Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

VMware ESX 3.5

While VMware isn’t exactly a Linux product and isn’t free, it does provide access to a Service Console, which is something like Xen’s Domain-0. The Service Console runs a modified version of Red Hat Enterprise Server 3.0. So even though it is a commercial product, we want to include some information on it in this chapter.

Here, we will cover useful Service Console commands for administrators using the commercial ESX 3.5 product. VMware has also provided a free version of ESX, named ESXi. ESXi does not technically have a Service Console, though you can launch an unsupported Linux interface similar to the Service Console that has many of the same commands. Many of the commands listed in this section will work in the unsupported console, although in keeping with the unsupported nature of this console, nothing is guaranteed. VMware also provides a remote command line interface (rCLI), which is a collection of Perl utilities that mostly mimic the Service Console commands.

As we are writing this, VMware is preparing to release vSphere, the new version of ESX. It too, has a Service Console and remote CLI, the vCLI. VMware has deprecated some commands in vSphere moving functionality to the vCLI. still, they continue to provide the Service Console for troubleshooting and technical support sessions. Most of what we document here still works in vSphere.

You will need to install ESX or ESXi on a bare system. Its installation is nearly identical to an older Red Hat installation. ...