VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 6.5

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Using vifs to View and Manipulate Files on Remote
Hosts

You can use the
vifs
 utility for datastore file management.
If you manipulate files directly, your vSphere setup might end up in an inconsistent state. Use the
or one of the other vCLI commands to manipulate virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks.
The
vifs
 command performs common operations such as copy, remove, get, and put on
files and directories. The command is supported against
hosts but not against
systems.
Some similarities between
vifs
 and DOS or UNIX/Linux file system management utilities exist, but there are many differences. For example,
vifs
 does not support wildcard characters or current directories and, as a result, relative pathnames. You should use
vifs
 only as documented.
Instead of using the
vifs
 command, you can browse datastore contents and host files by using a Web browser. Connect to the following location. 
http://ESX_host_IP_Address/host
http://ESX_host_IP_Address/folder
You can view data center and datastore directories from this root URL. The following examples demonstrate the syntax that you can use. 
http://<ESXi_addr>/folder?dcPath=ha-datacenter
http://<ESXi_host_name>/folder?dcPath=ha-datacenter
The
host prompts for a user name and password.
The
vifs
 command supports different operations for the following groups of files and directories. Different operations are available for each group, and you specify locations with a different syntax. The behavior differs for vSphere 4.x and vSphere 5.0.
vSphere 4.x
vSphere 5.0
Host
Host configuration files. You must specify the file’s unique name identifier.
Specify host locations by using the
/host/<path>
 syntax.
Host configuration files. You must specify the file’s unique name identifier.
Specify host locations by using the
/host/<path>
 syntax.
You cannot list subdirectories of
/host
.
Temp
The
/tmp
 directory and files in that directory.
Specify temp locations by using the
/tmp/dir/subdir
 syntax.
Not supported.
Datastores
Datastore files and directories. You have two choices for specifying a datastore.
  • Use datastore prefix style
    '[ds_name] relative_path'
     as demonstrated in the following example. 
    '[myStorage1] testvms/VM1/VM1.vmx'(Linux) or "[myStorage1] testvms/VM1/VM1.vmx" (Windows)
  • Use URL style
    /folder/dir/subdir/file?dsName=<name>
     as demonstrated in the following example. 
    '/folder/testvms/VM1/VM1.vmx?dsName=myStorage1' (Linux)
"/folder/testvms/VM1/VM1.vmx?dsName=myStorage1" (Windows)
    The two example paths refer to a virtual machine configuration file for the
    VM1
     virtual machine in the
    testvms/VM1
     directory of the
    myStorage1
     datastore.
To avoid problems with directory names that use special characters or spaces, enclose the path in quotes for both operating systems.
When you run
vifs
, you can specify the operation name and argument and one of the standard connection options. Use aliases, symbolic links, or wrapper scripts to simplify the invocation syntax.
The concepts of working directory and last directory or file operated on are not supported with
vifs
.

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