This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Drive Even More Value from Virtualization: Write VMware® Applications that Automate Virtual Infrastructure Management

Companies running VMware have already achieved enormous gains through virtualization. The next wave of benefits will come when they reduce the time and effort required to run and manage VMware platforms. The VMware Infrastructure Software Development Kit (VI SDK) includes application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow developers and administrators to do just that. Until now, there has been little documentation for the APIs. In VMware VI and vSphere SDK, software architect Steve Jin demystifies the entire VMware VI and new vSphere SDK and offers detailed, task-based coverage of using the APIs to manage VMware more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Jin walks you through using the VI SDK and cloud-computing vSphere SDK to manage ESX servers, ESX clusters, and VirtualCenter servers in any environment–no matter how complex. Drawing on his extensive expertise working with VMware strategic partners and enterprise customers, he places the VI SDK in practical context, presenting realistic samples and proven best practices for building robust, effective solutions. Jin demonstrates how to manage every facet of a VMware environment, including inventory, host systems, virtual machines (VMs), snapshots, VMotion, clusters, resource pools, networking, storage, data stores, events, alarms, users, security, licenses, and scheduled tasks. Coverage includes

• Understanding how the VI SDK fits into your VMware VI and Cloud Ready vSphere Environment

• Discovering the VI and vSphere SDK from the bottom up

• Using the author’s new VI Java API to write shorter, faster, and more maintainable code

• Managing VI and vSphere inventory and configurations

• Moving running VMs and storages across different physical platforms without disruption

• Optimizing system resources, hardening system securities, backing up VMs and other resources

• Leveraging events, alarms, and scheduled tasks to automate the system management

• Developing powerful applications that integrate multiple API features and run on top of or alongside VMware platforms

• Using the VI SDK to monitor performance

• Scripting with the VI SDK: building solutions with VI Perl, PowerShell, and Jython

• Avoiding the pitfalls that trip up VMware VI developers

• Integrating with and extending VMware platforms using VI SDK

This book is an indispensable resource for all VMware developers and administrators who want to get more done in less time; for hardware vendors who want to integrate their products with VMware; for ISV developers building new VMware applications; and for every professional and student seeking a deeper mastery of virtualization.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

The best book to dive into VMware SDK API - 2009-10-21
Reviewer Rating:
If like me you are tired of using vSphere or VI 2.5 official SDK, this book is for you.

Steve Jin has done a great job simplifying SDK access and improving performance drastically.
After using his VI Java API described in this book, you will no longer return to official VI Java SDK or other VI Toolkit.

You can code in Java but also in Python using Jython or IronPython.
We've choosed Jython and coupled it with some great web frameworks in python like Django. We've built a powerful web app exposing a RESTful API.

Add to this a real talent in popularizing VI objects in the SDK, this book saved me lots of time.

for experienced java programmers - 2009-11-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book differs from other recent texts on VMware, like VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration. Those are for sysadmins, and they explain how to manually use GUIs provided by VMware to run their programs.

The current book is directed at a programmer, who presumably also has sysadmin duties or who needs to make custom tools for a sysadmin. Here there are no cute screen shots of GUI panels made by others. Instead, you should be an experienced java programmer. VMware has put together an extensive library of java classes, that tie into their firmware. The text takes you in detail through sample code that uses these classes.

Though the book makes no mention of this, you can use the classes to write higher level driver code that is in the spirit of a JMX or Service Oriented Architecture approach. Perhaps these latter methods were never proffered for virtual machines. But they describe loosely coupled management viewpoints that might be well suited to the code in this book.

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