Using a Configuration File

You can use a text file that contains variable names and settings as a configuration file.

Variables corresponding to the options are shown in Connection Options for ESXCLI Host Management Command Execution.

Caution: Limit read access to a configuration file that contains user credentials.

Pass in the configuration file when you run ESXCLI commands, by using the following syntax.

<command> --config <my_saved_config> <option>

The following example illustrates how you can use the syntax.

esxcli --config <my_saved_config> network ip interface list

If you have multiple vCenter Server or ESXi systems and you administer each system individually, you can create multiple configuration files with different names. To run a command or a set of commands on a server, you pass in the --config option with the appropriate file name at the command line.

The following example illustrates the contents of a configuration file.

VI_PSC = XX.XXX.XXX.XX
VI_USERNAME = [email protected]
VI_PASSWORD = admin_password
VI_PROTOCOL = https
VI_SERVER = my_vc

If you have set up your system to run this file, you can run scripts against the specified ESXi host afterwards.