VxRail Manager Access via Plugin, API, Console, PowerShell, and Ansible

1. The VxRail Manager vCenter plugin: This is the primary means to interface with VxRail Manager. The plugin is used to:
   1. Add nodes to a cluster
   2. Gracefully shutdown a node
   3. Gracefully remove a node from a cluster
   4. Gracefully shutdown a cluster
   5. Add and replace drives
   6. Beacon a drive for identification
   7. Orchestrate a non-disruptive rolling VxRail software upgrades as part of LCM process
   8. Beacon a node for identification
   9. Tag nodes with geographic data (Data Center, Row, Rack, Position etc.)
   10. Explore photorealistic interactive views of nodes
   11. Collect vSphere and VxRail related logs
   12. View knowledgebase articles and VxRail community post
   13. Monitor health
   14. Link VxRail Manager to a Dell EMC Support account and SRS
   15. View and configure iDRAC network settings
   16. View and modify ESXi host hostname or IP address
   17. View and collect inventory details such as: serial numbers, make, models, health, positional data (slot, module, chassis etc.), software version, firmware version, etc.
   18. Contacting Support
   19.  And many other functions...

2. VxRail REST API: The REST API can be accessed two ways:
   1. Make API request directly: Use a scripting language, application, programming language, etc. The command below uses PowerShell's Invoke-WebRequest Cmdlet to get the mode (Internal or External) of the vCenter used in the VxRail instance. The Base URL points to the the VxRail Manager (https:// /rest/vxm) while the Path (/v1/vc/mode) calls out the version of the REST API to use and the resource to query. The JSON formatted response is assigned to a variable for processing a later point:  
   2. VxRail onboard API documentation: The VxRail leverages OpenAPI (formerly known as Swagger) as an interactive API used to discover, explore, research, and execute API requests. To access, browse to https:// /rest/vxm/api-doc.html

3. VxRail API PowerShell Modules:
   1. The Windows PowerShell modules use the underlying VxRail REST API.  For each API path there is a corresponding PowerShell Cmdlet. This technique is a bit more administrator friendly than using the REST API directly since much of the connectivity and output handling is performed for you. Download the Windows PowerShell modules from the Dell EMC Support site. Search for “PowerShell Modules”. The Cmdlet below retreives the requested log Id from the VxRail Manager system and saves it locally:   

4. Ansible Modules for Dell EMC VxRail: Theses modules use the VxRail RESTful API and are posted on GitHub and Ansible Galaxy. There are 55 modules and 60 sample playbooks available. The modules and sample playbooks cover the most common customer use cases. Once the modules and the VxRail utility are installed on an Ansible Controller (per instruction on GitHub), just configure the required vxmip, vcadmin, and vcpasswd parameters in a sample playbook to get started (systeminfo.yml playbook pictured):  
5. Open SSH session/Console to VxRail Manager VM: This is particularly helpful if the VxRail Manager vCenter plugin is unavailable and log collection is needed or if access to utilities included with VxRail Manager such as scheduling file-based backups of the VxRail Manager system is performed.

Want to know more? Checkout the VxRail Administration course (ID: ES124CPX00078)

Want to know more? Checkout the VxRail 7.0.XXX Feature - REST API course (ID: ES102CPX02009)

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