ESX command line commands

I am currently busy with designing a migration strategy for a large ESX 2.5.2 migration to ESX 3.5 for one of our customers. (yeah I know, a little late ... but at least they will migrate immediately on the vShpere4 :))

While doing my tests and type the commands mostly only once and from then on use the arrow keys to go up to previous commands. You know how it goes: as lazy as you can get it ... :)

Anyways, I decided I would post most of these commands here. Not just for you guys, but admittingly also for myself as I regularly find myself looking through my memory for correct syntaxes ... :)

List files:
vmware-cmd –l
List path and names of .registered VM vmx files on the present host

Get state vm
vmware-cmd /vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx getstate
Retrieve power state of the VM: off, on, suspended, stuck

Reboot vm
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx reset trysoft/hard
Reboot the VM. First try a nice shutdown (trysoft), then if necessary force a shutdown before reboot (hard).

Power on vm
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx start
Power on the VM

Shutdown vm
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx stop trysoft/hard
Shutdown/halt the VM. First try a nice shutdown (trysoft), then if necessary force a shutdown (hard).

Suspend vm
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx suspend
Suspend the VM

Verify snapshot
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx hassnapshot
Query if VM has a snapshot

Create snapshot
vmware-cmd createsnapshot name description quiesce memory
Quiesce will quiesce file system writes, while Memory will grab the memory state

Revert to snapshot
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx revertsnapshot
Revert to previous created snapshot (you loose the current VM state!)

Remove snapshot
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx removesnapshots
Remove previous created snapshots (you keep the current VM state!)

Register vm
vmware-cmd -s register vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx
Register VM (add to inventory)

Unregister vm
vmware-cmd -s unregister vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx
Unregister VM (remove to inventory)

Answer vm
vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmx answer
answer pending request for userinput

Extend virtual Disk
vmkfstools -X 12G ./testing.vmdk
To extend an existing Virtual Disk to 12GB.
Be aware if the shrinked size is smaller as the partition size in the guest there might be a data losse or a corrupted system resulting!

Copy virtual disk
vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/'vmfslabel'/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmdk /vmfs/volumes//'VMName'.vmdk
Copy vmdk from one vmfs to another datastore

Export virtual disk
vmkfstools -i /vmfs/'VMName'/'VMName'.vmdk -d 2gbsparse //'VMName'.vmdk
Export vmdk to ext3 partition

Rename files
vmkfstools -E
Rename files associated with a specified virtual disk

Delete Virtualdisk
vmkfstools -U
Delete files associated with the specified virtual disk

Delete folders
rm –R –f /vmfs/volumes//VM folder>
Delete non-empty folders

Find functionality
| grep –i “”
Example: vi *440*.vmx | grep –I “version”
Find a word with a file. In this example “version”

There are of course a whole lot more vmkfstools and vmware-cmd commands, but I think this gives a good start ...

Enjoy!