PowerCLI / vCLI / vMA - what to choose?

[MarkStrong]

I am deploying a brand new ESX environment with one vCenter and about 20 ESXi hosts spread across three datacenters. Most of the time I will be using vCenter to manage all hosts but should the need arise I can use Tech Support Mode.

As far as VMware concern ESXi is the future. I am relatively new to ESXi and hence the question - What remote management tool(s) I should use?

Should I concentrate on learning one of them or I will have to use all of them for different tasks?

Is there a solution which does everything or most of the things and which one would you personally recommend.

Thank you.

[firestartah]

I would personally say use PowerCLI via POWERGUI or vEcoShell. Or use vMA. Both are brilliant and have their advantages

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Gregg Robertson, VCP3,4 , MCSE, MCSA, MCTS, MCITP

[AntonVZhbankov]

One of them. PowerCLI looks most promising.

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MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[dconvery · Accepted solution]

If you're a "winders guy" then PowerCLI will be the easiest to learn because it uses PowersHell. You will be using it more often anyway as the new M$ products come out.

If you're a "*nix guy" then vSphereCLI will be easiest because it uses perl.

The one thing vMA offers that is especially useful is resxtop, which is a remote esxtop tool. Once the traditional ESX server goes away and ESXi is the only choice, resxtop will be very important.

Dave Convery, VCDX

VMware vExpert 2009, 2010

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

[lamw]

If you're comfortable with Windows, PowerCLI is a great choice

If you're comfortable with UNIX/Linux, then check out vMA which also includes the vCLI toolkit and much much more.

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VMware vExpert 2009,2010

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[jpdicicco]

I agree that PowerCLI is a great resource, especially for those who are primarily Windows admins. I think it is the best tool for Windows-based scripting and automation

However, there is a caveat with most of the options listed: resxtop only runs on vCLI on Linux. This can be in the vMA or on a separate install, but if you need resxtop (and you will for support), then you need it on Linux.

Happy virtualizing!

JP

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