How do I integrate a solution with
vCenter Server Extensions

You can use the vSphere Web Services API to add a solution to

vCenter Server Extensions

Developing and Deploying vSphere Solutions, vServices, and ESX Agents

Add a solution to
vCenter Server Extensions

You add a solution to

vCenter Server Extensions

by setting the

shownInSolutionManager

property in the implementation of the

Extension

data object that manages the solution.

Download the vSphere ESX Agent Manager SDK.

You can set the

shownInSolutionManager

property in the

MyManager.java

class.

Call the

ExtSolutionManagerInfo()

constructor to create an instance of

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

in the class that implements

Extension

You can add the following code to the

MyManager.java

class to create an instance of

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

for your solution.

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();

  [...]
  ExtSolutionManagerInfo extSolutionManagerInfo = 
    new ExtSolutionManagerInfo();
  [...]

}

Call the

setSolutionManagerInfo()

method to set the

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

instance in the solution implementation.

You can add the following code to the

MyManager.java

class to call the

setSolutionManagerInfo()

method.

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();

  [...]
  ExtSolutionManagerInfo extSolutionManagerInfo = 
    new ExtSolutionManagerInfo();
  [...]
  extension.setSolutionManagerInfo(extSolutionManagerInfo);

}

Set the value of the

shownInSolutionManager

property to true by calling the

setShownInSolutionManager()

method on the implementation of the

Extension

object.

You can add the following code to the

MyManager.java

class to set the

shownInSolutionManager

property.

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();

  [...]
  ExtSolutionManagerInfo extSolutionManagerInfo = 
    new ExtSolutionManagerInfo();
  [...]
  extension.setSolutionManagerInfo(extSolutionManagerInfo);
  extension.setShownInSolutionManager(true);
  [...]

}

You set the

shownInSolutionManager

property in the implementation of the

Extension

data object that defines the solution. By setting the

shownInSolutionManager

property to

true

, a solution appears in

vCenter Server Extensions

when it registers with

vCenter Server

Set the icon for a type of virtual machine or vApp that an extension manages

You can provide an icon for each type of virtual machine or vApp that an extension manages by setting the

smallIconUrl

property of

ExtManagedEntityInfo

Verify that you have set the

managedBy

property in the configuration of the virtual machines or vApps that an extension deploys. See Identify the virtual machines or vApps that an extension manages.

Verify that you have created an instance of

ExtManagedEntityInfo

in the program that defines an extension.

The icon that you set with the

smallIconUrl

property of

ExtManagedEntityInfo

allows you to identify the types of virtual machines or vApps that your extension deploys. If an extension deploys different types of virtual machines, you can create several

ExtManagedEntityInfo

instances, with a different icon for each type. The virtual machines that the extension deploys appear in the

vCenter Server

inventory with the icons that you set.

The icon image must be in the PNG format and must measure 16 by 16 pixels. You must save the icon image to an appropriate location in the Web application that defines the extension. You provide a URL or path to the image to the

ExtManagedEntityInfo

instance for the type of virtual machine or vApp that this icon represents. Extensions access the icon image by using HTTP. Extensions do not support HTTPS URLs to icon images.

Create an icon image of type

PNG

and of dimensions 16 by 16 pixels.

Save the icon image to an appropriate location in the Web application that defines your extension.

Call

ExtManagedEntityInfo.setSmallIconUrl()

to set the

smallIconUrl

property for a type of virtual machine or vApp that the extension deploys.

Extension extension = new Extension();
ExtManagedEntityInfo extManagedEntityInfo = new ExtManagedEntityInfo();
extManagedEntityInfo.setType("my_vm_type");
extManagedEntityInfo.setDescription("Description of this type of virtual machine or vApp.");
extManagedEntityInfo.setSmallIconUrl("path_to_PNG_image");
extension.getManagedEntityInfo().add(extManagedEntityInfo);

Virtual machines and vApps that your extension deploys appear in the

vCenter Server

inventory with the icon that you set.

Add tabs to a solution

When you create a solution, you can add tabs to your solution to allow users to configure the solution and to access the functions of the solution in the

vSphere Client

Download the vSphere ESX Agent Manager SDK.

You define the content of tabs as dynamic Web pages. For example, you can define tabs that allow you to perform the following kinds of actions.

Configure the solution.

Show events triggered by the solution events or

vCenter Server

Deploy predefined virtual machines or vApps of different types.

Monitor the solution application or the virtual machines that it deploys.

Uninstall the solution.

You create tabs by implementing the

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

data object in the program that manages the solution. You set properties in

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

to provide a label for the tabs and a URL to the dynamic Web pages that provide the content of the tabs. You create one

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

instance for each tab that you add to your solution. You pass that instance to

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

in an array.

How you define the content of the tabs depends on the function of the application that the solution adds to

vCenter Server

You can implement

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

in the

MyManager.java

class.

Create an instance of

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

in the program that manages the solution.

Add the following lines in the

MyManager.java

class to create an instance of

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtSolutionManagerInfo extSolutionManagerInfo = 
    new ExtSolutionManagerInfo();
  [...]
}

Create an instance of

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

to contain the name of the page and a link to the Web page that defines its contents.

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo extSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo = 
    new ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo();

Call the

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo.setLabel()

method to provide a name for the page.

Add the following line to

MyManager.java

to name your solution Configuration page.

extSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo.setLabel("Configuration");

Call the

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo.setUrl()

method to provide a URL to the Web page that defines the contents of your solution Configuration page.

You can set in

MyManager.java

that your solution uses the

config.html

Web page to define the contents of the configuration page.

extSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo.setUrl("/config.html");

Add the tab to the array of

ExtSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo

instances that define the tabs for the solution in the

ExtSolutionManagerInfo

object.

extSolutionManagerInfo.getTab().add(extSolutionManagerInfoTabInfo);

You added solution-specific tabs that appear on the Summary page of your solution.

Set up health monitoring for the solution and the objects that it manages.

Set up health monitoring for a solution

vCenter Server

pulls data from solutions about their health status. Solutions expose health data by providing a URL to an XML file that defines the health model of the solution.

Download the vSphere ESX Agent Manager SDK.

All solutions must provide an XML file that specifies their health model. The health specification XML file for your solution must conform to the VMware Health Service extensible schema definition (XSD). See Solution health XML schema for the complete VMware solution health schema.

Solutions expose health data about themselves to

vCenter Server

by publishing XML documents that declare different health statuses, depending on the events that occur in the solution. You provide messages to accompany each health status in the XML document that the solution exposes to

vCenter Server

. Solutions can provide the following statuses to

vCenter Server

alert

warning

info

When you develop a solution, you must include a program or function that generates the health status XML file for the solution. The health status of a solution can be red, yellow, or green.

You must pass a URL to the XML file that defines the health model for a solution to the

ExtensionHealthInfo

object in the program that manages the solution. For example, you can create the following classes as part of your solution:

MyHealthProvider.java

define the health statuses for your solution.

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

dynamically create the XML file in which the solution exposes health status data.

You can implement the

ExtensionHealthInfo

in the

MyManager.java

class. The

MyManager.java

class can set a URL to a health definition XML file in the

ExtensionHealthInfo

url

property. The URL that

MyManager.java

provides must be the path to the

health.xml

file that

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

will create.

Create a program that defines the health statuses of the solution.

You can define the health statuses of your solution in the

MyHealthProvider.java

class.

Create a program that creates an XML file that exposes the health status data, conforming to the VMware health service XSD.

You can create the health data XML file in the

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

class.

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

implements

MyHealthProvider

to extract the health status from the solution. The class creates an XML file,

health.xml

, that exposes the health data about the solution according to the health status that

MyHealthProvider

provides.

Create an instance of

ExtensionHealthInfo

in the program that manages the solution.

You can implement

ExtensionHealthInfo

MyManager.java

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtensionHealthInfo healthInfo = new ExtensionHealthInfo();
  [...]
}

Call the

ExtensionHealthInfo.setUrl()

method to set the URL at which the solution publishes its health data XML file.

Your solution can publish an XML file,

health.xml

, that the

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

class generates.

healthInfo.setUrl(_url.toString() + "/health/health.xml");

Call the

Extension.setHealthInfo()

method to add the

ExtensionHealthInfo

object to the solution.

MyManager.java

can provide a link to the

health.xml

XML file that the

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

class generates.

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtensionHealthInfo healthInfo = new ExtensionHealthInfo();
  healthInfo.setUrl(_url.toString() + "/health/health.xml");
  extension.setHealthInfo(healthInfo);
  [...]
}

Contents of a solution health XML file

Your solution can publish health data at

http://<solution_ip_address>:<solution_port>/my_sample/health/health.xml

. The

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

class in your solution can generate this file when the solution starts. This example shows the XML file that

MyHealthStatusServlet.java

generates when your solution is running correctly.

<vimhealth schemaVersion="1.0">
  <health id="com.mycompany.mysolution">
    <name>My Solution</name>
    <status>green</status>
    <message id="com.mycompany.mysolution" level="info" time="<current_date_and_time>">Running</message>
  </health>
</vimhealth>

Solution health XML schema

Solutions must provide data about their health status to

vCenter Server

in XML documents.

The health status XML documents that a solutions pushes to

vCenter Server

must conform to the VMware health schema.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <xs:schema targetNamespace="http://www.vmware.com/vi/healthservice"
             elementFormDefault="qualified"
             xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vi/healthservice"
             xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" version="1.0">

   <xs:complexType name="healthType">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
      <xs:element name="status" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">
        <xs:simpleType>
          <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:enumeration value="green" />
            <xs:enumeration value="yellow" />
            <xs:enumeration value="red" />
          </xs:restriction>
        </xs:simpleType>
      </xs:element>
      <xs:element name="message" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
        <xs:complexType mixed="true">
          <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="param" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
          </xs:sequence>
          <xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
          <xs:attribute name="level" use="required">
            <xs:simpleType>
              <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
                <xs:enumeration value="info" />
                <xs:enumeration value="warning" />
                <xs:enumeration value="alert" />
              </xs:restriction>
            </xs:simpleType>
          </xs:attribute>
          <xs:attribute name="time" type="xs:dateTime" use="required"/>
        </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
      <xs:element name="health" type="healthType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
    </xs:sequence>
    <xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
   </xs:complexType>

   <xs:element name="vimhealth">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="health" type="healthType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
      </xs:sequence>
      <xs:attribute name="schemaVersion" type="xs:decimal" use="required"/>
    </xs:complexType>
   </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Content feedback and comments

VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

How do I integrate a solution with vCenter Server Extensions

Add a solution to vCenter Server Extensions

Set the icon for a type of virtual machine or vApp that an extension manages

Add tabs to a solution

Set up health monitoring for a solution

Solution health XML schema

How do I integrate a solution with
vCenter Server Extensions

Add a solution to
vCenter Server Extensions