Using esxcli from PowerCLI

VMware offers more command-line interfaces for vSphere than PowerCLI. One of them is the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vSphere CLI). The vSphere CLI has a command called esxcli. PowerCLI has built-in support for this esxcli command in the Get-EsxCli cmdlet.

Note

There are no New-EsxCli, Set-EsxCli, and Remove EsxCli cmdlets. The Get-EsxCli cmdlet exposes the esxcli functionality for a host. You cannot create a new one, modify, or remove it.

The syntax of the Get-EsxCli cmdlet is:

Get-EsxCli -VMHost <VMHost[]> [[-Server] <VIServer[]>] [<CommonParameters>]

Use the Get-EsxCli cmdlet to connect to the esxcli functionality of a host and save the connection in a variable $esxcli:

PowerCLI C:\> $esxcli = Get-EsxCli -VMHost 192.168.0.133

In the vSphere CLI, the command to get information about the CPUs in your host is:

C:\>esxcli --server=192.168.0.133 hardware cpu list
Enter username: root
Enter password:

In PowerCLI, the command becomes a little...