VDDK and VADP Compared

The Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) includes a set of C library routines for manipulating virtual disk (VixDiskLib) and for mounting virtual disk partitions (VixMntapi). The VDDK focuses on efficient access and transfer of data on virtual disk storage.

The vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) is a marketing term for a subset of the vSphere API that enables backup and restore applications. The snapshot-based VADP framework allows efficient, off-host, centralized backup of virtual machine storage. After taking a snapshot to quiesce virtual disk, software can then back up storage using VDDK library routines.

The vSphere API is an XML-based Web service that provides the interfaces for vCenter Server management of virtual machines running on ESXi hosts.

Developers need both VDDK and VADP to write data protection software. VADP is presented in Backing Up Virtual Disks in vSphere.