ESXi 3.5 - license

[VMQandA]

Hi,

I've been using ESXi 3.5 in the eval mode for a while.

I have a remote linux box that scripts vm via the API: /usr/lib/vmware-vcli/apps/vm/vmregister.pl (followed by various parameters) and it has been working fine.

Right after, I put a license number into the ESXi 3.5, I started getting:

SOAP Fault:

-

---

Fault string: fault.RestrictedVersion.summary

Fault detail: RestrictedVersionFault

Is this expected ? If so, the ESXi is not designed to be remote-scriptable via vmregister.pl ?

Thanks

[DSTAVERT · Accepted solution]

The free version of ESXi does not allow scripts to write, with a few exceptions. So yes this is expected. The minimal licensing is the Essentials package.

[VMQandA]

Thanks.

So, if someone wants a completely free product with scripting capabilities, one may need to use VMWare Server since it has some scripting capability ?

In the worst case scenario, you can always ssh into the VMWare Server and do all the commands.

[DSTAVERT]

Although unsupported you can enable the ssh console in ESXi that can give you some scripting ability. Do a search in the forums for directions.