ESXi maintenance cheatsheet
This document was written targeting ESXi 6 and 7. Newer/older versions may differ.
ESPECIALLY NOW THAT BROADCOM BOUGHT VMWARE AND DESTROYED ALL HISTORIC LINKS EPIC
Command shortlist
| category | what happen | what to do |
|---|---|---|
| universal | esxcli doesn't work? | localcli |
| universal | maintenance mode | esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable= |
| universal | enable tools ramdisk (always for sdcard installs) | esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/ToolsRamdisk -i 1ESXi 7.0 U2a Potentially Killing USB and SD drives! ESXi 7.0 SD Card/USB Drive Issue Temporary Workaround |
| storage | change scratch dir (contains persistent logs, vibs, tempfiles) | esxcli system settings advanced set -o /ScratchConfig/ConfiguredScratchLocation -s /vmfs/...see also Manually setting a scratch location for ESXi in the vSphere Client appears to succeed but the setting is not honored (2003678) |
| storage | list all storage devices | esxcfg-mpath -b |
| storage | list all mounted filesystems | esxcli storage filesystem list |
| storage | list diagnostic partitions | esxcli system coredump partition list |
| storage | list all partitions on a disk | partedUtil getptbl DISK |
| vmfs | view info about mounted vmfs | vmkfstools -P /PATH |
| vmfs | mount vmfs | esxcli storage filesystem mount |
| vmfs | umount vmfs | esxcli storage filesystem unmount |
| ramdisk | mount ramdisk | esxcli system visorfs ramdisk add |
| ramdisk | umount ramdisk | esxcli system visorfs ramdisk remove |
| EFI boot | fsck fat | dosfsck |
| update | update software patch level | esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0U1c-17325551-standard -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xmllocate patch version at https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch |
check fat partitions
for x in scratch bootbank altbootbank store; do
x=/$x
echo "============ testing $x ============"
if [ ! -e $x ]; then
echo "$x does not exist"
continue
fi
y=$(vmkfstools -P /$x 2>/dev/null | grep -oE "^\s(.*)$" | sed 's/\t//')
if [ "x$y" = xmemory ]; then
echo "$x is ramdisk"
continue
fi
z="dosfsck -nv /dev/disks/$y | tail +3"
echo "# $z"
eval $z
done
delete broken files on FAT volumes
Bad file descriptor during update - VMware Technology Network VMTN
Wayback Machine](https://communities.vmware.com:443/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Bad-file-descriptor-during-update/m-p/2613340?start=0&tstart=0#M246535))
recreate store partition
# format partition. disk may change, partition should be 8
vmkfstools -C vfat /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0:8
# link new vol to store
ln -sfn /vmfs/volumes/GUID /store
# reinstall tools, point it at your zip or vib
esxcli software vib install -d /vmfs/volumes/myvol/VMware-Tools-VERSION-core-offline-depot-ESXi-all-FILEID.zip
default partition scheme
| id | name | mount | size | optional | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | systemPartition |
4 MB | contains EFI bootloader | ||
| 2 | linuxNative |
/scratch |
4 GB | ✔️ | persistent storage to hold output of vm-support and other misc tasks. if not present, vm-support will save to ramdisk |
| 3 | VMFS datastore | /vmfs/volumes/GUID |
rest of disk | ✔️ | default datastore created on install if backing medium is not flash memory |
| 5 | linuxNative |
/bootbank |
250 MB | stores all compressed system files and drivers. ESXi image is stored here in s.v00 |
|
| 6 | linuxNative |
/altbootbank |
250 MB | last known-good installation of ESXi, copied from 5 after a successful upgrade. use Shift+R when booting to boot from this partition | |
| 7 | vmkDiagnostic |
110 MB | In case of ESXi Crash or PSOD, host dump file written on this partition | ||
| 8 | linuxNative |
/store |
286 MB | contains VMware Tools ISOs and floppy images. can be configured to hold logs and other data but doesn’t by default | |
| 9 | vmkDiagnostic |
2.5 GB | larger partition as backup for 7 |
enable HTTP outgoing firewall exclusion for wget
esxcli network firewall ruleset set --enabled=true --ruleset-id=httpClient
verify:
esxcli network firewall ruleset list | grep -E '^Name|^-|http'
update tools manually via console
wget into /vmimages (should be a softlink somewhere under /store)
stable ESXi base releases
latest releases
(these do still work after Broadcom buyout as of 2024-05-18)
common files
| where it be | what it do |
|---|---|
/etc/vmware/esx.conf |
storage, network and hardware config |
/etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml |
vCenter to ESXi host connection authorization |
/etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg |
vCenter and ESXi connectivity |
/etc/vmware/vmkiscsid/iscsid.conf |
iSCSI daemon config |
/etc/vmware/fdm |
FDM config file with clusterconfig, hostlist and VM metadata |
/etc/vmware/license.cfg |
license info |
/etc/vmware/hostd/vmInventory.xml |
info about VMs on host |
/tmp/stagebootbank |
staged updates before remediation |