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New vSphere 6.7 APIs worth checking out

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Below are just a few of the new vSphere 6.7 SOAP and REST APIs that have been added or enhanced which I think will be quite useful for customers to be aware of while they start to plan for their vSphere 6.7 upgrades. For a complete list of new vSphere 6.7 (SOAP based) APIs, check out the vSphere 6.7 API Reference Guide which will include a "What's New" section on all the new Managed Objects, Methods, Properties, etc. For a complete list of new vSphere 6.7 REST based APIs, check out vSphere Automation API 6.7 Reference which you can identify new operations and properties which will be marked with "Added in vSphere 6.7".

vSphere 6.7 WebServices (SOAP) API

AlarmManager->ClearTriggeredAlarms() - This method finally provides a way for customers to clear an alarm like you can using the vSphere UI. Historically, customers only had the ability to acknowledge an alarm using the API but not a way to reset alarms.

VirtualMachine->ApplyEvcModeVM_Task() - This method can be used to enable the new Per-VM Enhanced vMotion Capability (EVC) feature that has been introduced in vSphere 6.7

VirtualMachine->InstantClone_Task() - This method simplifies the deployment of new version of Instant Clone that has been added into vSphere 6.7. For more details on how the new Instant Clone feature works, please take a look at this blog post here.

HostNvdimmSystem - This new Managed Object and its respective methods can can be used to manage the new NVDIMM (Persistent Memory) capability that has been added into vSphere 6.7

VirtualMachine->Config->createDate - This new property finally includes the creation date of a VM that has been created in vSphere 6.7 and will be persisted with the lifecycle of the VM itself. I will provide a more detailed blog post on how to consume this new property as well as the expected behaviors, especially around upgrades. I know many of you have been asking for this property and I am glad to see this finally available for all on-premises customers!

VirtualMachine->Flags->vbsEnabled - This new property allows customers to easily enable the new Microsoft Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) feature which was added in vSphere 6.7. This single property (UI/API) behind the scenes actually enables a number of other VM settings required for VBS to properly run such as Virtual Hardware Virtualization (VHV), vIOMMU, EFI Firmware & Secure Boot, which is nice as customers do not have to worry about the underlying settings and simply toggle a simple boolean property.

VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier - These are all the new GuestOS Ids that have been added into vSphere 6.7 to enable new GuestOS support, you can find the mapping of the OS type by taking a look at the vSphere API Reference Guide

  • asianux8_64Guest
  • centos8_64Guest
  • darwin17_64Guest
  • darwin18_64Guest
  • freebsd11Guest
  • freebsd11_64Guest
  • freebsd12Guest
  • freebsd12_64Guest
  • oracleLinux8_64Guest
  • other4xLinux64Guest
  • other4xLinuxGuest
  • rhel8_64Guest
  • sles15_64Guest

vSphere 6.7 REST API

/appliance/backup/schedules - This endpoint provides management and configuration of the new VCSA scheduled backup feature

/appliance/backup/system_name - This endpoint allows you to list all existing backups that have been taken for your VCSA

/appliance/local_accounts - This endpoint provides management of all local users

/appliance/local_accounts/policy - This endpoint provides global password policy management for all local users

/appliance/logging/forwarding - This endpoint provides external syslog configuration for the VCSA

/appliance/networking/proxy - This endpoint provides HTTP(S) proxy configurations for the VCSA

/appliance/ntp - This endpoint provides NTP configuration for the VCSA

/vcenter/deployment - This endpoint enables the ability to automate both Install/Upgrade of the Stage2 installer for VCSA/PSC. Stage 1 deployment of the appliance is currently not part of the REST API but can be automated using existing methods such as OVFTool or PowerCLI as an example.

/vcenter/vm/guest/{identity,local_filesystem} - This endpoint provides guestOS details such as the configured OS along with some basic networking (e.g. Hostname and IP Address) which is retrieved as part of the VMware Tools service running inside of the GuestOS. In addition, you can also get visibility into the guest filesystem including capacity and freespace.

/vcenter/vm/storage/policy - This endpoint provides details about the current configured VM Storage Policy for individual VMDKs of a VM

Nested ESXi 6.7 Virtual Appliance Updates

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I know many of you have been pinging me the last couple of days for an updated Nested ESXi 6.7 Virtual Appliance and I have just finished my strict quality control process 🙂 The only minor change with the 6.7 appliance is the VM is now configured with EFI Firmware, where as in the past it was set to BIOS. As of vSphere 6.5+ appliances, the customization scripts are automatically removed by default which means that customers can turn on Secure Boot feature post-deployment without having to perform any manual workarounds. In addition, you will find a few more updates related to the updated ESXi appliance below. I hope you enjoy these free resources to help learn and plan for your vSphere 6.7 upgrades, Happy Friday!

Note: These solutions are all developed during off hours and does take a considerable amount of time/effort to manage and update. Although they are provided to you as a free solution, the development itself is not 🙂

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Nested ESXi 6.7 Appliance:

ESXi 6.7 Virtual Appliance (Nested_ESXi6.7_Appliance_Template_v1.ova)

Nested ESXi Content Library

If you are using my Nested ESXi Content Library, I have updated it to include the latest 6.7 Appliance. Simply refresh your Content Library to automatically pull down the image or you can create a new Content Library by subscribing to the following URL: https://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/lib.json For more details, please take a look at this blog post here.

vGhetto vSphere Automated Lab Deployment:

For those that use my vGhetto lab deployment script to automate a fully functional vSphere environment, I have created a new version of the script to support vSphere 6.7 which you can find more details here. One neat feature that was suggested by Christian Mohn awhile back was the ability to get more insights to what is happening during the VCSA deployment since the verbosity can be quite distracting on the primary screen. There is now a new $enableVerboseLoggingToNewShell variable that is enabled by default to spawn a new PowerShell console that will watch the VCSA installer logs, so you have a better idea of what is going on.

All vSphere 6.7 release notes & download links

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vSphere 6.7 has officially GA'ed! Below is an aggregation of all the related release notes and downloads for this vSphere release. I have also created a short URL which you can use to access this exact same page using vmwa.re/vsphere67

Note: Not all links are live yet, but they should be available later this morning. Please be patient and in the meantime, you can check out all the vSphere 6.7 collateral which has been published and can be accessed here.

vSphere 6.7

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