The top VMware ESX commands and ESXi commands

These VMware ESX and ESXi commands can be run with the ESX service console (locally or
remotely using Secure Shell) or with RCLI (in VMware Infrastructure 3) and vSphere CLI (in
vSphere). With the RCLI and vSphere CLI, note that many of the commands have been
renamed to vicfg- instead of esxcfg- (i.e., esxcfg-nics.pl and vicfg-nics.pl). Both commands
perform the same function, but VMware is trying to migrate from esxcfg- to vicfg-.

• The versatile vmkfstools command is the Swiss army knife of virtual disks and can be
used to copy, convert, rename, import, export and resize virtual disk files.
• Esxtop troubleshoots performance problems. It provides real-time and historical
performance statistics for CPU, memory, disk and network usage.
• Esxcfg-nics views and configures physical network interface cards (NICs). It displays NIC
status and can configure speed and duplex of the NICs.
• Esxcfg-vswitch views and configures virtual switches. It's useful for configuring
networking when the vSphere Client cannot be used. The command configures port
groups and links physical NICs to them (known as uplinks) and configures virtual LAN IDs,
Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and the MTU of vswitches.
• Esxcfg-vswif and esxcfg-vmknic allow you to view and configure special port groups on
vSwitches. Esxcfg-vswif configures the ESX service console network interfaces, which are
also known as vswif ports. Esxcfg-vmknic configures VMkernel network interfaces,
which are necessary for VMotion and connecting to iSCSI and Network File System
network storage devices.
• Vmware-cmd is a versatile command to manage and retrieve information from virtual
machines. It can change VM power states, manage snapshots, register and unregister
VMs, and retrieve and set various VM information.
• Vimsh and vmware-vim-cmd are complex commands that you should
fully understandbefore using. Vimsh is a powerful interactive shell that allows execution
of commands and the ability to display and configure many things. VMware-vim-cmd is
a front end of sorts for vimsh that simplifies command usage without having to know
the many switches that vimsh requires.
• Vihostupdate and esxupdate update and patch ESX and ESXi hosts. Esxupdate is used
on the ESX service console and vihostupdate is used by the RCLI/vSphere CLI. In
addition, vihostupdate35 is used to patch ESX and ESXi version 3.5 hosts.
• Svmotion is an RCLI/vSphere CLI command used to initiate Storage VMotion sessions to
relocate a VM's virtual disk to another datastore while it is running. In ESX 3.5 this
command was the only method to initiate a SVMotion; in vSphere the ability to do this
was added to the vSphere Client GUI.
• Esxcfg-mpath displays and sets all paths from a host to its storage devices.
• Esxcfg-rescan lets a host res-can a particular storage adapter to discover new storage
devices. This tools is useful when storage devices have been added, removed or changed
from a storage network.
• Esxcfg-scsidevs and esxcfg-vmhbadevs display information on the storage devices
connected to a host. Esxcfg-vmhbadevs was used in ESX 3.5 and was replaced byesxcfg-
scsidevs in vSphere.
• Esxcfg-firewall displays information and configures the built-in firewall that protects the
ESX service console. It allows and blocks specific TCP/IP ports between the service
console and other network devices.
• The esxcfg-info command provides a wealth of information about the host that it is run
on. It can be re-directed to a text file to document host configuration.
• Esxcfg-auth configures Service Console authentication on an ESX host. It can configure
authentication to a third-party LDAP or Active Directory server and set various local
security options.
• Vm-support is a powerful information gathering tool commonly used in
troubleshooting. The command gathers up a large amount of configuration info, log files
and the output from many commands into a single .tgz archive file. It can also be used to
display VM information as well as kill VMs that are not responding.