Quick Esxi commands

 Esxi’s command’s to make your daily troubleshooting 

- Lists all vm's running on hypervisor and provides vmid

   

    vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

   

List the inventory ID of the virtual machine with the command:

     vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms |grep <vm name>

    Note: The first column of the output shows the vmid.

Check the power state of the virtual machine with the command:

      vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate <vmid>

Power-on the virtual machine with the command

      vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <vmid>

Power-off the virtual machine with the command:

      vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off <vmid>

Reboots vmid referenced from getallvms command

   

      vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reboot vmid

    

Power Off (Hard)

get the world ID of the virtual machine

esxcli vm process list

TestComputer

World ID: 1625788

Process ID: 0

VMX Cartel ID: 1625786

UUID: 56 4d 9e d3 8b ce ab 59-9b 22 ac 87 40 6c 48 c3

Display Name: TestComputer

And kill them

esxcli vm process kill -t [soft,hard,force] -w

esxcli vm process kill -t hard -w 1625788

Suspend a vm

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.suspend

Resume a virtual machine

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.suspendResume

Reset a virtual machine

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reset

Shutdown

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown

Deletes the vmdk and vmx files from disk

   

      vim-cmd vmsvc/destroy vmid

 

Puts hypervisor into maintenance mode

   

     vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Takes hypervisor out of maintenance mode

     vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

Registers vm in hypervisor inventory

     vim-cmd solo/registervm /vmfs/vol/datastore/dir/vm.vmx

Unregisters vm with hypervisor

     vim-cmd vmsvc/unregister vmid

Starts vmware tools installation for VM

     vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.install vmid

Provides information about hypervisor networking

     vim-cmd hostsvc/net/info

Shows daemons running on hypervisor. Can also be used for configuration.

   

     chkconfig -l

Same as linux top for vmware

   

     Esxtop

List of vmkernel errors

   

     vmkerrcode -l

Lists a LOT of information about the esx host

     esxcfg-info

Lists information about NIC's. Can also be used for configuration.

     esxcfg-nics -l

Lists information about virtual switching. Can also be used for configuration.

     esxcfg-vswitch -l

Provides console screen to ssh session

     dcui

Vmware interactive shell

     vsish

Read System Event Log of server

     decodeSel /var/log/ipmi_sel.raw

     esxcfg-vmknic -l

     esxcfg-route -l (for defaultgateway:)

     esxcfg-vswitch -l (for switch)

Restart Management, HA Services

/sbin/services restart

Installing Software. List/Install/Uninstall  VIBs (vSphere Installation bundle)

List vibs

esxcli software vib list

Install a vib

esxcli software vib install -v file:/tmp/[NewVIB].vib

Uninstall a vib (determine the Name of the VIB by the list command)

esxcli software vib remove -n VIBname

Install a patch

esxcli software vib install /tmp/[patchName].zip

Network

firewall state

esxcli network firewall get

Firewall rules

esxcli network firewall ruleset list

Firewall activate a Ruleset, i.e. sshClient

esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id=sshClient --enabled=true

Only allow an IP Range for the ssh daemon

esxcli network firewall ruleset allowedip add --ruleset-id sshServer --ip-address 192.168.254.0/24

List Kernel Network Interfaces

esxcli network ip interface list

List routing table

esxcli network ip route ipv4 list

Add a route

esxcli network ip route ipv4 add --gateway 10.1.1.254 --network 10.1.2.0/24

To make the route persistent add the command line to a ESXi startup script. In ESXi 5.1

/etc/rc.local.d/local.sh

in ESXi <=5.0

/etc/rc.local

SNMP

Set Community (Communityname: MGMCOM)

esxcli system snmp set --communities MGMCOM

Set Trap destintion (IP Address Management station: 192.168.254.100)

esxcli system snmp set --targets 192.168.254.100/MGMCOM

Send test trap

esxcli system snmp test

State

esxcli system snmp get

enable IPMI as SNMP source

esxcli system snmp set --hwsrc sensors

enable CIM as SNMP source

esxcli system snmp set --hwsrc indications

Enable snmp

esxcli system snmp set --enable true

Virtual disks

extend a virtual disk, i.e. to 40GB

vmkfstools -X 40G /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Test/test.vmdk

Convert a Workstation based virtual Disk to a VMFS Disk for use at ESXi. Disk to convert: Computer.vmdk

Rename Disk Computer.vmdk to Computer_WS.vmdk

mv Computer.vmdk Computer_WS.vmdk

Clone the disk

vmkfstools -i Computer_WS.vmdk -d zeroedthick Computer.vmdk

Destination disk format: VMFS thin-provisioned

Cloning disk 'Computer.vmdk'...

Clone: 100% done.

Remove Workstation disk

rm Computer_WS.vmdk

Snapshots

Get VMID

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

Vmid  Name File Guest OS  Version  Annotation

36 .......................................

List all snapshots for a virtual machine

vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.get 36

Get Snapshot:

|-ROOT

--Snapshot Name : Installation Complete

--Snapshot Id : 1

--Snapshot Desciption :

--Snapshot Created On : 3/15/2013 13:20:34

--Snapshot State : powered off

--|-CHILD

----Snapshot Name : SNAP1

----Snapshot Id : 2

----Snapshot Desciption :

----Snapshot Created On : 5/14/2013 11:46:19

----Snapshot State : powered on

Create a snapshot,  including the RAM of the Machine

vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 36 "New Snap" "Snap desc" includeMemory

Delete a snapshot, where 36 is the VMID and 2 the Snapshot ID

vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.remove 36 2

ESXi Advanced Kernel Settings/Parameters

Get all

esxcli system settings advanced list

Set one, i.e. disable the shell respectively ssh warnings

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/SuppressShellWarning -i 1

ESXi Kernel modules

List loaded kernel modules

vmkload_mod  -l

Get a list of all enabled kernel modules

esxcfg-module -q

Get parameters of a kernel modul, i.e. an Emulex FC HBA module

esxcfg-module -g lpfc820

lpfc820 enabled = 1 options = 'lpfc0_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc1_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc2_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc3_lun_queue_depth=8'

Set kernel module parameters, also i.e. the Emulex FC HBA module

esxcfg-module -s "lpfc0_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc1_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc2_lun_queue_depth=8 lpfc3_lun_queue_depth=8" lpfc820

Get info of a module with all possible parameters and a description of each

esxcfg-module -i lpfc820

Storage

Get a list of all storage devices

esxcli storage filesystem list

Rename a datastore

vim-cmd hostsvc/datastore/rename OldName NewName

Get a list of all storage path’s

esxcli storage core path list

Get storage paths for a specific drive

esxcli storage core path list -d naa.600000e00d11000000111a2400000000

Show Storage Array Type and Path selection policies of disk devices

esxcli storage nmp device list

Set Roundrobin(VMW_PSP_RR) path selection policy for a disk device, possible other policies are “Most recently used”:VMW_PSP_MRU or “Fixed”:VMW_PSP_FIXED

esxcli storage nmp device set -P VMW_PSP_RR -d naa.600000e00d11000000111a2400020000

Stat of the visorfs. Here you can find  is a detail description of the visorfs(Hypervisor Filesystem).

vdf

Usage of the visorfs

vdu

Host Services

Enable ESXi Shell

vim-cmd hostsvc/enable_esx_shell

Disable ESXi Shell

vim-cmd hostsvc/disable_esx_shell

Start ESXi Shell

vim-cmd hostsvc/start_esx_shell

Enable the ssh daemon

vim-cmd hostsvc/enable_ssh

Disable ssh daemon

vim-cmd hostsvc/disable_ssh

Start ssh daemon

vim-cmd hostsvc/start_ssh

Enter Maintainance mode

vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter