Common Options
Reference
The following table lists options that are
available for all vSphere SDK for Perl scripts. Use the parameter on the
command line and the variable or the parameter in configuration files.
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 the encoding
to be used. Several encodings are supported.
You can use
--encoding to specify the
encoding vCLI should 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 a detailed discussion of
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 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 has been unused 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 vCenter Server 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 .
|