VMware Virtual Storage Lifecycle Management (VSLM) Readme

  Readme for Java Samples
  Readme for the vSphere Management SDK

What is the VMware VSLM API?

VSLM is a Web service that runs on a vCenter Server as part of storage policy services (SPS). You use this API to connect to the VSLM endpoint and retrieve information about first class disks (FCD), which are disks not associated with a virtual machine. SPS also includes storage policy based management (SPBM) and storage management service (SMS).

First class disk (FCD), also called improved virtual disk (IVD), helps surmount the difficulty of managing virtual disks not associated with a VM. Previously it was necessary to create a dummy VM for such disk operations. For example, snapshots work on a per VM basis, and to snapshot a single VMDK rather than all VMDKs attached to a VM involved lots of configuration overhead. FCD was designed to offer full lifecycle management of virtual storage objects, independent of any VM. VSLM APIs are able to create, delete, snapshot, backup, restore, and do other lifecycle tasks on VMDK objects without requiring VM attachment.

An FCD is identified by UUID and human readable name. The UUID is globally unique and the primary identifier. The UUID remains valid even if a snapshot is taken or its FCD relocated by XvMotion. Use cases for FCD include App Volumes, just-in-time desktops for VDI, OpenStack Cinder, Docker persistent volumes, Kubernetes nodes, and VMware Cloud Native Storage.

What’s in the SDK Package?

The VMware VSLM SDK Suite provides:

• Sample code that demonstrates how to use the VMware VSLM Api. See the readme file for the java samples (readme_java) for information on building and running the samples.
• Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) definitions that describe the Api for accessing the VSLM Apis in VCenter Server. The SDK contains the vslm.wsdl and vslmService.wsdl file and the supporting schema files.
• Shell scripts to run the samples.
• Compiled client-side libraries (vslm.jar and vslm-samples.jar files) for testing and development. Other required libraries such as vim25.jar and ssoclient.jar are referenced from vsphere-ws/java/JAXSW/lib folder of the SDK.

The VMware VSLM SDK is contained in the SDK\vslm directory in the vSphere Management SDK.

The following table contains a brief description of the contents of the VSLM SDK.

Directory structure (under \SDK\vslm):

VMware Resources

• Developer Center
• Knowledge Base
• VMware Communities

For released product information, including known issues, see the VMware Infrastructure SDK page. Be sure to read the Release Notes for the most recent information.