vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference

vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference

The vSphere CLI command set allows you to run common system administration commands against vSphere systems from an administration server of your choice.

Linux Installation: If you accepted the defaults during installation, you can find the installed software in the following locations:

vSphere CLI scripts: /usr/bin
vSphere SDK for Perl utility applications: /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/apps
vSphere SDK for Perl sample scripts: /usr/share/doc/vmware-vcli/samples

Windows Installation: vSphere CLI commands are installed in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin by default.

The vSphere CLI includes the commands listed below, as well as the resxtop and esxcli commands.

For details on resxtop, see the documentation in the Resource Management Guide.
For esxcli the actual lists of commands depends on the system that you are running on. Run esxcli --help for a list of commands on your system.

vSphere CLI commands

Documentation	Description
esxcli device	Lists descriptions of device commands.
esxcli esxcli	Lists descriptions of esxcli commands.
esxcli fcoe	FCOE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) comands
esxcli graphics	Graphics commands
esxcli hardware	Hardware namespace. Used primarily for extracting information about the current system setup.
esxcli iscsi	iSCSI namespace for monitoring and managing hardware and software iSCSI.
esxcli network	Network namespace for managing virtual networking including virtual switches and VMkernel 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	Software namespace. Includes commands for managing and installing image profiles and VIBs.
esxcli storage	Includes core storage commands and other storage management commands.
esxcli system	System monitoring and management command.
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.
svmotion	Moves a virtual machine's configuration file and optionally its disks while the virtual machine is running. Must run against a vCenter Server system.
vicfg-advcfg	Performs advanced configuration including enabling and disabling CIM providers. Use this command as instructed by VMware.
vicfg-authconfig	Manages Active Directory authentication.
vicfg-cfgbackup	Backs up the configuration data of an ESXi system and restores previously saved configuration data.
vicfg-dns	Specifies an ESX/ESXi host's DNS (Domain Name Server) configuration.
vicfg-dumppart	Manages diagnostic partitions.
vicfg-hostops	Allows you to start, stop, and examine ESX/ESXi hosts and to instruct them to enter maintenance mode and exit from maintenance mode.
vicfg-ipsec	Supports setup of IPSec.
vicfg-iscsi	Manages iSCSI storage.
vicfg-module	Enables VMkernel options. Use this command with the options listed, or as instructed by VMware.
vicfg-mpath	Displays information about storage array paths and allows you to change a path's state.
vicfg-nas	Manages NAS file systems.
vicfg-nics	Manages the ESX/ESXi host's NICs (uplink adapters).
vicfg-ntp	Specifies the NTP (Network Time Protocol) server.
vicfg-rescan	Rescans the storage configuration.
vicfg-route	Lists or changes the ESX/ESXi host's route entry (IP gateway).
vicfg-scsidevs	Finds available LUNs.
vicfg-snmp	Manages the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent.
vicfg-syslog	Specifies the syslog server and the port to connect to that server for ESXi hosts.
vicfg-user	Creates, modifies, deletes, and lists local direct access users and groups of users.
vicfg-vmknic	Adds, deletes, and modifies virtual network adapters (VMkernel NICs).
vicfg-volume	Supports resignaturing a VMFS snapshot volume and mounting and unmounting the snapshot volume.
vicfg-vswitch	Adds or removes virtual switches or vNetwork Distributed Switches, or modifies switch settings.
vifs	Performs file system operations such as retrieving and uploading files on the remote server.
vihostupdate	Manages updates of ESX/ESXi hosts. Use vihostupdate35 for ESXi 3.5 hosts.
vmkfstools	Creates and manipulates virtual disks, file systems, logical volumes, and physical storage devices on ESX/ESXi hosts.
vmware-cmd	Performs virtual machine operations remotely. This includes, for example, creating a snapshot, powering the virtual machine on or off, and getting information about the virtual machine.

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