SDK Version Support and Limitations of the ESXi
API
vSphere supports various versions, both with vCenter Server and
with ESXi. The ESXi service contains some limitations not present in vCenter Server.
You can use the VMware vSphere Web
Services SDK with many previous versions of VMware vSphere servers and its
predecessor, VMware Infrastructure, including:
- ESXi 8.0, 7.0, 6.7, 6.5, 6.0
- vCenter Server 8.0, 7.0, 6.7, 6.5, 6.0
All versions are supported by the WSDL declarations in the
vimService.wsdl
top-level file in the vim25
directory.The VMware vSphere API is a Web service that runs on VMware vSphere ESXi
and vCenter Server. The API exposed is the same in both products. However, vCenter
Server provides the following capabilities which are not available through an ESXi
Web service:
- Collecting historical performance data
- Optimizing resources, including managing distributed resources
- Enabling migration from one host system to another by using VMware vMotion
- Providing distributed resource management, including recovery, across all host systems under its control
If you attempt to invoke an operation on an ESXi system that is supported
only on vCenter Server, the server returns a fault saying “not implemented” or “not
supported.” For example, the ExtensionManager API is available only on VirtualCenter
Server. Attempting to register an extension to an ESXi system returns a fault, “not
supported.”