The following vSphere SDK for Perl script allows you to retrieve all advanced configuration settings of a Virtual Machine or a specific key. The script also allows you create your own custom advanced configurations for a VM.
Here is an example of listing all advanced configuration setting for a VM:
$ ./vmAdvSettings.pl --server vcenter50-3 --username root --vmname MyVM --operation list
Key: ethernet0.filter0.param0 Value: vshield-dvfilter-module
Key: ethernet0.filter0.param1 Value: uuid=5019b662-a14c-8166-9ce3-61f362de05a3.000
Key: evcCompatibilityMode Value: FALSE
Key: guestCPUID.0 Value: 0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69
Key: guestCPUID.1 Value: 000106a400010800809822010febfbff
Key: guestCPUID.80000001 Value: 00000000000000000000000128100800
Key: hostCPUID.0 Value: 0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69
Key: hostCPUID.1 Value: 000106a400010800809822210febfbff
Key: hostCPUID.80000001 Value: 00000000000000000000000128100800
Key: hpet0.present Value: true
Key: migrate.hostLogState Value: none
Key: migrate.migrationId Value: 0
Key: nvram Value: MyVM.nvram
Key: replay.supported Value: false
Key: scsi0.pciSlotNumber Value: 16
Key: snapshot.action Value: keep
Key: uuid.action Value: create
Key: virtualHW.productCompatibility Value: hosted
Key: vmci0.pciSlotNumber Value: 32
Key: vmotion.checkpointFBSize Value: 4194304
Key: vmware.tools.installstate Value: none
Key: vmware.tools.internalversion Value: 2147483647
Key: vmware.tools.lastInstallStatus Value: unknown
Key: vmware.tools.requiredversion Value: 8384
Here is an example of querying for a specific advanced configuration setting for a VM:
$ ./vmAdvSettings.pl --server vcenter50-3 --username root --vmname MyVM --operation list --key ethernet0.filter0.param1
Key: ethernet0.filter0.param1 Value: uuid=5019b662-a14c-8166-9ce3-61f362de05a3.000
Here is an example of setting a custom advanced configuration for a VM:
./vmAdvSettings.pl --server vcenter50-3 --username root --vmname MyVM --operation update --key asset.tag --value ABC123
Reconfiguring "MyVM" with advanced setting: "asset.tag = ABC123" ...
Successfully updated advanced setting for "MyVM"!
You can also perform a bulk update by specifying a list of key/value pairs in a file (seperate the key and value using a comma):
Here is an example of a file:
tools.guestlib.enableHostInfo,FALSE
tools.setInfo.sizeLimit,1048576
vmci0.unrestricted,FALSE
Here is an example of setting bulk custom advanced configurations for a VM:
./vmAdvSettings.pl --server vcenter50-3 --username root --vmname MyVM --operation update --optionlist LIST-OF-KEY-VALUE
Reconfiguring MyVM1 advanced setting(s) ...
Successfully updated advanced setting for MyVM1
