You can install a vCLI package on a supported platform.

You can install a vCLI package on a physical or virtual machine. See Installing and Uninstalling vCLI on Linux Systems and Installing and Uninstalling vCLI on Windows.

The vCLI installer installs both vSphere SDK for Perl and vCLI because many vCLI commands run on top of the vSphere SDK for Perl. The content of the installer package differs for different platforms.

Platform

Installation Process

Windows

You must install required software. The installation package includes vCLI and vSphere SDK for Perl.

Linux

You must install required software and you must have Internet access. See Installing Prerequisite Software for Linux Systems.

The installer downloads other Perl modules from CPAN.

After installation, you can run vCLI commands and vSphere SDK for Perl utility applications from the operating system command line. Each time you run a command, you can specify the target server connection options directly or indirectly. You can also write scripts and manage your vSphere environment using those scripts.