Power on vm's with Linux PowerCli

[VMaai]

My goal is simply to power on other vm's from a Ubuntu server with the powercli. As documented here, vmware-cmd can be used to control vm's with the following command:

https://communities.vmware.com/vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx start soft

Because we have more than 1 host, I wouldn't know on which host a specific vm is running. So how can I power on vm's without logging on to an ESXi host?

[LucD]

You could use the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet (from a Windows box) to launch that command on the Ubuntu server.

You will have to do at least a Connect-VIServer to a vSphere Server (vCenter or ESXi host).

You do need authentication before you will be able to give any command to the vSphere Server.

Which is a sound security principle in my book :smileygrin:

[VMaai]

Thanks for the reply. Not logging on to a Windows machine is rather the point because I would like to be able to power on those vm's directly from this Ubuntu server. The only command, so far, I found to power on vm's on a Linux host is vmware-cmd. I was hoping for more tools or option to controle vSphere from a Linux box.

[LucD]

There will be a Linux PowerCLI port, as we announced during our VMworld session, but for now it is not yet available I'm afraid.

For the moment I can't give you a solution.

[VMaai]

This is great news! Any idea if this will be compatible with 5.5 as wel?

[LucD]

I'm afraid I don't know, but in the past, most PowerCLI builds were downward compatible.

There is some further info in William's post VMware PowerCLI for Mac OS X, Linux & More? Yes, please!

See also the recording of our session The Power Hour: Deep Dive, DevOps, and New Features of PowerCLI