ESXCLI is the most powerful command line tool on an ESXi host. You may need it for troubleshooting, configuration or for ESXi installations by using a kickstart file. I'm having these command line reference since vSphere 5.x on my desktop and I am using it quite often. Here is the command line reference for vSphere ESXi 6.0.
Download: esxcli-60-command-reference.txt
The first public release of VMwares bare-metal hypervisor ESXi was about 7 years ago. During that time we had lots of new features, including the latest outstanding introduction in vSphere 6.0 - Virtual Volumes. This post takes a look at how the hypervisor footprint has changed since ESXi 3.5.
I haven't seen this in any announcement, but there is a new performance metric in vSphere 6.0 called CPU Readiness which is according to the description:
Percent of time the virtual machine is unable to run because it is contending for access to the physical CPU(s).
Read More »vSphere 6.0 Performance Metrics - What is CPU Readiness?
VMware has published a patch for ESXi 5.1.
Product: VMware ESXi 5.1
Release date: March 26, 2015
Patch: ESXi510-201503001
Build: 2583090
Build (security only): 2575044
Links: KB2099286 | Download
The update resolves 44 issues including the following:Read More »ESXi 5.1 March 2015 Patch (Build 2583090)
The list of unsupported servers since ESXi 6.0 was long. What about the storage landscape? The following storage arrays were supported in 5.5 but are according to… Read More »vSphere 6.0 – Unsupported Storage Arrays
One of the worst parts of the vSphere 6 Beta was definitely this error message:
VMware promised to give it back in the GA release:
"vSphere C# Client beta builds had only host client functionality enabled. With the GA build, you can use the vSphere C# Client to connect to vCenter to do all activities just the way you would have done with previous releases. However, all new features from vSphere 5.1 onwards are available only in vSphere web client."
But is it really back?Read More »vSphere 6.0 GA - vSphere Client back, or not?
The vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) does now have a guided installer. It is no longe available as .ova or .ovf. The deployment of vCSA is now done by mounting an ISO and configure vCSA with a browser.Read More »VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Guided Installer Walkthrough
PowerCLI, a set of PowerShell extensions for vSphere, is a great tool for automating VMware configuration and management tasks. It allows you to change a lot of ESXi host and vCenter settings. One powerful cmdlet is Get-EsxCli which allows you to run ESXCLI tasks from your PowerCLI console. ESXCLI is the main configuration command on an ESXi host. This post explains how to use the Get-EsxCli cmdlet.
Read More »vSphere 6.0 - How to use ESXCLI Commands in PowerCLI
VMware ESXi 5.x and 6.0 installed on a 5th gen Intel NUC (NUC5i7RYH, NUC5i5RYH, NUC5i5MYHE, NUC5i5RYK, NUC5i3RYH, NUC5i3MYHE and NUC5i3RYK) has a problem with SMBios system information.
A general system error occurred: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)
To solve this problem you have to replace the BIOS. This post explains how to create a customized BIOS with changed SMBios variables and install it on your NUC.
Read More »How to fix ESXi on Intel NUC malformed Manufacturer and Model
ESXi 6.0 requires a little tweak to run without problems on an Intel NUC. This post explains how to create a customized ESXi 6 ISO for your 4th and 5th gen. Intel NUC. The images can be used to do a fresh install or upgrade a NUC to VMware ESXi 6.0.
The Image works for the following NUCs: