Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

Command line tips and tricks #3

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Enter maintenance mode from the ESX command line:

vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Backup every running vm via vcb in just one command:

for /f “tokens=2 delims=:” %%i in (’vcbvmname -h <virtualcenterserver> -u <user> -p <password> -s Powerstate:on ^| find “name:”‘) do cscript pre-command.wsf “c:\program files\vmware\vmware consolidated backup framework\” %%i fullvm

Enable VMotion from the command line:

vimsh -n -e “hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0″

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Comments

  1. William says

    You might as well mention:

    vimsh -n -e /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit

    Caveat to the Enter Maint. Mode, it does not automatically VMotion your VMs as you would through manual Maint. Mode.

  3. Albert Widjaja says

    Hi There,

    thanks for sharing you knowledge, from your script above:
    for /f “tokens=2 delims=:” %%i in (’vcbvmname -h -u -p -s Powerstate:on ^| find “name:”‘) do cscript pre-command.wsf “c:\program files\vmware\vmware consolidated backup framework\” %%i fullvm

    I understand that when i execute that one liner in the SSH on my ESXi server will grab all of the VMs into my vCenter Server (assuming the HDD is enough).

    1. Would that script be able to transfer all of the VM in my SAN as well ?

    2. how to restore the whole VM back again to the ESXi ? do I have to use vCenter Converter Standalone and restore it manually one by one ?

    looking forward for the reply

    Thanks,