= RbVmomi

== Introduction

RbVmomi is a Ruby interface to the vSphere API. Like the Perl and Java SDKs,
you can use it to manage ESX and VirtualCenter servers. The current release
supports the vSphere 5.0 API. RbVmomi specific documentation is
online[http://rdoc.info/github/rlane/rbvmomi/master/frames] and is meant to
be used alongside the official documentation[http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk41pubs/ApiReference/index.html].

== Installation

    gem install rbvmomi

== Usage

A simple example of turning on a VM:

    require 'rbvmomi'
    vim = RbVmomi::VIM.connect host: 'foo', user: 'bar', password: 'baz'
    dc = vim.serviceInstance.find_datacenter("mydatacenter") or fail "datacenter not found"
    vm = dc.find_vm("myvm") or fail "VM not found"
    vm.PowerOnVM_Task.wait_for_completion

This code uses several RbVmomi extensions to the vSphere API for concision. The
expanded snippet below uses only standard API calls and should be familiar to
users of the Java SDK:

    require 'rbvmomi'
    vim = RbVmomi::VIM.connect host: 'foo', user: 'bar', password: 'baz'
    rootFolder = vim.serviceInstance.content.rootFolder
    dc = rootFolder.childEntity.grep(RbVmomi::VIM::Datacenter).find { |x| x.name == "mydatacenter" } or fail "datacenter not found"
    vm = dc.vmFolder.childEntity.grep(RbVmomi::VIM::VirtualMachine).find { |x| x.name == "myvm" } or fail "VM not found"
    task = vm.PowerOnVM_Task
    filter = vim.propertyCollector.CreateFilter(
      spec: {
        propSet: [{ type: 'Task', all: false, pathSet: ['info.state']}],
        objectSet: [{ obj: task }]
      },
      partialUpdates: false
    )
    ver = ''
    while true
      result = vim.propertyCollector.WaitForUpdates(version: ver)
      ver = result.version
      break if ['success', 'error'].member? task.info.state
    end
    filter.DestroyPropertyFilter
    raise task.info.error if task.info.state == 'error'

As you can see, the extensions RbVmomi adds can dramatically decrease the code
needed to perform simple tasks while still letting you use the full power of
the API when necessary. RbVmomi extensions are often more efficient than a
naive implementation; for example, the find_vm method on VIM::Datacenter used
in the first example uses the SearchIndex for fast lookups.

A few important points:

* All class, method, parameter, and property names match the official documentation[http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vc-sdk/visdk41pubs/ApiReference/index.html].
* Properties are exposed as accessor methods.
* Data object types can usually be inferred from context, so you may use a hash instead.
* Enumeration values are simply strings.
* Example code is included in the examples/ directory.
* A set of helper methods for Trollop is included to speed up development of
  command line apps. See the included examples for usage.
* If you don't have trusted SSL certificates installed on the host you're
  connecting to, you'll get an +OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError+ "certificate verify failed".
  You can work around this by using the +:insecure+ option to +RbVmomi::VIM.connect+.
* This is a side project of a VMware employee and is entirely unsupported by VMware.

Built-in extensions are under +lib/rbvmomi/vim/+. You are encouraged to
reopen VIM classes in your applications and add extensions of your own. If you
write something generally useful please send it to me and I'll add it in.

== Development

Fork the project on Github and send me a merge request, or send a patch to
rlane@vmware.com. RbVmomi developers hang out in #rbvmomi on Freenode.
