VMware ESX/ESXi CLI Tips — Scyphus Draft

Enabling SSH Login on VMware ESXi

The VMware ESXi version 4.1 has started to support SSH login, and you can enable SSH server on the hypervisor. Versions lower than 4.1 do not support SSH login but you can enable it with unsupported command; please search the keywords "VMware ESXi unsupported" by yourself for greater detail.

Launching SSH server from vSphere Client (Step 1)

To launch the SSH server from vSphere Client, please enter to "Configuration" and then edit the "Security Profile" as shown in Fig. 1.

Launching SSH server from vSphere Client (Step 2)

Thus, you can run the SSH server via "Services Properties" as shown in Fig. 2.

Command Tips

After launching the SSH server, you can login to the VMware ESX/ESXi hypervisor. Here we provide useful command examples that can be executed from a command line shell (ash).

Getting Virtual Machine Status

Getting all virtual machines:

# vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Vmid  Name  File                      Guest OS        Version   Annotation
32    vm1   [datastore1] vm1/vm1.vmx  freebsd64Guest  vmx-07

Here, we note that the obtained "Vmid" is used for handling the virtual machines with other commands.

Handling Virtual Machine Power Status

Getting the current power state:
```
# vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate 32
Retrieved runtime info
Powered on
```
Please replace "32" with your intended vmid.
Reset power of a virtual machine:
```
# vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reset 32
```
Please replace "32" with your intended vmid.