6.5

Table Of Contents
Managing Virtual Machines 8
You can manage virtual machines with the vSphere Web Client or the vmware-cmd vCLI command. By using
vmware-cmd you can register and unregister virtual machines, retrieve virtual machine information, manage
snapshots, turn the virtual machine on and o, add and remove virtual devices, and prompt for user input.
Some virtual machine management utility applications are included in the vSphere SDK for Perl.
The VMware PowerCLI cmdlets, which you can install for use with Microsoft PowerShell, manage many
aspects of virtual machines.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“vmware-cmd Overview,” on page 123
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“List and Register Virtual Machines,” on page 125
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“Retrieving Virtual Machine Aributes,” on page 125
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“Managing Virtual Machine Snapshots with vmware-cmd,” on page 127
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“Powering Virtual Machines On and O,” on page 128
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“Connecting and Disconnecting Virtual Devices,” on page 129
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“Working with the AnswerVM API,” on page 130
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“Forcibly Stop a Virtual Machine with ESXCLI,” on page 130
vmware-cmd Overview
vmware-cmd was included in earlier version of the ESX Service Console. A vmware-cmd command has been
available in the vCLI package since ESXi version 3.0.
I vmware-cmd is not available in the ESXi Shell. Run the vmware-cmd vCLI command instead.
Older versions of vmware-cmd support a set of connection options and general options that dier from the
options in other vCLI commands. The vmware-cmd vCLI command supports these options. The vCLI
command also supports the standard vCLI --server, --username, --password, and --vihost options. vmware-
cmd does not support other connection options.
I vmware-cmd is a legacy tool and supports the usage of VMFS paths for virtual machine
conguration les. As a rule, use datastore paths to access virtual machine conguration les.
VMware, Inc.
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