ESXi does not have vmware-cmd but you can utilize the vCLI which does provide for remote version of the vmware-cmd and you'll shutdown in similar fashion as the traditional Service Console's version of vmware-cmd
/usr/bin/vmware-cmd --server <esxi_host> --username <username> --password <password> </vmfs/volumes/<some_datastore/vm.vmx> stop soft
Use vmware-cmd -l to locate the VM in question and pass in the path to its .vmx file. Remember to do a proper shutdown, VMware Tools must be installed, else you'll need to do "stop hard"
Take a look at the vCLI documentation for more examples:
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William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
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