Using a Configuration File

A configuration file is a text file that contains variable names and settings.

Variables corresponding to the connection options are shown in Options Available for All SDK for Perl Commands. Use --config if the configuration information is saved in a different file than ./visdkrc. If you specify --config, the system ignores the ./visdkrc settings.

Caution: Limit read access to a configuration file, especially if it contains user credentials.

You can use the --config option to run a script with the configuration file as shown in the following example.

connect.pl --config <my_saved_config> --list

Using a configuration file is useful for repeatedly entering connection details. If you have multiple vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi systems and you administer each system individually, you can create multiple configuration files with different names. When you want to run a command or a set of commands on a server, you pass in the --config option with the appropriate filename at the command line.