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Exploring the new vSAN Data Protection API in vSphere 8.0 Update 3

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I have been spending some time with the new vSAN Data Protection (DP) capability that was just introduced with the latest vSphere 8.0 Update 3 release and if you are interested in what you can do with this new functionality, Duncan Epping has recently published a blog post on this exact topic that you should check out!

While the new vSAN DP capability can easily be consumed using the new vSphere UI plugin, it can be even more powerful with automation and I was interested in learning more about the vSAN DP API and how administrators can consume it.

Today, the vSAN DP (REST) API endpoint is part of the vSAN DP Virtual Appliance, which must be deployed access both the vSAN DP vSphere UI plugin and vSAN DP API. Since the vSAN DP API is available as a separate API endpoint, to authenticate you will need to request a SAML token from the vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) service. There are currently some issues with the vSAN DP API documentation and once that is available, which I will linked, you will find more information about requesting a token along with all the available methods.

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Automating deployment of vSAN Data Protection OVA with PowerCLI

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vSphere 8.0 Update 3 introduces a new vSAN Data Protection capability for the vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) and it is currently delivered as a standalone VMware OVA (see Duncan's post in case you are wondering where to download) which, once deployed and configures, enables a new vSphere UI plugin as shown in screenshot below.


After going through the manual (vSphere UI) deployment workflow, which also included some non-traditional input like requiring the raw vCenter Server TLS certificate, I was interested in automating the deployment using PowerCLI.

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Decoding vSphere (vCenter/ESXi), vSAN & Tanzu License Keys

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For most users, you probably have a large collection of vSphere license keys that have been provisioned over the years and keeping track of the product SKU, entitled features and capacity can be a challenge, especially if you are just looking at the raw 25 character license string.

While the Broadcom Support Portal (BSP) is recommended for all license management operations(view, split, merge, etc), did you know you could also use vCenter Server to help decode a particular license key?

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