Overview

This chapter contains the following sections:

Audience

This document is intended for technical professionals interested in using the Cisco UCS Director Software Development Kit (SDK) and related technologies. Such users might be:

  • System and cloud administrators who use Cisco UCS Director and want to extend their ability to manage cloud resources using Cisco UCS Director.

  • Third-party developers who want to build connectors to enable their devices to be managed by Cisco UCS Director.

  • Anyone else who wants to compare Cisco UCS Director SDK or API technologies and determine which would be most appropriate for their application.

Cisco UCS Director SDK

The Cisco UCS Director SDK is a collection of technologies that enable you to extend the capabilities of Cisco UCS Director, access Cisco UCS Director data, and invoke Cisco UCS Director's automation and orchestration operations from any application. The Cisco UCS Director SDK includes the REST APIs and Open Automation. Scripting technologies include the Cisco UCS Director PowerShell API, custom tasks bundled in Cisco UCS Director script modules, and the ability to write your own custom tasks using CloupiaScript, a server-side JavaScript implementation.

With Cisco UCS Director SDK technologies, you can:

  • Access Cisco UCS Director programmatically—Use the Cisco UCS Director REST API to invoke workflows and obtain reports.

  • Customize Cisco UCS Director—Create custom workflow tasks. Customize Cisco UCS Director by deploying your own jar files and script libraries in script modules. Use custom tasks from script bundles.

  • Extend Cisco UCS Director—Use Cisco UCS Director Open Automation to build connectors that support additional devices and systems. Use the Cisco UCS Director PowerShell API to connect to Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and other PowerShell enabled devices.

This document describes each of these enabling technologies and their uses and tells you where to look for information about getting started. For each of the SDK technologies, this document describes the following:

  • The basic concepts required to begin using the programmatic features of Cisco UCS Director.

  • How and when to use which SDK components.

  • What skills are required to use an interface.

  • What computing resources are required to use an interface.