Introduction to vMA The vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) is a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-based virtual machine that includes prepackaged software such as the vSphere command-line interface, and the vSphere SDK for Perl. vMA allows administrators to run scripts or agents that interact with ESXi hosts and vCenter Server systems without having to authenticate each time. The chapter includes the following topics: ■ vMA Capabilities ■ vMA Component Overview ■ vMA Use Cases To get started with vMA right away, go to Getting Started with vMA.