vSphere 6.7 U1 is here and it is fantastic! A fully-featured HTML5 client has been released, along with increased support for NVIDIA vGPU or Intel FPGA associated VMs, plus enhancements to HCI, vSAN, and Content Library. However, I’m most excited about some of the new API updates and the capabilities they add!
For more information on the vSphere 6.7 U1 release, see the following blog: Under the Hood – vSphere 6.7 U1
Let’s check out each of the API endpoints and see what is new!
vSphere Automation API
The vSphere Automation API endpoint received a bulk of the updates. This endpoint is also known as the vSphere REST API. The Appliance API now has a new service to manage inbound firewall rules. This method allows us to list and also update the ordered list of firewall rules for the particular system. The CIS (Common Infrastructure Service) API has a new Tasks service where we can list recent tasks, view more details about a specific task, and even cancel a long running task. Lastly, the vCenter API has a bunch of new services as well. The new Customization Specs service gives us the ability to view the guest OS customization specifications. Another new service is to manage VM templates through the content library. This service is known as Library Items and it allows us to view our templates in the content library as well as create new template and deploy those templates directly to our vCenter! There’s one more new service to talk about and it is one I’m quite happy to see released. This new service is for vCenter High Availability (VCHA).
VCHA was released as part of vSphere 6.5 and has continued to evolve with each subsequent release to ensure vCenter, and any associated services, are highly available. However, the methods to develop against VCHA were limited and only available through the vSphere Web Services (SOAP) API. Beginning with vSphere 6.7 U1, we have much better control over VCHA! There are over 16 new methods available to deploy and/or failover clusters, detect the node’s status, view and/or change the VCHA modes, and view any active operations.
More information about these updates are available in the following: vSphere Automation SDK for REST Documentation
vSphere Web Services API
The vSphere Web Services API, better known as the vSphere SOAP API, also received a handful of updates. These updates mainly support the enhancements to HCI and vSAN. Cluster objects now have a new property named hciConfig. This property will be configured when a cluster happens to be configured by the HCI workflow. Speaking of the HCI workflow, there are some new methods which control the HCI workflow and some methods that operate in response to an HCI workflow. New methods which can be performed against a cluster are creating, validating, modifying, or canceling an HCI workflow. There are a few batch-based methods which operate against datacenter and folder objects to add multiple hosts to an object and/or query multiple hosts for their status.
The other new methods are also related to host objects. One method is used to create a new persistent namespace for use with NVDIMMs. The other methods deal with listing and/or updating the VMware Tools repository, known as Product Locker.
More information about the vSphere Web Services API for 6.7 U1, see: VMware vSphere API Reference Documentation
Summary
vSphere 6.7 U1 has been released! From the fully-featured HTML5 vSphere client to updates for vSAN and HCI, there’s no shortage of reasons to upgrade. However, some of the new API services are worth upgrading for as well. vCenter High Availability has a new service we can access through the vSphere Automation API endpoint. The new HCI workflows are exposed through the vSphere Web Services API. Plus, some other methods like managing appliance firewall rules, configuring an ESXi host’s VMware Tools repository, and more. You’ll certainly want to start planning and preparing for the upgrade today!
Let us know in the comments what APIs you’re more looking forward to trying out.
