6.5
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 Commands Available on Different ESXi Hosts
- Trust Relationship Requirement for ESXCLI Commands
- Using ESXCLI Output
- 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
- Detach a Device and Remove a LUN
- Reattach a Device
- Working with Permanent Device Loss
- Managing Paths
- Managing Path Policies
- Scheduling Queues for Virtual Machine I/O
- Managing NFS/NAS Datastores
- Monitor and Manage FibreChannel 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
- Set Up Ports for iSCSI Multipathing
- Managing iSCSI Sessions
- Managing Third-Party Storage Arrays
- Managing Users
- Managing Virtual Machines
- Managing vSphere Networking
- Introduction to vSphere Networking
- Retrieving Basic Networking Information
- Troubleshoot a Networking Setup
- 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
- Managing VMkernel Network Interfaces with ESXCLI
- Add and Configure an IPv4 VMkernel Network Interface with ESXCLI
- Add and Configure an IPv6 VMkernel Network Interface with ESXCLI
- Managing VMkernel Network Interfaces with vicfg-vmknic
- Add and Configure an IPv4 VMkernel Network Interface with vicfg-vmknic
- Add and Configure an IPv6 VMkernel Network Interface with vicfg-vmknic
- Setting Up vSphere Networking with vSphere Distributed Switch
- Managing Standard Networking Services in the vSphere Environment
- Setting the DNS Configuration
- Manage an NTP Server
- Manage the IP Gateway
- Setting Up IPsec
- Manage the ESXi Firewall
- Monitor VXLAN
- Monitoring ESXi Hosts
- Index
Typically, the NFS volume or directory is created by a storage administrator and is exported from the NFS
server. The NFS volume does not need to be formaed with a local le system, such as VMFS. You can
mount the volume directly on ESXi hosts, and use it to store and boot virtual machines in the same way that
you use VMFS datastores.
In addition to storing virtual disks on NFS datastores, you can also use NFS as a central repository for ISO
images, virtual machine templates, and so on. If you use the datastore for ISO images, you can connect the
virtual machine's CD-ROM device to an ISO le on the datastore and install a guest operating system from
the ISO le.
ESXi hosts support the following shared storage capabilities on NFS volumes.
n
VMware vMotion and Storage vMotion
n
High Availability (HA), Fault Tolerance, and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
n
ISO images, which are presented as CD-ROMs to virtual machines
n
Virtual machine snapshots
n
Host proles
n
Virtual machines with large capacity virtual disks, or disks greater than 2 TB. Virtual disks created on
NFS datastores are thin-provisioned by default, unless you use hardware acceleration that supports the
Reserve Space operation. See Hardware Acceleration on NAS Devices in the vSphere Storage
documentation.
In addition to storing virtual disks on NFS datastores, you can also use NFS as a central repository for ISO
images, virtual machine templates, and so on.
To use NFS as a shared repository, you create a directory on the NFS server and then mount the directory as
a datastore on all hosts. If you use the datastore for ISO images, you can connect the virtual machine's CD-
ROM device to an ISO le on the datastore and install a guest operating system from the ISO le.
Adding and Deleting NAS File Systems
You can list, add, and delete a NAS le system with ESXCLI or with vicfg-nas.
Manage a NAS File System with ESXCLI
You can use ESXCLI as a vCLI command with connection options or in the ESXi Shell.
For more information on connection options, see “Connection Options for vCLI Host Management
Commands,” on page 19.
Procedure
1 List all known NAS le systems.
esxcli <conn_options> storage nfs list
For each NAS le system, the command lists the mount name, share name, and host name and whether
the le system is mounted. If no NAS le systems are available, the system does not return a NAS
lesystem and returns to the command prompt.
vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples
58 VMware, Inc.