vmware-storage

name	vmware-storage
description	Use this skill whenever the user needs to manage VMware storage — datastores, iSCSI targets, and vSAN clusters. Directly handles: browse datastores, scan for deployable images (OVA/ISO), configure iSCSI adapters and targets, check vSAN health and capacity. Always use this skill for "list datastores", "add iSCSI target", "check vSAN health", "browse datastore files", "scan for OVA images", or any storage-related VMware task. Do NOT use for VM lifecycle operations (use vmware-aiops), NSX networking (use vmware-nsx), or Kubernetes clusters (use vmware-vks). For load balancing/AVI/AKO use vmware-avi.
installer	{"kind":"uv","package":"vmware-storage"}
allowed-tools	["Bash"]
metadata	{"openclaw":{"requires":{"env":["VMWARE_STORAGE_CONFIG"],"bins":["vmware-storage"],"config":["~/.vmware-storage/config.yaml","~/.vmware-storage/.env"]},"optional":{"env":["VMWARE_<TARGET>_PASSWORD","VMWARE_<TARGET>_USERNAME","VMWARE_READ_ONLY","VMWARE_STORAGE_READ_ONLY","VMWARE_AUDIT_APPROVED_BY"],"bins":["vmware-policy"]},"primaryEnv":"VMWARE_STORAGE_CONFIG","homepage":"https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Storage","emoji":"🗄️","os":["macos","linux"]}}
compatibility	vmware-policy auto-installed as Python dependency (provides @vmware_tool decorator and audit logging). All write operations audited to ~/.vmware/audit.db. Credentials: Each vCenter/ESXi target requires a per-target password env var in ~/.vmware-storage/.env following the pattern VMWARE_<TARGET_NAME_UPPER>_PASSWORD (e.g., target "my-vcenter" → VMWARE_MY_VCENTER_PASSWORD). No webhooks or outbound network calls — this skill is local-only (stdio MCP + vSphere API). Audit logs written to ~/.vmware/audit.db (SQLite WAL, local only).

VMware Storage

Disclaimer: This is a community-maintained open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by VMware, Inc. or Broadcom Inc. "VMware" and "vSphere" are trademarks of Broadcom. Source code is publicly auditable at github.com/zw008/VMware-Storage under the MIT license.

VMware vSphere storage management — 11 MCP tools for datastores, iSCSI, and vSAN.

Split from vmware-aiops for lighter context and local model compatibility. Companion skills: vmware-aiops (VM lifecycle), vmware-monitor (read-only monitoring), vmware-vks (Tanzu Kubernetes), vmware-nsx (NSX networking), vmware-nsx-security (DFW/firewall), vmware-aria (metrics/alerts/capacity), vmware-avi (AVI/ALB/AKO), vmware-harden (compliance baselines). | vmware-pilot (workflow orchestration) | vmware-policy (audit/policy)

What This Skill Does

Category	Tools	Count
Datastore	list all datastores, browse files, scan for OVA/ISO/OVF/VMDK images, list cached images	4
iSCSI	enable adapter, show status, add target, remove target, rescan HBAs	5
vSAN	cluster health summary, capacity overview (total/used/free)	2

Quick Install

uv tool install vmware-storage
vmware-storage init      # guided setup: writes config + .env (chmod 600, password grep-safe), then verifies
vmware-storage doctor

When to Use This Skill

• Browse datastore files or scan for deployable images (OVA/ISO/VMDK)
• Configure iSCSI: enable adapter, add/remove send targets, rescan storage
• Check vSAN cluster health and capacity
• Any storage-focused VMware operation

Use companion skills for:

• VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops → vmware-aiops
• Inventory, health, alarms, events → vmware-monitor
• Tanzu Kubernetes → vmware-vks
• Load balancing, AVI/ALB, AKO, Ingress → vmware-avi

Related Skills — Skill Routing

User Intent	Recommended Skill
Read-only monitoring, alarms, events	vmware-monitor
Storage: iSCSI, vSAN, datastores	vmware-storage ← this skill
VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops	vmware-aiops
Tanzu Kubernetes (vSphere 8.x+)	vmware-vks
NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT	vmware-nsx
NSX security: DFW rules, security groups	vmware-nsx-security
Aria Ops: metrics, alerts, capacity planning	vmware-aria
Multi-step workflows with approval	vmware-pilot
Compliance baselines (CIS / 等保 / PCI-DSS), drift detection, LLM remediation advisor	vmware-harden (uv tool install vmware-harden)
Load balancer, AVI, ALB, AKO, Ingress	vmware-avi (uv tool install vmware-avi)
Audit log query	vmware-policy (vmware-audit CLI)

Common Workflows

Set Up iSCSI Storage on a Host

Pre-flight (judgment):

• Network reachability: vmkping <iscsi-target-ip> from the ESXi host must succeed BEFORE adding the target. Adding an unreachable target leaves the host in a degraded state, retrying forever.
• Adapter sanity: iscsi status first — if already enabled, do not "re-enable"; just add the target.
• Idempotency: add-target is idempotent (re-adding same IP is a no-op), but remove-target is not safely reversible mid-IO. Always verify no LUNs from this target are in use before removing.
• Existing targets: list them first; some sites add targets one-per-host while others use cluster-wide. Check site convention.

Steps:

1. iscsi status esxi-01 → confirm adapter state and existing targets
2. iscsi enable esxi-01 --dry-run then real (skip if already enabled)
3. iscsi add-target esxi-01 <ip> --dry-run then real (auto-rescans on success)
4. iscsi status esxi-01 again → confirm target listed AND devices appearing
5. If devices missing 30+ sec after add: iscsi rescan esxi-01 once more, then check ESXi-side vmkping and target ACL

Find Deployable Images Across Datastores

Judgment: image search is read-only and safe, but blind scanning of every datastore is slow on large estates. Filter first.

1. datastore list → get the inventory; ignore datastores marked inaccessible or low free space
2. datastore scan-images <ds> on the datastore most likely to hold images (typically named iso-*, templates, or central nfs-shared)
3. If unsure where images live: scan multiple in parallel via separate calls; results are cached in the local registry
4. datastore browse <ds> --pattern "*.iso" for ad-hoc searches; pattern is glob, not regex
5. If datastore not found: name is case-sensitive. datastore list --target <vc> to verify exact spelling.

For filtered queries against the cache: use list_cached_images MCP tool with image_type and datastore parameters — avoids re-scanning.

vSAN Health Assessment

Judgment: vSAN problems often masquerade as vSphere problems and vice-versa. Check both planes — if vSAN is healthy but VMs are slow, the issue is at the compute or network layer, not storage.

1. vsan health <cluster> → look beyond green/red — check disk group state, network partitioning, and cluster member counts. A "yellow" disk group is the early warning of a failure.
2. vsan capacity <cluster> → utilization > 70% triggers slack-space risk; > 80% impedes resync; never let prod cross 80%.
3. Cross-check vmware-monitor health alarms for vSAN-related alarms (HCL warnings, network anomalies)
4. If vSAN not enabled on this cluster: check cluster type via vmware-monitor inventory clusters; vSAN is opt-in, not default
5. For deep investigation, follow references/investigation-protocol.md (in companion skill) — vSAN issues frequently fail the Mechanism criterion (capacity is correlated, not causal)

Multi-Target Operations

All commands accept --target <name> to operate against a specific vCenter or ESXi host from your config:

# Default target (first in config.yaml)
vmware-storage datastore list

# Specific target
vmware-storage datastore list --target prod-vcenter
vmware-storage iscsi status esxi-lab --target lab-esxi

Usage Mode

Scenario	Recommended	Why
Local/small models (Ollama, Qwen)	CLI	~2K tokens vs ~8K for MCP
Cloud models (Claude, GPT-4o)	Either	MCP gives structured JSON I/O
Automated pipelines	MCP	Type-safe parameters, structured output

MCP Tools (11 — 7 read, 4 write)

All MCP tools accept an optional target parameter to select which vCenter/ESXi to connect to. The 4 write tools also accept dry_run: true to preview the change without executing it.

The four Datastore read tools return the family list envelope — {items, returned, limit, total, truncated, hint} — rather than a bare array. Read the rows from items; truncated says whether the listing is complete, so it never has to be guessed from the row count. All four enumerate their collection in full, so total is the real count and truncated is always false.

Category	Tool	Type	Description
Datastore	list_all_datastores	Read	List datastores with capacity, usage %, VM count
	browse_datastore	Read	Browse files with optional path and glob pattern
	scan_datastore_images	Read	Find OVA/ISO/OVF/VMDK in a datastore
	list_cached_images	Read	Query local image registry with type/datastore filters
iSCSI	storage_iscsi_status	Read	Show adapter status, HBA device, IQN, send targets
	storage_iscsi_enable	Write	Enable software iSCSI adapter on a host
	storage_iscsi_add_target	Write	Add iSCSI send target (IP + port) and rescan
	storage_iscsi_remove_target	Write	Remove iSCSI send target and rescan
	storage_rescan	Write	Rescan all HBAs and VMFS volumes
vSAN	vsan_health	Read	Cluster health summary and disk group details
	vsan_capacity	Read	Total/used/free capacity in GB and usage %

Read/write split: 7 tools are read-only, 4 modify state. Write tools require explicit parameters (host name, IP address), support dry_run, and are audit-logged. storage_iscsi_remove_target is classified risk:high (destructive — LUNs can become inaccessible) and goes through the policy confirmation gate.

Read-Only Mode

If a write tool described above is absent from list_tools(), this deployment is in read-only mode: VMWARE_READ_ONLY=true (or VMWARE_STORAGE_READ_ONLY, or read_only: true in config.yaml) withholds all 4 write tools at start-up. That is a deliberate lockdown, not a fault — do not retry, and do not look for another tool that achieves the same change. Name the operation that is blocked and say an operator must clear the switch and restart the server. The 7 read tools are unaffected. vmware-storage doctor reports the current state and its source. Running with local or small models? See references/agent-guardrails.md.

CLI Quick Reference

# Datastore
vmware-storage datastore list [--target <name>]
vmware-storage datastore browse <ds_name> [--path <subdir>] [--pattern "*.ova"]
vmware-storage datastore scan-images <ds_name> [--target <name>]

# iSCSI
vmware-storage iscsi enable <host> [--dry-run]
vmware-storage iscsi status <host>
vmware-storage iscsi add-target <host> <ip> [--port 3260] [--dry-run]
vmware-storage iscsi remove-target <host> <ip> [--port 3260] [--dry-run]
vmware-storage iscsi rescan <host> [--dry-run]

# vSAN
vmware-storage vsan health <cluster> [--target <name>]
vmware-storage vsan capacity <cluster> [--target <name>]

# Diagnostics
vmware-storage doctor [--skip-auth]

Full CLI reference with all options and output formats: see references/cli-reference.md

Troubleshooting

iSCSI enable fails with "already enabled"

Not an error. The software iSCSI adapter is already active on that host. The response includes the current HBA device name and IQN. Run iscsi status to see configured send targets.

"Datastore not found" when browsing

Datastore names are case-sensitive. Run vmware-storage datastore list to get the exact name. Common mistakes: Datastore1 vs datastore1, trailing spaces.

vSAN health shows "unknown" status

vSAN health checks require a vCenter connection (not standalone ESXi). The full VsanVcClusterHealthSystem runs via vCenter's vSAN Health Service. If connected to a standalone ESXi host, vSAN queries will fail or return limited info.

Rescan doesn't discover new LUNs

After adding iSCSI targets, the storage subsystem may need 10-30 seconds to enumerate new LUNs. Steps to resolve:

1. Verify the target IP is reachable from the ESXi host (vmkping from ESXi shell)
2. Check that the iSCSI target is correctly configured: vmware-storage iscsi status <host>
3. Wait 15-30 seconds, then rescan again: vmware-storage iscsi rescan <host>

"Password not found" error

The password environment variable is missing. Variable names follow the pattern VMWARE_<TARGET_NAME_UPPER>_PASSWORD where hyphens become underscores. Example: target my-vcenter needs VMWARE_MY_VCENTER_PASSWORD. Check your ~/.vmware-storage/.env file.

Doctor reports ".env permissions too open"

The .env file contains passwords and must have owner-only permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.vmware-storage/.env

Connection timeout to vCenter

The doctor command tests connectivity with a 5-second TCP timeout. If your vCenter is on a high-latency network, the check may fail even though the connection works. Use --skip-auth to bypass both connectivity and auth checks, then test manually.

Warning: "ran against a target that declares no environment"

Add environment: to that target in ~/.vmware-storage/config.yaml:

targets:
  - name: my-vcenter
    host: vcenter.example.com
    environment: production   # production | staging | lab | <your own label>

Policy scopes its rules by environment, not by the target's name — an unlabelled target matches none of them. Today an undeclared write (iscsi enable, iscsi add-target, iscsi remove-target, rescan) still runs and logs this warning. The next major release refuses it with:

'storage_iscsi_enable' changes state, but its target does not declare which environment it is. Add 'environment: <name>' (e.g. production, staging, lab) to that target's entry in the skill's config.yaml, then retry.

Declaring it now makes that upgrade a no-op. Read-only operations (datastore list, browse, iscsi status, vsan health) are never affected. Check what is in force with vmware-audit policy.

invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer when starting MCP via uvx

Corporate TLS proxies inject certificates that uv's bundled CA store doesn't trust. Use the recommended vmware-storage mcp form (no PyPI re-resolve), or set export UV_NATIVE_TLS=true to make uv use system CAs.

Safety

• No VM operations: This skill cannot power on/off, create, delete, or modify VMs — that scope belongs to vmware-aiops
• Read-heavy: 7 of 11 tools are read-only (list, browse, scan, cached images, status, health, capacity)
• Audit logging: All operations (including reads) are logged to ~/.vmware/audit.db (SQLite WAL, via vmware-policy) with timestamp, user, target, operation, parameters, and result
• Double confirmation: CLI write commands (iSCSI enable, add/remove target) require two separate "Are you sure?" prompts before executing
• Dry-run mode: All write commands support --dry-run to preview API calls without executing
• Input validation: IP addresses validated via ipaddress.ip_address(), ports checked for 1-65535 range, host/cluster/datastore names looked up before operations
• Prompt injection defense: Datastore file names and paths from vSphere are sanitized via _sanitize() — strips control characters (C0/C1), truncates to 500 chars — preventing malicious file names from injecting instructions into downstream LLM agents
• Credential safety: Passwords loaded only from environment variables (.env file), never from config.yaml; .env permissions are checked at startup
• L5 auto-remediation patterns (PoC): The patterns/ directory hosts L5 auto-remediation candidate patterns under the Enterprise Harness Engineering framework. First PoC: patterns/iscsi-target-stale-rescan.yaml — iSCSI HBA rescan classified as risk:low + reversible:true + repeatable:true. Schema only; not yet enforced by the runtime. See references/capabilities.md § Automation Level Reference for the full L1–L5 table.

Full security details: see references/setup-guide.md

Setup

uv tool install vmware-storage
mkdir -p ~/.vmware-storage
cp config.example.yaml ~/.vmware-storage/config.yaml
# Edit config.yaml with your vCenter/ESXi targets

# Add to ~/.vmware-storage/.env (create if missing, chmod 600):
# VMWARE_MY_VCENTER_PASSWORD=<your-password>
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-storage/.env

vmware-storage doctor

All tools are automatically audited via vmware-policy. Audit logs: vmware-audit log --last 20

Full setup guide with multi-target config, MCP server setup, and Docker: see references/setup-guide.md

Architecture

User (natural language)
  ↓
AI Agent (Claude Code / Goose / Cursor)
  ↓ reads SKILL.md
vmware-storage CLI or MCP server (stdio transport)
  ↓ pyVmomi (vSphere SOAP API)
vCenter Server / ESXi
  ↓
Datastores / iSCSI / vSAN

The MCP server uses stdio transport (local only, no network listener). Connections to vSphere use SSL/TLS on port 443.

Audit & Safety

All operations are automatically audited via vmware-policy (@vmware_tool decorator):

• Every tool call logged to ~/.vmware/audit.db (SQLite, framework-agnostic)
• Policy rules enforced via ~/.vmware/rules.yaml (deny rules, maintenance windows, risk levels)
• Risk classification: each tool tagged as low/medium/high/critical
• View recent operations: vmware-audit log --last 20
• View denied operations: vmware-audit log --status denied

vmware-policy is automatically installed as a dependency — no manual setup needed.

License

MIT — github.com/zw008/VMware-Storage