Overview of the vSphere Guest API

The vSphere Guest API provides functions that management agents and other software can use to collect data about the state and performance of a VMware virtual machine. The Guest API provides fast access to resource management information, without the need for authentication.

The Guest API provides read-only access. You can read data using the API, but you cannot send control commands. To send control commands, use the vSphere Web Services SDK. For more information, see the VMware vSphere Web Services SDK Programming Guide and the VMware vSphere API Reference, which are available on the VMware developer support Web site.

The version number of this Guest API release is 11.0 to match the version number of VMware Tools.