ESXi Management

Overview

Interact with VMware ESXi hypervisors using native tools (vim-cmd, esxcli) over SSH. This skill provides workflows for VM lifecycle management, host monitoring, and common ESXi operations.

Connection Requirements

• SSH access to ESXi host (privileged account - typically root for vim-cmd)
• Hostname/IP and credentials configured for passwordless SSH or key auth
• vim-cmd and esxcli available on target host

Environment Variables

Override example:

ESXI_USER=admin ./vm-control.sh esxi-host list

Core Operations

VM Management

List all VMs:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms"

Get VM power state:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate <vmid>"

Power operations:

# Start VM
ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <vmid>"

# Stop VM (graceful shutdown)
ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown <vmid>"

# Force power off
ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off <vmid>"

# Reboot VM
ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reboot <vmid>"

Snapshot Management

List snapshots:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.get <vmid>"

Create snapshot:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create <vmid> <snapshot-name>"

Revert to snapshot:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.revert <vmid> <snapshot-id>"

Remove snapshot:

ssh root@esxi-host "vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.remove <vmid> <snapshot-id>"

Host Information

System info:

ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli system version get"
ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli system hostname get"

Uptime and health:

ssh root@esxi-host "uptime"
ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli hardware platform get"

Storage info:

ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli storage filesystem list"
ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli storage core device list"

Network info:

ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get"
ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli network vswitch standard list"

Resource Monitoring

CPU/Memory usage:

ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli hardware memory get"
ssh root@esxi-host "esxtop -b -n 1 | head"

Running processes:

ssh root@esxi-host "esxcli system process list"

VM Creation

Create new VMs using vm-create.sh which builds VMX files directly and registers them with vim-cmd solo/registervm.

Quick Start

# Basic VM (1 CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB disk)
./vm-create.sh esxi-host myvm "datastore1"

# Custom specs (2 CPUs, 4GB RAM, 50GB disk, Rocky Linux)
./vm-create.sh esxi-host myvm "datastore1" 2 4096 50 rockylinux-64 "VM Network" "[datastore1] ISOs/rocky.iso"

How It Works

The script creates VMs by:

1. Creating the VM directory on the datastore
2. Creating a virtual disk with vmkfstools
3. Building a VMX configuration file with proper PCI bridge support
4. Registering the VM with vim-cmd solo/registervm

Safety Features

• Duplicate check: Exits if VM name already exists
• Proper PCI config: Includes pciBridge entries required for ESXi 6.x-8.x
• EFI boot: Uses UEFI with secure boot enabled
• Manual power-on: Does not start automatically (verification step)

Guest OS Identifiers

Format varies by ESXi version. Common values:

• rockylinux-64 - Rocky Linux 8/9 (ESXi 7.0+)
• rhel9-64 - RHEL 9
• centos8-64 - CentOS 8
• ubuntu-64 - Ubuntu
• otherLinux64Guest - Generic Linux (universal fallback)

Note: ESXi 8.x may show rockylinux_64Guest in some docs but accepts rockylinux-64.

Post-Creation Steps

1. Verify VM was created: ./vm-control.sh esxi-host list
2. Configure kickstart/network settings if needed
3. Power on: ./vm-control.sh esxi-host start <vmid>
4. Monitor via ESXi console

Troubleshooting

SSH Key Authentication

If SSH connections fail with permission denied or password prompts, the ESXi host may need the SSH public key configured.

On the ESXi host, add the public key:

esxcli system ssh key add -u <username> -k "<public-key-contents>"

On the local client, ensure ~/.ssh/config includes a Host entry that matches your connection string:

Host esxi-host
    HostName <esxi-ip-or-hostname>
    User <username>
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Note: SSH config Host entries are matched literally. If you connect with the short hostname, your config must use the short hostname. If you use the FQDN, your config must match the FQDN.

Resources

scripts/

• vm-control.sh - Wrapper for common VM operations (supports ESXI_USER env var)
• vm-create.sh - Create new VMs with proper PCI bridge config (supports ESXI_USER env var)
• host-info.sh - Gather host statistics and health (supports ESXI_USER env var)