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vCenter Server

Calls ServiceContent.about via the vSphere API’s own RetrieveServiceContent SOAP discovery call at /sdk — the same call and endpoint ESXi answers, distinguished by the apiType field.

targets:
  - id: vcenter-main
    product: vcenter
    address: https://vcenter.example.com

Authentication

Section titled “Authentication”

None — confirmed live against a real production vCenter 8.0.3 instance, no credentials at all.

Vendor identity check

Section titled “Vendor identity check”

apiType is compared against "VirtualCenter" — a real ESXi host answers the identical call with apiType=HostAgent instead (see ESXi, which runs this same check in reverse). Pointing product: vcenter at an ESXi host fails loudly rather than getting recorded as a wrong fact.

Not the same as an earlier version of this probe

Section titled “Not the same as an earlier version of this probe”

This probe used to read /sdk/vimServiceVersions.xml instead, which answers identically for ESXi and vCenter alike (so it could never tell the two apart) and reports the vim25 API schema version (e.g. "8.0.3.0") rather than the product’s real marketing version. The current RetrieveServiceContent-based probe fixes both problems — real version, real identity check.

Recorded fields

Section titled “Recorded fields”
  • version — the real marketing version, e.g. 8.0.3
  • extra.build, when present

Lifecycle resolver

Section titled “Lifecycle resolver”

endoflife:vcenter.