What CLI tool?

[mvanda]

Hi All,

We have recently implemented a test vSphere 4 setup, running 3 ESXi 4 Servers. i am having some troubles with a Hard Drive on one server so some quick googling and reading vSphere Documentation lead me to learning I should use the VI Remote CLI. I went to download the remote CLI under the vSphere section and noticed I could only download the PowerCLI so I downloaded it. Confusion ensued, until I realised PowerCLI and Remote CLi are different products - now I finally have both installed.

My question is... Which one should I be using? From the first glance, looking through docs, it appears as though the remote CLI is more powerful but also appears as though PowerCLI is way more up to date and designed more for vSphere. I am very new to all this so please go easy on me. Thanks.

[lamw]

PowerCLI uses Windows Powershell and requires Windows of course and more information can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/windowstoolkit/

vCLI/RCLI uses Perl bindings and this can be installed on both Windows/Linux and more information can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/

Note, to use these tools you have to have at least Foundation license else you will not be able to do much with these remote CLI tools other than querying information, as write operations require proper licensing.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[admin]

I would start with these questions:

1. Do you need to run it on Linux?

2. Do you need to do only ESX host configuration or do you need to manage other things like VMs, clusters, etc?

3. Do you need to integrate with other software or are you looking for a stand-alone tool?

If you answer yes to (1) you need to use at vCLI. For (2) if you are only doing ESX host configuration, vCLI has focused on this for a long time. On the other hand, vCLI does not do much for management of other things like VMs, clusters, etc. If these matter you should look at PowerCLI. For (3), if you need to integrate with something else you should choose a technology that is more similar to the integration point. For example, if you are integrating with a Microsoft technology like SCOM you should choose PowerCLI. Otherwise you will need to look at vCLI or even the vSphere SDK for Perl. Please note that if you're not a developer and aren't willing to spend a lot of time learning our API you should stick to vCLI or PowerCLI and I would recommend not using the SDK for Perl due to a large learning curve you would encounter.