Overview of Running DCLI Commands

You can run DCLI commands interactively or in scripts in several ways.

■	Run DCLI commands locally from the vCenter Server Appliance shell.

■	Run DCLI commands locally from your vCenter Server on Windows command prompt.

■	Run DCLI commands that are included in the vCLI package.

■	Open a command prompt on a Linux or Windows system on which you installed vCLI. Enter commands into that command prompt, specifying connection options.

■	Access the vMA Linux console. DCLI does not support the vi-fastpass connections available from vMA.

■	Prepare scripts that contain DCLI commands. Then run the scripts as vCLI scripts, from the vCenter Server Windows command prompt, or from the vCenter Server Appliance shell. Use the credential store options to authenticate, passwords are not supported in scripts.

DCLI Syntax

Each DCLI command uses the same syntax.

The command name is followed by DCLI connection and formatting options, each preceded by a + sign. After the DCLI options come the name space, the command, and the command options, as in the following example:

dcli +[DCLI options] <namespace> [<namespace> ...] <cmd> --[cmd option] [option value]

■	DCLI options. Predefined options for connection information and formatting options. Always preceded by a + sign.

Not required when you run the command on the local host at the Windows command prompt or the vCenter Server Appliance shell.

■	namespace. Groups DCLI commands. Namespaces correspond to the vCloud Suite SDK name spaces.

■	command. Reports on or modifies state on the system.

■	option and value. Command option and value pairs preceded by minus minus (--).

Example

$dcli +server my_remote_vc +username user42 com vmware cis tagging tag list

DCLI Options

You can run each DCLI command with connection or formatting options preceded by a +.

For many of the options, you can instead use variables, discussed in Variables Supported by DCLI.

dcli [+server SERVER_IP]

[+interactive]

[+prompt PROMPT]

[+ssl-cert-file SSL_CERT_FILE]

[+ssl-key-file SSL_KEY_FILE]

[+cacert-file CACERT_FILE]

[+more]

[+formatter {simple,table,xml,json,html,csv}]

[+loglevel {debug, info, warning, error}]

[+username USERNAME] [+password]

[+credstore-file CREDSTORE_FILE]

[+credstore-add | +credstore-remove | +credstore-list]

[+session-manager SESSION_MANAGER] [args [args ...]]

These options allow you to provide the following information. If you are entering options interactively, tab completion is supported on Linux systems. In all cases, you can specify a partial option as long as the option is not ambiguous. For example, +i indicates interactive, but you have to specify, at a minimum, +credstore-a to disambiguate that option.

DCLI Options

Option	Description	Default
server	The vCenter Server system to which DCLI connects.	localhost
interactive	Runs DCLI in interactive shell mode, which supports tab completion of commands, options, and some option values. It also supports saving the command history across DCLI sessions. Interactive mode is faster because DCLI caches the list of commands available on a vCenter Server system.
prompt	Prompt that the interactive shell uses.	dcli>
ssl-key-file ssl-cert-file cacert-file	If the CLI client connects to a vCenter Server system that is using HTTPS connections, you can use these options to provide SSL authentication options.
more	Displays page-wise output.
formatter	Output formatter, one of the following: ■ simple ■ table ■ xml ■ json ■ html ■ csv	Default is table for lists of structures and simple for all other output.
loglevel	The log level, one of debug, info, warning, or error.	info
username	If you run from the local shell, most DCLI commands do not require the user name. If you are running vCLI commands, the user you specify must be able to authenticate to the vCenter Server system. The user you specify must have the privileges to perform the task, as specified through vCenter Server roles. You are prompted for the password. The password is not echoed to screen.
credstore-file	Path to the credential store file to use for credential store operations or for reading login credentials. Use this option only if the default credential store file name does not work in your environment. By default, the credential store file is in the .dcli\.dcli_credstore directory inside the home directory.	$HOME/.dcli/.dcli_credstore
credstore-add	Adds login credentials entered for a command to the DCLI credential store file. This option stores the server IP address, session manager, username and password for the command being executed. If an entry already exists, the command updates the entry.	dcli directory inside the home directory. $HOME/dcli
credstore-remove	Removes an entry from the DCLI credential store file. This option removes the entry for a specified server IP address and username if only one session manager is present for a target server and user. In rare cases, information about multiple session manager entries is present. You have to provide the session manager with the session-manager option.
credstore-list	Lists all entries stored in the DCLI credential store file. Each entry includes the server IP address, session manager, and user name.
session-manager	Use this option if you use the credstore-remove option the same user name and password are stored through multiple session managers. Not usually required.