Can vcsim be used for manage real ESXi clusters/nodes

[thakkarjigneshX]

Hello, I'm a newbie to vcsim world. I did my hands-on for the vcsim to do some basic CRUD operations. However, when I do following, don't see the expected result of VM creation.

sudo /~/go/bin/vcsim -l :8989 -username user -password pass &
newpid=ps -aef | grep vcsim | grep -v sh | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'
export GOVC_URL=https://user:pass@ip:8989/sdk GOVC_SIM_PID=$newpid
export GOVC_INSECURE=1
govc datacenter.create TestDc
govc cluster.create -dc=TestDc TestCluster
govc cluster.add -dc=TestDc -hostname x.x.x.x -username user -password pass -noverify
govc vm.create -dc=TestDc TestVm1

When I create TestVm1 on real ESXi host x.x.x.x, I don't see the VM actually getting created.
Is this expected? We just create simulated entities and not the real one given that hardware is real?

[embano1]

Not sure I follow the question. vcsim is a simulator and won't perform any actions in real environments.

[thakkarjigneshX]

@embano1 agree. vcsim will not be able to perform any actions for real env. Can govc do this task? I mean can govc connect to real hosts and perform actions on it? Like vm create, delete, power on/off etc?

[embano1]

govc can perform certain actions against ESX, though might be limited depending on the APIs you call.

[thakkarjigneshX]

I was referring to https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/tree/master/govc to set up govc.
Do we have any other SDK [say python based] which can perform similar actions against real ESXi?
Also, is there any reference automation available to use govc for performing actions on real ESXi?

[kbrock]

Is the question: "Can govc be used to manager real ESXi clusters/nodes?
(if so, could you update the title?)

And I think your last statement is: requesting using govc to setup vcsim.

For terminoligy sake:

• vcsim is a vCenter simulator. It pretends to be the server.
• govc is a command line interface written in go. It speaks to a server (whether a real vCenter or a simulator)

Now as for sdks google told me there is a lot of documentation out there:

• https://developer.vmware.com/web/sdk/vsphere-automation-python/
• https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi
• other sdks listed at https://developer.vmware.com/sdks/

[dougm]

When I create TestVm1 on real ESXi host x.x.x.x, I don't see the VM actually getting created

That's right, vcsim does not connect to the real ESXi host. Nor is it possible to connect vcsim hosts to a real vCenter.
But both questions have come up a few times over the years, we should at least add some FAQ/doc on this.
Along these lines, @hickeng implemented ESXi host simulation (which also need some docs?), but is container based as we currently support for VMs