DataSets APIs
The DataSets service provides operations for sharing information between a virtual machine and its guest operating system. See the VMware Guest SDK Programming Guide for details on using DataSets from within a virtual machine.
Information is grouped into data sets, each of which contains key-value entries comprising the data. It's expected that each application using the service will have at least one unique data set in which to store its data to avoid conflict with other applications. Each data set has attributes defining its access control and interoperability configuration.
It's not recommended that sensitive data (for example, passwords or private keys) be stored in plain-text. The data will be visible to other applications, running both on the management network and within the guest. The data can also be exposed by backups or templates.
Data set support requires the virtual machine be at virtual hardware version VMX_20 or later.
Data sets should only be modified by the application that creates them. Otherwise the application may stop working.