vcsim

README

vcsim - A vCenter and ESXi API based simulator

This package implements a vSphere Web Services (SOAP) SDK endpoint intended for testing consumers of the API. While the mock framework is written in the Go language, it can be used by any language that can talk to the vSphere API.

Installation

% export GOPATH=$HOME/gopath
% go get -u github.com/vmware/govmomi/vcsim
% $GOPATH/bin/vcsim -h

Usage

The vcsim program by default creates a vCenter model with a datacenter, hosts, cluster, resource pools, networks and a datastore. The naming is similar to that of the original vcsim mode that was included with vCenter. The number of resources can be increased or decreased using the various resource type flags. Resources can also be created and removed using the API.

Example using the default settings:

% export GOVC_URL=https://user:pass@127.0.0.1:8989
% $GOPATH/bin/vcsim
% govc find
/
/DC0
/DC0/vm
/DC0/vm/DC0_H0_VM0
/DC0/vm/DC0_H0_VM1
/DC0/vm/DC0_C0_RP0_VM0
/DC0/vm/DC0_C0_RP0_VM1
/DC0/host
/DC0/host/DC0_H0
/DC0/host/DC0_H0/DC0_H0
/DC0/host/DC0_H0/Resources
/DC0/host/DC0_C0
/DC0/host/DC0_C0/DC0_C0_H0
/DC0/host/DC0_C0/DC0_C0_H1
/DC0/host/DC0_C0/DC0_C0_H2
/DC0/host/DC0_C0/Resources
/DC0/datastore
/DC0/datastore/LocalDS_0
/DC0/network
/DC0/network/VM Network
/DC0/network/DVS0
/DC0/network/DC0_DVPG0

Example using ESX mode:

% $GOPATH/vcsim -esx
% govc find
/
/ha-datacenter
/ha-datacenter/vm
/ha-datacenter/vm/ha-host_VM0
/ha-datacenter/vm/ha-host_VM1
/ha-datacenter/host
/ha-datacenter/host/localhost.localdomain
/ha-datacenter/host/localhost.localdomain/localhost.localdomain
/ha-datacenter/host/localhost.localdomain/Resources
/ha-datacenter/datastore
/ha-datacenter/datastore/LocalDS_0
/ha-datacenter/network
/ha-datacenter/network/VM Network

Supported methods

The simulator supports a subset of API methods. However, the generated govmomi code includes all types and methods defined in the vmodl, which can be used to implement any method documented in the VMware vSphere API Reference.

To see the list of supported methods:

% curl -sk https://user:pass@127.0.0.1:8989/about

Listen address

The default vcsim listen address is 127.0.0.1:8989. Use the -l flag to listen on another address:

% vcsim -l 10.118.69.224:8989 # specific address

% vcsim -l :8989 # any address

When given a port value of 0, an unused port will be chosen. You can then source the GOVC_URL from another process, for example:

% govc_sim_env=$TMPDIR/vcsim-$(uuidgen)

% mkfifo $govc_sim_env

% vcsim -l 127.0.0.1:0 -E $govc_sim_env &

% eval "$(cat $govc_sim_env)"

# ... run tests ...

% kill $GOVC_SIM_PID
% rm -f $govc_sim_env

Tests written in Go can also use the simulator package directly, rather than the vcsim binary.

Feature Details

For more details on vcsim features, see the project wiki.

Projects using vcsim

• VMware VIC Engine

• Kubernetes

• Ansible

• Telegraf

Blog posts

• Beginning vCenter Server simulation with vcsim by Abhijeet Kasurde

• vCenter & ESXi API based simulator by William Lam

• vCenter Simulator Docker Container by Brian Bunke

Related projects

• LocalStack