VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Components of the
vSphere Automation
 Virtualization Layer

At the core of
vSphere Automation
 is vSphere, which provides the virtualization layer of the software-defined data center. You can use vSphere deployment options for
vCenter Server
 and
ESXi
 hosts to build virtual environments of different scales.

Components and Services of the vSphere Environment

Starting with vSphere 7.0, the installation and setup of vSphere is simplified to the deployment and upgrade of
vCenter Server
.
vCenter Server
 is a preconfigured virtual machine optimized for running the
vCenter Server
 service and the
vCenter Server
 components. The
vCenter Server
 service acts as a central administrator for
ESXi
 hosts.

Components Installed with
vCenter Server

vCenter Server
 is a central administration point for
ESXi
 hosts. The group of components installed when you install
vCenter Server
 include the
vCenter Server
 service,
vSphere Client
, VMware vSphere®Auto Deploy™, VMware vSphere®ESXi™ Dump Collector, VMware vSphere® Syslog Collector, and
vSphere Lifecycle Manager
 service.
You can use the
vSphere Automation
 API endpoint to access the following services running on
vCenter Server
.
Content Library
You can use content libraries to share virtual machines, vApps, and other files, such as ISO, OVA, and text files, across the software-defined data center. You can create, share, and subscribe to content libraries on the same
vCenter Server
 instance or on a remote instance. Sharing content libraries promotes consistency, compliance, efficiency, and automation in deploying workloads at scale.
You can also create OVF and VM templates from virtual machines and vApps in hosts, resource pools, and clusters. You can then use the OVF and VM templates to deploy new virtual machines and vApps.
Starting with vSphere 7.0, you can edit the contents of a VM template. You can check out the library item that contains the VM template. After editing the VM template, check in the library item to save the changes to the virtual machine.
Virtual Machine
You can use the
vSphere Automation
 APIs to create, configure, and manage the life cycle of virtual machines in your environment.
Starting with vSphere 7.0, you can also clone, create an instant clone, migrate, register, and unregister a virtual machine.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager
Starting with vSphere 7.0, the life cycle of
ESXi
 hosts and clusters can be managed through the VMware vSphere®Lifecycle Manager™ feature. Based on the current state of the hosts in a cluster, you can easily create a desired software specification by using the contents of a software depot. Then you validate the desired software specification and you apply the specification on all hosts in the cluster.
vSphere Tags
With vSphere tags you can attach metadata to vSphere objects, and as a result, make it easier to filter and sort these objects. You can use the
vSphere Automation
 APIs to automate the management of vSphere tags.
vSphere Supervisor
Starting with vSphere 7.0, you can enable
vSphere Supervisor
 on an existing vSphere cluster in your environment. Create and configure namespaces on the
Supervisors
 to run Kubernetes workloads in dedicated resource pools.

About vSphere

vSphere is the VMware software stack that implements private-cloud data center management and the on-premises component of hybrid-cloud deployments.
A vSphere installation includes one or more instances of
vCenter Server
 configured to manage one or more virtual data centers. Each virtual data center includes one or more instances of VMware
ESXi
.

About ESXi

Each instance of ESXi includes management agents and the VMware hypervisor layer, which runs several virtual machines. Each virtual machine contains a guest operating system, such as Windows or Linux, capable of running IT or user applications.
vCenter Server
 runs as a virtual machine on an ESXi host.
vCenter Server
 provides an independent endpoint capable of handling API requests both for
vCenter Server
 and for the
vCenter Server
.

vCenter Server
 Management Overview

vCenter Server
 runs on a Photon OS™ guest operating system.
vCenter Server
 is a collection of services designed for managing and monitoring vSphere installations.
vCenter Server
 responds to CLI commands, requests from the
vSphere Client
, and API requests from custom clients. API clients can be written in a choice of several software languages.
vCenter Server
 is managed by CLI, Web interfaces, or API requests. These requests help you manage
vCenter Server
 configuration, monitor resource usage, or back up and restore the
vCenter Server
 instance. You can also use API requests to check the health of
vCenter Server
. This programming guide explains how to use the
vSphere Automation
 APIs that are available to manage and monitor
vCenter Server
.
For more information about the capabilities of
vCenter Server
, see
vCenter Server
 Configuration
.

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