vConnector - VMware vSphere Connector Module for Python

vConnector is a wrapper module around pyVmomi VMware vSphere bindings, which provides methods for connecting and retrieving of objects from a VMware vSphere server.

The purpose of vConnector is to provide the basic primitives for building complex applications. vConnector can also be used for managing the user/pass/host credentials for your vSphere environment using an SQLite database, which in turn can be shared between multiple applications requiring access to your vSphere environment through a common interface.

Requirements

• Python 2.7.x, 3.2.x or later

• docopt

• pyVmomi

• tabulate

Contributions

vConnector is hosted on Github. Please contribute by reporting issues, suggesting features or by sending patches using pull requests.

Installation

The easiest way to install vConnector is by using pip:

$ pip install vconnector

In order to install the latest version of vConnector from the Github repository simply execute these commands instead:

$ git clone https://github.com/dnaeon/py-vconnector.git
$ cd py-vconnector
$ python setup.py install

Applications using vConnector module

• vPoller - Distributed vSphere API Proxy

• vEvents - VMware vSphere Events from the command-line

Using the vconnector-cli tool

Using the vconnector-cli tool you can manage the user/pass/host credentials of your vSphere environment. The vconnector-cli tool stores this information in an SQLite database file, which also makes it easy to be shared between applications.

First, initialize the vConnector database by executing the command below:

$ vconnector-cli init

Here is how to add a new vSphere host to the vConnector database:

$ vconnector-cli -H vc01.example.org -U root -P p4ssw0rd add

Here is how to update an already existing vSphere host from the vConnector database:

$ vconnector-cli -H vc01.example.org -U root -P newp4ssw0rd update

Here is how to remove a vSphere host using vconnector-cli:

$ vconnector-cli -H vc01.example.org remove

Here is how to enable a vSphere host using vconnector-cli:

$ vconnector-cli -H vc01.example.org enable

Here this is how to disable a vSphere host:

$ vconnector-cli -H vc01.example.org disable

And here is how to get the currently registered vSphere hosts from the vConnector database:

$ vconnector-cli get
+---------------------------+---------------------+--------------+-----------+
| Hostname                  | Username            | Password     |   Enabled |
+===========================+=====================+==============+===========+
| vc01.example.org          | root                | p4ssw0rd     |         0 |
+---------------------------+---------------------+--------------+-----------+

Using the vConnector API

Here are a few examples of using the vconnector module API.

Connecting to a vSphere host:

>>> from vconnector.core import VConnector
>>> client = VConnector(
...     user='root',
...     pwd='p4ssw0rd',
...     host='vc01.example.org'
...)
>>> client.connect()

Disconnecting from a vSphere host:

>>> client.disconnect()

Re-connecting to a vSphere host:

>>> client.reconnect()

How to get a VMware vSphere View of all VirtualMachine managed objects:

>>> from __future__ import print_function
>>> from vconnector.core import VConnector
>>> client = VConnector(
...     user='root',
...     pwd='p4ssw0rd',
...     host='vc01.example.org'
...)
>>> client.connect()
>>> vms = client.get_vm_view()
>>> print(vms.view)
(ManagedObject) [
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-36',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-129',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-162',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-146',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-67',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-147',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-134',
     'vim.VirtualMachine:vm-88'
]
>>> client.disconnect()

How to get a Managed Object by a specific property, e.g. find the Managed Object of an ESXi host which name is esxi01.example.org:

>>> from __future__ import print_function
>>> import pyVmomi
>>> from vconnector.core import VConnector
>>> client = VConnector(
...     user='root',
...     pwd='p4ssw0rd',
...     host='vc01.example.org'
... )
>>> client.connect()
>>> host = client.get_object_by_property(
...     property_name='name',
...     property_value='esxi01.example.org',
...     obj_type=pyVmomi.vim.HostSystem
... )
>>> print(host.name)
'esxi01.example.org'
>>> client.disconnect()

How to collect properties for vSphere Managed Objects, e.g. get the name and capacity properties for all Datastore managed objects:

>>> from __future__ import print_function
>>> import pyVmomi
>>> from vconnector.core import VConnector
>>> client = VConnector(
...     user='root',
...     pwd='p4ssw0rd',
...     host='vc01.example.org'
... )
>>> client.connect()
>>> datastores = client.get_datastore_view()
>>> result = client.collect_properties(
...     view_ref=datastores,
...     obj_type=pyVmomi.vim.Datastore,
...     path_set=['name', 'summary.capacity']
...)
>>> print(result)
[{u'summary.capacity': 994821799936L, u'name': 'datastore1'}]
>>> client.disconnect()