Useful ESXCLI commands for configuring and troubleshooting ESXi environments

ESXCLI commands are very useful for configuring and troubleshooting ESXi servers. The vSphere vCLI 5.1 includes the following namespaces:

Here is a small list of some examples of ESXCLI commands:

Show ESXi version and build

esxcli system version get

Enter Maintenance Mode

esxcli system maintenanceMode set –-enable yes

Exit maintenance Mode

esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable no

List only advanced settings that have been changed from the system defaults

esxcli system settings advanced list –d

List only kernel settings that have been changed from the system defaults

esxcli system settings kernel list –d

List / Change / Test SNMP

esxcli system snmp get | hash | set | test

List VMs on the ESXi server with the World ID

esxcli vm process list

Kill a VM

esxcli vm process kill –t soft -w WorldID

Install updates and drivers on a ESXi host (make sure the ESXI host is MaintenanceMode)

esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/VMFS01/patches/nameoftheupdate.zip

List physical NICs and connection state

esxcli network nic list

List network information for the VM

esxcli network vm list

List the devices currently controlled by the VMware NMP Multipath Plugin and show the SATP and PSP information associated with that device

esxcli storage nmp device list

List VAAI properties for devices currently registered with the PSA.

esxcli storage core device vaai status get

Change the default pathing policy to Round Robin

esxcli storage nmp satp set --default-psp VMW_PSP_RR --satp youre_satp_policy