1.0
Table Of Contents
- vCloud API Programming Guide
- Contents
- About This Book
- Introducing the VMware vCloud API
- Hello vCloud: A Structured REST Workflow Example
- Logging In and Getting an Organization List
- Browsing an Organization
- Finding a vApp Template
- Getting Information About a vDC
- Instantiating the Template in the vDC
- Deploying and Powering On the vApp
- Getting Information About the vApp
- Displaying the Console
- Deleting the vApp
- Logging Out
- Moving on to Additional Use Cases
- Browsing
- Provisioning
- Summary of Provisioning Requests
- Upload OVF to Create a vApp Template
- View the OVF Descriptor of a vApp Template
- Download a vApp Template as OVF
- Upload a Media Image
- Copying and Moving
- Changing a Name or Description
- Delete a vAppTemplate, vApp, or Media Image
- Cataloging vApp Templates and Media Images
- Controlling Access
- Datacenter Operations
- Summary of Datacenter Operations Requests
- vApp Lifecycle
- Instantiate a vApp Template
- Compose a vApp
- Recompose a vApp to Add or Remove Virtual Machines
- Capture a vApp to Create a vApp Template
- Reconfiguring vApps and Virtual Machines
- Deploying and Controlling vApps and Virtual Machines
- Deploy a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Undeploy a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Power On a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Power Off a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Reset a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Suspend a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Discard the Suspended State of a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Shut Down a vApp or Virtual Machine
- Reboot a vApp or Virtual Machine
- List Media Devices of a Virtual Machine
- Insert Media Into a Virtual Machine
- Eject Media from a Virtual Machine
- Get a Screen Thumbnail for a Virtual Machine
- Get a Screen Ticket for a Virtual Machine
- Provide User Input Requested by a Virtual Machine
- Control Access to vApps
- Retrieve a Task
- Administrative Operations
- VMware vSphere Platform Operations
- Summary of vSphere Platform Operations Requests
- List vSphere Platform Operations and Objects for a vCloud
- List Provider vDCs in a vCloud
- List External Networks in a vCloud
- List Network Pools in a vCloud
- List vCenter Servers Registered to a vCloud
- List ESX/ESXi Hosts in a vCloud
- Create a Provider vDC
- Create an External Network
- Create a Network Pool
- Import a Virtual Machine from vCenter
- XML Representations in the vCloud API
- User API Reference
- Request Parameters Reference
- Administrative API Reference
- vSphere Platform Extensions Reference
- OVF and the vCloud API
- An Introduction to REST for vCloud API Users
- Index
VMware, Inc. 17
Chapter 1 Introducing the VMware vCloud API
Linksprovideawayfortheservertoinformaclientaboutobjectrelationshipsandtheoperationsthatobjects
support.Forexample,acontainersuchasanorganizationorcatalogcanreturnlinkstotheobjectsitcontains,
andavirtualsystem(avApporVm)cancontainactionlinks
thatenableoperationssuchaspowerstatechanges
orvirtualdevicereconfiguration.Linkstoactionsandcontainedobjectsareomittedfromresponsesifthe
requestwasmadebyauserwhohasinsufficientprivilegestoaccesstheobjectorperformtheaction.Action
linksarealsoomittedwhentheactioncannot
beperformed(poweringonavirtualmachinethatisalready
poweredon,forexample).
vCloud Client Workflow Overview
ClientsofthevCloudAPIimplementaRESTfulworkflow,makingHTTPrequeststotheserverandretrieving
theinformationtheyneedfromtheserver’sresponses.
Requests
ClientsmakeHTTPrequeststovCloudURLs,hrefattributevalueswhicharetypicallyprovidedbytheserver
inresponsetoGETrequestsbytheclient.EveryvCloudhasawell‐knownURLfromwhichaclientcangetthe
server’sloginURLandthelistofvCloudAPIversionsthatthe
serversupports,alongwithadditional
information(see“AP I Versioning”onpage 147).Afteraclienthasloggedin,allvCloudAPIURLscanbe
discoveredbymakingGETrequeststoURLslistedintheloginresponseandtheURLscontainedinresponses
tothoserequests.
Request Headers
Allrequestsfromauthenticatedclientsmustincludeanauthenticationheader.See“Authentication”on
page 18.
RequeststhatincludeadocumentbodymuststartwiththeappropriateHTTPContent‐Typeheader.Thetype
attributeofaresponsebodyindicatesthecontenttypeofthedocument.Forexample,thisresponsefragment
indicatesthatthe
contenttypeassociatedwithaCatalogItem entityis
application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.catalogItem+xml.
<CatalogItem type="application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.catalogItem+xml"
href="http://vcloud.example.com/api/v1.0/catalogItem/221" name="Ubuntu Template with
vsftpd"/>
AnyrequestthatincludesaCatalogItemrequiresthefollowingContent‐Typeheader:
Content-Type: application/vnd.vmware.vcloud.catalogItem+xml
Whenitappearsas thevalueofaContent‐TypeheaderorthetypeattributeofanelementinthevCloudAPI,
thisstringiscase‐insensitiveinrequests,andcanbereturnedineithermixedcaseorlowercasecharactersin
responses.
Formoreinformation,see“ContentType”onpage 142.
Request Bodies
ThisreleaseofCloudDirectorusesavalidatingXMLparserthatrequireselementsinarequestbodytoagree
inbothorderandnumberwiththeschema.Requestbodiesarerejectedasinvalidunlesstheymeetthe
followingcriteria:
XMLnamespaceattributesmustbesuppliedforallnamespacesrepresentedbyelementsintherequest.
See“XMLNamespaceIdentifiers”onpage 145.
Ifmultiplenamespacesarerepresentedintherequest,XMLnamespaceattributesmustincludean
identifyingprefix,andthatprefixmustbeusedwithelementsfromthatnamespace.See“XML
NamespacePrefixesinRequestandResponseBodies”onpage 146.
N
OTEWhenaclientusesalinktoreferenceanobject,onlythehrefattributeisrequired.Thenameandtype
areignored.