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VMWARE CLI Commands

esxcli is a command line tool that exposes namespaces to retrieve information about and configure an ESXi host. The top 20 esxcli commands provided retrieve system, network, software, virtual machine, storage, and iSCSI configuration information and allow tasks like enabling shell access, listing VIBs, managing the firewall, and powering on and off VMs. Example uses of esxcli commands are provided to view the ESXi version, list local users, reboot the host, update installed software, and view iSCSI adapter parameters.

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jithin
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210 views

VMWARE CLI Commands

esxcli is a command line tool that exposes namespaces to retrieve information about and configure an ESXi host. The top 20 esxcli commands provided retrieve system, network, software, virtual machine, storage, and iSCSI configuration information and allow tasks like enabling shell access, listing VIBs, managing the firewall, and powering on and off VMs. Example uses of esxcli commands are provided to view the ESXi version, list local users, reboot the host, update installed software, and view iSCSI adapter parameters.

Uploaded by

jithin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Top 20 Essential ESXCLI Commands You

Need to Know
ESXi Shell and ESXCLI
If it is not already, the first thing you need to do is enable shell on ESXi, something
that is generally disabled for security reasons. To enable Shell, follow the steps
provided in KB 2004746. Once you enable it, you can use a tool like putty to
access Shell via an SSH session. Alternatively, pressing ALT-F1 while in DCUIis one
other way of accessing Shell. To run commands in shell, log in as root or with an
account having similar privileges.

Accessing ESXi shell using an SSH client or directly from console

The esxcli command exposes a number of namespaces against which you can run
queries to retrieve information about ESXi as well as configure it. The following
table lists the available namespaces on ESXi 6.5 along with a description for
each (source: VMware). For earlier ESXi releases, consult the relevant online
documentation or run esxcli with no parameters to see which namespaces are
available.
Command Description
esxcli
Lists descriptions of device commands.
device
esxcli elxnet Lists descriptions for commands that manage Emulex elxnet drivers.
esxcli esxcli Lists descriptions of esxcli commands.
esxcli fcoe FCOE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) commands
esxcli
Graphics commands
graphics
esxcli
Hardware namespace. Used primarily for extracting information about the current system setup.
hardware
esxcli iscsi iSCSI namespace for monitoring and managing hardware and software iSCSI.
esxcli Network namespace for managing virtual networking including virtual switches and VMkernel network
network interfaces.
esxcli nvme Commands for managing NVMe devices.
esxcli rdma Commands for monitoring RDMA devices.
esxcli sched Manage the shared system-wide swap space.
esxcli
Software namespace. Includes commands for managing and installing image profiles and VIBs.
software
esxcli
Includes core storage commands and other storage management commands.
storage
esxcli
System monitoring and management command.
system
esxcli vm Namespace for listing virtual machines and shutting them down forcefully.
esxcli vsan Namespace for Virtual SAN management commands. See the vSphere Storage publication for details.

The Top 20 ESXCLI Commands


The following is a compilation of esxcli commands, sorted by namespace, I tend to
use on a regular basis. It is by no means exhaustive as there are too many
examples to mention. If you want the whole shebang, have a look at VMware’s
documentation site.

System related commands

#1: esxcli system version get


Description: Returns the ESXi build and version numbers.

#2: esxcli system hostname get


Description: Returns the hostname, domain and FQDN for the host.
#3: esxcli system stats installtime get
Description: Returns the date and time of when ESXi was installed.

#4: esxcli system account list


Description: Lists the local users created on the ESXi host.

#5: esxcli system account add -d=”Altaro Guest” -i=”altaro”


-p=”dsfewfewf*3!4404″ -c=”dsfewfewf*3!4404″
Description: This command allows you to create local ESXi users. All the
parameters used in the example are mandatory.

#6: esxcli system maintenanceMode set –enable true


Description: Use this command to put ESXi in maintenance mode or take it out.
#7: esxcli system shutdown reboot -d 10 -r “Patch Updates”
Description: Use this command to reboot or shutdown ESXi. The -d parameter is
a countdown timer; minimum 10 seconds. ESXi must be in maintenance mode
before you can use the command.

Network related commands

#8: esxcli network firewall get


Description: Returns the status of the ESXi firewall. The default action is to drop
traffic unless allowed through by a specific firewall rule. The Enabled field indicates
whether the firewall is enabled. The Loaded field shows whether the firewall
module is active or not (see esxcli firewall load | unloadcommands).

#9: esxcli network firewall set –enabled true | false


Description: Use this command to disable the ESXi firewall for troubleshooting
purposes. Note that disabling the firewall on ESXi is highly discouraged.

#10: esxcli network firewall ruleset list | awk ‘$2 ==”true”‘


Description: Generates a list of all enabled firewall rules on ESXi. The command
is piped to awk which will matches the value from the second column to “true” so
only enabled rules are displayed.
#11: esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get
Description: Displays the IPv4 configuration for all the interfaces present on ESXi.

Software related commands

#12: esxcli software vib list


Description: Lists all the currently installed VIBs on ESXi. A VIB is a file packaging
format used to distribute software on ESXi.
#13: esxcli software vib update -d “/tmp/update.zip”
Description: Use this command to update an installed VIB on ESXi. Note that the
command does not install any new software. Instead it only updates what’s
currently installed. Use esxcli software vib install instead when installing new
software. The -d parameter specifies the full path to the package being used for
the update. As per the next screenshot, I specified a non-existing patch hence the
error message.

Virtual Machine related commands

#14: esxcli vm process list


Description: Lists all the running VMs on the hosts. The World ID can be used
with other commands to carry out various tasks related to VMs.

#15: esxcli vm process kill -w 69237 -t soft


Description: Use this command to kill a running VM such as one that fails to
respond to commands. You must first retrieve the VM’s World ID (see command
#14) and pass it on using the -w parameter. The -t <soft | hard |
force> mandatory parameter sets the type of kill operation. Start with soft so you
allow the VM to shut down cleanly. If this does not work, try the hard option which
will kill the VM processes immediately as in kill -9. The Force type should only be
used as a last resort. If none work, your only option is to reboot ESXi.
Storage related commands

#16: esxcli storage vmfs extent list


Description: The command generates a list of extents for each volume as well as
the corresponding device name to UUID mapping.

#17: esxcli storage filesystem list


Description: The command lists of all the volumes or datastores accessible by the
ESXi host. The output includes the file system type, disk info along with the
volume name, path and UUID.

iSCSI related commands

#18: esxcli iscsi software set –enabled true && esxcli iscsi software get
Description: The above command actually consists of two concatenated
commands, which is what && does. The first command enables the iSCSI software
adapter and the second verifies that the iSCSI adapter is enabled.

#19: esxcli iscsi adapter param get -A vmhba65


Description: The command returns metrics for the specified iSCSI adapter. These
include the current, minimum and maximum values and whether the listed
parameters may be configured or not. The name of the iSCSI adapter you want to
be queried is specified via the -A parameter. The adapter name is retrieved
using esxcli iscsi adapter list or from the vSphere Web client.

Available ESXCLI commands


#20: esxcli esxcli command list
Description: Lists all the available namespaces and corresponding commands.

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