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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

VMware Command-Line Interface commands

The Windows command-line interface provided for managing ESX/ESXi systems is an invaluable tool for managing ESX infrastructure at the command-line. When using ESXi without a service console the CLI becomes even more useful.

I've gathered these commands while implementing and managing ESXi 4.0 clusters, use with caution on any production system.

ESXi 4.0 RCLI:


List the NTP servers used by the host
vicfg-ntp.pl --server esx01 --list

Add a Software iSCSI NIC named vmk2
esxcli --server=esx01 swiscsi nic add -n vmk2 -d vmhba33

List the Software iSCSI NICs
esxcli --server=esx01 swiscsi nic list -d vmhba33

List the software iSCSI status on a host
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --swiscsi --list

Enable software iSCSI on an ESX host
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --swiscsi --enable

List the adapters bound to software iSCSI
esxcli --server=esx01 swiscsi nic list -d vmhba33

List the VMKernel NICs
vicfg-vmknic.pl --server esx01 --list

List the software iSCSI adapters
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --adapter --list

Set the iSCSI alias for the specified adapter
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --iscsiname --alias esx01 vmhba33

Bind a VMK software iSCSI NIC for MPIO PSA
esxcli --server=esx01 swiscsi nic add -n vmk2 -d vmhba33

Rescan a storage adapter bus
vicfg-rescan.pl --server esx01 vmhba33

Add a dynamic iSCSI discovery target
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --discovery --add --ip 10.1.1.10:3260 vmhba33

Add CHAP authentication to an iSCSI discovery target
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --authentication --level chapRequired --method CHAP --auth_username esxchap --auth_password chapacc3ss80 --ip 10.2.128.33:3260 vmhba33

Find the current ScratchConfig scratch location
vicfg-advcfg.pl --server esx01 -g ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation

Set the scratch location for ESXi
vicfg-advcfg.pl --server esx01 -s "/vmfs/volumes/esxds01/Scratch/esx01" ScratchConfig.ConfiguredScratchLocation

Check if CIM OEM providers are enabled (such as Dell OM)
vicfg-advcfg.pl --server esx01 -g UserVars.CIMOEMProvidersEnabled

Enable CIM OEM Providers (such as Dell OM)
vicfg-advcfg.pl --server esx01 -s "1" UserVars.CIMOEMProvidersEnabled

Query the patches/updates/bulletins/VIBs installed on ESXi
vihostupdate.pl --server esx01 -q

Set the SNMP community for the ESXi host
vicfg-snmp.pl --server esx01 -c public

Enable the SNMP agent on an ESXi host
vicfg-snmp.pl --server esx01 -E

List the iSCSI node name
vicfg-iscsi.pl --server esx01 --list --iscsiname --adapter vmhba36

List the preferred nativte multipathing (NMP) path for a device
 esxcli --server esx01 nmp fixed getpreferred -d naa.6090332880cfdc44fda634b1ca2457b8

Check whether round robin path selection is used for a device
esxcli --server esx01 nmp roundrobin getconfig -d naa.6090a02833cfdc7ffd4434b1ca5457b8 

List the disk NAA/UUIDs known to a host
esxcli --server esx01 nmp device list

List the MPIO path to device mapping
esxcfg-mpath.pl --server esx01 -m

List the SCSI devices known to a host
vicfg-scsidevs.pl --server esx01 --list   

List the available datastores on a host
vifs.pl --server esx01 --listds

List the contents of a datastore
 vifs.pl --server esx01 --dir [datastore]

Upload a local file to a datastore through vifs
vifs.pl --server esx01 --put c:\temp\file.txt dir/file.txt?dsName=datastoreName

List virtual switches, port groups, uplinks and MTU
vicfg-vswitch.pl -l --server esx01

Browse the datastores or local host through ssl
https://esx01/folder or https://esx01/host

Find the vmnic configuration, including driver, current speed
vicfg-nics.pl --server esx01 -l 

Set a vNIC to auto-negotiate
vicfg-nics.pl --server esx01 --vihost esx01 -a vmnic0

List the host-based files on an ESXi client
vifs.pl --server esx01 --dir /host  



A few other useful VMware tips:

Recreate the rui.pfx file for VirtualCenter
openssl pkcs12 -export -in rui.crt -inkey rui.key -name rui -passout pass:testpassword -out rui.pfx

Forcefully power off a suspended VM
Delete the vmss file, and then power on the VM (state is lost)

ESXi 4.0, access unsupported ssh console through the dcui
Press Alt+F1, type unsupported, then the root password


Wayne's World of IT (WWoIT), Copyright 2009 Wayne Martin. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

China and India have been sucking our American tailpipes for the last 50 years regarding development and Quality, they will suck on it for another 50 more. CHEERS to China and India always being second banana.


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About Me

I’ve worked in IT for over 20 years, and I know just about enough to realise that I don’t know very much.