[Updated] esxcli plugin to run shell commands (new version)

[Please note: I have updated this blog post to reflect a new version of my esxcli-shell plugin and the changes in there. What's new in version 1.1 (of 2012-01-12):
- supports for advanced shell function like pipelines, I/O redirection
- execute multiple shell commands at once (or a single command spanning multiple lines)
- logging of shell commands to /var/log/shell.log ]

The esxcli command is a very powerful tool to query and configure various aspects of an ESXi host's configuration, and you can not only use it in an ESXi shell, but also remotely through the (perl based) vSphere CLI and the (PowerShell based) vSphere PowerCLI.

The esxcli commands are organized in so-called namespaces (e.g. hardware, software, network etc.) for managing the sub-components of the server, and - out-of-the-box - you are limited to the commands that are exposed through these namespaces. But you cannot run arbitrary ESXi shell commands through it ... until now!

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How cool is that: VM console screenshots just by browser

Recently William Lam posted about a lesser known vSphere feature that I was not yet aware of: You can produce and look at screenshots of your VMs just by pointing a web browser to your ESXi host or vCenter server. If you have already read his post you will probably agree that this is very cool, but you might also wonder what this can be actually used for. So I want to share this knowledge again while adding some useful comments ... and use cases.
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How to use the latest VMware Tools with older vSphere versions

With vSphere 5.0 VMware made an important change regarding the compatibility and supportability of the VMware Tools: The Tools that come with vSphere 5.0 (and newer releases) can also be used with earlier vSphere releases (down to vSphere 4.0). For e.g. the latest VMware Tools of ESXi 5.1 the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix shows the following:

VMware Tools of ESXi 5.1 interoperability

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[Release] vSphere 5.0 Update 2 and ESXi 5.1 Build 914609

VMware has released Update 2 for vCenter 5.0 (both the Windows version and the Linux appliance) and ESXi 5.0:
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2012: A year of blogging and tooling

It's this time of the year again ... time to look back on what you have achieved this year ... the time of annual reviews, and here is mine.
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Finally...: HP Online Firmware Updates for ESXi

If you have VMware ESXi running on an HP ProLiant server then you had to take it down for updating the firmware of its hardware components and boot it with the Service Pack for ProLiant Boot CD ... until now!

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How to clone ESXi 5

I recently received an e-mail with the following question: How do I copy an ESXi installation from a USB key drive on to the internal hard disk of my computer? Normally you would answer like this: You don't do it. You backup the ESXi configuration (e.g. with the vicfg-backup tool), install a fresh copy of ESXi on your hard disk and then restore the saved ESXi configuration.
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