Virtual Infrastructure Service Instance APIs

Virtual Infrastructure Service Instance APIs

The ServiceInstance managed object is the singleton root object of the inventory on both vCenter servers and servers running on standalone host agents.

The server creates the ServiceInstance automatically, and also automatically creates the various manager entities that provide services in the virtual environment. Some examples of manager entities are LicenseManager, PerformanceManager, and ViewManager. You can access the manager entities through the content property.

A vSphere API client application begins by connecting to a server and obtaining a reference to the ServiceInstance. The client can then use the RetrieveServiceContent method to gain access to the various vSphere manager entities and to the root folder of the inventory.

When you create managed objects, the server adds them to the inventory. The inventory of managed objects includes instances the following object types:

  • ServiceInstance -- Root of the inventory; created by vSphere.
  • Datacenter -- A container that represents a virtual data center. It contains hosts, network entities, virtual machines and virtual applications, and datastores.
  • Folder -- A container used for hierarchical organization of the inventory.
  • VirtualMachine -- A virtual machine.
  • VirtualApp -- A virtual application.
  • ComputeResource -- A compute resource (either a cluster or a stand-alone host).
  • ResourcePool -- A subset of resources provided by a ComputeResource.
  • HostSystem -- A single host (ESX Server or VMware Server).
  • Network -- A network available to either hosts or virtual machines.
  • DistributedVirtualSwitch -- A distributed virtual switch.
  • DistributedVirtualPortgroup -- A distributed virtual port group.
  • Datastore -- Platform-independent, host-independent storage for virtual machine files.

The following figure shows the organization of managed objects in the vCenter hierarchy:

Every Datacenter has the following set of dedicated folders. These folders are empty until you create entities for the Datacenter.

The host agent hierarchy has the same general form as the vCenter hierarchy, but most of the objects are limited to one instance:

Operations
POST
Service Instance Current Time
Returns the current time on the server.
GET
Service Instance Get Capability
API-wide capabilities.
GET
Service Instance Get Content
The properties of the ServiceInstance managed object.
GET
Service Instance Get Server Clock
Contains the time most recently obtained from the server.
POST
Service Instance Query V Motion Compatibility
Investigates the general VMotion compatibility of a virtual machine with a set of hosts.
POST
Service Instance Retrieve Product Components
Component information for bundled products
POST
Service Instance Retrieve Service Content
Retrieves the properties of the service instance.
POST
Service Instance Validate Migration
Checks the validity of a set of proposed migrations.