Note: While using RCLI for ESX 3i esxcfg- tools are prefixed with vicfg- though esxcfg- still

works.

sl command name switches

1 esxcfg-advcfg
a -g|--get            

b -s|--set <value>

c -d|--default        

d -q|--quiet          

e -k|--set-kernel     

f -j|--get-kernel     

g -h|--help           

h -r|--restore        

2 esxcfg-info o

3 esxcfg-firewall
a q

b l

c s

d u

e e

f d

g o

h c

4 esxcfg-module
a l

b s

5 esxcfg-rescan

6 esxcfg-upgrade

a -h --help

b -g --convert-grub

c -f --convert-fstab

d -r --upgrade-pre-vmkernel

e -o --upgrade-post-vmkernel

7 esxcfg-vswitch

a l

b a|add

c A|add-pg=

d L

e U

f v

g b

h B

8 esxcfg-auth
 9 esxcfg-info

10 esxcfg-mpath l

11 esxcfg-resgrp

12 esxcfg-hbadevs

13 esxcfg-boot

14 esxcfg-init

15 esxcfg-nas

-a|--add              

-o|--host <host>

-s|--share <share>

 -d|--delete           
 -l|--list             

-r|--restore          

-h|--help             

16 esxcfg-route

no parameters

IP address

17 esxcfg-vmknic

-a|--add                 

-d|--del                 

-e|--enable              

-D|--disable             

-l|--list                

-i|--ip <X.X.X.X>

-n|--netmask <X.X.X.X>

-r|--restore             
 -h|--help

18 esxcfg-dumppart

-l|--list           

-t|--get-active     

-c|--get-config 

-s|--set

-f|--find           

-S|--smart-activate 

-a|--activate       

-d|--deactivate     

-h|--help           

19 esxcfg-linuxnet

20 esxcfg-nics

-s|--speed <speed>

-d|--duplex <duplex>

-a|--auto
 -l|--list

-r|--restore

-h|--help

21 esxcfg-swiscsi

-e, --enable

-d, --disable

-q, --query

-s, --scan

-k, --kill

-r, --restore

-h, --help

22 esxcfg-vswif

m
g- though esxcfg- still works.

definition
this command is meant for advanced configurations.
Get the value of the config option

Set the value of the config option

Reset Config option to default

Suppress output

Set a VMkernel load time option value

Get a VMkernel load time option value

help

Restore all advanced options from the configuration file

this lists the advanced options that can be used for the
previous command.

query the firewall for its current settings

this switch loads the firewall and enables the IP tables

allows to enable or disable network services on the firewall

unloads the firewall and disables the IP tables

used to enable a particular known service

disable a particular service

opens a port by its number

closes a port

this is the command to set start-up options in vmkernel modules

lists the modules; their types and other parameters.

used to change module parameters

This command is used to perform a rescan of a host bus adapter

(HBA). Specifically it scans a named vmkernel hba device, i.e. a vmhba.
This command does a similar job to vmkfstools -rescan.

help

the g option may only be used with the r option

this command is used for virtual, host-based networking

this switch is to list all virtual switches and port groups defined on the host

used to add another virtual ethernet switch

switch used to add a portgroup to an existing virtual switch

switch to tie a virtual switch to an uplink

unlink a physical network card from a virtual switch

used to create VLANs on virtual switches

find out which CDP mode the switch is working on - disable, listen, advertise, both

change the CDP mode

configures service console user's authenticatication options through NIS/LDAP/Kerberos and AD

can also be used to set password policy

produces a lot of info about what is going on the ESX hosts. Gives more info than is available in the
config files or the proc filesystem

manages storage multipathing just as vmkmultipath did for earlier versions of ESX

used to manage resource groups. Can be used to add, remove or modify existing resource groups

lists equivalent Linux device names for LUNs

used to configure grub options at boot time

used to query boot options. But must be followed by keywords boot or vmkmod.

This is also used if you making modifications to VMkernel device drivers defaults.
For example, if you were modifying the queue depth for a fibre HBA, you would likely be using
esxcfg-module. Then to rebuild the boot image you would enter

the init process. Should not be run manually

used to list, mount and dismount NFS exports for the VMkernel

Add a new NAS filesystem to /vmfs volumes. Requires --host and --share options

Set the host name or ip address for a NAS mount

Set the name of the NAS share on the remote system

Unmount and delete a filesystem

List the currently mounted NAS file systems

Restore all NAS mounts from the configuration file

used to view, set or delete the default gateway for the host. In 3.5 it is also possible to view the routing
table and add more routes.

lists the default gateway

sets the default gateway

shows the routing table

adds a route to the table

deletes a route from the table

Used to view and set configure the VMkernel ports on virtual Ethernet switches. If you need to create a VMkernel
port at the command line, then you need to create a port group first and then enable it as a VMkernel port. This
tool does not allow you to enable the VMkernel port for VMotion, you must either use vimsh or the VI client for
that.

Add a VMkernel NIC to the system, requires IP parameters and portgroup name

Delete VMkernel NIC on given portgroup

Enable the given NIC if disabled

Disable the given NIC if enabled

List VMkernel NICs

The IP address for this VMkernel NIC. Setting an IP address requires that the
--netmask option be given in same command

The IP netmask for this VMkernel NIC. Setting the IP netmask requires that the --ip
option be given in the same command

Restore VMkernel TCP/IP interfaces from Configuration file

Used to configure the VMkernel crash dump partition. The old ESX 2.x utility for this function
(vmkdump) is still present on an ESX 3 server, but appears just to be for extracting dump files.

List the partitions available for Dump Partitions. WARNING: This will scan all
LUNs on the system.

Get the active Dump Partition for this system, returns the internal name of the
partition vmhbaX:X:X:X) or 'none'

Get the configured Dump Partition for this system, returns the internal name of
the partition vmhbaX:X:X:X) or 'none'

Set the Dump Partition for this system and activate it,either vmhbaX:X:X:X
or 'none' to deactivate the active dump partition

Find usable Dump partitions and list in order of preference

Activate the configured dump partition or find the first appropriate partition
and use it

Activate the configured dump partition

Deactivate the active dump partition

There is not normally a command that a virtual infrastructure administrator should need. The tool
is automatically used when you start an ESX server in troubleshooting mode; i.e. when you start
only the service console Linux kernel and don't start the VMkernel

This tool can be used to view and configure the speed and duplex settings of the physical
network cards in the ESX Server. This tool can replace the mii-tool and modules.conf for
network card management.

Set the speed of this NIC to one of 10/100/1000/10000. Requires a NIC parameter.

Set the duplex of this NIC to one of 'full' or 'half'. Requires a NIC parameter

Set speed and duplexity automatically. Requires a NIC parameter

Print the list of NICs and their settings

Restore the nics configured speed/duplex settings

ESX server 3 supports both hardware and software initiated iSCSI. For hardware iSCSI, we can
use host bus adapters which perform the TCP offload and so the VMkernel can just pass SCSI
commands to them as normal. The iSCSI hba can then wrap the SCSI command in IP transport and
forward them to the iSCSI target.

Enable sw iscsi

Disable sw iscsi

Check if sw iscsi is on/off

Scan for disk available through sw iscsi interface

Try to forcibly remove iscsi sw stack

Restore sw iscsi configuration from file

This tool can manage the Ethernet interfaces of the service console. In a big change from
previous versions of ESX, the Ethernet interface of the service console is named with the "vswif"
prefix and not "eth" prefix as you may be used to in Linux

lists what ports have been created

changes MTU size. Can also be used for jumbo frames

usage example

esxcfg-advcfg -g /Misc/BlueScreenTimeout
esxcfg-advcfg -g /Misc/HostName

esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient

esxcfg-firewall -d smbClient

esxcfg-firewall -o 3306,tcp,out,MySQLclient
esxcfg-module -s ql2xmaxdepth64 qla2300_707_vmw
esxcfg-module -s "lpfc0_lun_queue_depth=64" lpfcdd_7xx

esxcfg-rescan vmhba32

esxcfg-vswitch -l

esxcfg-vswitch -a vSwitch1|esxcfg-vswitch --add vSwitch2

esxcfg-vswitch -A "Production" vSwitch1|esxcfg-vswitch --add-pg="Production" vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch -v 3223 VMPortGroup1 vSwitch1

esxcfg-vswitch -b vSwitch0

esxcfg-vswitch -B both vSwitch0

esxcfg-auth --enablead --addomain=taupoconsulting.com --adddc=dc1.taupoconsulting.com

esxcfg-auth --maxpassdays=90 --minpassdays=30 --passwarnage=75

esxcfg-info -s >/tmp/esxinfo-28-07-2008.txt
less /tmp/esxinfo-28-07-2008.txt|grep Pending

esxcfg-mpath -l

esxcfg-vmhbadevs

esxcfg-boot -q boot

esxcfg-boot -q vmkmod

esxcfg-boot -m

esxcfg-nas -a -o 100.100.100.253 -s /Test NFS02

esxcfg-nas -l

esxcfg-route

esxcfg-route 100.100.100.1

esxcfg-route -l

esxcfg-route -a 192.168.90.0/24 100.100.100.165

esxcfg-route -d 192.168.90.0/24 100.100.100.165

esxcfg-vswitch -A VMotion vSwitch0

esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 100.100.100.121 -n 255.255.255.0 VMotion

esxcfg-vmknic -d VMotion

esxcfg-vmknic -l
esxcfg-linuxnet --setup
--remove
-h --help
esxcfg-vswif -a -i 10.10.1.31 -n 255.255.0.0 -p "Service Console Backup" vswif1

esxcfg-vswitch -m 9000 vSwitch1

likely results

Value of BlueScreenTimeout is 0
Value of HostName is esx1.vmlab.net 
both
Disk vmhba0:0:0 /dev/cciss/c0d0 (69459MB) has 1 paths and policy of Fixed
Local 2:1.0 vmhba0:0:0 On active preferred

vmhba0:0:0    /dev/sda

272 2:;7:;10:; UUID=847199e4-d3c7-11da-8ef8-930e3d734c03 /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.0.2.ELvmnix /initrd-2.4.21-37.0.2

vmkapimod vmkapimod
vmklinux linux
cciss.o scsi
tg3.o nic
qla2300_7xx.o fc
NFS01 is /NFS from 100.100.100.253 mounted

VMkernel default gateway is 100.100.100.254

VMkernel default gateway set to 100.100.100.1

Adding static route 192.168.90.0/24 to VMkernel

Deleting static route 192.168.90.0/24 from VMkernel

notes

variables that can be listed through this command

BufferCache; Cpu; Disk; FileSystem; Irq; LVM; Mem; Migrate; Misc; Net; NFS; Numa; Scsi; User; VMFS3

the service name that the firewall uses are defined in the /etc/vmware/firewall/services.xml file.
further explanation on this command required
there are six switches that can be used with this command to get specific information.
w --> hardware
r --> resources
s --> storage
n --> network
y --> system
o --> advanced options
100.100.100.165 becomes the gateway for the network
The --setup option cannot be combined with the --remove option
In software iSCSI initiator, the wrapping of SCSI commands in IP is performed by the
VMkernel and a regular physical network card is used to communicate with the iSCSI target.
The software iSCSI configuration is exposed in the VI Client as a host bus adapter called
vmhba40 in ESX 3.0.x and is called vmhba32 in ESX 3.5. We can use this command line tool
esxcfg-swiscsi to configure the software iSCSI initiator. The software iSCSI initiator in the
VMkernel has a dependency upon the service console, therefore both the service console and
VMkernel must have an IP route to the iSCSI target. The esxcfg-swiscsi command is not used
in isolation, we use it in a sequence of commands to fully configure iSCSI from the service
console command line.

1. Add a VMkernel port to a vSwitch that has an uplink and route to iSCSI target
2. Ensure service console IP interface has a route to the same iSCSI target
3. Using either the VI Client security profile or the esxcfg-firewall, open a port in the service console firewall for iSCS
4. In the command line, enable iSCSI with the command esxcfg-swiscsi -e
5. Enable a discovery address with the command vmkiscsi-tool -D -a 10.0.0.99 vmhba32
6. List the targets that were discovered with vmkiscsi-tool -T -l vmhba32
7. Perform a rescan with esxcfg-rescan vmhba32
8. List the iSCSI LUNs with vmkiscsi-tool -L -l vmhba32
sl filename

1 /etc/vmware/esx.conf

2 /etc/nsswitch.conf

3 /usr/bin/vmware-watchdog

4 hostd

5 /var/log/vmware/hostd.log

6 /etc/vmware/firewall/services.xml

7 vpxa

8 /etc/vmware/vpxa.cfg
9 /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log
description

An all new configuration file for ESX Server 3.x. This file replaces the functionality of the following
configuration files found in earlier versions of ESX.
This file should not be copied from one ESX host to another in order to duplicate configuration, it is unique to th

This is the name service switch configuration file. Used to modify the order of how names in the service console
resolved

This process watches over the hostd process and restarts it if it crashes.

This is the daemon that replaces vmware-serverd that was found in the ESX 2.x products. This is the host man
agent and is responsible for a number of key management functions on an ESX host

The log file for the host management agent.

This file contains the definitions for the TCP ports and service names used by the service console firewall

This is the name of the VirtualCenter server agent that runs in the service console of ESX 3.x servers
(which was called vmware-ccagent in ESX 2.x).

This is the XML configuration file for the VirtualCenter Server Agent in the service console
The log file for VirtualCenter agent in the service console.
notes

previous files were

/etc/vmware/hwconfig
/etc/vmware/devnames.conf
/etc/vmware/vmkmodule.conf
/etc/vmware/netmap.conf
/etc/vmware/vmkconfig

However, an application could use its own resolver library. An example of this is the dig utility for testing DNS
lookups - this tool ignores the /etc/nsswitch.conf file

for "host not responding" type problems, restart the management agent -
service mgmt-vmware restart

You could modify this XML file to include your own definitions but this is not recommended by VMware. The
VMware management agent (hostd) will load everything in this file, whether it is valid or not. Also, we have not tested if
such a change would persist through a patching/upgrade, but we suspect not. Duncan Epping over at Yellow Bricks has
done some great testing and documentation in this space and at the following link demonstrates how to add your own
custom.xml file to the /etc/vmware/firewall directory (using same format as services.xml) to provide custom port
definitions. You can read all about it at http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2007/12/31/howto-adding-a-firewall-service-on-esx/.
Just make sure you use ids in the file that are different than the ones in services.xml.

This can be stopped, started or restarted with the service command

service vmware-vpxa restart

trying to troubleshoot an issue, it is a good idea to increase the log level by the <log level> tag.
example of entry

hosts: files nisplus dns

<service id='0000'>
<id>sshServer</id>
<rule>
<direction>inbound</direction>
<protocol>tcp</protocol>
<port type='dst'>22</port>
<flags>-m state --state NEW</flags>
</rule>
</service>

<config>
  <log>
    <outputToConsole>false</outputToConsole>
  </log>
 <nfc>
   <loglevel>error</loglevel>
 </nfc>
 <vmacore>
   <ssl>
     <doVersionCheck>false</doVersionCheck>
   </ssl>
   <threadpool>
     <TaskMax>10</TaskMax>
   </threadpool>
   </vmacore>
   <vpxa>
     <datastorePrincipal>root</datastorePrincipal>
     <hostIp>100.100.100.11</hostIp>
     <memoryCheckerTimeInSecs>30</memoryCheckerTimeInSecs>
     <serverIp>100.100.100.172</serverIp>
     <serverPort>902</serverPort>
   </vpxa>
   <workingDir>/var/log/vmware/vpx</workingDir>
SL Tool
1 vmkfstools

2 vmware-cmd

3 vm-support

4 esxupdate

5 /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log

6 contents.xml
7 contents.xml.sig

8 vimsh

9 vmware-vim-cmd
Description
Used to manipulate VMFS and virtual disks at the service console command line.
In ESX2.x mostly used it most often for import and export operations, where a
virtual disk is converted from monolithic format to sparse format (previously called COW
format). Now it is used in ESX scripted install scripts to automate VMFS configuration

This command has been in ESX for a number of versions and it's functionality has
been extended with each major release. most frequent use of this command is to
register or power on VMs from the console command line

A great built-in tool which collects all configuration files on an ESX host and builds
a tar archive that can be sent to VMware support so they can have a complete picture of
your system to assist in the troubleshooting effort.

This utility is what we use to patch our ESX hosts with updates from VMware. You
can use this tool interactively to install individual patches, or use it to scan your ESX host
to see which patches are required as well as to do a "what-if" install of a host patch to
identify if there will be any problems.

The log file for the esxupdate host patch utility.

Every ESX patch contains a file called contents.xml. This file describes the
directory structure of the patch bundle contents.

This is a detached PGP signature of the contents.xml file in a ESX patch.

This is a superb utility that we use on occasion, particularly when we are creating
scripted builds for ESX. this tool of unique use is in the enabling of a VMkernel port for
VMotion.

This command is a variation on the vimsh command that allows faster execution
as we can invoke this command using the same options we use with vimsh, however this
time we don't end up inside the vimsh shell after execution
Operations

VMFS Manipulation with vmkfstools

Virtual Disk Manipulation with vmkfstools

Fragmentation of Virtual Disks

registering and starting a VM

whether VM is powered on or off

powering off forcefully

listing running VMs

capturing host performance data

patch repository
for versions prior to 3.5

for version 3.5

Usage

vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 2m -S fc-lun25-tier1 vmhba1:0:25:1

vmkfstools -X 20GB /vmfs/volumes/storage1/vm.vmdk

vmkfstools -i /importfiles/vm.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/storage1/vm/vm.vmdk

vmkfstools -t /vmfs/volumes/storage1/vm/vm.vmdk

vmware-cmd -s register /vmfs/volumes/SharedVMs/vm1/vm1.vmx

vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/SharedVMs/vm1/vm1.vmx start

vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/SharedVMs/vm1/vm1.vmx getstate

vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/SharedVMs/vm1/vm1.vmx stop hard

vm-support -x

vm-support -S -i 30 -d 600
tar -zxvf archive.tgz

esxupdate -d ftp://taupopatchserver/esx35/0710-03 scan

vimsh -n -e "hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set portgroupname

vimsh
hostsvc/vmotion/netconfig_get
vimsh -n -e "hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0

vmware-vim-cmd /hostsvc/hostsummary
Notes

We can use vmkfstools to create VMFS file system, if we have a partition of type fb already created on it

The -X (case-sensitive) switch is used to extend the size of a virtual disk; e.g. if you had a 10GB virtual disk
and wanted to extend it to 20GB, you could use this command. The VM would need to be powered off for this to work.
Note that the -X switch specifies the NEW SIZE of the virtual disk and NOT how much you are extending it by.

If you do want to import virtual hard disks that are in 2GB sparse format into monolithic format by hand,
then we can use vmkfstools command with the -i switch.

The undocumented -t switch will show us how many contiguous sections a virtual disk has. If it only has 1
section, then it's not fragmented

If there is limited space in your VMFS volumes, then you will likely want to know if any of your VMs are running in
snapshot (where the disk writes are going into a disk delta and not the regular parent virtual disk). It is a nice idea to have a
short script to enumerate the VMs on your host and loop through them to check each of them to see if they have a snapshot.
The vmware-cmd command again helps us out with this.

use this command only when it doesn’t respond

Watch out for the creation of empty subdirectories of the name "vm-support.<pid-of-process>" in the directory
where you run this tool with the -x switch. It is safe to delete these directories. You can't run this command if your current
directory is /proc.

A less well-known option of vm-support is the ability to capture host performance data which can be replayed later
using esxtop. To invoke the performance capture, we need to specify how frequently a performance "snapshot" is taken and
over what period of time. For example, if we wished to capture host performance every 30 seconds for 10 minutes, then we
would invoke vm-support with the following options
The performance snapshots are archived automatically into a tgz file (a tgz file just like a WinZIP (R) archive).
The tgz archive file name produced is unique to each time it's run, as the name includes date, time and process id of vm-suppo
To replay the data in esxtop, use the "-R" switch to specify replay mode and supply the path to the performance
capture file produced by vm-support.

You can use the --explain switch when scanning to provide a greater level of detail to your host patch scan
operation. If for example, the AppFlags for a patch indicated "c" for conflict, you would probably want to know what exactly th
patch was in conflict with.
this line will give a huge o/p. find out vmkx files.
http://knowledge.xtravirt.com/white-papers/scripting.html
www.rtfm-ed.co.uk
Likely output

vm1 is powered on
sl utility
1 rpm

2 rpm2cpio
description
As ESX service console is based on modified Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, we can use the RPM
package installation method to add applications to it. However, we should also point out that it's maybe
not the best idea to add software to the service console. It is best to treat the service console as a
dedicated console and not add applications to it

If you are wanting to extract a single file from a RPM package but you don't want to install the
RPM, then this is the tool for you. Probably best if you copy the RPM to a temp directory so when you
extract the RPM you can then navigate the directory structure created in that temp directory to find the
file or files you need.
usage
rpm -qa

rpm -qa |grep VMware

rpm -qi VMware-hostd-esx-3.0.1-32039

rpm -ql VMware-hostd-esx-3.0.1-32039

rpm2cpio VMware-hostd-esx-3.0.1-32039 | cpio -idmv

probable o/p
libgcc-3.2.3-53
setup-2.5.27-1
basesystem-8.0-2
tzdata-2005m-1.EL3
glibc-2.3.2-95.37
bzip2-libs-1.0.2-11.EL3.4

VMware-webCenter-esx-2.0.1-32041
VMware-esx-apps-3.0.1-32039
VMware-esx-iscsi-3.0.1-32039
VMware-esx-uwlibs-3.0.1-32039
VMware-esx-vmkernel-3.0.1-32039
VMware-esx-drivers-block-DAC960-2.4.11-32039
VMware-esx-drivers-net-bcm5700-7.3.5-32039

/etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/env/0.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/env/1.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/env/vmconfigoption-esx-2.5.0.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/env/vmconfigoption-esx-3.0.0.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/environments.xml
/etc/vmware/hostd/esxinfo.vha
notes

Once you have copied out the file you were after, you can
safely delete the contents of that temp directory. In other words,
we have used rpm2cpio to extract the RPM archive.

i = Restore archive
d = Create landing directories
m = Create previous file modification times
v = verbose
sl utility
1 /etc/ssh/sshd_config

2 su

3 sudo

4 visudo

5 /etc/sudoers

6w
 7 who

8 vmkload_mod

9 minicom

10 vi

11 nano

12 /etc/ntp.conf
13 /etc/ntp/step-tickers

14 ntpdate

15 ntpq

16 date

17 hwclock

18 cal

19 passwd
description
The configuration of SSH client is stored in the text file /etc/ssh/ssh_config
The configuration of the SSH server daemon is stored in the text file
/etc/ssh/sshd_config. An important setting in this file is PermitRootLogin=No. This is
the default setting in ESX 3.x and it is recommended that you keep the setting at "No".
This way you have an audit trail and see exactly who is logging in, rather than just "root".

This command is the switch user utility. When it used without parameters, we are
specifying to switch to the user root. However, we can use the su command to switch
shell to any user account that we know the password of

The downside of the su command is that the operators who elevate their privilege
to root are now root. They have full privilege, they know the root password, there is no
granularity of delegation of privilege.

This is the vi text editor with extras. When launched, it automatically opens and
locks for exclusive edit, the /etc/sudoers file. The point of visudo is to ensure we
always edit the right file as the location of the sudoers file differs between nix
distributions, but this command is constant and will utilise the right sudoers file for the
distribution being used

The text file that contains the sudo users and the rules that apply to them. The
first "ALL" relates to all machines (useful if this is a network wide file). Otherwise, this
could be the hostname of the one machine we are trying to run the command on. In the
following example we are allowing the user "alistair" to run the kill command, all of the
commands in the directory /usr/bin and any commands in the directory /usr/sbin/alistair

Great for viewing logged on console users

This command allows use to view who is logged onto the service console either
interactively at the console or via an SSH session. The who command without parameters
gives us the basics.

This command will load and unload VMkernel modules on the fly. The results of this
load/unload will happen as you type it and will only be valid for the current booted session.
So this command is superb for troubleshooting as we can load and unload modules,
e.g. network drivers.

This is a great utility for talking to serial attached devices; we think of it as

HyperTerminal for Linux. Where we have found this particularly useful is for command line
administration of your storage array. For example, if you had an HP MSA1000 attached to
you ESX host and attached the serial cable to the unit and your host, then you could manage
LUN presentation from the service console command line.

Another text editor, more friendly than vi but you should use –w to avoid word wrap.
If you have a single time source configured for your service console, then this file
will have just 1 line, similar to the following:

If you want to synchronise your service console clock with the defined time server,
you can use this command with the -u switch.

This queries the state of the ntp service. Watch for the back ticks used in the
parameters, they are not single quotes!

We can use this command to synchronise the server hardware clock with the date
we set in the service console. If you enter the command with no parameters then the value
of the hardware clock is displayed.
usage/entries
grep Permit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

su -

sudo vmkfstools

alistair ALL=  /bin/kill, /usr/bin/, /usr/sbin/alistair/

sara     ESX1= /usr/sbin/esxcfg-firewall, esxcfg-vswitch

User_Alias ESXHOSTADMINS-PROD = john, grant, julie

Host_Alias PRODESXHOSTS = esxprodsrv01, esxprodsrv02
Cmnd_Alias NETCOMMANDS = /usr/sbin/esxcfg-vswitch

ESXHOSTADMINS = PRODESXHOSTS NETCOMMANDS

vmkload_mod -s e1000

vmkload_mod -u e1000

./minicom com1

i                  Changes to insert mode where you can edit the text

:wq               Write the file and quit the editor
:q!               Quit the editor without saving changes
SHIFT ZZ       Quit the editor and save any changes made - just a fast way of doing ":wq"
Esc key          Exits the current mode, e.g. out of insert mode back to view mode.
/                     search - if you entered /failed then the cursor would move to the first
instance of "failed in the text
$                     jumps to the end of the opened file
yy                   copy - it's y for yank!
dd                   delete a line (cut) if you precede this with a number e.g. 8dd, then it would
delete 8 lines
p                     paste
%s/old/new/g    substitute any occurrences of the world "old" with the world "new"

# Prohibit general access to this service.

restrict default ignore

# Permit all access over the loopback interface. This could

# be tightened as well, but to do so would effect some of
# the administrative functions.
restrict 127.0.0.1

# -- CLIENT NETWORK -------

# Permit systems on this network to synchronize with this
# time service. Do not permit those systems to modify the
# configuration of this service. Also, do not use those
# systems as peers for synchronization.
# restrict 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 notrust nomodify notrap

# --- OUR TIMESERVERS -----

# or remove the default restrict line
# Permit time synchronization with our time source, but do not
# permit the source to query or modify the service on this system.

# restrict mytrustedtimeserverip mask 255.255.255.255 nomodify notrap noquery

# server mytrustedtimeserverip

# --- NTP MULTICASTCLIENT ---

#multicastclient # listen on default 224.0.1.1
# restrict 224.0.1.1 mask 255.255.255.255 notrust nomodify notrap
# restrict 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 notrust nomodify notrap

# --- GENERAL CONFIGURATION ---

#
# Undisciplined Local Clock. This is a fake driver intended for backup
# and when no outside source of synchronized time is available. The
# default stratum is usually 3, but in this case we elect to use stratum
# 0. Since the server line does not have the prefer keyword, this driver
# is never used for synchronization, unless no other other
# synchronization source is available. In case the local host is
# controlled by some external source, such as an external oscillator or
# another protocol, the prefer keyword would cause the local host to
# disregard all other synchronization sources, unless the kernel
# modifications are in use and declare an unsynchronized condition.
#
server 127.127.1.0 # local clock
server 0.vmware.pool.ntp.org
server 1.vmware.pool.ntp.org
server 2.vmware.pool.ntp.org

fudge 127.127.1.0 stratum 10

#
# Drift file. Put this in a directory which the daemon can write to.
# No symbolic links allowed, either, since the daemon updates the file
# by creating a temporary in the same directory and then rename()'ing
# it to the file.
#
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift
broadcastdelay 0.008

#
# Authentication delay. If you use, or plan to use someday, the
# authentication facility you should make the programs in the auth_stuff
# directory and figure out what this number should be on your machine.
#
authenticate yes

#
# Keys file. If you want to diddle your server at run time, make a
# keys file (mode 600 for sure) and define the key number to be
# used for making requests.
#
# PLEASE DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT VALUES HERE. Pick your own, or remote
# systems might be able to reset your clock at will. Note also that
# ntpd is started with a -A flag, disabling authentication, that
# will have to be removed as well.
#
keys /etc/ntp/keys

server 192.168.1.100

ntpdate -u timeserver.local

date -s "12/29/2007 23:48"

hwclock

hwclock --systohc
notes
shows the settings of the file
It is also possible to explicitly allow or deny specific users to the SSH daemon.
The headings in the ssh_config file are DenyUsers and AllowUsers

changaes to root

If you would like to restrict the use of the su command, then we can limit it to
the members of a specific group called wheel. This group is defined in the
/etc/group file by default and it's membership can be modified by root. In order to
limit su to the wheel group members we need to modify a configuration file called
/etc/pam.d/su
#auth required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_wheel.so user_uid
uncomment the above line in the file
The attempts to switch to the root account are logged in /var/log/messages.

Allows delegation of administration in terms of certain commands that normally only

a particular user can execute (usually root). 
an audit trail of when sudo was invoked is stored in /var/log/secure.
The sudo tool uses the lookup file /etc/sudoers to determine which users can
perform which commands. We do not edit this file with a regular text editor like vi or
nano, instead we use the tool visudo

In the this line added to the /etc/sudoers file, we have allowed the user sara to
run the esxcfg-firewall and esxcfg-vswitch command.

creating aliases

creating rules

for detailed use and background - http://aplawrence.com/Basics/sudo.html

more details can be found at
http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/nets/intro/staff/siemsen/tools/minicom.html

for more information on vi editor go to

http://staff.washington.edu/rells/R110/
to synchronise the hardware clock with the service console date and time
sl utility
1 AAM

2 /opt/LGTOaam512/bin/ftcli

3 /etc/FT_HOSTS
description
AAM is the Automated Availability Manager that runs in the service
console when you create a VMware High Availability (VMware HA) cluster.
The VMware HA feature was previously known as DAS (Distributed
Availability Services) but we don't mention that anymore
This software maintains an in-memory database on active nodes in
the cluster and uses heartbeats to co-ordinate the active and passive
nodes. It is suggested that you configure service console with 2 Ethernet
interfaces to remove any single point of failure.

This utility allows you to view the active nodes in an HA cluster and
the managed IP addresses. This utility will help you determine whether
the HA agent is in a running state and which IP addresses are visible
between those managed hosts

This file is created when HA is enabled and is a copy of /etc/hosts.

If you have problems with name resolution and configuring HA, you can
safely delete this file and reconfigure that cluster node for HA again.
FT_HOSTS will be re-created.
notes
This component has a very high dependency upon fully functional host name resolution.
So before you enable VMware HA, check the following files
/etc/hosts
/etc/FT_HOSTS
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/vmware/esx.conf
to ensure accuracy. One thing you can do to check the name resolution functionality
before enabling HA is run
hostname -s --> ensures short name. If this fails, then the HA configuration WILL fail.
The log file for VMware HA in ESX 3.0.x can be found in the service console in the
directory - /opt/LGTOaam512/
and for 3.5 - /opt/VMware/
If your default gateway suppresses ICMP echo requests, then we can configure an
alternate IP address called the das.isolationaddress. From ESX 3.5, you can configure multiple
isolation addresses so that you can configure a host with more that one address to attempt
contact with before declaring itself isolated.
sl utility
1 hostname

2 ifconfig

3 ping

4 vmkping

5 /sbin/arping

6 arp

7 ethtool
 8 tcpdump

9 ip

10 route

11 tracepath

12 netstat

13 nslookup
14 dig

15 rpcinfo
description
This utility displays the service console hostname. There
are some useful switches to this command

Used to determine what IP address you have, the

equivalent of the ipconfig command in Windows. You can
use the command without parameters to view all interfaces, or
you can be interface specific

This ping makes use of IP stack of the VMkernel rather than

the Linux network stack in the service console. So if you are
trying to troubleshoot VMotion, iSCSI or NAS issues where the
VMkernel is directly using its own IP (a VMkernel port). We
supply the IP address of the destination as a parameter, just as
we do with regular ping

This is a similar utility to ping, but uses Address Resolution

Protocol (ARP) and so the result will only be for local subnet
resources, either another host or a gateway.

If you need to view or modify the arp cache in the service

console, we can use the arp command

This command can be used to view and configure the

Ethernet interfaces in your ESX host. We didn't use this tool very
often until ESX 3.5, when we started to work with Distributed
Power Management (DPM); an experimental feature of DRS
clusters.
This is a very powerful command and we don't often need it
unless we are network troubleshooting at the command line

This shows and allows editing of the routing table in the

service console. If we use the route command with no
parameters, the Linux routing table is displayed. If this is taking
a long time, this could be due to DNS look ups, so you can use the
-n switch to force numeric (no name resolution).

As the traceroute command is not present in the ESX

service console by default, we should be aware of some
alternative tools. This tool traces the path to the specified
destination (supplied as a parameter) discovering the Maximum
Transmission Unit (MTU) along the path. It uses a random UDP
port by default, but can be modified to use a specified port (2nd
parameter).

The output of netstat produces more information than just

network sockets, so we need to narrow the query to just tcp and
udp protocols.

The nslookup tool is most often used to check forward

name resolution. It can be used interactively or in a dedicated
shell. If used interactively, then simply supply the name of the
host your are looking up as a parameter

This tool is a replacement for nslookup in Unix and Linux

environments. It is fantastic for displaying exactly what is
happening when you are doing a name lookup to DNS. We can
see our query, the answer, the authority all in one output

Can be used to verify services at a server. We find this

useful for verifying if a server is running NFS v3 over TCP.
usage
hostname -i

hostname -s

vmkping 192.168.93.200

arping -I vswif0 -c 2 192.168.1.1

arp -a

ethtool vmnic1
ethtool -s vmnic1 wol g

tcpdump -i vswif0

tcpdump -w FILE -i vswif0

tcpdump -i vswif0 port 53

ip link show vswif0

ip addr add

ip route show

ip neigh show

ip -help

route -n

route add -net 10.45.0.0/24 gw 192.168.90.2

tracepath 192.168.170.201

netstat --tcp --udp -a

nslookup mail.example.com
nslookup 10.10.0.4

dig mail.example.com
probable o/p

64 bytes from 192.168.93.200: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=0.871 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.93.200: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=5.079 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.93.200: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=22.754 ms

ARPING 192.168.1.1 from 192.168.1.7 vswif0

Unicast reply from 192.168.1.1 [00:50:56:48:F3:AC] 0.912ms
Unicast reply from 192.168.1.1 [00:50:56:48:F3:AC] 0.765ms
Sent 2 probes (1 broadcast(s))
Received 2 response(s)

Settings for vmnic1:

        Supported ports: [ TP ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 100Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: Twisted Pair
        PHYAD: 1
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: g
        Wake-on: g
        Link detected: yes

6: vswif0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000

link/ether 00:50:56:49:96:03 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

192.168.90.0/24 dev vswif0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.90.7

169.254.0.0/16 dev vswif0 scope link
default via 192.168.90.254 dev vswif0

192.168.90.200 dev vswif0 lladdr 00:0c:29:8d:f3:65 nud stale

192.168.90.70 dev vswif0 lladdr 00:50:56:84:19:56 nud reachable

1:  esx1host (192.168.90.7)                              0.173ms reached

     Resume: pmtu 65535 hops 1 back 1
notes
displays IP address

displays the short hostname, i.e. without domain name

Be aware this tool makes use of the service console DNS, so if there are problems
there, try vmkping using the IP address of the destination rather than hostname to ensure
that any errors you see are unrelated to name resolution problems in the service console

If you use -D it will ping all important stations (own interface, iSCSI and default
gateway).

Notice in the reply we see the MAC address of the target

If this fails, it is a layer 2 problem on your local network

It's unlikely you will need static arp entries, but it can be done using the -s switch

The output of this tool provides a load of information about the network cards, but of
particular interest now is the support for Wake-on-LAN (WoL). DPM makes use of this NIC
feature and so we need to check that our NICs both support the function AND have the
function enabled. The ethtool allows us to view and set this functionality.
enabling WOL

adding more ip address

another view of the arp cache

if you use -n to not resolve hostnames and protocol ports to service names
The -p switch is extremely useful for determining which processes are using those
sockets
Proper reverse lookup is recommended for any SSL encrypted connections

The dig tool can be used for reverse lookup with -x switch. This tool does not use
standard libc name service lookup and therefore does not refer to /etc/nsswitch.conf. It goes
directly to the DNS servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf. Note, if you have multiple nameserver
entries in /etc/resolv.conf we only query the 2nd or 3rd entry if the 1st or 2nd cannot be
contacted. If the 1st nameserver responds with an unknown host reply to the query, we stop
and don't query the remaining nameservers.
sl utility
1 showmount

2 portmap

3 mount
description
This command is used by a NFS client to see what directories are
being exported by a NFS server

If you are wanting to mount a NFS export on a remote system

from the service console, you do not need all the nfs server daemons
running. All you need is the portmap service

It really helps to be able to do simple mounts of remote systems

using NFS and the mount command. We can tell mount what type of file
access protocol to use with the -t switch, e.g. -t nfs or -t smbfs, however
if you are working just with nfs, you can safely omit this
usage
showmount –e nfsserver

mount server:/export /mnt/

notes
This command can be specified with the hostname name or IP address of the NFS server holding
the exported directories. Remember that by default the service console will block nfsClient traffic. You
will need to use esxcfg-firewall to open up that port. Also remember when you are accessing NFS
servers from the service console you are going out via the Linux network stack; this is not the same
operation as adding an NFS datastore, where the VMkernel connects to NFS via its own stack on its
VMkernel port.

Also remember that by default nfsClient is blocked by the service console firewall.
sl utility
1 vcbVmName

2 vcbSnapshot

3 vcbMounter

4 vcbMounter.exe

5 vcbExport

6 mountvm.exe

7 vcbCleanup

8 backuptools.conf

9 vcbRestore

10 vcbUtil
description
If we only know some of the details of a VM, but not all, we can
use this query tool to ask VirtualCenter to report back all that it can find
about it.

If you want to perform image backups of running virtual machines

from the service console command line, then this is the command for
you. In a lot of ways this is the replacement of vmsnap.pl found in
previous versions of ESX.

This command is the core component of VCB which runs on the

VCB Proxy server.

This utility is only found on the VCB proxy server.

This command is new to 3.5/2.5 and allows a backup operator to

cleanup the VM snapshot state should a VCB backup fail before
completion.

If you don't want to specify user credentials on the command line,

you can store the credentials in this file in the service console

The vcbMounter.exe command on the backup proxy performs the

backup of the live VM. you cannot restore directly from the VCB Proxy
server into VMFS, the proxy server has read-only access to the VMFS
datastores. The vcbRestore command exists in the ESX host service
console. Therefore we need to have the VCB VM archive accessible to
the vcbRestore command to perform a restore. The archive could be
copied to the service console with a tool such as WinSCP or Veeam
FastSCP

This command is only in the service console, not on the backup

proxy server
usage
vcbVmName -h vcserver -u vcadminuser -p secret -s ipaddr:10.0.0.1

vcbRestore /remotenfs/backups/vm
notes

citation reqd

citation reqd

However, as of VirtualCenter 2.5 (with integrated VMware

Converter) we have the ability to restore VCB VM archives directly into
ESX using the VMware Converter import function.
sl node name
1 /proc

2 /proc/vmware

3 /proc/vmware/migration/history

4 /proc/scsi

5 /proc/vmware/sched/ncpus

6 /proc/scsi/qla2x00
description
The volatile /proc directory hierarchy that can be treated as a file system but is actually held in RAM. We can
interrogate the files and directories in /proc to find out some great information about the running of the service console.

The volatile /proc/vmware directory hierarchy that can be treated as a file system but is held in RAM.  We can
interrogate the files and directories in /proc/vmware to find out some great information about the running of the VMkernel.

This is an awesome file to reference when troubleshooting VMotion issues.

If you want to check which SCSI devices are visible, cat this file

This is an in-memory file displaying the number of processors (ncpus) in the ESX server. This is a very useful file to
inspect when you are unsure how many physical processors you have and if hyper-threading is enabled.

If you are using QLogic fibre host bus adapters this is where to check
notes

cat /proc/vmware/sched/ncpus
 4 logical
 2 cores
 2 packages
sl
1

8
9
utility
vpxd.exe

vpxd.cfg

vpxd-#.log

vpxd-index

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\tomcat\conf\tomcat-users

vum-proxyAuthCfg.exe

vci-integrity.xml

vmware-umds.exe
vmware-updateDownloadCli.exe
description
This is the process name of the Windows service that is the core service running on the VirtualCenter

management server. If there are problems with the VirtualCenter service starting and then stopping almost
immediately or a few seconds later, then check your ODBC database string and then the health of the the
database server. We have seen this when the database runs out of disk space; check if the log space is full on the
DB server, many clients forget about regular backup of this database. When troubleshooting the VirtualCenter
service you can try VirtualCenter in stand-alone mode.

This is the VirtualCenter management server configuration file which the VC service reads at start-up
There are a number of configuration changes to VirtualCenter we can make in this file, but as of VC 2
one such change you may wish to make is the disabling of "Guided Consolidation". This feature, shown just as a
consolidation button in the VI client, is intended to help small customers select which physical Windows hosts are
suitable for consolidation and then guide them to perform the physical to virtual migration.

There will be up to log files for VirtualCenter server. The log data is rotated across 10 log files numbe
0-9. Once a log file reaches 5MB, the next one is used

This file is the index file which indicates which of the numbered vpxd-#.log files is the current active
This file is found on the VirtualCenter management server. VirtualCenter logs are rotated across 10 log files
numbered 0-9.

There should be no reason for you to look at this file on the VirtualCenter server, however if you wan
double check the Apache Tomcat configuration and status using the Tomcat Manager webpage, then you'll need to

The Update Manager component of Virtual Infrastructure is new to version 2.5. This component allow
the patch management of Windows & Linux guests as well as ESX hosts. When installing the Update Manager
component, the Windows installer package prompts the operator if they wish to use a proxy server to connect to
the Internet, the only options are proxy IP address and port. If your proxy server requires authentication, then
this tool must be run to supply the proxy server credentials.

This is the primary configuration file for the VMware Update Manager (VUM). This file is read at start-
of the UM service and if the XML file is manually edited, then the service should be restarted for the change to
take effect.

This is the VMware Update Manager Download Service. If you don't want the server where Update
Manager is installed on to actually connect to the Internet and do the patch downloading, then UMDS is for you
This tool is run on the Update Manager server to import the patches made available from the UMDS
export. So if you had a DVD burned which had all the updates that was inserted to the UM server and available as
drive Z:
 usage
vpxd -s

<vcp2v>
   config.vcp2v.dontStartConsolidation = true
</vcp2v>

msiexec /qn /x {2A2750C9-E14E-4635-8595-C1CD214445B0}

les numbered

ent active one.

<user username="admin" password="password" roles="tomcat,manager"/>

nent allows

d at start-up

vmware-umds --download

vmware-umds -E e:\exportedupdates
he UMDS
notes
You will get interactive logging of the start-up activity helping you to pinpoint where the problem is
If all else fails, you can always re-initialize the VirtualCenter database. However, this is not recomme
initializing the VirtualCenter database you are wiping out all VC data!! If you do want this, then use t
switch to vpxd.

If you have already been through the consolidation process, then you don't need this feature. It mak
the feature if you are not using it as this should improve VC performance. To disable Guided Consolidation, simply edit the vpx
file on the VC management server and add the lines:

gets rid of guided consolidation feature. Run this command on the windows command line on the VC server

add this line to the file and restart tomcat

One of the main reasons you may want to edit this file is if you wish to change the directory that patc
into, i.e. the patch store.

UMDS installs on a Windows server (that is not the same server as UM) and doesn't create a start me

starts the download

export the downloads

At this time UMDS does not support NFS/CIFS shares for the export operation. This is related to a pe
 the SYSTEM account. The export function is intended to be used to copy the downloaded data to CD/DVD or USB stick. That's
say you can't export to a CIFS share, it's just that's currently unsupported.
e to disable

e downloaded

gram group.

ns issue and
To download the RCLI appliance, Windows installer or Linux installer, visit

sl utility
1 svmotion

2 /etc/.visdkrc
Windows installer or Linux installer, visit

description
This command is run from an RCLI interface to perform a live migrate of a VMs storage from one datastore to
another, known as storage VMotion. In a storage VMotion, only the virtual disks of the VM move, unlike a regular
VMotion, the VM remains running on the same

This is a hidden file that you can create in the RCLI appliance which stores the parameters you wish to use when
running commands against a host.
usage
svmotion --interactive

svmotion --server <virtualcenterserver>

--username <user_name> --password <user_password>
--vm '[old_datastore] vm/vmx.vmx:new_datastore'

VI_SERVER = vcserver.taupoconsulting.com
VI_USERNAME = Administrator
VI_PASSWORD = vmware
VI_PROTOCOL = https
VI_PORTNUMBER = 443
notes
To perform an interactive storage VMotion

to script this command, then the inputs can be supplied as parameters to the svmotion
command
If you don't want to include user data in the command, then you can combine this method with
an environment variables file called ./visdkrc
sl utility
1 DCUI

2 unsupported

3 dropbear

4 busybox

5 vsish
description
This is the Direct Console User Interface, in other words, when you go to the physical console of an ESXi host, what do you inte
DCUI looks and feels like a BIOS management system with menus navigated using the keyboard.

To reach a command line interface on an ESXi host, you could enter the command unsupported while viewing virtual terminal
that there will be no local echo while you type this command

This is a small SSH2 server and client available in the unsupported command line of ESXi. You need to manually enable it by ed
/etc/inetd.conf and removing the comment character (#) from the start of the line relating to ssh.

busybox gives you a set of regular tools like vi in a single process

The VSI shell is the ESX 3i equivalent of interrogating the service console /proc nodes. You can view the state of running VMke
drivers
notes

This is covered really well in a video over at Richard Garsthagen's site http://www.run-virtual.com/?p=223 as well as on
Dave Mishchenko's site http://www.vm-help.com/

There is more information about busybox at www.busybox.net

Build Numbers

ESXi

ESXi 4.0
ESXi 3.5 Installable Update 3 Build 123629 - 6th November 2008
ESXi 3.5 Installable Update 2 Build 110271 - 13th August 2008
ESXi 3.5 Installable Update 1 Build 82664 - 10th April 2008
ESXi 3.5 Installable Build 70348 - 10th January 2008

ESX4

ESX 4.0.0 Build - 22nd May 2009

ESX3

ESX 3.5.0 Update 4 Build -

ESX 3.5.0 Update 3 Build 123630 - 6th November 2008
ESX 3.5.0 Update 2 Build 110268 - 13th August 2008 (corrected build)
ESX 3.5.0 Update 2 Build 103908 - 25th July 2008
ESX 3.5.0 Update 1 Build 82663 - 10th April 2008
ESX 3.5.0 Build 64607 - 10th December 2007
ESX 3.0.3 Build 104629 - 8th August 2008
ESX 3.0.2 Update 1 Build 61618 - 29th October 2007
ESX 3.0.2 Build 52542 - 31st July 2007
ESX 3.0.1 Build 32039 - 6th October 2006
ESX 3.0.0 Build 27701 - 15th June 2006

vCenter Server (Formerly VirtualCenter Server)

vCenter 2.5 Update 4 Build 147633 - 23rd February 2009

vCenter 2.5 Update 3 Build 119598 - 3rd October 2008
vCenter 2.5 Update 2 Build 104263 - 25th July 2008
vCenter 2.5 Update 1 Build 84767 - 10th April 2008
VirtualCenter 2.5.0 Build 64201 - 10th December 2007
VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 5 Build 104182 - 8th August 2008
VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 4 Build 89601 - 30th May 2008
VirtualCenter 2.0.0 Update 3 Build 75762 - 15th February 2008
VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 2 Build 62327 - 8th November 2007
VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Update 1 Build 61426 - 29th October 2007
VirtualCenter 2.0.2 Build 50618 - 19th July 2007
VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Build 32042 - 2nd October 2006
VirtualCenter 2.0.0 Build 27704 - 15th June 2006
Consolidated Backup

Consolidated Backup 1.5.0 Build 102898 - 25th July 2008

Consolidated Backup 1.1.0 Build 64559 - 10th December 2007
Consolidated Backup 1.0.3 Update 1 Build 58377 - 31st October 2007
Consolidated Backup 1.0.3 for ESX 3.0.2 Build 51389 - 31st July 2007
Consolidated Backup 1.0.2 for ESX 3.0.1 Build 42090 - 5th April 2007
Consolidated Backup 1.0.1 for ESX 3.0.1 Build 32040 - 2nd October 2006
Consolidated Backup 1.0.0 for ESX 3.0.0 Build 27703 - 15th June 2006

Converter

Converter 3.0.3
Converter 3.0.2 Update 1 (Standalone Enterprise Edition) Build 62456 - 3rd December 2007
Converter 3.0.2 (Standalone Enterprise Edition) Build 59994 - 18th October 2007
Converter 3.0.1 (Standalone Enterprise Edition) Build 44840 - 26th April 2007
Converter 3.0.0 (Standalone Enterprise Edition) Build 36853 - 29th January 2007

VMmark

VMmark 1.0 Build 20070712 - 23rd July 2007

Virtual Hardware

Intel 440BX-based motherboard with NS338 SIO chip.

VMs can now have 64GB RAM, but not for Windows NT guests.
VMs can now have "enhanced vmxnet" virtual network adapters supporting TSO & Jumbo Frames (Guest OS restrictions)