Esxcli

Disable the firewall

Disable the firewall completely.

esxcli network firewall set --enabled false

Install a patch bundle

esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/yourvolumename/patch/patch.zip

install a vib file

esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/yourvolumename/patch/patch.vib

enable 2GB Sparse disks

By default the 2GB Sparse disk format is disabled since ESXi version 5.1 and higher. If you try to import a disk in 2GB disk format you'll get the following error:

# vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/storage/myVM/myVM.vmdk -d thin myVM.vmdk
Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/storage/myVM/myVM.vmdk': The system cannot find the file specified (25).

Test if you have sparse format enabled:

esxcli system module list | grep multiextent

If sparse format is not enabled you get no output, if it is enabled, the output is like:

 # esxcli system module list | grep multiextent 
multiextent                         true        true

You can enable the 2GB disk format by using:

esxcli system module load -m multiextent

advanced settings list

Remind yourself of your changed system advanced settings by using:

esxcli system settings advanced list -d

from: https://twitter.com/AtherBeg/status/481743367957934080

Getting UUID

There are two main UUID’s in ESXi, well technically more but let’s just stick to these two :) System and Hardware UUID

from: https://twitter.com/lamw/status/570971985871654913

System UUID

UUID shown in esxcfg-info & esx.conf is the "System” UUID

You can easily get ESXi “System” UUID via

esxcli system uuid get

Hardware UUID

UUID shown from vSphere API including PowerCLI is showing the "Hardware" UUID

You can easily get ESXi “Hardware” UUID via

esxcli hardware platform get

resources

VMware Front Experience:

How to write your own esxcli plugin

esxcli plugin to run shell commands