Overview of Linux Installation Process

The installation script for vCLI is supported on the Linux distributions that are listed in the Release Notes.

The vCLI package installer installs the vCLI scripts and the vSphere SDK for Perl. The installation proceeds as follows.

1	The installer checks whether the following required prerequisite packages are installed on the system:

Perl	Perl version 5.8.8 or version 5.10 must be installed on your system.
OpenSSL	The vCLI requires SSL because most connections between the system on which you run the command and the target vSphere system are encrypted with SSL. The OpenSSL library (libssl-devel package) is not included in the default Linux distribution. See Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Linux Systems with Internet Access.
LibXML2	Used for XML parsing. The vCLI client requires 2.6.26 or higher version. If you have an older version installed, please upgrade to 2.6.26 or higher. The libxml2 package is not included in the default Linux distribution. See Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Linux Systems with Internet Access.
uuid	Included in uuid-devel for SLES 11 and in e2fsprogs-devel for other Linux platforms. Required by the UUID Perl module.

2

If the required software is found, the installer proceeds. Otherwise, the installer stops and informs you that you must install the software. See Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Installing Required Prerequisite Software for Linux Systems with Internet Access for instructions.

3	The installer checks whether the following Perl modules are found, and whether the correct version is installed.

■	Crypt-SSLeay-0.55 (0.55-0.9.7 or 0.55-0.9.8)

■	IO-Compress-Base-2.037

■	Compress-Zlib-2.037

■	IO-Compress-Zlib-2.037

■	Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.037

■	Archive-Zip-1.28

■	Data-Dumper-2.121

■	XML-LibXML-1.63

■	libwww-perl-5.805

■	LWP-Protocol-https-6.02

■	XML-LibXML-Common-0.13

■	XML-NamespaceSupport-1.09

■	XML-SAX-0.16

■	Data-Dump-1.15

■

URI-1.37

■

UUID-0.03

■	SOAP-Lite-0.710.08

■	HTML-Parser-3.60

■	version-0.78

■	Class-MethodMaker-2.10

Earlier versions of libwww-perl include the LWP-Protocol-https module. Very recent versions of libwww-perl do not include the LWP-Protocol-https module and you have to install that module.

Note If you intend to run vCLI commands with SSL certification, be sure to check that LWP::UserAgent 6.00 or later is installed. The installer does not check this module, and earlier versions do not work with SSL.

4	The installer proceeds depending on the Linux distribution.

Linux distribution	Installer behavior
RHEL (No Internet access)	On RHEL, the installer allows you to install Perl modules with CPAN if Internet access is available. If no Internet access is available, and if a recommended Perl module is not found at all, the installer installs it. If a different version of the module is found, the installer does not install it and proceeds with the installation process. At the end of the installation process, the installer informs you if the version on the system does not match the recommended version, and recommends that you install the version vCLI was tested with. You can install the modules using the package installer for your platform, the installation CD, or CPAN. Note: The installer does not overwrite existing versions of recommended Perl modules. You must explicitly update those modules yourself.
All Linux distributions (Internet access)	The installer proceeds depending on whether the Perl modules are found. ■ If a recommended Perl module is not found at all, the installer installs it using CPAN. You must meet the installation prerequisites or the installer cannot install the Perl modules and stops. See Installing vCLI on Linux Systems with Internet Access. ■ If a lower version of a recommended module is found, the installer does not install a different version from CPAN and proceeds with installation. After completing installation, the installer displays a message that the version on the system does not match the recommended version, and recommends that you install the version vCLI was tested with. You can install the modules using the package installer for your platform, the installation CD, or CPAN. ■ If a higher version of a recommended module is found, the installer proceeds with installation and does not display a message after installation. Note: The installer does not overwrite existing versions of recommended Perl modules. You must explicitly update those modules yourself.

5	After all required software and all prerequisite Perl modules are installed, you can install vCLI. See Installing the vCLI Package on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Installing the vCLI Package on a Linux System with Internet Access.

If a previous version of vCLI, Remote CLI, or vSphere SDK for Perl is installed on your system, and you install vCLI in a different directory, you must reset the PATH environment variable. You can do so before or after the installation, using the command appropriate for your distribution and shell (setenv, export, and so on). If you do not reset the path, the system might still look for executables in the old location.