Path: content/Tips/VMWare ESX/default.md

Get ESX server parameters

smbiosDump - dumps all the config data, including asset tags if your hardware supports that.

Change ESX network port parameters

esxcfg-nics  [nic]
-s|--speed          Set the speed of this NIC to one of 10/100/1000/10000.
Requires a NIC parameter.
-d|--duplex        Set the duplex of this NIC to one of 'full' or 'half'.
Requires a NIC parameter.
-a|--auto                  Set speed and duplexity automatically.
Requires a NIC parameter.
-l|--list                  Print the list of NICs and their settings.
-r|--restore               Restore the nics configured speed/duplex settings (INTERNAL ONLY)
-h|--help                  Display this message.
To change the link state of the physical interface to down:
esxcli network nic down -n vmnicX
To change the link state of the physical interface to up:
esxcli network nic up -n vmnicX
To auto-negotiate the speed of an adapter:
esxcli network nic set -n vmnicX -a
List installed NICs with status info:
esxcli network nic list

Scan for vmware servers

nmap -sV -p 80,443 192.168.1.0/24 -oA vmware-scan cat vmware-scan.gnmap | grep “open” | grep “VMware”

Surpress ssh warning on esxi / vmware

By default, vmware causes a yellow warning triangle on any host that has SSH enabled. This can be hidden by setting the UserVars.SuppressShellWarning flag to '1', in host/configuration/Software/Advanced Settings

Restart services

services.sh restart will restart the web interface to ESX . It will not restart the running VMs

Accessing Dell iDrac data from ESX

enum_instances OMC_IPMIIPProtocolEndpoint root/cimv2

This reports all the network info for the iDrac .

Converting from KVM

There are a couple of ways to do this. For windows, it's simplest to get the VMare Converter tool and digest the guest from the inside.

Otherwise, use qemu-convert to convert the qcow or raw disk image into a vmdk image:

sudo -i qemu-img convert -O vmdk virtual-machine.img converted-virtual-machine.vmdk

Then copy it to ESX and run a second conversion from the ESX machine:

`vmkfstools -i converted-virtual-machine.vmdk -d thin converted-virtual-machine-out.vmdk

That file can be added as a 'new hard disk' when a new VM is created. Delete the default disk first.

Last updated : 14 November 2024