The VmPerl API and The Programming API (previously called C API). These are some of the ways it can be scripted: Vmware is one of the most used virtualization tools. At the end I provide an example using VirtualBox CommandLine API wrapped in Ruby Language. Because the target audience is sysadmins, this makes a lot of sense. Again, this strengthens me to say that when automating the creation within Ruby you should actually write a wrapper around the commandline API. In all cases, the commandline API is updated first and then the rest follows.

Again my experience is that most programming oriented XML-RPC, SOPA or Language Bindings are a subset of the commandline interface. So why not automate that step too.ĭepending on the virtualization platform you choose, different options exist ranging from GUI (HTTP Posts), Command Lines, SOAP, XML-RPC based or language bindings. While a lot of effort is spent on automating the installation of the machine OS and its application, I see that the provisioning of a virtual machine is often still done by the GUI. Now in the these virtual/cloud days, creating new machines is a breeze. It required ordering of hardware and putting everything together. In the old days, getting a new machine could take days.

How to use virtualbox api