Virtual Storage Lifecycle Management
Virtual Storage Lifecycle Management (VSLM) is a Web service that runs on vCenter
Server as part of storage policy services (SPS). You use this API to connect to the VSLM
endpoint and retrieve information about first class disks (FCD). SPS also includes storage
policy based management (SPBM) and storage management service (SMS).
First class disk, also called improved
virtual disk (IVD), refers to disks not associated with a virtual machine. Previously,
disk operations on unattached virtual disks required you to create a dummy VM and attach
the virtual disks before you could work with the disks.
For example, snapshots work on a per-VM
basis, and to snapshot a single virtual disk rather than all virtual disks attached to a
VM required configuration overhead. The FCD feature offers full lifecycle management of
virtual storage objects, independent of any VM. VSLM APIs are able to create, delete,
snapshot, backup, restore, and do other lifecycle tasks on VMDK objects without
requiring VM attachment.
An FCD is identified by UUID and human
readable name. The UUID is globally unique and the primary identifier. The UUID remains
valid even if a snapshot is taken or its FCD relocated by XvMotion.
Use cases for FCD include App Volumes,
just-in-time virtual desktops for VDI, OpenStack Cinder, Docker persistent volumes,
Kubernetes nodes, and VMware Cloud Native Storage.
The VSLM API uses a SOAP-XML RPC protocol,
patterned after the vSphere Web Services (VIM) API. It is bundled in the vSphere
Management SDK.
The VSLM service endpoint
is
https://{domain}/vslm
For more information about using the VSLM
API, see the following API reference documentation:
- Virtual Storage Lifecycle Management API 8.0