web Client, Inventory Service and SPS (vSphere Profile-Driven Storage).

Inventory Size VCSA Memory Command
Small 8-16GB /usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'jvm-max-heap' 'write' '512' '3072' '1024'
Medium 24GB /usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'jvm-max-heap' 'write' '512' '6144' '2048'
Large 32GB /usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg 'jvm-max-heap' 'write' '1024' '12288' '4096'
Once the command has successfully completed, you can refresh the VCSA VAMI interface and you should see the appropriate size has been configured. For the changes to take effect, you will need to restart the vCenter Service by issuing one of the following commands:

/usr/sbin/vpxd_servicecfg service restart

or

/etc/init.d/vmware-vpxd restart