Virtual Disk API Programming Guide - Documentation - VMware

Virtual Disk API Sample Code
The sample program’s -single option, which opens a single link instead of the entire disk chain, is supported
for (local) hosted disk, but not for (remote) managed disk.
To connect to an ESXi host with the sample program, you must specify the options -host, -user, -password,
and provide a diskPath on the ESXi host’s datastore. For example:
vix-diskLib-sample -info -host esx5 -user root -password secret "[datastore1] /.vmdk"
To connect to vCenter Server, you must also specify the options -libdir and -vm. Programs need libdir so
the DiskLibPlugin can connect with vCenter Server, which must locate the VM. For example:
vix-diskLib-sample -info -host vc5 -user Administrator -password secret
-libdir -vm vmPath= "[] /.vmdk"
The vmPath is formulated in vSphere Client by starting at vCenter and inserting /vm/ before the VM name.
The diskPath is ascertained by clicking Edit Settings > Hard Disk and copying the Disk File name.
vix-disklib-sample -info -host vc5 -user Administrator -password secret
-libdir /usr/lib/vmware-vix-disklib/lib32 -vm vmPath=Datacenter/vm/RHEL5
"[datastore1] RHEL5/RHEL5.vmdk"
To connect using an advanced transport, for example to virtual machine disk on SAN storage, you must also
specify the options -mode and -ssmoref. The transport mode and managed object reference (of a snapshot)
are required for VixDiskLib_ConnectEx(). To find the ssmoref, log in to the managed object browser for the
vCenter Server, and click content > rootFolder > Datacenter > datastore > vm > snapshot. A snapshot must
exist, because it is a bad idea to open the base disk of a powered‐on VM.
vix-disklib-sample -info -host vc5 -user Administrator -password secret -mode san
-libdir /usr/lib/vmware-vix-disklib/lib32 -vm vmPath=Datacenter/vm/RHEL5
-ssmoref snapshot-72 "[datastore1] RHEL5/RHEL5.vmdk"
On 64‐bit Linux, would end in /lib64 not /lib32. On Windows, the VDDK package installs
diskLibPlugin.dll in the \bin folder, not the \lib folder, so change accordingly.
Walk-Through of Sample Program
The sample program is the same for Windows as for Linux, with #ifdef blocks for Win32.
Include Files
Windows dynamic link library (DLL) declarations are in process.h, while Linux shared object (.so)
declarations are in dlfcn.h. Windows offers the tchar.h extension for Unicode generic text mappings, not
readily available in Linux.
Definitions and Structures
The sample program uses twelve bitwise shift operations (1