The vCenter Server Appliance supports several programming interfaces for monitoring appliance health and performance, managing network configuration, security hardening, and other functionalities. The vCenter Server Appliance also supports several user interfaces, which offer overlapping sets of functionality.

You can use vSphere Web Client to perform common operations. By using the API, you have access to more specific settings and operations.

However, the API cannot access all the capabilities. A few special features require direct shell access or special user interfaces. See Supplementing the vCenter Server Appliance API.