Below is a list of most common CLI commands for VMWare ESXi. Type these in directly in an ESXi or SSH shell.
| vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | List all VMs running on the host. Also provides vmid, required for commands below. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off vmid | Power off specified VM. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on vmid | Power off specified VM. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reboot vmid | Reboot specified VM. |
| vim-cmd solo/registervm /vmfs/volume/datastore/subdir/vm-file.vmx | Register the VM stored at location on the ESX host inventory. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/unregister vmid | Unregister VM from the host. Does not remove the VM's files from the datastore. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/destroy vmid | Delete the specified VM. The VMDK and VMX files will be deleted from storage as well. |
| vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.install vmid | Initiates an installation of VMWare Tools on the VM |
| vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter | Put the host into maintenance mode. |
| vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit | Take the host out of maintenance mode. |
| vim-cmd hostsvc/net/info | Show networking information of the host. |
| chkconfig -l | Show services running on the host. Can also be used to change startup configuration. |
| esxtop | Display list of processes and its usage of resources. Works similar to linux top. |
| esxcfg-info | Show host's configuration and information. |
| esxcfg-nics -l | Show current NIC configuration. |
| esxcfg-vswitch -l | Show current vSwitch configuration. |
| vmkerrcode -l | Display a reference list of VMKernel return codes and descriptions. |
| dcui | Start the console UI (when accessing through SSH). |
| vsish | Run the VMWare Interactive Shell (from SSH). |
| decodeSel /var/log/ipmi_sel.raw | Read IPMI system log of physical server. |
Replace vmid with the value you retrieved from the getallvms command (first one in the table).
Replace path with the full path and file name of a VMX-file (= configuration file of a VM).
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