6.0
Table Of Contents
- vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples
- Contents
- About This Book
- vSphere CLI Command Overviews
- Introduction
- List of Available Host Management Commands
- Targets and Protocols for vCLI Host Management Commands
- Supported Platforms for vCLI Commands
- Commands with an esxcfg Prefix
- ESXCLI Overview
- Connection Options for vCLI Host Management Commands
- Connection Options for DCLI Commands
- vCLI Host Management Commands and Lockdown Mode
- Managing Hosts
- Managing Files
- Managing Storage
- Introduction to Storage
- Examining LUNs
- Detaching Devices and Removing a LUN
- Working with Permanent Device Loss
- Managing Paths
- Managing Path Policies
- Scheduling Queues for Virtual Machine I/O
- Managing NFS/NAS Datastores
- Monitoring and Managing SAN Storage
- Monitoring and Managing Virtual SAN Storage
- Monitoring vSphere Flash Read Cache
- Monitoring and Managing Virtual Volumes
- Migrating Virtual Machines with svmotion
- Configuring FCoE Adapters
- Scanning Storage Adapters
- Retrieving SMART Information
- Managing iSCSI Storage
- iSCSI Storage Overview
- Protecting an iSCSI SAN
- Command Syntax for esxcli iscsi and vicfg-iscsi
- iSCSI Storage Setup with ESXCLI
- iSCSI Storage Setup with vicfg-iscsi
- Listing and Setting iSCSI Options
- Listing and Setting iSCSI Parameters
- Enabling iSCSI Authentication
- Setting Up Ports for iSCSI Multipathing
- Managing iSCSI Sessions
- Managing Third-Party Storage Arrays
- Managing NMP with esxcli storage nmp
- Path Claiming with esxcli storage core claiming
- Managing Claim Rules
- Managing Users
- Managing Virtual Machines
- vmware-cmd Overview
- Listing and Registering Virtual Machines
- Retrieving Virtual Machine Attributes
- Managing Virtual Machine Snapshots with vmware-cmd
- Powering Virtual Machines On and Off
- Connecting and Disconnecting Virtual Devices
- Working with the AnswerVM API
- Forcibly Stopping Virtual Machines with EXCLI
- Managing vSphere Networking
- Introduction to vSphere Networking
- Retrieving Basic Networking Information
- Network Troubleshooting
- Setting Up vSphere Networking with vSphere Standard Switches
- Setting Up Virtual Switches and Associating a Switch with a Network Interface
- Retrieving Information About Virtual Switches
- Adding and Deleting Virtual Switches
- Checking, Adding, and Removing Port Groups
- Managing Uplinks and Port Groups
- Setting the Port Group VLAN ID
- Managing Uplink Adapters
- Adding and Modifying VMkernel Network Interfaces
- Setting Up vSphere Networking with vSphere Distributed Switch
- Managing Standard Networking Services in the vSphere Environment
- Setting the DNS Configuration
- Adding and Starting an NTP Server
- Managing the IP Gateway
- Setting Up IPsec
- Managing the ESXi Firewall
- Monitoring VXLAN
- Monitoring ESXi Hosts
- Index
VMware, Inc. 27
3
ThevSphereCLIincludestwocommandsforfilemanipulation.vmkfstoolsallowsyoutomanipulateVMFS
(VirtualMachineFileSystem)andvirtualdisks.vifssupportsremoteinteractionwithfilesonyourESXihost.
Thischapterincludesthefollowingtopics:
“IntroductiontoVirtualMachineFileManagement”onpage 27
“ManagingtheVirtualMachineFileSystemwithvmkfstools”onpage 28
“UpgradingVMFS3VolumestoVMFS5”onpage 29
“ManagingVMFSVolumes”onpage 29
“ReclaimingUnusedStorageSpace”onpage 31
“UsingvifstoViewandManipulateFilesonRemoteESXiHosts”onpage 32
Introduction to Virtual Machine File Management
YoucanusethevSphereWebClientorvCLIcommandstoaccessdifferenttypesofstoragedevicesthatyour
ESXihostdiscoversandtodeploydatastoresonthosedevices.
Dependingonthetypeofstorageyouuse,datastorescanbebackedbythefollowingfilesystemformats:
VirtualMachineFileSystem(VMFS).High‐performancefilesystemthatisoptimizedforstoringvirtual
machines.YourhostcandeployaVMFSdatastoreonanySCSI‐basedlocalornetworkedstoragedevice,
includingFibreChannelandiSCSISANequipment.AsanalternativetousingtheVMFSdatastore,your
virtualmachine
canhavedirectaccesstorawdevicesanduseamappingfile(RDM)asaproxy.
YoumanageVMFSandRDMswiththevSphereWebClient,orthevmkfstoolscommand.
NetworkFileSystem(NFS).TheNFSclientbuiltintoESXiusestheNetworkFileSystem(NFS)protocol
overTCP/IPtoaccessadesignatedNFSvolumethatislocatedonaNASserver.TheESXihostcanmount
thevolumeanduseitforitsstorageneeds.vSpheresupportsversion3
and4.1oftheNFSprotocol.
Typically,theNFSvolumeordirectoryiscreatedbyastorageadministratorandisexportedformtheNFS
server.TheNFSvolumesdonotneedtobeformattedwithalocalfilesystem,suchasVMFS.Youcan
mountthevolumesdirectlyandusethem
tostoreandbootvirtualmachinesinthesamewaythatyouuse
VMFSdatastores.ThehostcanaccessadesignatedNFSvolumelocatedonanNFSserver,mountthe
volume,anduseitforanystorageneeds.
Managing Files
3
NOTESee“ManagingStorage”onpage 37forinformationaboutstoragemanipulationcommands.
NOTEDatastoresarelogicalcontainers,analogoustofilesystems,thathidespecificsofeachstoragedevice
andprovideauniformmodelforstoringvirtualmachinefiles.DatastorescanbeusedforstoringISOimages,
virtualmachinetemplates,andfloppyimages.ThevSphereWebClientusesthetermdatastoreexclusively.
Thismanual
usesthetermdatastoreandVMFS(orNFS)volumetorefertothesamelogicalcontaineronthe
physicaldevice.