6.5

Managing Hosts 2
Host management commands can stop and reboot ESXi hosts, back up conguration information, and
manage host updates. You can also use a host management command to make your host join an Active
Directory domain or exit from a domain.
For information on updating ESXi 5.0 hosts with the esxcli software command and on changing the host
acceptance level to match the level of a VIB that you might want to use for an update, see the vSphere
Upgrade documentation in the vSphere 5.0 Documentation Center.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“Stopping, Rebooting, and Examining Hosts,” on page 21
n
“Entering and Exiting Maintenance Mode,” on page 22
n
“Backing Up Conguration Information with vicfg-cfgbackup,” on page 24
n
“Managing VMkernel Modules,” on page 25
n
“Using vicfg-authcong for Active Directory Conguration,” on page 26
n
“Updating Hosts,” on page 27
Stopping, Rebooting, and Examining Hosts
You can stop, reboot, and examine hosts with ESXCLI or with vicfg-hostops.
Stopping and Rebooting Hosts with ESXCLI
You can shut down or reboot an ESXi host by using the vSphere Web Client or vCLI commands, such as
ESXCLI or vicfg-hostops.
Shuing down a managed host disconnects it from the vCenter Server system, but does not remove the host
from the inventory. You can shut down a single host or all hosts in a data center or cluster. Specify one of the
options listed in “Connection Options for vCLI Host Management Commands,” on page 19 in place of
<conn_options>.
To shut down a host, run esxcli system shutdown poweroff. You must specify the --reason option and
supply a reason for the shutdown. A --delay option allows you to specify a delay interval, in seconds.
To reboot a host, run system shutdown reboot. You must specify the --reason option and supply a reason
for the reboot. A --delay option allows you to specify a delay interval, in seconds.
VMware, Inc.
21