Query SDK of free version of VMware ESX

[steven_donovan1]

Why doesn't Flexera Query the free version of VMware ESX?

[Alpesh]

Hi Steve,

I remember from our AdminStudio days that it was not possible to query the free version of ESX using the VMWare VIX Api calls at that time. I see that a limitation applies to any free ESX and so that is why I feel that the ESXquery tool is unable to query the free ESX.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

[steven_donovan1]

Alpesh, I wasn't talking about ESXquery. I was talking about the Beacons not able to collect inventory from the free version of ESX. Rvtools is able to query the API of the free version. I am going to test using esxquery as an alternative solution. Thanks, Steve

[bferring]

I was also unable to query a free version of ESXi via the normal beacon method of collecting VMware inventory. It appears to be a limitation with ESXi limiting the functionality of the API.

From the following URL:  https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1023990 

• vCLI, PowerCLI, and vSphere SDK for Perl are limited to read-only access for the free vSphere Hypervisor edition. To enable full functionality of vCLI on a VMware ESXi host, the host must be licensed with vSphere Essentials, vSphere Essential Plus, vSphere Standard, vSphere Advanced, vSphere Enterprise, or vSphere Enterprise Plus.

Other Related Info:  http://www.doublecloud.org/2011/01/free-esxi-and-apicli-support/

[RonZiedman]

Hey Steve, The reason that you are unable to reach the Free Version of ESX is due to the lack of activation as stated by Alpesh and Bill. That is the high level answer, here is a little more detail. The API is not available until the license is activated and the feature is enabled. By default the feature is disabled. The API accepts SOAP calls which is how the beacon connects to the vCenter/ESX host. This will not change unless VMWare enables this feature by default. RVTools uses the VI SDK to access data on vCenter/ESX hosts. This is very similar to the API as it is able to be used to execute remote commands, queries, etc. Yet it is an internal component of vCenter/ESX hosts and therefore is called differently. There are less limitations while using RVTools and therefore is more invasive during queries. Additional information on these components can be found here. http://www.doublecloud.org/vmware-vsphere-api-and-sdk-faq/ Hope this helps. Thank you, Ron Ziedman

[Andrei_ABB]

Hi Ron, 

Is there any workaround for this? Any way we can gather data from those free ESX and import it in FNMS in a standardized way? 

Regards,

Andrei

[durgeshsingh]

You may refer below 

VMware Stand-alone Inventory Agent for FlexNet Manager Suite

https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-Knowledge-Base/VMware-Stand-alone-Inventory-Agent-for-FlexNet-Manager-Suite/ta-p/114055

[kclausen]

@Andrei_ABB - Unfortunately, there is no good workaround for this, since the SDK is not available.  The stand-alone ESXQUERY utility also uses the SDK to extract the information.