{"id":230,"date":"2017-07-24T02:01:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hentati.org\/?p=230"},"modified":"2021-01-06T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T22:51:11","slug":"top-vmware-commands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/2017\/07\/24\/top-vmware-commands\/","title":{"rendered":"Top VMware commands"},"content":{"rendered":"

By nature, I love commands in Linux systems, today we can also use command in VMware, let’s discover it together !<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing these commonly used ESXi commands is a must-have skill for command line troubleshooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting to know your way around the ESXi shell is crucial in those times of troubleshooting, and having a basic understanding of some of the most common Linux and ESXi commands is never a bad skill to list on your resume.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I-Linux shell commands<\/span><\/h3>\n

First up, let’s have a look at some common Linux shell commands. These are not specific just to ESXi \u2013 you will also find many, if not all, of these commands available in most Linux distributions today.<\/span><\/p>\n

find\/cat\/grep<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 These three commands are crucial when trying to find specific files or text within a\u00a0 file. The\u00a0find<\/em>\u00a0command will locate a specific file, based on either a filename or a pattern.\u00a0Cat<\/em>\u00a0is used to simply display the contents of a file, while\u00a0grep<\/em>\u00a0can be used to search for specific text within a single or group of files.<\/span><\/p>\n

find \/path\/to\/vm\/folder \u2013iname \"*delta*\"<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list all delta disks of a VM.\r\n\r\ncat hostd.log | grep error<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 search occurrences of \"error\" within the hostd.log<\/span><\/pre>\n
head\/tail<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 These two commands can be very useful when viewing the contents of a file. While the ‘cat’<\/em>\u00a0command\u00a0is great for displaying the complete contents of a file,\u00a0head<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0tail<\/em>\u00a0can be used to show either just the beginning or end part of the file, skipping the contents in the middle.\u00a0tail<\/em>\u00a0can be extremely useful in times of troubleshooting, especially when specifying the ‘-f’ flag to\u00a0monitor log files\u00a0in real time.<\/span><\/p>\n
tail -f \/var\/log\/vmkernel.log<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 watch the vmkernel log in real time.<\/span><\/pre>\n
less<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The\u00a0less<\/em>\u00a0command becomes extremely useful when you are displaying the contents of large files. By piping (‘|’) your\u00a0cat<\/em>\u00a0output to\u00a0less<\/em>, you are able to have the system page the output, allowing us to scroll through the output, both up and down through the file.<\/span><\/p>\n
cat \/var\/log\/vpxa.log | less<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 output vpxa.log to the screen with a paging fashion.<\/span><\/p>\n
df\/vdf<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 These two commands deal with presenting information about free space within file systems. The\u00a0df<\/em>\u00a0command, now showing\u00a0VMFS data stores, will show the size, used and available space within both our file system and our data stores. To view the usage of the different ramdisks within an ESXi host, you must use the\u00a0vdf<\/em>\u00a0command. Both commands are great for discovering any issues that may be caused due to low free space.<\/span><\/p>\n
ps\/kill<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 These commands deal with discovering and forcibly terminating services that are running inside of the ESXi host. The\u00a0ps<\/em>\u00a0command contains many command line switches, but is most commonly used to retrieve the running world ID of a process in order to send to the\u00a0kill<\/em>\u00a0command. The\u00a0kill<\/em>command then respectively terminates that process.<\/span><\/p>\n
vi\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Those who are unfamiliar with\u00a0vi<\/em>\u00a0will most definitely have\u00a0trouble learning it. The\u00a0vi<\/em>\u00a0command is a text editor that is used to modify the contents of a file \u2013 a must-have skill for any vSphere administrator performing troubleshooting from the command shell.<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
II-ESXi-specific commands<\/span><\/h3>\n
Next let’s look at some of the most common tasks performed while sitting on the ESXi command shell. These ESXi commands will help you not just with troubleshooting, but with your day to day maintenance as well as performance monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n
services.sh<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 While Linux services are normally handled using the\u00a0services<\/em>command, ESXi services are handled much the same way utilizing the\u00a0services.sh<\/em>\u00a0command.\u00a0Services.sh<\/em>\u00a0can be passed with a stop, start, or restart flag to perform the respected operation on all ESXi services.<\/span><\/p>\n
services.sh restart<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 restart all ESXi services.<\/span><\/pre>\n
\/etc\/init.d<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The scripts located in \/etc\/init.d can be used to start\/stop their respective services one at a time. If you just wanted to restart the vCenter Server Agent (also known as the vpxa service), you could run\u00a0\/etc\/init.d\/vpxa restart<\/em>\u00a0to restart it. On the other hand,\u00a0services.sh restart<\/em>would restart all services.<\/span><\/p>\n
\/etc\/init.d\/vpxa restart<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 restart vCenter Agent on host\r\n\r\ncat \/etc\/chkconfig.db<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 view current running status of all ESXi services.<\/span><\/pre>\n
vmkping<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 We are all familiar with the functionality of the age old ‘ping’<\/em>command. But,\u00a0vmkping<\/em>\u00a0takes this one step further and allows you to use the IP stack of the VMkernel to send Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets through specified interfaces. Meaning, you could send a ping packet out through the vMotion network, rather than over the management network.<\/span><\/p>\n
vmkping \u2013I vmk1 10.10.10.1<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 send ICMP request to 10.10.10.1 through vmk1 interface<\/span><\/pre>\n
nc\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Coupled with\u00a0vmkping<\/em>, the\u00a0nc<\/em>\u00a0command (netcat) can be useful when confirming network connectivity to a certain IP from an ESXi host. While\u00a0vmkping<\/em>\u00a0confirms communication through ICMP, there are times when we want to confirm connection on a specific\u00a0TCP\u00a0port (think iSCSI connections on port 3260).<\/span><\/p>\n
nc \u2013z 10.10.10.10 3260<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 test connectivity to 10.10.10.10 on port 3260.<\/span><\/pre>\n
vmkfstools\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 If you ever need to manage\u00a0VMFS volumes\u00a0and virtual disks via the command line, then\u00a0vmkfstools<\/em>\u00a0is the command for you. The\u00a0vmkfstools<\/em>command allows you to\u00a0create, clone, extend, rename and delete\u00a0VMDK files. In addition to the virtual disk options, you can also create, extend, grow and reclaim blocks from our file systems with\u00a0vmkfstools<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n
vmkfstools \u2013i test.vmdk testclone.vmdk<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 clones test.vmdk to testclone.vmdk<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxtop\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 When it comes to performance monitoring and troubleshooting on an ESXi host, few tools can give you as much information as\u00a0esxtop<\/em>. With similar functionality to the Linux\u00a0top<\/em>\u00a0command,\u00a0esxtop<\/em>\u00a0goes one step further by gathering VMware-specific metrics as they compare to CPU, interrupt, memory, network, disk adapter, disk device, disk VM and power management.<\/span><\/p>\n
vscsiStats<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 When you need to go one step further with your performance monitoring of storage I\/O,\u00a0vscsiStats<\/em>\u00a0can be a great help. The\u00a0vscsiStats<\/em>command will help you gather a collection of data and metrics that pertain to a VM’s disk I\/O workload. In the end, you are basically left with a sample to help you gather the most common I\/O size and latency averages. Using\u00a0vscsiStats<\/em>\u00a0can prove to be invaluable when capacity planning or migrating your back end storage as well.<\/span><\/p>\n
vim-cmd<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Vim-cmd<\/em>\u00a0is a command space that is built over top of the hostd process, allowing the end user to script and command almost every vSphere API.\u00a0Vim-cmd<\/em>\u00a0has a number of sub ESXi commands dealing with different portions of the virtual infrastructure and is very easy to use compared to its counterpart,\u00a0vimsh<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n
dcui\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 The VMware Direct User Console Interface (DCUI) is the menu-based option listing that you see when you initially log into an ESXi host. There are many different options available to you from the DCUI, such as\u00a0root password maintenance, network and maintenance. Sometimes you may only have SSH access to the host, but thankfully, you can still get to the DCUI menu-based system by simply executing\u00a0dcui<\/em>\u00a0from the command line.<\/span><\/p>\n
vm-support<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Ever feel like grabbing a complete bundle of all the support and\u00a0log information\u00a0that you have inside of your ESXi host? That is exactly what\u00a0vm-support<\/em>\u00a0does. This tool is invaluable, and if you have ever been on a support call with VMware, you have probably already ran this.<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
III-Digging into the esxcli command<\/span><\/h3>\n
The\u00a0esxcli<\/em>\u00a0command is so vast that we cannot simply classify it as a single command.\u00a0Esxcli<\/em>\u00a0contains many different namespaces allowing you to control virtually everything that ESXi offers. Listed below are some (but certainly not all) of the commonly used namespaces:<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli hardware<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The hardware namespace of\u00a0esxcli<\/em>\u00a0can prove extremely useful when you are looking to get information about the current hardware and setup of your ESXi host<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli hardware cpu list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 retrieve CPU information (family, model and cache).\r\n\r\nesxcli hardware memory get<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 retrieve information about memory (available and\u00a0non-uniform memory access).<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli iscsi<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The\u00a0iscsi<\/em>\u00a0namespace can be used to monitor and manage both hardware and software iSCSI setups.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli iscsi software<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 can be used to enabled\/disable the software iSCSI initiator.\r\n\r\nesxcli iscsi adapter<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 can be used to setup discovery,\u00a0CHAP\u00a0and other settings for both your hardware and software iSCSI adapters.\r\n\r\nesxcli iscsi sessions<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 can be used to list established iSCSI sessions on the host.<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli network<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The network namespace of\u00a0esxcli<\/em>\u00a0is extremely valuable when looking to monitor and make changes to anything and everything dealing with vSphere networking, including virtual switches, VMKernel network interfaces, firewalls and physical network interface cards (NICs).<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli network nic<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list and modify NIC information, such as name, wake on LAN, and speeds.\r\n\r\nesxcli network vm list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list networking information about your VMs that have an active network port.\r\n\r\nesxcli network vswitch<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Commands to retrieve and manipulate options on VMware's standard and distributed virtual switches.\r\n\r\nesxcli network ip<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Commands to manage\u00a0VMkernel\u00a0ports, including management, vMotion and Fault Tolerance networks. Also contains the ability to modify any of the IP stack in regard to the host, including\u00a0DNS,\u00a0IPsec\u00a0and routing information.<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli software<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The software namespace can be used to retrieve and install different pieces of software and drivers on your ESXi host.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli software vib list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list the software and drivers currently installed on the ESXi host<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli storage<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 This is perhaps one of the most used esxcli command namespaces and contains everything and anything you need in order to manage the core storage attached to vSphere.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli storage core device list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list the current storage devices\r\n\r\nesxcli storage core device vaai status get<\/em>\u00a0\u2013get the current status of\u00a0VAAIsupport on your storage devices.<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli system<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 This command gives you the ability to control ESXi advanced options, such as setting up syslog and managing host status.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli system maintenanceMode set\u00a0\u2013enabled yes\/no<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 set the host into maintenance mode.\r\n\r\nesxcli system settings advanced<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 View and change ESXi advanced settings (Hint: Use\u00a0esxcli system settings advanced list\u00a0\u2013d<\/em>\u00a0to view the settings that deviate from the default).\r\n\r\nesxcli system syslog<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Syslog information and configuration<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli vm<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The VM namespace of ESXi can be used to list out various tidbits of information about the VMs running on the host and shut them down forcibly if needed.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli vm process list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 List out process information for powered on VMs\r\n\r\nesxcli vm process kill<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Terminate running VM process, essentially shutting down or forcibly powering off a VM.<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli vsan<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The VSAN namespace of ESXi contains a ton of commands dealing with\u00a0VSAN\u00a0setup and maintenance, including data store, network, fault domain, and policy configuration.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli vsan storage<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 commands for configuring local storage for use with VSAN, including adding and removing physical disks and modifying auto claim.\r\n\r\nesxcli vsan cluster<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 commands to leave\/join VSAN clusters on the local host.<\/span><\/pre>\n
esxcli esxcli<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 That’s right! The\u00a0esxcli<\/em>\u00a0command has a namespace called “esxcli<\/em>.” By using the\u00a0esxcli<\/em>\u00a0namespace, you are able to get further information on any or all the commands that lie within the esxcli utility.<\/span><\/p>\n
esxcli esxcli command list<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 list out every esxcli command on the system along with the functions it provides.<\/span><\/pre>\n
Certainly the above commands and examples are not all ESXi has to offer. All of these ESXi commands have multiple switches and options available which server various functions. Most of them can be displayed by passing a “\u2013h<\/em>” to the original command to bring up the help options.<\/span><\/p>\n
Troubleshooting ESXi via the command line can be a daunting task, but by having a solid understanding of these ESXi commands, you will be well on your way to solving almost any issue that arises.<\/span><\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Have fun with those vSphere CLI commands !<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Documentation<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nDescription<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli command<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nLists descriptions of esxcli commands.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli fcoe<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nFCOE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) comands<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli hardware<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nHardware namespace. Used primarily for extracting information about the current system setup.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli iscsi<\/a><\/span><\/td>\niSCSI namespace for minitoring and managing hardware and software iSCSI.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli license<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nLicense management commands.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli network<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nNetwork namespace for managing virtual networking including virtual switches and VMkernel network interfaces.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli software<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSoftware namespace. Includes commands for managing and installing image profiles and VIBs.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli storage<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nIncludes core storage commands and other storage management commands.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli system<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSystem monitoring and management command.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
esxcli vm<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nNamespace for listing virtual machines and shutting them down forcefully.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
svmotion<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nMoves a virtual machine’s configuration file and optionally its disks while the virtual machine is running. Must run against a vCenter Server system.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-advcfg<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nPerforms advanced configuration including enabling and disabling CIM providers. Use this command as instructed by VMware.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-authconfig<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages Active Directory authentication.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-cfgbackup<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nBacks up the configuration data of an ESXi system and restores previously saved configuration data.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-dns.pl<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSpecifies an ESX\/ESXi host’s DNS (Domain Name Server) configuration.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-dumppart<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages diagnostic partitions.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-hostops<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nAllows you to start, stop, and examine ESX\/ESXi hosts and to instruct them to enter maintenance mode and exit from maintenance mode.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-ipsec<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSupports setup of IPSec.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-iscsi<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages iSCSI storage.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-module<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nEnables VMkernel options. Use this command with the options listed, or as instructed by VMware.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-mpath<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nDisplays information about storage array paths and allows you to change a path’s state.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-mpath35<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nConfigures multipath settings for Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUNs.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-nas<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages NAS file systems.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-nics<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages the ESX\/ESXi host’s NICs (uplink adapters).<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-ntp<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSpecifies the NTP (Network Time Protocol) server.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-rescan<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nRescans the storage configuration.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-route<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nLists or changes the ESX\/ESXi host’s route entry (IP gateway).<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-scsidevs<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nFinds available LUNs.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-snmp<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-syslog<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSpecifies the syslog server and the port to connect to that server for ESXi hosts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-user<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nCreates, modifies, deletes, and lists local direct access users and groups of users.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-vmknic<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nAdds, deletes, and modifies virtual network adapters (VMkernel NICs).<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-volume<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nSupports resignaturing a VMFS snapshot volume and mounting and unmounting the snapshot volume.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vicfg-vswitch<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nAdds or removes virtual switches or vNetwork Distributed Switches, or modifies switch settings.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vifs.pl<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nPerforms file system operations such as retrieving and uploading files on the remote server.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vihostupdate<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages updates of ESX\/ESXi hosts. Use vihostupdate35 for ESXi 3.5 hosts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vihostupdate35<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nManages updates of ESX\/ESXi version 3.5 hosts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vmkfstools<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nCreates and manipulates virtual disks, file systems, logical volumes, and physical storage devices on ESX\/ESXi hosts.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vmware-cmd<\/a><\/span><\/td>\nPerforms virtual machine operations remotely. This includes, for example, creating a snapshot, powering the virtual machine on or off, and getting information about the virtual machine.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By nature, I love commands in Linux systems, today we can also use command in VMware, let’s discover it together ! Knowing these commonly used ESXi commands is a must-have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hentati.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}