Overview of Running vCLI Host Management Commands

You can run vCLI commands interactively or in scripts, and you can target the host directly or target a vCenter Server system that manages the host.

Targeting the Host Directly

You can target the host directly from an administration server on which you installed VCLI, use vMA, or run scripts.

■	Open a command prompt on a Linux or Windows system on which you installed vCLI. Enter commands into that command prompt, specifying connection options. See Authenticating Directly to the Host.

■	Access the vMA Linux console. Set up target servers and run vCLI commands against the targets without additional authentication.

■	Prepare scripts that contain vCLI commands. Then run the scripts from a system that has the vCLI package installed or from the vMA Linux console. See Using vCLI Commands in Scripts.

Note Different command sets in the vCLI package require different connection options.

When you run commands against an ESXi host, you must be authenticated for that host.

Target a Host That is Managed by a vCenter Server System

When you target a host that is managed by a vCenter Server system, you can run commands in different ways.

■	Specify the vCenter Single Sign-On service with --psc and, if multiple vCenter Server systems are associated with the vCenter Single Sign-On service, the vCenter Server system with --server. Specify also the host with --vihost.

■	Specify the vCenter Server system with --server and the ESXi host with --vihost.

■	Specify only the ESXi host with --vihost.

When you can authenticate to a vCenter Single Sign-On service or to a vCenter Server system, you can target all ESXi hosts that vCenter Server manages without additional authentication. See Authenticating Through vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On.