Interfacing With VMware vSphere This section provides pointers to other vSphere programming interfaces. The VIX APIThe VIX API was a popular developer interface for VMware Workstation and other hosted products. It has been deprecated for vSphere. See the VMware developer documentation for information about the VIX API: Virus Scan all Hosted DiskThe vSphere Web Services APIThe VMware vSphere Web Services (WS) API is a developer interface for ESXi hosts and vCenter Server. See the VMware developer documentation for information about the vSphere WS API:Virus Scan All Managed DiskRead and Write VMDK Using vSphere APIThe VMware vSphere Web Services API (version 2 and later) offers some methods to manage VMDK files. The VirtualDiskManager managed object defines more than a dozen methods similar to those in the Virtual Disk API documented here. First Class Disk (FCD) BackupFirst Class Disk (FCD), also known as Improved Virtual Disk, provides storage lifecycle management on virtual disks, independent of virtual machines. An FCD may be created natively using the FCD interfaces or an existing virtual disk may be promoted to an FCD. Parent topic: Practical Programming Tasks