TABLE OF CONTENTS With the release of the VMware scripting application programming interfaces (APIs), VMware has been offering two components that you can use to develop custom code to manage your VMware ESX, VMware GSX, and VMware Server hosts directly: VmCOM and VmPerl. These APIs have no dependency on any other VMware product, such as VirtualCenter, and are available for use as quickly as you can download them from VMware s site.
VmCOM is a Component Object Model (COM) interface you can use with any language that supports the instantiation of COM objects, such as VB.NET, VBScript, C++, C#, Python, Delphi, and Java, just to mention a few. You must install this interface on a machine with a supported version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. VmCOM is not supported on the Linux platform.
VmPerl is an API that can be utilized through the Perl scripting language. You can install this component on either a Windows-based or a Linux-based admin client.
To efficiently develop, edit, debug, and test your code, you should standardize on an integrated development environment (IDE) that supports the language(s) you plan to write in. Several commercial and open-source products are available, so your decision will really be based on preference. When choosing an IDE, you should look for products that offer file management, integrated building/debugging/testing, deployment, source control, and reference tools to assist with rapid, yet accurate, coding. Some good choices when developing against any of the APIs and SDKs discussed in...
