6.0

VMware, Inc. 2
Command-Line Management in vSphere 5 and vSphere 6 for Service Console Users
Transitioning Service Console Commands
Ifyouarecurrentlymanagingyourenvironmentwithserviceconsolecommands,youcanperformthesame
managementtasksinvSphere5.0andvSphere5.1inoneofthefollowingways.
 UseoneofthevSphereClientinterfaces.
 InstallvCLIorPowerCLIonamanagementserver,writescriptswiththosecommands,andrunthescripts
againsttargethosts.See“RunningvCLIorPowerCLICommandsfromRemoteHosts”onpage 3.
 Forcertaintroubleshootingandadvancedmanagementcommands,usecommandsfromtheESXCLI
commandsetdirectlytheESXiShell.See“UsingtheESXiShell”onpage 5.
Figure 1illustratesthedifferencesbetweenCLIsinESXi4.1andESXi5.0andlater.
 InESX4.1,afairlylargesetofserviceconsolecommandsisavailable.AsmallsetofESXCLIcommands
isavailableinboththeserviceconsoleandaspartofthevCLIpackage.ThevCLIpackageincludes,in
additiontoESXCLIcommands,asetofvicfg-commandsandothercommandsfor
hostmanagement.
 ESXi5.0andlaterdoesnotincludeaserviceconsole.IntheESXiShell,youcanrunamuchexpandedset
ofESXCLIcommandsandasmallsetofothercommands.ThesameESXCLIcommands,aswellasafew
othercommands,areincludedinthevCLIpackageforoff‐host
management.
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.Includes
ESXCLIcommandsandesxcfg-commands
(deprecated).
TheESXiShellisdisabledbydefault.Youcan
enabletheShellforlocalorremoteaccess.
CLI or Tool Description Availability
ESX 4.x Service Console vSphere 5.0 and vSphere 5.1 See
Serviceconsolecommands Off‐hostmanagementwithvCLI.
InstallonWindowsorLinuxorusevMA.
“TransitioningServiceConsole
Commands”onpage 2.“Referenceto
ReplacementsforServiceConsole
Commands”onpage 13listsvCLIor
ESXCLIreplacementsforserviceconsole
commandsandpointstomigrationlists
inthistechnicalnote.
Serviceconsolecommands Off
‐hostmanagementwithVMware
PowerCLIcmdletsfromaWindowssystem.
GettingStartedwithvSphere
Command‐LineInterfaces
vSphereCommand‐LineInterfaceSolutions
andExamples
Serviceconsolecommands On‐hostmanagementintheESXiShellis
possibleifsystemfailuresorotherissues
preventyoufromusingoff‐hostmanagement
commands.
ESXiShell
isdisabledbydefault
See“ESXiShellLocalAccess”onpage 5
and“RemoteAccesstoESXiShellUsing
SSH”onpage 7.
Agents IfyourunagentsintheESX4.xservice
console,youcanreplacethemwith
infrastructureservicesinmanycases.
Runningthird‐partyagentsintheESXiShell
isnotsupported.
“ReplacingAgents”onpage 10.
Linuxnetworking
commands.
NotavailableintheESXiShell.UseESXCLI
commandsinstead.
See“RetrievingNetworking
Information”onpage 13.
Serviceconsolelogs Fine‐grainedcontroloversystemlogsis
available.Youcansendlogstothelocal
systemortoaremotehost.
“LogginginvSp here5andLater”on
page 10