Accepted Solutions
Take a look at this article: http://vmetc.com/2009/03/31/esxi-u4-ends-free-version-read-and-write-access-from-the-rcli/, it should provide some background on the whole ESXi and the read-only issue.
Since ESXi was never meant to provide full access to to the VI API, you get what you pay for and in this case you're using the free version so you can accomplish all those tasks with the VI Client, if you want more, you'll have to pay for it.
So first off, vim-cmd is only available with the unsuppoted SSH console and you can probably accomplish most of the basic tasks through some scripted automation such as a shell script, also within the unsupported Busybox console, you have full access to the very familiar vmkfstools. Now, you mention vmkfstools.pl this is the remote version of the tool, since this is not available by default with ESXi (as the unsupported console is not supported by VMware). To remotely manage and configure your ESXi and ESX host, the vCLI was created which replicates majority of the popular esxcfg-* commands which actually uses the VI API
This VI API is not free, you have full read access but if you want to configure/perform any operations that are not read, then you'll need to have a proper license and that is at least Foundation or greater. The API is exposed as WSDL/SOAP and there are various scripting/programming languages that have bindings that hook into the VI API to provide a level of abstractions for administrators/programmers, some of these languages include Microsoft Powershell, Perl, C#, Java, etc.
PowerCLI (formally VI Toolkit Windows) is one such binding which utilizes the VI API, which means to use this you'll need to have the proper license to make configuration changes else you'll only have read access, this is similar for the Perl bindings called vSphere SDK for Perl. So, if you're going to explore other bindings, you'll still run into the same fundamental issue.
Okay, vMA (formally VIMA) is just a VMware RHEL vApp which provides administrators a way to remotely/centrally manage your ESX/ESXi and vCenter servers. It comes default with the vSphere SDK for Perl and few other utilities to help manage/configure your systems and again these rely on the VI API which access be governed based on the licenses you have on your hosts.
So all the options are options but you need to figure out if you're going to get a license, because without the most basic you will not be able to use any of these toolkits. Note, that the license does NOT only give you full read/write access to the API but other features depending on the license you purchase.
There are some other tools that VMware provides that for now has temporarily management capabilities for VMs ONLY, this may change in the near future but take a look at this thread post for more information:
Hopefully this clears everything up.
=========================================================================
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".
Take a look at this article: http://vmetc.com/2009/03/31/esxi-u4-ends-free-version-read-and-write-access-from-the-rcli/, it should provide some background on the whole ESXi and the read-only issue.
Since ESXi was never meant to provide full access to to the VI API, you get what you pay for and in this case you're using the free version so you can accomplish all those tasks with the VI Client, if you want more, you'll have to pay for it.
So first off, vim-cmd is only available with the unsuppoted SSH console and you can probably accomplish most of the basic tasks through some scripted automation such as a shell script, also within the unsupported Busybox console, you have full access to the very familiar vmkfstools. Now, you mention vmkfstools.pl this is the remote version of the tool, since this is not available by default with ESXi (as the unsupported console is not supported by VMware). To remotely manage and configure your ESXi and ESX host, the vCLI was created which replicates majority of the popular esxcfg-* commands which actually uses the VI API
This VI API is not free, you have full read access but if you want to configure/perform any operations that are not read, then you'll need to have a proper license and that is at least Foundation or greater. The API is exposed as WSDL/SOAP and there are various scripting/programming languages that have bindings that hook into the VI API to provide a level of abstractions for administrators/programmers, some of these languages include Microsoft Powershell, Perl, C#, Java, etc.
PowerCLI (formally VI Toolkit Windows) is one such binding which utilizes the VI API, which means to use this you'll need to have the proper license to make configuration changes else you'll only have read access, this is similar for the Perl bindings called vSphere SDK for Perl. So, if you're going to explore other bindings, you'll still run into the same fundamental issue.
Okay, vMA (formally VIMA) is just a VMware RHEL vApp which provides administrators a way to remotely/centrally manage your ESX/ESXi and vCenter servers. It comes default with the vSphere SDK for Perl and few other utilities to help manage/configure your systems and again these rely on the VI API which access be governed based on the licenses you have on your hosts.
So all the options are options but you need to figure out if you're going to get a license, because without the most basic you will not be able to use any of these toolkits. Note, that the license does NOT only give you full read/write access to the API but other features depending on the license you purchase.
There are some other tools that VMware provides that for now has temporarily management capabilities for VMs ONLY, this may change in the near future but take a look at this thread post for more information:
Hopefully this clears everything up.
=========================================================================
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".
np.
Take a look at this article on how to resize your VMDK and your guestOS: http://vsphere-land.com/tips-tricks/re-sizing-virtual-disks
=========================================================================
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".