Managing VMware vSphere Infrastructure using GOVC

govc is a vSphere CLI built on top of govmomi.

The CLI is designed to be a user friendly CLI alternative to the GUI and well suited for automation tasks. It also acts as a test harness for the govmomi APIs and provides working examples of how to use the APIs.

Content

Lab #0 - Getting Started with GOVC
Lab #1 - Creating a New Datacenter
Lab #2 - Adding ESXi to the Cluster
Lab #3 - Deploy Virtual Machine from ISO Image
Lab #4 - Deploy Virtual Machine from template
Lab #5 - Demonstrating Storage vMotion

Ready Scripts

Configure a vCenter cluster with vSAN datastore, DVS and DVPGs
Create a Datacenter and connect the underlying ESXi host to vCenter VM
Create a VM and boot stateless ESXi via cdrom/iso
Create VCSA VM

List of GOVC Commands

Overall Commands Available

Installation

You can find prebuilt govc binaries on the releases page.

Download and install a binary locally like this:

Install GOVC on Ubuntu 18.04

wget https://github.com/vmware/govmomi/releases/download/v0.19.0/govc_linux_amd64.gz
gunzip govc_linux_amd64.gz
mv govc_linux_amd64 govc
cp -rf govc /usr/local/bin/
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/govc

Export the credentials:

export GOVC_URL='root:password@<IPaddress>'

Disable certificate verification.

export GOVC_INSECURE=1

Listing the Datacenter

govc ls 

Listing ESXi Host

/ha-datacenter/vm
/ha-datacenter/vm/CSERACKPAS61
/ha-datacenter/vm/CSELABDNS.local (1)

How to do vMotion?

Say, I have VM in datastore1 and I want to migrate it to "Local" datastore. I can run the below command to perform it:

govc vm.migrate -ds Local PhotonOS
[31-01-19 16:59:43] migrating VirtualMachine:vm-673... OK

How to disable firewall?

govc host.esxcli -host=<IP> network firewall set --enabled false

How to enable sfcb service?

 govc host.esxcli -host=<Ip> system wbem set -e 1

How to configure NTP

 govc host.date.change -host <IP>  -server <IP>
 govc host.service -host <IP> enable ntpd
 govc host.service -host <IP> start ntpd

Deploy VM from Template

govc vm.clone -vm=<template-name> -on=true -waitip=false -host=<targethostIP> -ds=<targetdatastore> newVMname
govc vm.clone -vm=windows8Server64Guest-template -on=true -waitip=false -host=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX -ds=ESX67 windows8Server64Guest

Create new folder inside datastore

govc datastore.mkdir -ds=datastorename newfolder

Copying VM files to different folder

govc datastore.cp -ds=dastorename VM1/VM1.vmdk newfolder/VM1.vmdk

Unregistering VM from VC

govc vm.unregister VMname

Lab #1:

Creating a new Datacenter

govc datacenter.create demo

Fetching Demo Datacenter Information

# govc datacenter.info demo
Name:                demo
  Path:              /demo
  Hosts:             0
  Clusters:          0
  Virtual Machines:  0
  Networks:          0
  Datastores:        0

Creating a new cluster

govc cluster.create -dc=demo democluster

How to add ESXi Host to this Cluster

• First we need to take care of cert and put it under thumbprint variable

thumbprint=$(govc about.cert -k -u <ESXi IP> -thumbprint | awk '{print $2}') 

• Now add the ESXi host flawlessly

govc cluster.add -cluster democluster -hostname <esxi IP> -username root -password <password> -thumbprint $thumbprint 

How to remove ESXI Host from this cluster

• This is a 2 step process. First, put the ESXi host in maintenance mode by running below command:

govc host.maintenance.enter -dc=demo <ESXi IP> 

• Now you can remove ESXi

govc host.remove -dc=demo <ESXi IP>