Common Options for vCLI
Host Management Command Execution
You can use
connection options that are available for all vCLI host management commands and
common options that you can use when you run a
vicfg-
vCLI command.
vCLI Connection
Options
The following table lists
options that are available for all vCLI host management commands in
alphabetical order. The table includes options for use on the command line and
variables for use in configuration files. Options for executing DCLI commands
are different.
Starting with vSphere 5.5, vCLI supports both IPv4 and IPv6
connections.
Option and Environment
Variable | Description |
|---|---|
--cacertsfile
<certsfile> -t
<certs_file> VI_CACERTFILE=<cert_file_path> | ESXCLI commands only.
Used to specify the CA
(Certificate Authority) certificate file, in PEM format, to verify the identity
of the
system or
system to
run the command on.
In vCLI 6.0 and later,
you can only run ESXCLI commands if a trust relationship exists between the
host you are running the command on and the system you are targeting with the
--server option ( host or
system). You can establish the trust relationship by specifying the CA
certificate file or by passing in the thumbprint for each target server
( host or
system).
|
--config
<cfg_file_full_path> VI_CONFIG=<cfg_file_full_path> | Uses the configuration
file at the specified location.
Specify a path that is
readable from the current directory.
|
--credstore
<credstore> VI_CREDSTORE=<credstore> | Name of a credential
store file. Defaults to
<HOME>/.vmware/credstore/vicredentials.xml
on Linux and
<APPDATA>/VMware/credstore/vicredentials.xml
on Windows. Commands for setting up the credential store are included in the
vSphere SDK for Perl, which is installed with vCLI. The
vSphere SDK for
Perl Programming Guide explains how to manage the credential store.
|
--encoding
<encoding> VI_ENCODING=<encoding> | Specifies which encoding
to use. Several encodings are supported.
You can use
--encoding to specify the encoding for vCLI to
map to when it is run on a foreign language system.
|
--passthroughauth VI_PASSTHROUGHAUTH | If you specify this
option, the system uses the Microsoft Windows Security Support Provider
Interface (SSPI) for authentication. Trusted users are not prompted for a user
name and password. See the Microsoft Web site for detailed information on SSPI.
This option is supported
only if you are connecting to a
system.
|
--passthroughauthpackage
<package> VI_PASSTHROUGHAUTHPACKAGE=
<package> | Use this option with
--passthroughauth to specify a domain-level
authentication protocol to be used by Windows. By default, SSPI uses the
Negotiate protocol, which means that client and server try to negotiate a
protocol that both support.
If the
system to which you are connecting is configured to use a specific protocol,
you can specify that protocol by using this option.
This option is supported
only if you are running vCLI on a Windows system and connecting to a
system.
|
--password
<passwd> VI_PASSWORD=<passwd> | Uses the specified
password (used with
--username ) to log in to the server.
Use the empty string ('
' on Linux and " " on Windows) to indicate no password.
If you do not specify a
user name and password on the command line, the system prompts you and does not
echo your input to the screen.
|
--portnumber
<number> VI_PORTNUMBER=<number> | Uses the specified port
to connect to the system specified by
--server . Default is 443.
|
--protocol
<HTTP|HTTPS> VI_PROTOCOL=<HTTP|HTTPS> | Uses the specified
protocol to connect to the system specified by
--server . Default is HTTPS.
|
--psc
<hostname_or_IP> VI_PSC=<hostname_or_IP> | Host name or IP address
of the Platform Services Controller instance that is associated with the
system that manages the host. In many cases, the Platform Services Controller
is embedded in the
system, but external Platform Services Controller instances are supported as
well. For those cases, use the
--server option to specify the
system that manages the host.
This option implies user
authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On. The user you specify must be able
to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.
|
--savesessionfile
<file> VI_SAVESESSIONFILE=<file> | Saves a session to the
specified file. The session expires if it is idle for 30 minutes.
|
--server
<server>
VI_SERVER=<server> | Uses the specified
or
system. Default is
localhost .
If - -server points to a
system, you can also specify the
--psc option to log in to the
system with vCenter Single Sign-On.
Use the
--vihost option to specify the
host that
you want to run the command against. See
Authenticating Through and vCenter Single Sign-On.
|
--servicepath
<path> VI_SERVICEPATH=<path> | Uses the specified
service path to connect to the
host.
Default is
/sdk/webService .
|
--sessionfile
<file> VI_SESSIONFILE=<file> | Uses the specified
session file to load a previously saved session. The session must be unexpired.
|
--thumbprint
<thumbprint> VI_THUMBPRINT=<thumbprint> | Expected SHA-1 host
certificate thumbprint if no CA certificates file is provided in the
--cacertsfile argument. The thumbprint is
returned by the server in the error message if you attempt to run a command
without specifying a thumbprint or certificate file.
|
--url
<url> VI_URL=<url> | Connects to the
specified vSphere Web Services SDK URL.
|
--username
<u_name> VI_USERNAME=<u_name> | Uses the specified user
name.
If you do not specify a
user name and password on the command line, the system prompts you and does not
echo your input to the screen.
|
--vihost
<host> -h
<host> | When you run a vCLI
command with the
--server option pointing to a
system, use
--vihost to specify the
host to
run the command against.
This option is not
supported for each command. If supported, the option is included when you run
<cmd> --help .
|
vCLI Common
Options
The following lists options
not used as connection options that you can use when you run a
vicfg-
vCLI command.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
--help
| Prints a
brief usage message. The message first lists each command-specific option and
then each of the common options. |
--verbose
| Displays additional debugging
information. |
--version
| Displays
version information. |