VMware vSphere PowerCLI is a robust command-line tool for automathing all aspect of vSphere management, including host, network, storage, virtual machine, guest operating system, and more. It replicates nearly all the equivalent COS commands for configuring ESX. The vSphere CLI (vCLI) is a remote scripting environment that interacts with VMware ESXi hosts to enable host configuration through scripts or specific commands. VMware ESX can also be configured using vSphere CLI (vCLI) or vSphere PowerCLI. VMware ESX Service Console has a host CLI through which VMware ESX can be configured.

Tech Support Mode (TSM) provides a command-line interface that can be used by the administrator to troubleshoot and correct abnormal conditions on VMware ESXi hosts. VMware has provided remote scripting environments such as vCLI and PowerCLI to allow the remote execution of scripts and commands.

VMware has created APIs through which monitoring and management tasks – traditionally done through Service Console agents – can be performed. Accordingly, VMware ESXi behaves more like firmware than traditional software. VMware ESXi is designed to make the server a computing appliance. This Linux-based privileged access allows you to manage your environment by installing agents and drivers and executing scripts and other Linux-environment code. Service Console is a standard Linux environment through which a user has privileged access to the VMware ESX kernel.

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