Shutdown VM in ESXi 6 Free restricted?

[MCastelein]

It seems I cannot shutdown a VM from VMa with ESXi 6 free license:

vi-admin@vma:~> vmware-cmd -H xxxx -U xxxx -P xxxx /vmfs/volumes/56ef14b0-0e8222ea-66cc-001517fd91a4/zoneminder/zoneminder.vmx stop soft

Operation cannot be performed:

SOAP Fault:

-----------

Fault string: Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation.

Fault detail: RestrictedVersionFault

Is the free license really restricted from performing such a basic function, or am I missing something?

[npadmani · Accepted solution]

Yes, free license will restrict you making use of any product which is going to call APIs to perform operations.

vMA, PowerCLI etc cannot be really used to manage free ESXi hypervisor.