There are several tools and utilities that I use every day to administer our VMware environment and I would like to share here with you:
Virtual Center and ESX:
- PuTTY is a robust and highly configurable free implementation of Telnet and SSH.
- Veeam FastSCP (Fast & Secure Copy) is my favorite tool for managing files in ESX or Windows. Also, WinSCP is another good utility that has been around for a while.
- Veeam RootAccess gives you an easy way to enable / disable remote root access or create a regular user account. Combine it with FastSCP and you can easily enable root access, transfer your files and disable root access again.
- EsxDiag for ESX Server 3.x is a free console script that will check several services and configurations for you. EsxDiag is part of Veeam Configurator.
- vmCDConnected scans all the Virtual Machines and shows if they have a CD connected to it. After scanning the VM's, you can disconnect the CD's with a simple click.
- SnapHunter will report to you which virtual machines have snapshots. The tool is very useful if you want to automatically track how much space they are consuming in your virtual environment.
- esx-autopatch.pl is another rock solid utility that combined with a Web Server (optional) can quickly patch you entire environment.
VMware Server, Workstation & Player
- VMware DiskMount GUI is a front-end for VMware's drive mapper.
- VMware DiskManager GUI is a front-end for VMware's disk manager.
- Virtual DiskFactory is another front-end for VMware's disk manager with more advanced functions.
- EasyVMX is the best on-line virtual machine builder.
As always, feel free to add your tools to the list!
Posted By Gabriel Maciel
You should mention that DiskMount, DiskManager, and DiskFactory are available only for Windows.