VMware Storage

Author: Wei Zhou, VMware by Broadcom — wei-wz.zhou@broadcom.com This is a community-driven project by a VMware engineer, not an official VMware product. For official VMware developer tools see developer.broadcom.com.

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VMware vSphere storage management: datastores, iSCSI, vSAN — 11 MCP tools, domain-focused and lightweight.

Split from vmware-aiops for lighter context and local model compatibility.

![License: MIT](LICENSE)

Companion Skills

| Skill | Scope | Tools | Install | |-------|-------|:-----:|---------| | vmware-aiops ⭐ entry point | VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops, clusters | 49 | uv tool install vmware-aiops | | vmware-monitor | Read-only monitoring, alarms, events, VM info | 27 | uv tool install vmware-monitor | | vmware-vks | Tanzu Namespaces, TKC cluster lifecycle | 20 | uv tool install vmware-vks | | vmware-nsx | NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT, IPAM | 33 | uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt | | vmware-nsx-security | DFW microsegmentation, security groups, Traceflow | 21 | uv tool install vmware-nsx-security | | vmware-aria | Aria Ops metrics, alerts, capacity planning | 28 | uv tool install vmware-aria |

Quick Install

# Via PyPI
uv tool install vmware-storage

# Or pip
pip install vmware-storage

Offline / Air-Gapped Install (from source)

This project uses the modern PEP 517 build system (hatchling), so there is no setup.py by design — that is expected, not a missing file. If you cloned the source and hit ERROR: File "setup.py" or "setup.cfg" not found ... editable mode currently requires a setuptools-based build, your pip is older than 21.3 and cannot do an editable (-e) install with a non-setuptools backend. Editable mode is a developer convenience, not needed to run the tool — do one of:

# From the source tree — a normal (non-editable) install builds a wheel:
pip install .              # NOT  pip install -e .

# ...or upgrade pip first, and editable works too:
pip install --upgrade pip && pip install -e .

For a truly air-gapped host, build the wheels on a connected machine and copy them over — the target then needs no network:

# On a connected machine, collect this package + its dependencies as wheels:
pip wheel . -w dist        # → dist/*.whl   (or: uv build, for just this package)

# Copy dist/ to the air-gapped host, then install offline:
pip install --no-index --find-links dist vmware-storage

Configuration

mkdir -p ~/.vmware-storage
cp config.example.yaml ~/.vmware-storage/config.yaml
# Edit with your vCenter/ESXi credentials

echo "VMWARE_MY_VCENTER_PASSWORD=your_password" > ~/.vmware-storage/.env
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-storage/.env

# Verify
vmware-storage doctor

MCP Tools (11)

| Category | Tools | Type | |----------|-------|------| | Datastore | list_all_datastores, browse_datastore, scan_datastore_images, list_cached_images | Read | | iSCSI | storage_iscsi_enable, storage_iscsi_status, storage_iscsi_add_target, storage_iscsi_remove_target, storage_rescan | Read/Write | | vSAN | vsan_health, vsan_capacity | Read |

Auto-Remediation Patterns (PoC)

The patterns/ directory hosts L5 auto-remediation candidate patterns from the Enterprise Harness Engineering framework. The first PoC pattern, patterns/iscsi-target-stale-rescan.yaml, describes an iSCSI HBA rescan as a low-risk, reversible, repeatable operation. The pattern schema is documented here only — runtime enforcement is not yet wired up, so this is a reference design, not production auto-remediation.

Common Workflows

Set Up iSCSI Storage on a Host

Enable iSCSI adapter: vmware-storage iscsi enable esxi-01
Add target: vmware-storage iscsi add-target esxi-01 10.0.0.100
Verify: vmware-storage iscsi status esxi-01

The add-target command automatically rescans storage. Use --dry-run to preview any write command first.

Find Deployable Images Across Datastores

List all datastores: vmware-storage datastore list
Scan for images: vmware-storage datastore scan-images datastore01
Browse with a pattern: vmware-storage datastore browse datastore01 --pattern "*.iso"

vSAN Health Assessment

Check health: vmware-storage vsan health Cluster-Prod
Check capacity: vmware-storage vsan capacity Cluster-Prod
If issues found, investigate with vmware-monitor for alarms and events

CLI

# Datastore
vmware-storage datastore list
vmware-storage datastore browse datastore01
vmware-storage datastore scan-images datastore01

# iSCSI
vmware-storage iscsi status esxi-01
vmware-storage iscsi enable esxi-01
vmware-storage iscsi add-target esxi-01 192.168.1.100
vmware-storage iscsi remove-target esxi-01 192.168.1.100
vmware-storage iscsi rescan esxi-01

# vSAN
vmware-storage vsan health Cluster-Prod
vmware-storage vsan capacity Cluster-Prod

# Diagnostics
vmware-storage doctor

MCP Server

After uv tool install vmware-storage, start the MCP server with one command (v1.5.15+):

# Recommended — single command, no network re-resolve
vmware-storage mcp

# With a custom config path
VMWARE_STORAGE_CONFIG=/path/to/config.yaml vmware-storage mcp

# Or via Docker
docker compose up -d

Agent Configuration

Add to your AI agent's MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-storage": {
      "command": "vmware-storage",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VMWARE_STORAGE_CONFIG": "~/.vmware-storage/config.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

<details> <summary>Alternative: uvx (no install) or legacy entry point</summary>

# Run without installing (requires PyPI access each launch)
uvx --from vmware-storage vmware-storage mcp

# Legacy entry point (still works, kept for backward compatibility)
vmware-storage-mcp

Behind a corporate TLS proxy? uvx may fail with invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer. Use the recommended vmware-storage mcp form above (no network needed), or set UV_NATIVE_TLS=true.

</details>

Why a Separate Skill?

vmware-aiops has 49 MCP tools — too heavy for local LLMs (7B-14B). By splitting storage into its own skill:

11 tools — fits comfortably in small model context windows
Domain-focused — storage admins get only what they need
Composable — use alongside vmware-monitor or vmware-aiops as needed

Version Compatibility

Python: 3.10+ (since v1.5.27 — previously 3.11+). Tested on 3.10 / 3.11 / 3.12.

| vSphere / VCF | Support | Notes | |---------|---------|-------| | VCF 9.1 / vSphere 9.1 | Full | Released 2026-05-12. pyVmomi+vSAN SDK <10.0 works via SOAP. | | VCF 9.0 / vSphere 9.0 | Full | pyVmomi 8.0.3+ with bundled vSAN SDK connects to vSphere 9. | | 8.0 | Full | vSAN SDK built into pyVmomi 8.0.3+ | | 7.0 | Full | All storage APIs work | | 6.7 | Compatible | iSCSI + datastore features work; vSAN limited |

Official Broadcom References

SDKs: <https://developer.broadcom.com/sdks> — VCF Python SDK, vSAN Management SDK (bundled in pyVmomi)
REST APIs: <https://developer.broadcom.com/xapis> — vSAN Management API, VCF API
CLI Tools: <https://developer.broadcom.com/tools> — PowerCLI 9.1, ESXCLI

Safety

| Feature | Description | |---------|-------------| | Read-heavy | 7/11 tools are read-only | | Input validation | IP addresses and ports validated before iSCSI operations | | Audit logging | All operations logged to ~/.vmware-storage/audit.log | | No VM operations | Cannot create, delete, or modify VMs | | Credential safety | Passwords only from environment variables, never config files |

Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause & Fix | |---------|-------------| | iSCSI enable fails with "already enabled" | Not an error — adapter is already active. Run iscsi status to see configured targets. | | "Datastore not found" when browsing | Datastore names are case-sensitive. Run datastore list to get the exact name. | | vSAN health shows "unknown" | vSAN health requires a vCenter connection, not standalone ESXi. | | Rescan doesn't discover new LUNs | Wait 15-30 seconds after adding targets, then rescan again. Verify target IP is reachable from ESXi. | | "Password not found" error | Variable names follow VMWARE_<TARGET_UPPER>_PASSWORD (hyphens → underscores). Check ~/.vmware-storage/.env. | | Connection timeout to vCenter | Use vmware-storage doctor --skip-auth to bypass auth checks on high-latency networks. | | "Datastore browse did not finish within Ns" | The datastore is very large or busy. Narrow the search with a sub-path and a specific pattern (e.g. datastore browse ds01 --path templates --pattern "*.ova") instead of browsing the root — do not just retry the same broad browse. |

License

MIT

VMware-Storage