Storage Monitoring Service SDK 4.0 Release Notes

Released 22 SEPT 2013

Updated: 12 MAR 2015

 

SMS 4.0 is not backwards compatible with clients that use earlier versions of the SDK (distributed with versions 4.0 and 4.1 of the vSphere Web Services SDK). You must use the SDK that is distributed with versions 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, or 6.0 of the vSphere Management SDK.

This document contains the following information:

Overview

The VMware vCenter Storage Monitoring Service (SMS) provides simplified access to storage capabilities, associations, and space usage. It is a Web service that runs in the Apache Tomcat container, available on the vCenter host. SMS has its own Java-based, in-memory database management system (referred to as the "SMS Cache") that periodically synchronizes its data with the storage-information provider database.

Storage administrators can access the Storage Monitoring Service by using the vSphere Client. A client-side plug-in for the Storage Monitoring Service is installed during vSphere Client installation. With the plug-in, you can use the vSphere Client to display information about storage configuration and associations. See vSphere Storage in the vSphere Documentation Center for more information.

Distribution Kit

The SMS SDK is distributed as part of the vSphere Management SDK. The vSphere Management SDK is a collection of vSphere SDKs. When you extract the contents of the distribution kit, the SMS SDK is contained in the SDK/sms-sdk sub-directory:

VMware-vSphere-SDK-6.0.0-2505176:
    SDK
        eam
        sms-sdk
        spbm
        ssoclient
        vsphere-ws

Note that you have to replace some of the .xsd files using the vsphere-ws package to get the latest version of the SMS SDK files. Instructions are outlined in the Known Issues section below.

New Features

The following table lists the new features in SMS 4.0.

Element TypeElementDescription
Properties AboutInfo.vasaApiVersion Highest version of the VASA API that is supported by SMS.
StorageArray.priority VASA Provider priority, relative to the providers registered for the given storage array.
VasaProviderInfo.supportedProviderProfile List of profiles supported by the VASA Provider.
VasaProviderInfo.relatedStorageArray[] List of storage arrays represented by the VASA Provider.
VasaProviderInfo.providerId Unique identifier supplied by the VASA Provider.
ObjectsRelatedStorageArray Indicates whether a VASA Provider is serving data for a storage array.
Enum values VasaProfile.policyPolicy profile.
VasaProfile.objectObject-based storage profile.
Faults InvalidUrlThrown if the VASA Provider URL is invalid.
InvalidCertificate Thrown if the VASA Provider certificate specified during provider registration is empty, malformed, expired, or not yet valid.

Deprecated Features

The following elements have been deprecated in SMS 4.0.

Element TypeElement
Data objectsRowData
SortSpec
QuerySpec
Metadata
FilterSpec
QueryResult
DbConnectionSpec
EntityReference
MethodsSmsServiceInstance.QueryList
SmsServiceInstance.Sync
SmsServiceInstance.ConfigureSyncInterval
SmsServiceInstance.UpdateVcDbConnectionInfo
FaultsEntityNotFound
DbConfigFailed

Known Issues

  • Outdated Schema Files

    The .xsd files that are included as part of the SMS SDK are not up to date. To update these files:

    1. Copy all XML schema files (*.xsd) from SDK_HOME\vsphere-ws\wsdl\vim25 to SDK_HOME\sms-sdk\wsdl over-writing files if they already exist in the target location.
    2. Make sure the following environment variables are set:
      • JAVAHOME: path to JDK 7 (the path should not contain spaces in it)
      • VIMSDKHOME: path to vSphere Web Services SDK (SDK_HOME\vsphere-ws)
    3. Rebuild the SMS SDK by going to SDK_HOME\sms-sdk\java\JAXWS and running build.bat/sh. This will update all the JAR files in SDK_HOME\sms-sdk\java\JAXWS\lib.

  • SMS QueryService exceptions.

    You may encounter SMS QueryService exceptions that are shown in the SMS log or indicated by an incorrect display of VASA-supplied information in the vSphere Client.

    • The SMS log may contain the following errors:

          Exceptions indicating SMS is unable to poll the context for VASA.

          com.vmware.vim.sms.fault.QsQueryException:
          com.vmware.vim.query.client.exception.ValidationException: Got status code: 400 reason

    • A user has changed the vCenter configuration in some way - adding hosts, for example - and the vSphere Client display of the VASA-supplied information does not reflect the changes.

    If you encounter any of these situations, restart VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices (net stop vctomcat, net start vctomcat).

  • Description for VASA system events and alarms is "Unknown Event ID:".

    The vSphere Client displays VASA system events for the root folder of the inventory or for the datastore associated with the storage device. The vCenter Server uses the string "Unknown Event ID:" for the event description instead of the message specified in the VASA Provider message catalog.

  • vSphere Client display of storage capabilities based on one-way, adapter-based authentication.

    vCenter Server provides information about storage devices configured for one-way, adapter-based authentication. The Server does not supply information about devices that are configured for target-level CHAP authentication, so the vSphere Client cannot display storage capabilities for those targets.

  • StorageCapability associated with both block and filesystem storage entities is not represented correctly in the vSphere Client.

    If the same StorageCapability is assigned to both VMFS and NFS datastores then the vSphere Client will not show the System Capability for NFS datastores.

  • User-defined storage capabilities not displayed in storage views without VASA Provider registration.

    If you have not registered a VASA Provider, the vSphere Client storage views will not show user-defined capabilities. In this situation, you can see user-defined capabilities in the Datastore summary tab.