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Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users

Technical Note

VMware, Inc. 1

Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and

vSphere 6 for Service Console Users

ESXi 6.0

StartingwithvSphere5.0,theserviceconsole(alsocalledconsoleOSorCOS)withitsassociatedLinux

installationisnolongeravailable.IfyouarecurrentlyusingESXserviceconsolecommands,scripts,agents,or

logs,thistechnicalnotehelpsyoutransitiontoanoff‐hostimplementationortousetheESXi

Shellinspecial

cases.

ThefocusofthisdocumentisonESXCLIcommandsandvicfg-commands.CommandsinthedCLI

commandset,availableinvSphere6.0andlater,areinitiallyformanagingvCenterservicesandnotforhost

management.Thesecommandsarenotdiscussedinthisdocument.

 “Introduction”onpage 1

 “TransitioningServiceConsoleCommands”onpage 2

 “ESXiShellAccess”onpage 5

 “ReplacingAgents”onpage 10

 “LogginginvSphere5andLater”onpage 10

 “RetrievingNetworkingInformation”onpage 13

 “A d d i n g Third‐PartyExtensionstoHosts”onpage 13

 “ReferencetoReplacementsforServiceConsoleCommands”onpage 13

Introduction

InvSphere5.xandvSphere6.x,VMwareoffersthefollowingtools,CLIs,andAPIsthatreplaceESX4.xservice

consolecomponents.

IMPORTANTChangesmadetothehostusingtheDCUI,thevSphereClient,ESXCLI,orotheradministrative

toolsarecommittedtopermanentstorageeveryhourorupongracefulshutdown.Changesmightbelostifthe

hostfailsbeforetheyarecommitted.

CLI or Tool Description Availability

vCLI IncludesESXCLIcommands,vicfg-

commands,andafewothercommandsfor

managingvSphere.

InstallavCLIpackageonaWindowsorLinux

systemorruncommandsfromvMA.

PowerCLI PowerCLIcmdletsformanagingESXihostsand

virtualmachines.

InstallMicrosoftPowerShellonaWindows

system,andinstallvSpherePowerCLItorun

bothPowerShellandPowerCLIcmdletfromthe

PowerCLIprompt.

Summary of content (30 pages)

PAGE 1
Technical Note Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users ESXi 6.0 Starting with vSphere 5.0, the service console (also called console OS or COS) with its associated Linux installation is no longer available. If you are currently using ESX service console commands, scripts, agents, or logs, this technical note helps you transition to an off‐host implementation or to use the ESXi Shell in special cases. The focus of this document is on ESXCLI commands and vicfg- commands.
PAGE 2
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users CLI or Tool Description Availability vMA A Linux virtual appliance that includes the vSphere SDK for Perl and the vCLI package. Also supports the vi‐fastpass authentication component. Deploy vMA on an ESXi system and run commands against authenticated target servers from vMA. ESXi Shell commands Set of troubleshooting commands to use when vCLI cannot access your ESXi system.
PAGE 3
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Figure 1. Command-Line Interfaces in ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.0 and later Commands running on host vCLI ESX 4.
PAGE 4
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Command Set ESXCLI vCLI commands Description Extensible command framework for managing many aspects of vSphere. Run esxcli --help to see all top-level namespaces. You can run --help at any level of the hierarchy. The esxcli command set in the ESXi Shell and the esxcli vCLI command set support the same functionality. When running vCLI commands, you must specify the target server and authentication options.
PAGE 5
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Using the ESXi Shell Each ESXi host includes an ESXi Shell, which is disabled by default. Administrators can use that shell to perform troubleshooting and advanced tasks such as testing scripts in non production environments. You can access the shell as follows:  Enable local access and use the local shell on the physical console or using a serial port. See “ESXi Shell Local Access” on page 5.
PAGE 6
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Enabling the ESXi Shell You can enable the ESXi Shell from the direct console and from the vSphere Client. Enabling the ESXi Shell means making it accessible as a local console available directly or over an out-of-band network. To enable the ESXi Shell from the Direct Console 1 Access the direct console of the ESXi host, press F2, and provide credentials when prompted. 2 Scroll to Troubleshooting Options, and press Enter.
PAGE 7
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Setting Timeouts for the ESXi Shell The ESXi Shell supports availability timeout and idle timeouts. By default, each timeout is disabled.  Availability timeout. The amount of time that can elapse before you must log in after the ESXi Shell is enabled. After the timeout period, the service is disabled and users are not allowed to log in.  Idle timeout.
PAGE 8
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users To enable SSH access in the direct console 1 At the direct console of the ESXi host, press F2 and provide credentials when prompted. 2 Scroll to Troubleshooting Options, and press Enter. 3 Select Enable SSH and press Enter once. On the left, Enable SSH changes to Disable SSH. On the right, SSH is Disabled changes to SSH is Enabled. 4 Press Esc until you return to the main direct console screen.
PAGE 9
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 1. ESXi Shell Commands (Continued) Command Set Description POSIX-like commands See “Shell Commands” on page 9. localcli commands Set of troubleshooting commands for use with VMware Technical Support. localcli commands are equivalent to ESXCLI commands but bypass the host daemon (hostd). Warning: localcli commands are only for situations when hostd is unavailable and cannot be restarted.
PAGE 10
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Replacing Agents With ESX 4.x, management agents and hardware monitoring and management agents run in the service console. With ESXi 5, agents are implemented in other ways.  Management agents. VMware partners create management agents by using one of the vSphere APIs.  Hardware agents. Developers use CIM (Common Information Model) agents. CIM is a standards-based approach to monitoring hardware resources.
PAGE 11
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 3. esxcli syslog Options Option Description mark Mark all logs with the specified string. reload Reload the configuration and update any configuration values that have changed. config get Retrieve the current configuration. config set Set the configuration. Use one of the following options.  --logdir= – Save logs to a given path.
PAGE 12
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Most logs are at top level and not inside a directory under /var/run/log. Available logs depend on which plugins are installed and what other changes might have been made to the system. The following table lists some frequently used logs in the ESXi Shell. ESX 4.x shell ESXi 5.x shell Description /var/log/vmware/hostd.log /var/log/hostd.log Log for the host daemon. /var/log/vmkwarning /var/log/vmkwarning.
PAGE 13
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users You are prompted for a user name and password for the ESXi host. Retrieving Networking Information Linux commands for retrieving networking information are not included in the ESXi Shell. You can instead use ESXCLI commands. On ESXi 5, ifconfig information is the information for the VMkernel NIC that attaches to the Management Network port group. You can retrieve that information by using ESXCLI commands.
PAGE 14
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 4. Replacements for Service Console Commands Service Console Command ESXi 5 Replacement More Information Deprecated ESXi Shell esxcli Syntax for most ESXCLI commands has changed. “ESXCLI Command Syntax” on page 15 No esxcfg-advcfg esxcli system settings advanced “esxcfg-advcfg” on page 17 Yes esxcfg-dumppart esxcli system coredump “esxcfg-dumppart” on page 18 Yes esxcfg-firewall In ESX 4.
PAGE 15
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 4. Replacements for Service Console Commands (Continued) Service Console Command Deprecated ESXi Shell ESXi 5 Replacement More Information vmware-cmd Not available in ESXi Shell. Available in vCLI. In many cases, VMware PowerCLI cmdlets perform the same tasks as vmware-cmd. Use vmware-cmd --help for information. Yes vm-support Creates a tar archive containing debugging information for the server.
PAGE 16
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users The following table lists equivalent commands for esxcli storage nmp commands. Table 6. esxcli nmp namespace esxcli storage nmp commands in ESXi 4.x esxcli storage nmp commands in ESXi 5.
PAGE 17
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 8. esxcli swiscsi namespace (Continued) ESXCLI 4.x esxcli 5.x Comment swiscsi vmnic --list iscsi physicalnetworkportal list Perform operations on the iSCSI physical network portal (uplink). swiscsi session [--add | --list | --remove] iscsi session [add | list | remove] Perform operations on iSCSI sessions. Note: The add and remove commands are intended only for use by VMware partners.
PAGE 18
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 9. esxcfg-advcfg Replacement Commands (Continued) esxcfg-advcfg option ESXCLI Command -D|--del-user-var Adding or deleting user variables is no longer supported. -U|--user-var --option= -A|--add-option Description Name of the user variable to use for when retrieving and setting user variables. No longer supported. This option was used to add CIM options. Use the CIM SDK instead.
PAGE 19
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 10. esxcfg-dumppart Replacement Commands - esxcfg-dumppart Option ESXCLI Command Description -l | --list system coredump partition list List all partitions on the ESXi system that have the appropriate partition type to act as a diagnostic partition. Important: Execution might take several minutes and slow down your ESXi host because the command scans all LUNs on the system.
PAGE 20
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 11. ESXCLI Information Retrieval Commands (Continued) Command Description hardware cpu global get List information and configuration global to all CPUs. hardware cpu list List all CPUs on this host. hardware memory get Get information about memory. hardware pci list List all the PCI devices on this host. hardware platform get Get information about the platform.
PAGE 21
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 12.
PAGE 22
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 14. esxcfg-hwiscsi Replacement Commands esxcfg-hwiscsi Option ESXCLI Command Description -l iscsi physicalnetworkportal param get List current configuration -a [allow | deny] 1. Find the adapter. Allow or deny ARP redirection on the adapter. iscsi adapter list 2. Get ARP redirection information. iscsi physicalnetworkportal param get -A vmhba4 3. Enable ARP redirect.
PAGE 23
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 16. esxcfg-scsidevs Replacement Commands (Continued) esxcfg-scsidevs Option ESXCLI Command Description -c storage core device list List all the device unique identifiers. Include the mapping from primary identifier to all secondary identifiers. The list can be filtered using the --device option to limit the output to specific device.
PAGE 24
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 18. esxcfg-mpath Replacement Commands esxcfg-mpath Option ESXCLI Command Description -l --list | storage core path list storage core device list List detailed information for all paths on the system or for the specified path or device. -L --list-compact Not supported -m --list-map storage core device list For devices currently registered with the PSA, list the filters attached to them.
PAGE 25
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 20. esxcfg-nics Replacement Commands esxcfg-nics Option ESXCLI Command Description --auto -a network nic set --auto Set the specified network adapter to autonegotiate its speed and duplex settings.
PAGE 26
Table 22. esxcfg-vmknic Replacement Commands (Continued) esxcfg- option ESXCLI Command Description --enable-ipv6 -6 [true | false] network ip interface ipv6 set --enable-dhcpv6 Enable IPv6 for the next boot; manage the IPv6 address. network ip interface ipv6 address [list|add|remove] --ip
-i
--list -l network ip interface ipv4 set --interface-name= The IP address to be used for the VMkernel NIC.
PAGE 27
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users Table 23. esxcfg-volume Replacement Commands (Continued) esxcfg-volume Option ESXCLI Command Description --resignature storage vmfs snapshot resignature Resignature a snapshot or replica volume. --umount -u storage vmfs snapshot unmount Disconnect and unmount an existing VMFS or NAS volume.
PAGE 28
Table 24. esxcfg-vswitch Replacement Commands (Continued) esxcfg-vswitch Option ESXCLI Command Description --link | -L network vswitch standard uplink add --uplink --vswitch Add an uplink adapter (physical NIC) to a virtual switch. Running the command with this option attaches a new unused physical network adapter to a virtual switch. --list | -l network vswitch standard list List all virtual switches and their port groups.
PAGE 29
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users esxtop The esxtop command is available and supported in the ESXi Shell. Search the vSphere Documentation Center, or see the vSphere Resource Management documentation. esxupdate The esxupdate command allows you to manage ESX 4.0 and later systems. Use the commands in the esxcli software namespace to install, update, remove, or display individual VIBs (software packages).
PAGE 30
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2010–2015 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents.