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VMware Fusion 2017 Tech Preview adds REST API support

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In case you have not heard the news, the VMware Fusion and Workstation team just released their 2017 Tech Preview releases which you can read more about it here and here. A couple of years back, VMware had released a slimmed down desktop Hypervisor based on VMware Fusion called AppCatalyst which was optimized for developers wanting to run Docker Containers. Although the feedback for AppCatalyst was positive, the large majority of customers preferred to see the AppCatalyst specific features such as the RESTful API to just be included natively within Fusion rather than having a separate product.

Although it could not be said at the time, the feedback was heard loud and clear and the plan was to pull in the AppCatalyst REST API directly into Fusion. With the Fusion 2017 Tech Preview, you will now be able to interact with your Virtual Machines running on Fusion using the new Fusion REST API which also includes some additional new capabilities that was not there with the AppCatalyst REST APIs such as network and port forwarding management.

UPDATE (09/27/17) - VMware Fusion 10 has just officially GA'ed and there have been number of updates and enhancements since the Tech Preview. From an Automation/API standpoint, there have been several major updates that I would like to call out.

First, there are several new command-linen options to the vmrest utility including support for both HTTP and HTTPS API endpoints, credentials are also now supported so you can setup a shared username/password and ensure that only authorized folks can login to the API and lastly, the default port is now also configurable. Along with these widely requested features during the Tech Preview, there is also a nice debugging option while using the Fusion UI for troubleshooting purposes.

Secondly, the Fusion Swagger REST API docs has received a total re-vamp in terms of organization and cleaned up documentation. Below is a screenshot of the Swagger interface for the GA version of Fusion 10 which should make it even easier to consume the REST API.

Getting Started

Step 1 - Once you have installed the Fusion 2017 TP release, you will need to start the REST API endpoint which is provided by /Applications/VMware Fusion Tech Preview.app/Contents/Public/vmrest You can just type vmrest and it should automatically start or if you prefer to run it in the background, just type the following:

vmrest &

Here is screenshot of starting the Fusion REST API endpoint:


Note: The default port for the REST API is 8697

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Native OVF support for Fusion/Workstation 2017 Tech Preview 

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The VMware Fusion and Workstation team just released their 2017 Tech Preview releases and there is a ton of new and awesome capabilities which you can read more about here and here. One of the exciting new features, which I was very fortunate to have been involved with is finally here, native OVF property support! Although customers have had the ability to import OVF/OVAs for some time now, if they included OVF properties, they would be ignored and often times this would result in a failed deployment as those properties are required for the initial setup.

A great example of this is trying to run the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) on either Fusion or Workstation. Today, the only workaround is to manually edit the VMX file and supplying the correct OVF properties which I have blogged about here. With the latest TP release of Fusion/Workstation, when you import an OVF/OVA that contains OVF properties, the UI will automatically render the required information directly into the UI without needing users to manually touch the VMX files.

Here is a screenshot of deploying the latest VCSA 6.5d OVA (jump to bottom for some additional VCSA tidbits when deploying to Fusion/Workstation):

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Content Library Tech Preview at VMworld Europe 2015

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For those of you who were fortunate enough to attend the Content Library Technical Deep Dive session (#5106) at VMworld Europe several weeks back and stayed until the very end, you were treated to an exclusive sneak peak demo. The demo was well received from what I heard, especially having been one of the most popular feature requests when talking to customers. I know the Content Library Engineering team has been working hard on this feature and I thought what better way than to show it off at VMworld!

I recently had a meeting with the Content Library Dev Manager (Pratima Rao) who also had presented at VMworld Europe and I just got the green light to share the demo with my readers. As a reminder, this is a Tech Preview and I encourage you to check out the disclaimer below if you have any questions related to the delivery of this feature 🙂 So without further ado, here is the Tech Preview video that was demo'ed at VMworld.

Note: There is no audio to the video, but for those interested in what is happening in the video, here is a quick summary. Today, you can upload and manage ISO images within the Content Library, however when trying to mount an ISO from the Content Library, the workflow is not as straight forward as it could be. In a future update of vSphere, you will now have a new option to directly mount an ISO from the Content Library. The demo starts off by showing some ISOs that have already been uploaded to an existing Content Library. We can then access those ISOs by going to the Virtual Machine settings and using the familiar mount ISO workflow to access the content. You will see that there is now a new option to mount an ISO from the Content Library and you will be presented with a filtered list of all files with .iso extension. Once you have selected the the ISO, the VM will mount it like you normally would from a vSphere Datastore or from the client system. Some additional things to note is that you can also filter by searching for specific content by using the search box in case you have multiple Content Libraries. Lastly, there are some useful metadata in the columns fields when looking through your ISOs which could help with further identifying the content you are interested in.

Disclaimer: This is an early Tech Preview and the overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product. Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreement of any kind. Technically feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery. Pricing and packaging for any new technologies features discussed or represented have not been determined

Content Library Tech Preview at VMworld Europe 2015 from lamw on Vimeo.