ESXi links, info, one-liners etc

ESXi.md

esxi (on mac mini)

prepare USB boot install drive

• Format USB drive: Master Boot Record scheme and format set to MS-FAT (aka FAT32).
• Use unetbootin.app to flash iso to drive.
• Alternatively / as backup approach see Create a Bootable ESXi Installer USB Flash Drive on macOS

adding a USB datastore

ESX 7.0 ESX 6.5

• Stop and disable arbitrator service
  /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator stop chkconfig usbarbitrator off
• Plug in usb drive with tail -f /var/log/vmkernel.log
• For SSD USB drives to be recognized as flash: ESX > Configure > System > Advanced System Settings > Edit... "Disk.AllowUsbClaimedAsSSD" = 1 OR \ esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Disk/AllowUsbClaimedAsSSD -i 1
• Then reboot or
  esxcli storage core device list esxcli storage nmp satp rule add -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL -d mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 -o enable_ssd
• partedUtil mklabel /dev/disks/"mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0" gpt
• partedUtil getptbl /dev/disks/"mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0" e.g. output: 58370 255 63 937721856, then end sector is (58370 * 255 * 63)-1
• partedUtil setptbl /dev/disks/"mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0" gpt "1 2048 937714049 AA31E02A400F11DB9590000C2911D1B8 0"
• vmkfstools -C vmfs6 -S datastore01 /dev/disks/"mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0:1"

vagrant

• Plugin: vagrant-vmware-esxi, see https://github.com/josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi and josenk/vagrant-vmware-esxi#41
• export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/VMware\ OVF\ Tool

powershell

Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction:Ignore
Connect-VIServer -Server 192.168.1.14
(Get-VM V-macbookpro-rollwagen-esxi-ubuntu).Guest.IPAddress
Get-Command -Module vmware.* *net*
Get-VM | ft Name, NumCpu

useful commands

• Start all VMs (from SSH shell on ESX host) vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | awk 'NR>1 {print $1}' | while read -r line; do vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on "$line"; done

• Set aintenance mode:
  esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable [yes|no]

• Top TERM=xterm esxtop

• Power off / reboot:
  esxcli system shutdown poweroff
esxcli system shutdown reboot

• NTP esxcli system ntp set --enabled=true

• Windows disk performance test winsat disk -drive C

For a more (complete) lists see \

• Most Useful ESXCLI and ESXi Shell Commands for Your VMware Environment
• ESXi ESXCLI Firewall Commands