Useful VMware ESX and VC command-line operations

The commands below are a subset of the complete command list found in Useful command-lines, and are a combination of ESX service console commands, PowerShell VI Toolkit or SQL commands (reading from a VirtualCenter database). Note that these have been tested on VI3 - ESX 3.0.x, VC 2.0.x, and some have also been used on VI3.5 - ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5.

Each command-line can be copied and pasted at the command prompt, if you use a batch file you'll need to reference variables with double-percent (%%).

ESX service console


Report the hosts controlled by a VirtualCentre instance
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select [Name] from vpxv_hosts order by [Name]"

Report the hosts controlled by a VirtualCentre instance
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select DNS_Name, IP_Address, PRODUCT_FULLNAME from vpx_host Order by DNS_Name"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine LUN mapping and size
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select VMS.Name, TDS.Name, Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.CAPACITY as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int) as 'Total Disk', Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.FREE_SPACE as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int) as 'Free Disk' from vpxv_vms VMS inner join vpxv_vm_datastore VVMDS on VMS.VMID = VVMDS.VM_ID inner join vpx_datastore TDS on VVMDS.DS_ID = TDS.ID inner join VPX_GUEST_DISK VDISK on VMS.VMID = VDISK.VM_ID group by VMS.Name, TDS.Name Order by TDS.Name, VMS.Name"

Allow Dell OpenManage Server Administrator traffic through ESX
esxcfg-firewall -o 1311,tcp,in,OpenManageRequest

Dump the VMware IP config
cat /proc/vmware/net/tcpip/ifconfig

View network traffic in the vswif service console interface
/usr/sbin/tcpdump -i vswif0 grep -v ssh

Check the Legato AAM HA agent
cat /opt/LGTOaam512/log/aam_config_util_addnode.log

VMware HA Legato AAM, list the cluster manager
/opt/LGTOaam512/bin/ftcli -domain vmware -timeout 60 -cmd "listrules"
(run 'FT_DIR=/opt/LGTOaam512' and then 'export FT_DIR' first)

VMware HA Legato AAM, list the cluster nodes
/opt/LGTOaam512/bin/ftcli -domain vmware -connect %node% -port 8042 -timeout 60 -cmd "listnodes"
(run 'FT_DIR=/opt/LGTOaam512' and then 'export FT_DIR' first)

Query ESX for SNMPD service firewall configuration
esxcfg-firewall -q snmpd

Query vmfs volumes for snapshot files from the console
ls -Ral /vmfs/volumes/*.* grep .vmsn

Change security on a file in the ESX service console
chmod u+rwx,g+rx,o+rx somefile

Register a Virtual Machine in ESX
vmware-cmd -s register "/path/to/vmx/or/vmtx"

unregister a Virtual Machine in ESX
vmware-cmd -s unregister "/path/to/vmx/or/vmtx"

Enable SSH client out on an ESX host firewall, permitting SCP as well
esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient

Query the ESX firewall to determine whether SSH client is allowed out
esxcfg-firewall -q grep sshClient

Query the VirtualCenter Database

Query VMs and their MAC addresses from the VC database
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -q "select ENT.Name, NET.MAC_Address from VPX_GUEST_NET_ADAPTER NET inner join VPX_ENTITY ENT on NET.VM_ID = ENT.ID"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine Disk Totals
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select VM.Name, Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.CAPACITY as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int) as 'Total Disk', Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.FREE_SPACE as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int) as 'Free Disk' from dbo.VPX_GUEST_DISK VDISK inner join VPXV_VMS VM on VDISK.VM_ID = VM.VMID group by VM.Name compute sum(Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.CAPACITY as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int))"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine Disk information
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select VM.Name, VDISK.* from dbo.VPX_GUEST_DISK VDISK inner join VPXV_VMS VM on VDISK.VM_ID = VM.VMID"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine Disk Total
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select Cast(Round(Sum(Cast(VDISK.CAPACITY as numeric))/1024/1024/1024, 1) as int) from dbo.VPX_GUEST_DISK VDISK"

Query VirtualCentre for hot migration events
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select Create_Time as 'Relocation Start', UserName, VM_Name, Host_Name as 'Host Source', (select Host_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT Where Chain_ID = EVTDEST.Chain_ID and event_type = 'vim.event.VmMigratedEvent') as 'Host Destination', ComputeResource_Name, DataCenter_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT EVTDEST where event_type = 'vim.event.VmBeingHotMigratedEvent'"

Query VirtualCentre for migration events
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select Create_Time as 'Relocation Start', UserName, VM_Name, Host_Name as 'Host Source', (select Host_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT Where Chain_ID = EVTDEST.Chain_ID and event_type = 'vim.event.VmRelocatedEvent') as 'Host Destination', ComputeResource_Name, DataCenter_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT EVTDEST where event_type = 'vim.event.VmBeingRelocatedEvent'"

Query VirtualCentre for DRS migration events
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select Create_Time as 'Relocation Finished', VM_Name, Host_Name as 'Host Destination', (select Host_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT Where Chain_ID = EVTDEST.Chain_ID and event_type = 'vim.event.VMBeingHotMigratedEvent') as 'Host Source', ComputeResource_Name, DataCenter_Name from dbo.VPX_EVENT EVTDEST where event_type = 'vim.event.DrsVmMigratedEvent'"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine details
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select ENT.Name as 'Name', DNS_Name as 'DNS Name', Guest_OS as 'OS', Mem_Size_MB as 'Mem', Num_VCPU as 'CPU', Num_NIC as 'NIC', IP_Address as 'IP', NET.MAC_Address as 'MAC Address', VM.FILE_Name as 'VMX location' from vpx_vm VM inner join VPX_GUEST_NET_ADAPTER NET on VM.ID = NET.VM_ID inner join VPX_ENTITY ENT on VM.ID = ENT.ID where dns_name like '%'"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine snapshots (GMT+10)
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select ENT.Name as 'Name', DNS_Name as 'DNS Name', Guest_OS as 'OS', Mem_Size_MB as 'Mem', IP_Address as 'IP', VM.FILE_Name as 'VMX location', VM.Suspend_Time as 'Suspend Time', VM.Suspend_Interval as 'Suspend Interval', VMS.Snapshot_Name as 'Snapshot Name', VMS.Snapshot_Desc 'Snapshot Description', DateAdd(Hour, 10, VMS.Create_Time) as 'Snapshot Time', VMS.Is_Current_Snapshot 'Current Snapshot' from vpx_vm VM inner join VPX_GUEST_NET_ADAPTER NET on VM.ID = NET.VM_ID inner join VPX_ENTITY ENT on VM.ID = ENT.ID inner join VPX_SNAPSHOT VMS on VM.ID = VMS.VM_ID

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine LUN attachments
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select VMS.Name, TDS.Name from vpxv_vms VMS inner join vpxv_vm_datastore VVMDS on VMS.VMID = VVMDS.VM_ID inner join vpx_datastore TDS on VVMDS.DS_ID = TDS.ID Order by VMS.Name"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for Virtual Machine config LUN
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select VMS.Name as 'VM Name', TDS.Name as 'Config Datastore', SubString(ConfigFileName, CharIndex('/', ConfigFileName, Len('sanfs://vmfs'))+1, 255) as 'Config Path' from vpxv_vms VMS inner join vpx_datastore TDS on TDS.Storage_URL = SubString(VMS.ConfigFileName, 1, CharIndex('/', VMS.ConfigFileName, Len('sanfs://vmfs'))) Order By 'Config Datastore'"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for volume total and free disk space
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select Name, Cast(Round(Cast(Capacity as numeric)/1024/1024/1024, -1) as int) as 'Total Space', Cast(Round(Cast(Free_Space as numeric)/1024/1024/1024, -1) as int) as 'Free Space', Type from vpx_Datastore"

Find VM distribution on VMware cluster physical nodes
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "Select VH.DNS_NAME as 'Host', count(VM.HOST_ID) from vpx_vm VM inner join vpx_host VH on VM.HOST_ID = VH.ID group by VM.HOST_ID, VH.DNS_NAME order by 'Host'"

Query the Virtual Centre/VC database for VM CPU alarms
sqlcmd -S %sqlServer% -d %Database% -W -s "," -Q "select ALR.Created_Time, ENT.Name from vpx_alarm_runtime ALR inner join vpx_alarm AL on ALR.Alarm_ID = AL.Alarm_ID inner join vpx_entity ENT on ALR.Entity_ID = ENT.ID where AL.Name = 'Virtual Machine CPU Usage' order by created_time"

PowerShell VI Toolkit

Use the VI Toolkit Powershell snap-in to query for snapshots
Get-VM Get-Snapshot export-csv -path c:\temp\VMsnapshots.csv

Use the VI Toolkit Powershell snap-in to query for snapshot information
Get-VM Get-Snapshot foreach-object {$out= $_.VM.Name + "," + $_.Name + "," + $_.Description + "," + $_.PowerState; $out}

ESX Server Advanced Configuration Options

Hide LUNs with advanced ESX options
disk.MaskLUNs: vmhba0:0:4-5;vmhba1:0:4-5

Other

SNMP check against ESX
Snmputil.exe get %host% %community% .iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.6876.1.1.0




Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2008 Wayne Martin.