Hi,
here is part 2 of my (incomplete) list of ESXi shell commands
Managing virtual machines
First get the VMID of the vm you want to manage, you need this ID in the following commands
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
36 .......................................
Power On
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 36
Power Off (Soft)
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off 36
Power Off (Hard)
get the world ID of the virtual machine
esxcli vm process list
TestComputer
World ID: 1625788
Process ID: 0
VMX Cartel ID: 1625786
UUID: 56 4d 9e d3 8b ce ab 59-9b 22 ac 87 40 6c 48 c3
Display Name: TestComputer
And kill them
esxcli vm process kill -t [soft,hard,force] -w
esxcli vm process kill -t hard -w 1625788
Reboot a virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.reboot 36
Suspend a vm
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.suspend
Resume a virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.suspendResume
Reset a virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.
reset
Shutdown
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown
Snapshots
Get VMID
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
36 .......................................
List all snapshots for a virtual machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.get 36
Get Snapshot:
|-ROOT
--Snapshot Name : Installation Complete
--Snapshot Id : 1
--Snapshot Desciption :
--Snapshot Created On : 3/15/2013 13:20:34
--Snapshot State : powered off
--|-CHILD
----Snapshot Name : SNAP1
----Snapshot Id : 2
----Snapshot Desciption :
----Snapshot Created On : 5/14/2013 11:46:19
----Snapshot State : powered on
Create a snapshot, including the RAM of the Machine
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 36 "New Snap" "Snap desc" includeMemory
Delete a snapshot, where 36 is the VMID and 2 the Snapshot ID
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.remove 36 2
to be continued…in Part 3
Michael