6 Esxcli Commands Every IT Pro Knows

Are you looking to become an IT expert? Learning these must-know esxcli commands is a great way to break your way into the tech world. Before we dive into esxcli commands, let’s go over what esxcli is and what it is typically used for. 

What is Esxcli?  

It’s time to get technical. Now, esxcli is a newer command-line interface (CLI) for vSphere. As a CLI, it interacts with computer programs by using lines of text. Therefore, it’s referred to as a ‘command line.’ For the purpose of a user or client, these lines of text will be sent to the computer programs to input changes via your IT provider.  

Esxcli Further Explained 

The structure of esxcli provides a modular framework for multiple components known as namespaces. Most of these namespaces are split between Native Multipathing Plugins, core storage for masking devices to a host, and for managing other interfaces. Now that we have a broad definition of what esxcli is, it’s time to go through some of the most common esxcli commands used as an IT professional. 

6 Esxcli Commands Every IT Pro Knows  

We are going to discuss the 6 main categories that an esxcli command can fall under. Those commands are system, network, software, virtual machine, storage, iSCSI, and available esxcli commands. Below we’ve highlighted the most popular command per each category.  

System Command 

The first command we are going to mention is the esxcli system version get. This system command is used to return the VMware ESXi build and version numbers.  

Network Command  

The network command we are covering is the esxcli network firewall get. The purpose of this command is to return the status of your ESXi firewall.  

Software Command  

Now let’s go over a popular software related command. Command esxcli software vib list will report all the current VIBs and ESXi you have installed.  

Virtual Machine Command  

Looking for a way to report all the running VMs on your host? Try using the virtual machine command esxcli vm process list.  

Storage Command  

Let’s talk storage commands. A useful storage command is esxcli storage vmfs extent list. This command will produce a list of each volume and your device(s) UUID mapping.  

iSCSI Command  

The next command we are going to cover is two commands in one. The iSCSI command is esxcli iscsi software set – enabled true && exscli iscsi software get. Though it seems complex, what it does is simple. The first part of the command will enable your iSCSI software adapter and the second part will verify that the process was successful.  

Available Esxcli Command  

The final command we are going to go over is the esxcli esxcli command list. As a part of the available esxcli commands, it can list all the available namespaces and corresponding commands.  

Final Thoughts  

Hopefully, this blog gave you a good understanding of what an esxcli command is and how some of the most common commands are used. You’re one step closer to mastering esxcli! 

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