VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere [Paperback]

Steve Jin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0137153635 | ISBN-13: 978-0137153633 | Publication Date: October 9, 2009 | Edition: 1

Drive Even More Value from Virtualization: Write VMware® Applications that Automate Virtual Infrastructure Management

 

Companies running VMware have already achieved enormous gains through virtualization. The next wave of benefits will come when they reduce the time and effort required to run and manage VMware platforms. The VMware Infrastructure Software Development Kit (VI SDK) includes application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow developers and administrators to do just that. Until now, there has been little documentation for the APIs. In VMware VI and vSphere SDK, software architect Steve Jin demystifies the entire VMware VI and new vSphere SDK and offers detailed, task-based coverage of using the APIs to manage VMware more efficiently and cost-effectively.

 

Jin walks you through using the VI SDK and cloud-computing vSphere SDK to manage ESX servers, ESX clusters, and VirtualCenter servers in any environment–no matter how complex. Drawing on his extensive expertise working with VMware strategic partners and enterprise customers, he places the VI SDK in practical context, presenting realistic samples and proven best practices for building robust, effective solutions. Jin demonstrates how to manage every facet of a VMware environment, including inventory, host systems, virtual machines (VMs), snapshots, VMotion, clusters, resource pools, networking, storage, data stores, events, alarms, users, security, licenses, and scheduled tasks. Coverage includes 

• Understanding how the VI SDK fits into your VMware VI and Cloud Ready vSphere Environment
• Discovering the VI and vSphere SDK from the bottom up
• Using the author’s new VI Java API to write shorter, faster, and more maintainable code
• Managing VI and vSphere inventory and configurations
• Moving running VMs and storages across different physical platforms without disruption
• Optimizing system resources, hardening system securities, backing up VMs and other resources
• Leveraging events, alarms, and scheduled tasks to automate the system management
• Developing powerful applications that integrate multiple API features and run on top of or alongside VMware platforms
• Using the VI SDK to monitor performance
• Scripting with the VI SDK: building solutions with VI Perl, PowerShell, and Jython
• Avoiding the pitfalls that trip up VMware VI developers
• Integrating with and extending VMware platforms using VI SDK 

This book is an indispensable resource for all VMware developers and administrators who want to get more done in less time; for hardware vendors who want to integrate their products with VMware; for ISV developers building new VMware applications; and for every professional and student seeking a deeper mastery of virtualization.

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Jin is a senior member of technical staff at VMware, where he provides guidance to strategic partners, such as IBM, HP, Dell, NetApp, and BEA, who build applications using VI (vSphere) SDK. In his spare time, he created VI (vSphere) Java API opensource project (http://vijava.sf.net), which is widely used by various commercial companies and developers. Jin received his BA, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in control theory (EE) from prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. Prior to his current job, Jin worked at IBM Research, Rational Software, and ASDC in various engineering and management roles.

 

Jin is the author of two software engineering books published for the Springer Tsinghua Press and the China Electronics Industry Press.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 648 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (October 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137153635
• ISBN-13: 978-0137153633
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars moderately useful, December 10, 2011

By 

Dr. Seuss "Dr. Seuss" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere (Kindle Edition)

If you're unlucky enough to be tasked with consuming the Vsphere API, you'll need something other than the useless documentation available from Vmware. You'll definitely want to use vijava as well, unless you like to write lots of spaghetti code. If you're a java programmer maybe you do like to write lots of ugly code; however, if you have a deadline and want to keep your sanity, vijava is the way to go.

Okay... I'm a hater. I hate the Vsphere API; I hate bloat; I think java is so 1995; I also hate Vmware's expensive, confusing and seemingly endless product line of poorly integrated, half-working garbage and useless documentation. I think the vmware documentation team gets paid by the word or page and not by the usefulness of their docs.

So, the book... I'll be fair about it. Like many of you, I have a library full of technical books.

This book is plagued with page after page of java code examples. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate examples, but c'mon.... ten pages in a row of nothing but code??? Have a Kindle? Forget about it! You won't be able to read this book with it. I also feel like there is still much missing. Want to deploy an OVF with the API? Good luck, buddy. Look elsewhere. I also want to deduct points for being too java-centric. We're consuming an API. APIs should be language agnostic. Granted, the author is a very smart guy and vijava is a life saver (you're still stuck with java). If the book was only about vijava, I suppose I could go easier on the rating; however, it's not.

I'm giving the book two stars. It's irritating that I have to buy this book to make up for the lack of useful documentation from vmware. It's also irritating that the API is so horrible that Steve had to create vijava. It's even more irritating that code examples are somehow supposed to make up for writing.

Get with it, vmware. It's not 1995 and APIs are not about java. There are at least five other very popular, modern programming languages that require much less code to accomplish the same thing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars for experienced java programmers, November 9, 2009

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere (Paperback)

This book differs from other recent texts on VMware, like VMware VI3 Implementation and Administration. Those are for sysadmins, and they explain how to manually use GUIs provided by VMware to run their programs.

The current book is directed at a programmer, who presumably also has sysadmin duties or who needs to make custom tools for a sysadmin. Here there are no cute screen shots of GUI panels made by others. Instead, you should be an experienced java programmer. VMware has put together an extensive library of java classes, that tie into their firmware. The text takes you in detail through sample code that uses these classes.

Though the book makes no mention of this, you can use the classes to write higher level driver code that is in the spirit of a JMX or Service Oriented Architecture approach. Perhaps these latter methods were never proffered for virtual machines. But they describe loosely coupled management viewpoints that might be well suited to the code in this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book to dive into VMware SDK API, October 21, 2009

By 

David Rousseau - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere (Paperback)

If like me you are tired of using vSphere or VI 2.5 official SDK, this book is for you.

Steve Jin has done a great job simplifying SDK access and improving performance drastically.
After using his VI Java API described in this book, you will no longer return to official VI Java SDK or other VI Toolkit.

You can code in Java but also in Python using Jython or IronPython.
We've choosed Jython and coupled it with some great web frameworks in python like Django. We've built a powerful web app exposing a RESTful API.

Add to this a real talent in popularizing VI objects in the SDK, this book saved me lots of time.