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VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide –
Volume One
The New esxcli Command
For the first time, the new esxcli command is unified for both local and remote command-line administration. In
addition, the esxcli command has been enhanced to perform many tasks previously only performed with the
vicfg- commands. However, it does not yet perform all the tasks. When performing configuration tasks from
the command line, the esxcli command is the preferred command. Only fall back to the vicfg- and other vCLI
commands when there is no esxcli command available. Moving forward, all the vCLI commands are scheduled to
be replaced by esxcli commands.
NOTE: In vSphere 5.0, the esxcli command does not yet provide a full set of command capabilities. Continue to
use the esxcli command in conjunction with the vicfg- and other vCLI commands (that is, vmware-cmd,
vmkfstools, and vifs). The esxcli command in vSphere 5.0 is not backward compatible with earlier versions of
the command, because it introduces a new syntax that is different from earlier vSphere releases.
esxcli Command-Line Syntax
The esxcli command is made up of a hierarchy of namespaces. At each level of the hierarchy there are additional
namespaces and commands. This provides for a user-friendly CLI interface that allows for the easy discovery of
the command syntax.
Figure 49. esxcli Namespace Hierarchy
The preceding figure provides a graphic illustration of the command to query the ESXi firewall. The user invokes
the esxcli command with the network namespace, the firewall sub-namespace, and the get command.
The following is an example of this command:
Figure 50. esxcli network firewall get Command
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