vSphere SDK for Perl Programming Guide - Documentation - VMware

vSphere SDK for Perl Programming Guide
vSphere SDK for Perl Programming Conventions
Several programming conventions are different than you might expect because the SDK interacts with a server
using SOAP/WSDL.
Boolean data types – SDK applications send and receive Boolean values as follows:
Input (sending from the client application):
false: Use 0, ʹ0ʹ, or ʹfalseʹ (capitalization ignored)
true: Use 1, ʹ1ʹ, or ʹtrueʹ (capitalization ignored)
Output (receiving from the server):
false: Return value is 0
true: Return value is 1
To match Boolean values in a filter, use the strings true and false. See “Creating and Using Filters” on
page 33.
Date/Time – The server returns a SOAP dateTime value. You can use the Date::Parse Perl module to
process these objects.
The vSphere SDK for Perl accepts only native SOAP dateTime values using standard date time format
with or without fractional seconds, and with or without GMT (Z) time zone:
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD, for example, 1997-07-16T19:20:30+01:00
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD, for example, 1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00
The SDK always returns dateTime values in the standard date time format.
SOAP error message – Most likely indicates an error on the server, not an error with the communication
to the server.
vSphere SDK for Perl Common Options
A number of options are available for any vSphere SDK for Perl script. Most of these options allow you to
specify the host or hosts to connect to. Most options require an option value.
perl .pl --
For example, to power on a virtual machine using the vmcontrol.pl utility application, you must specify the
name of the virtual machine to power on, as follows:
perl vmcontrol.pl --server --username --password --operation
poweron --vmname
Run any application or sample without any options or with --help to see its parameters and execution
examples. Information about common and script‐specific options is included.
IMPORTANT If the host you are targeting is in lockdown mode, you cannot execute Perl scripts against the
host.
12 VMware, Inc.