Managing Files

The vSphere CLI includes two commands for file manipulation. vmkfstools allows you to manipulate VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) and virtual disks. vifs supports remote interaction with files on your ESXi host.

Note See Managing Storage for information about storage manipulation commands.

This chapter includes the following topics:

■	Introduction to Virtual Machine File Management

■	Managing the Virtual Machine File System with vmkfstools

■	Upgrading VMFS3 Volumes to VMFS5

■	Managing VMFS Volumes

■	Reclaiming Unused Storage Space

■	Detaching Devices and Removing a LUN

■	Working with Permanent Device Loss

■	Using vifs to Manipulate Files on Remote ESXi Hosts