The vSphere Web Services API
The VMware vSphere Web Services (WS) API is a developer
interface for ESXi hosts and vCenter Server. See vSphere Management on the developer site for
more information:
The
Developer’s Setup Guide
for
the VMware vSphere WS SDK has a chapter describing how to set up your programming
environment for Java.The
Programming Guide
for the
vSphere SDK contains some sample code written in Java, and based on the JAX-WS development
framework.ESXi hosts and the VMware vSphere WS API use a programming model based on Web services, in which clients generate Web services description language (WSDL) requests that pass over the network as XML messages encapsulated in simple object access protocol (SOAP). On ESXi hosts or vCenter Server, the vSphere layer answers client requests, usually passing back SOAP responses. This is a different programming model than the object-oriented function-call interface of C++ and the VIX API.