Top ESXi command line v2.0

ESXi v4.1 Command Line Tricks You Absolutely Must Know Greg Shields Partner and Principal Technologist Concentrated Technology www.ConcentratedTech.com

This slide deck was used in one of our many conference presentations. We hope you enjoy it, and invite you to use it within your own organization however you like. For more information on our company, including information on private classes and upcoming conference appearances, please visit our Web site, www.ConcentratedTech.com . For links to newly-posted decks, follow us on Twitter: @concentrateddon or @concentratdgreg This work is copyright ©Concentrated Technology, LLC

Three Parts Part 1: Understanding the ESXi Command Line and Command-based Management Part 2: The Linux Commands Part 3: The VMware Commands Part 4: vMA and Scripting

Part 1: Understanding the ESXi Command Line and Command Line Management

The ESXi Command Line ESXi ’s command line is Linux’s command line.

The ESXi Command Line … however, it is not enabled by default.

The Linux Commands Basic Linux Navigation Alt-F1, Alt-F2 cd & ls find, cat, & grep tail ps kill

Locating Things with Find & Grep find . –name <something> find / -name <something> Useful for locating files on an ESXi disk. find / -name <something> | grep <something> Useful for filtering located files. Bonus points for whomever knows how “grep” got its name…

Locating Things with Find & Grep find . –name <something> find / -name <something> Useful for locating files on an ESXi disk. find / -name <something> | grep <something> Useful for filtering located files. Bonus points for whomever knows how “grep” got its name… Originally based on the “ed” editor, grep is a pseudo-acronym for g/re/p or global regular expression print.

Searching Files with Grep grep <text string> <filename> This usage searches <filename> for a <text string> Useful for digging through logs grep failure /var/log/sysboot.log grep failure|failed|failtastic /var/log/sysboot.log grep -r <text string> <filepath> Recursion enables searching the contents of every file in an entire <filepath> for a <text string> grep -r failure /var/log

Reading Files with Cat and Less cat <filename> Pipe the contents of <filename> to the screen. less <filename> Pipe the contents of <filename> to the screen, but do so in a way that ’s actually usable. Return goes down one line. “ d” goes down one page. “ u” goes up one page. “ q” quits.

Reading Ends of Files with Less tail <filename> Give me the last screenful of lines of <filename> tail -10 <filename> Give me the last ten lines from <filename>

Controlling Services with… Interestingly enough, not “service”. service is the Linux command for controlling service state Used in ESX ESXi uses a slightly different syntax. Services.sh {start|stop|restart} This command will start|stop|restart all services. cat /etc/chkconfig.db to view the service database. /etc/init.d/<servicename> restart This command restarts a single service.

Manipulating text with vi Ahhh, vi, the text editor everyone loves to hate. Big, bold, complex, oddball, challenging… Two modes: Command and Input “ i” enters input mode. (also “a” and “o”) “ ESC” enters command mode. Control-F and Control-B move up and down by screen. / <pattern> searches forward for a pattern. ? <pattern> searches backward for a pattern. “ x” to delete a char, “dd” to delete a line :q! exits without saving, :wq! exits with saving

File System Info with df and vdf The Linux command df displays file system information such as partitions. df cannot see into VMFS volumes. The ESX command vdf digs a bit further to gather VMFS information Both commands support the -h switch -h turns gibberish into human-readable info.

Processes with ps and kill The Linux ps command displays running processes. Most commonly used with the -ef switch, usually with grep as well. ps –ef | grep <something> Once you have a list of processes, you can kill them by Process ID. kill <processID> kill -9 <processID> (kill harder!) kill -HUP <processID> (kill and restart!)

Pinging with…uh…ping and vmkping You ’re already familiar with the ping command (we use it every day in Windows). But are you familiar with the VMware vmkping command? Uses the VMKernel ’s IP stack to another ESX host’s VMKernel port. Useful for troubleshooting vMotion and network storage issues. Similar results as ping, but down a different path.

Swiss Army Knifing with vmkfstools Used for manipulating virtual disk files. Copying Converting Renaming Cloning Importing Exporting Resizing

Swiss Army Knifing with vmkfstools Creating file systems & virtual disks vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 1m -S myLabel vmhba1:3:0:1 vmkfstools -c 2G /vmfs/volumes/…/whatever.vmdk Cloning virtual disks vmkfstools -i {source} {destination} Exporting virtual disks to ext3 vmkfstools -i -d 2gbsparse {source} {destination} Extending virtual disks vmkfstools -X 12G /vmfs/volumes/…/whatever.vmdk

Swiss Army Knifing with vmkfstools New Commands in 4.1! Checking and repairing virtual disks vmkfstools --fix check /vmfs/volumes/…/whatever.vmdk vmkfstools --fix repair /vmfs/volumes/…/whatever.vmdk Getting and resetting disk UUIDs vmkfstools --miscop getuuid {vmdkFile} vmkfstools --miscop setuuid {vmdkFile}

Getting on top with esxtop The Linux top command is excellent for figuring out which process is consuming resources. top The VMware esxtop command goes a step further by digging into VMware-specific resources. esxtop Eight displays: “c” cpu, “i” interrupt, “m” memory, “n” network “d” disk adapter, “u” disk device, “v” disk VM, “p” power management

Exporting esxtop data to PerfMon Perfmon ’s graphing capabilities can be used to visualize esxtop data, with a little effort… esxtop -a -b -d {secondsBetweenCaptures} -n {numberOfCaptures} > {filename}.csv The -a in the command above captures all counters. Creates a very big file… Can impact performance… … but does let you use PerfMon to filter counters (easier).

Exporting esxtop data to PerfMon Ship esxtop data directly to Windows using ESXi ’s SMB client and a mount point… mkdir /mnt mkdir /mnt/perfmon mount -t cifs //{server}/{share} -o username={userName} password={password} /mnt/perfmon esxtop -a -b -d {secondsBetweenCaptures} -n {numberOfCaptures} > /mnt/perfmon/{filename}.csv

The esxcfg- Commands esxcfg-hwiscsi esxcfg-rescan esxcfg-info esxcfg-resgrp esxcfg-dumppart esxcfg-route esxcfg-advcfg esxcfg-scsidevs esxcfg-ipsec esxcfg-init esxcfg-pciid esxcfg-volume esxcfg-module esxcfg-swiscsi esxcfg-nics esxcfg-vmknic esxcfg-nas esxcfg-vswitch esxcfg-mpath esxcfg-secpolicy

Networking with esxcfg- Verify which physical NICs are up esxcfg-nics -l Creating a quick network connection esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch2 esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic2 vSwitch2 esxcfg-vswitch -A PortGroup2 vSwitch2 esxcfg-vswitch -M vmnic2 -p PortGroup2 vSwitch2 esxcfg-vswitch -v 205 -p PortGroup2 vSwitch2 Enabling and verifying Jumbo Frames esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch2 esxcfg-vswitch -l

The vim-cmd Commands vimsh is an interactive shell buffer used for configuration and reporting. Vim-cmd is a wrapper for the vimsh shell. This command has different names in different versions: vimsh, vmware-vimsh, vmware-vim-cmd Consolidates the command syntax overlap between vmware-cmd (not on ESXi) and esxcfg-*.

VM and Storage info with vim-cmd List vim-cmd commands vim-cmd Report all registered VMs vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms (…use this to get vmID!) Register a VM Vim-cmd solo/registervm ./whatever.vmx Gather storage information vim-cmd hostsvc/storage/info | less vim-cmd hostsvc/storage/hba_info | less vim-cmd hostsvc/storage/fs_info | less

More fun with vim-cmd Check and toggle VM power status vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstat {vmID} vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off {vmID} vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off {vmID} Add a physical USB device to a VM /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator start vim-cmd vmsvc/device.connusbdev {vmID} “path:1/0/0 autoclean:1” Add a license key vim-cmd vimsvc/license --set {25CharLicenseKey}

The esxcli Commands Another interactive shell framework for configuration and reporting. Modular, ability to add namespaces. Can be executed in ESX/ESXi/vCLI. Three namespaces at present: nmp, corestorage, swiscsi.

iSCSI Multipathing with esxcli Configure the LUN Create VMkernel port groups Create 1:1 vNIC->VMkernel port mappings Enable iSCSI Connect VMkernel ports to iSCSI Initiator esxcli swiscsi nic add -n {VMkPortGroup} -d vmhba33 Adjust path selection to Round Robin Create datastore

iSCSI Multipathing with esxcli

More fun with esxcli List active TCP/IP connections and ARP entries esxcli network connection list esxcli network neighbor list List running VMs & kill those non-responding esxcli vms vm list esxcli vms vm kill --world-id {worldID} --type {soft|hard|force}

Host Updates with esxupdate Installing updates from the command line is a secondary tactic when automation fails. esxupdate update –bundle=<bundlename.zip> Can even assist with (major) 4.0 to 4.1 upgrades Run the pre-upgrade, then the upgrade bundle while in maintenance mode. esxupdate update --bundle=pre-upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip esxupdate update --bundle=upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip reboot

Troubleshoot with vm-support Calls with VMware often require sending them a support bundle. Inside that bundle are logs, output from commands, and configuration info. vm-support will create a .tgz archive to send. Can also be used to stop stalled VMs. These VMs show resources are assigned, but don ’t appear to be running. vm-support -x then vm-support –X <worldID>. First command gets the world ID Second command kills processes of that world ID.

VMware Management Assistant All of these commands are handy, but the shell is quite limiting. Needed is a command and scripting environment for managing ESX and ESXi hosts. One such environment is the vMA. Installed as a Virtual Appliance. Client/Server architecture connects to multiple machines, can work with multiple machines at once. Enables use of Perl for scripting.

Installing Because of its Virtual Appliance roots, installing the vMA requires using the vSphere Client. Ensure you connect vMA to ESXi ’s management network.

Installing and Configuring Install vMA Virtual Appliance from OVF Update VMX file to correct error scsi0.virtualDev = “lsilogic” guestOS = “rhel5-64″ Configure vMA at first boot Add target servers to vMA vifp addserver {serverName} Target a server to run a command against vifptarget -s {serverName} Use! Command! Script!

The vicfg- Commands vicfg-advcfg vicfg-ntp vicfg-authconfig vicfg-rescae vicfg-cfgbackup vicfg-route vicfg-dns vicfg-scsidevs vicfg-dumppart vicfg-snmp vicfg-hostops vicfg-syslog vicfg-ipsec vicfg-user vicfg-iscsi vicfg-vmknic vicfg-module vicfg-volume vicfg-mpath vicfg-vswitch vicfg-nas

Final Thoughts Linux isn ’t hard. It was just developed by some very weird people over a very long period of time. That group of people didn ’t always agree on which commands to use. That’s why different distros use different command structures. Silly UNIX admins. Always remember two discovery commands… find / -name <something> <command> --help Those two commands will always help!

ESXi v4.1 Command Line Tricks You Absolutely Must Know Greg Shields Partner and Principal Technologist Concentrated Technology www.ConcentratedTech.com Please fill out evaluations, Do it for the children ! !!!

Top ESXi command line v2.0

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