Introduction to
vSphere Solution Development
You can add
functions to vSphere by developing software applications that you register as
extensions. A vSphere Solution is an extension that registers with
and implements some or all of the extension features of the vSphere API.
Developing and Deploying vSphere
Solutions, vServices, and ESX Agents
uses the terms solution and
extension interchangeably.
A vSphere Solution is an object
or program that you create by extending specific classes in the vSphere Web
Services API. After you register your solution with the instance of the
ExtensionManager
managed object associated with your
,
you see your solution under
of your
.
You can create a vService
solution to provide access for a specific application to connect to a service
across the network.
You can create an ESX Agent to
extend the functions of an ESXi host and provide additional services that a
vSphere solution requires.
The vService Manager and
are pre-built solutions that are part of the
functionality within the
.
The
includes an API library that allows you to adapt and
modify the ESX Agent Manager (EAM) Sample Solution and view it using the
.
The extension features in the
vSphere Web Services API include functions so that you can perform the
following tasks:
- Register permissions, faults, and events for an extension.
- Identify and prevent manual operations on virtual machines and vApps that extensions deploy.
- Integrate extensions with .
- Store data about extensions in the vSphere database.
- Provide user interface plug-ins that extend the .
To use the extension functions
of the vSphere API, a solution must register itself with the
ExtensionManager
that
runs in a
instance. By registering with
ExtensionManager
, a
solution can access the extension features of the vSphere extension API.
You can develop solutions that
add functions to the standard functions of
.
You can deploy a solution as an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) package, with
optional VMware vSphere Installation Bundles (VIB). You can also install
solutions by using an installer, such as Windows Installer (MSI) or RPM Package
Manager. Most of the extension functions in the vSphere API are independent of
the technology that you use to deploy a solution. If you deploy a solution by
using OVF, you can use the vCenter Extension vService to simplify the
registration of the solution with
.
6.5 provides built-in solutions.
and
are part of a standard
installation. These solutions appear in
and
with any other solutions that register with
.