Using the MOB to Navigate the VMware Infrastructure Object Model

Upon successful connection to the MOB, the browser displays the managed object reference for ServiceInstance. Client applications do not use managed objects directly, but interact with server-side managed objects by reference, using instances of the ManagedObjectReference data created for this purpose.

The page lists the properties and methods available through a ServiceInstance object. The ServiceInstance methods and properties provide access to the entire set of services and inventory objects available on the server. See GUID-0BD6B543-2B16-4CBD-9980-459E2B0B864F.html#GUID-0BD6B543-2B16-4CBD-9980-459E2B0B864F.

Figure 1. Managed Object Browser Connected to a vCenter Server

The MOB lets you examine the relationships among objects by looking at the properties and their values, and then drilling down into the objects. To explore the objects on the server, click the links in the Value column to navigate to the page that displays the object.

For example, to find out more about ServiceContent, click the content link to display the ServiceContent data object instance.