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Take VxRail automation to the next level by leveraging APIs

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:20:04 -0000

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Karol Boguniewicz

VxRail REST APIs

The Challenge

VxRail Manager, available as a part of HCI System Software, drastically simplifies the lifecycle management and operations of a single VxRail cluster. With a “single click” user experience available directly in vCenter interface, you can perform a full upgrade off all software components of the cluster, including not only vSphere and vSAN, but also complete server hardware firmware and drivers, such as NICs, disk controller(s), drives, etc. That’s a simplified experience that you won’t find in any other VMware-based HCI solution.

But what if you need to manage not a single cluster, but a farm consisting of dozens or hundreds of VxRail clusters? Or maybe you’re using some orchestration tool to holistically automate the IT infrastructure and processes? Would you still need to login manually as an operator to each of these clusters separately and click a button to maybe shutdown a cluster, collect log information or health data or perform LCM operations?

This is where VxRail REST APIs come in handy.

The VxRail API Solution

REST APIs are very important for customers who would like to programmatically automate operations of their VxRail-based IT environment and integrate with external configuration management or cloud management tools.

In VxRail HCI System Software 4.7.300 we’ve introduced very significant improvements in this space:

Swagger integration - which allows for simplified consumption of the APIs and their documentation;
Comprehensiveness – we’ve almost doubled the number of public APIs available;
PowerShell integration – that allows consumption of the APIs from the Microsoft PowerShell or VMware PowerCLI.

The easiest way to start using and access these APIs is through the web browser, thanks to the Swagger integration. Swagger is an Open Source toolkit that simplifies Open API development and can be launched from within the VxRail Manager virtual appliance. To access the documentation, simply open the following URL in the web browser: https://<VxM_IP>/rest/vxm/api-doc.html (where <VxM IP> stands for the IP address of the VxRail Manager) and you should see a page similar to the one shown below:

Figure 1. Sample view into VxRail REST APIs via Swagger

This interface is dedicated for customers, who are leveraging orchestration or configuration management tools – they can use it to accelerate integration of VxRail clusters into their automation workflows. VxRail API is complementary to the APIs offered by VMware.

Would you like to see this in action? Watch the first part of the recorded demo available in the additional resources section.

PowerShell integration for Windows environments

Customers, who prefer scripting in Windows environment, using Microsoft PowerShell or VMware PowerCLI, will benefit from VxRail.API PowerShell Modules Package. It simplifies the consumption of the VxRail REST APIs from PowerShell and focuses more on the physical infrastructure layer, while management of VMware vSphere and solutions layered on the top (such as Software-Defined Data Center, Horizon, etc.), can be scripted using similar interface available in VMware PowerCLI.

Figure 2. VxRail.API PowerShell Modules Package

To see that in action, check the second part of the recorded demo available in the additional resources section.

Bringing it all together

VxRail REST APIs further simplify IT Operations, fostering operational freedom and a reduction in OPEX for large enterprises, service providers and midsize enterprises. Integrations with Swagger and PowerShell make them much more convenient to use. This is an area of VxRail HCI System Software that rapidly gains new capabilities, so please make sure to check the latest advancements with every new VxRail release.