The SearchIndex managed object provides a set of methods to retrieve references to managed objects in the vSphere inventory. You can search by managed objects inventory path, IP address, datastore path, DNS name, and various other identifying attributes. For example, if you know the IP address of a virtual machine, you can obtain its managed object reference by using the SearchIndex.FindByIp method. You can use SearchIndex to obtain the reference to a server object, and then use that reference as the starting object for property collection. See the sample applications SearchIndex.java and SearchIndex.cs for more information about using SearchIndex. See the vSphere API Reference for more information about SearchIndex methods.