VirtualMachine Management Objects and Methods

You create a virtual machine by calling Folder.CreateVM_Task, and configure the virtual machine by using properties and methods of the VirtualMachine managed object. Most of the properties point to data objects that the methods use as input. VirtualMachine Managed Object with Some Properties and Methods shows some of the properties and methods.

Client applications commonly access and manipulate the following virtual machine related objects:

• VirtualMachine – Managed object used for most virtual machine manipulation. Includes methods that create templates, clones, or snapshots of a virtual machine, perform power operations and guest OS management, and install VMware Tools.
• VirtualMachineConfigInfo – Data object which allows you to retrieve configuration-specific information from a virtual machine.
• VirtualMachineCloneSpec – Data object which allows you to specify virtual machine properties for a clone operation. Argument to VirtualMachine.CloneVM_Task.