Complete VMware ESXi commands reference — 24 commands across 2 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for VMware ESXi.
esxcli is the command-line interface on an ESXi host, reachable over SSH or from the host's console, and it is organised as namespaces — esxcli network, esxcli storage, esxcli system — each with nested commands. The table lists the top-level namespaces with VMware's descriptions plus the few complete commands most administrators run. Every namespace answers with its subcommands when typed alone, so knowing the namespaces is the whole skill.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| esxcli daemon | Commands for controlling daemons built with Daemon SDK (DSDK) |
| esxcli device | Device manager commands |
| esxcli esxcli | Commands that operate on the esxcli system itself allowing users to get additional information |
| esxcli graphics | VMware graphics commands |
| esxcli hardware | VMKernel hardware properties and commands for configuring hardware |
| esxcli iscsi | VMware iSCSI commands |
| esxcli licensing | Operations to manage license credentials |
| esxcli memtier | Operations to manage memory tiering |
| esxcli network | Operations that pertain to the maintenance of networking on an ESX host. This includes a wide |
| esxcli nsx | NSX CLI |
| esxcli nvme | VMware NVMe driver operations |
| esxcli rdma | Operations that pertain to remote direct memory access (RDMA) protocol stack on an ESX host |
| esxcli sched | VMKernel system properties and commands for configuring scheduling related functionality |
| esxcli software | Manage the ESXi software image and packages |
| esxcli storage | VMware storage commands |
| esxcli system | VMKernel system properties and commands for configuring properties of the kernel core system |
| esxcli vm | A small number of operations that allow a user to Control Virtual Machine operations |
| esxcli vsan | VMware vSAN commands. See the vSphere Storage publication for details |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| esxcli system version get | Version |
| esxcli vm process list | List VMs |
| esxcli network ip interface list | Network |
| esxcli storage filesystem list | Storage |
| esxcli hardware cpu list | CPU |
| esxcli hardware memory get | Memory |
esxcli system version get returns the ESXi build, the first thing support asks for, and esxcli system holds hostname, time, maintenance mode and the settings that survive reboots. esxcli hardware cpu list and esxcli hardware memory get report the physical resources, and esxcli hardware covers PCI devices, BIOS and power. esxcli software lists installed VIBs and applies image profiles and patches — esxcli software vib list before an upgrade, esxcli software profile update to apply one from a depot.
esxcli vm process list shows running VMs with their world IDs, and esxcli vm can kill a VM that will not respond to vSphere — the last resort when a guest hangs. esxcli network ip interface list shows VMkernel interfaces, and esxcli network goes on to vSwitches, port groups, firewall rules and NIC statistics, which is where a management-network mistake is fixed from the console. esxcli storage filesystem list lists mounted datastores with free space, and esxcli storage covers paths, multipathing policies, iSCSI and NFS mounts; esxcli iscsi, esxcli nvme and esxcli vsan are the protocol-specific namespaces.
The same command set runs from a workstation through vCLI or PowerCLI's Get-EsxCli, and from vCenter's host shell, so scripts written against the console work elsewhere. Add --formatter=csv or keyvalue to any command for output that scripts can parse. esxcli esxcli introspects the CLI itself and lists every available command, which is the way to discover namespaces a plugin has added. esxcli licensing shows the host license state and esxcli daemon manages services built with the daemon SDK.
esxcli system version get. It prints the product, version and build number.
esxcli vm process list to get the World ID, then esxcli vm process kill --type=force --world-id=<id>.
esxcli esxcli command list prints every namespace and command, including those added by plugins.
Yes — add --formatter=csv, keyvalue or xml to any esxcli command.
Open your assistant with this page preloaded as the source — great for follow-up questions like "which of these work in other apps?"