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 and author  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 in a new book entitled VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere.

Author Steve Jin walks readers 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.

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VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

If a DSN has been set up through Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) the vSphere installer won’t be able to use this DSN.

The 64-bit ODBC Administrator tool can be invoked from Control Panel to manage user DSNs and system DSNs that are used by 64-bit processes, but for 32-bit datasources, the 32-bit ODBC Administrator tool is used for Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) processes.

To set up a 32-bit DSN launch the 32-bit version of the Data Source Administrator. It is located at:
%systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe

The vSphere installer will then be able to detect the DSN and continue the installation.

Please see Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/942976/en-us for more information.

If you get the error: DSN is pointing to a unsupported ODBC driver

then see KB article: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015804

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32-bit ODBC DSN for vSphere

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All about Time in VMware

• ESX disconnects randomly from VirtualCenter
• ESX disconnects when performing VI Client tasks from VirtualCenter.
• Tasks randomly timeout after a long idle time
• “An error occurred communicating to the remote host” pops up.

This only refers to Update 3. This issue seem to be affecting customers with firewalls using state-ful inspection, such as a Juniper ISG 2000, Software Revision 6.1.0R3.

The problem occurs because of SOAP timeouts, and this behavior did not exist in VC 2.0.x or 2.5 GA, as they used a different mechanism to communicate with ESX.

A knowledgebase article is in the works, but Engineering is still actively investigating this problem. One work-around that I have seen mentioned (not verified to work!) is as follows:

• Create a dummy VM on each host (e.g. 16 MB RAM, no disk, no network).
• Set CPU affinity to the last core to prevent VMotion.
• Create a new Scheduled Task that performs:
  • Change power state: Power-on dummy VM. Every hour, on the hour.
• Create another Scheduled Task that performs:
  • Change power state: Power-off dummy VM. Every hour, 30 minutes after the hour.

Like I said, Engineering is aware of this issue and actively investigating it.

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ESX disconnects randomly or when doing VI client tasks from VC, task randomly timeout after a long idle time