The VMware ESX service console is used to run scripts and load third-party applications so that you can manage your ESX host systems and virtual infrastructure. VMware ESXi, however, doesn't have a service console. VMware has created Virtual Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA) to fill that gap. VIMA also provides an avenue for centralized scripting for VMware ESX servers – a much needed feature. Fortunately, VIMA is free and easy to install if you have proper instructions.
What is the VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA)?
VIMA is a new free virtual appliance that you can download from VMware. As it uses open virtual machine format (OVF), it is easily imported into your VMware infrastructure.
Once running, VIMA offers:
Furthermore, multiple ESX hosts can be managed without additional authentication (over what you would have with a single ESX host), and existing ESX server service console scripts can also be run on VIMA with minor modifications.
In other words, you can think of VIMA as a centralized service console for all VMware ESX servers. For those using VMware ESXi, VIMA provides not only centralized management but also many the service console features that were lost when you opted to use ESXi over ESX.
What is VIMA made up of?
VIMA is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64-bit virtual appliance with a number of applications installed inside it. Applications installed include VMware Tool, Perls command line tools that function similarly to the ESX service console commands, the VI Perl Toolkit, Java JRE 1.5, a VMware authentication component called vi-fastpass, a VMware logging component called vi-logger, and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) server.
Combined, these applications work as a single appliance to help you better centrally manage your ESX or ESXi servers using scripts, ESX commands or third-party ap
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plications.
What are the requirements to run VIMA?
Normally, I skim right past requirement, assuming that my servers or OS is up-to-date enough to run just about any application or OS. I can tell you, however, that in the case of VMware's VIMA, you certainly need to pay attention to requirements as there are one or more requirements that I venture to guess only about 50% of virtual architectures fulfill.
The requirements for VMware VIMA are:
The requirement that many IT admins may not have satisfy is the 64-bit host requirement. If you try to start VIMA on a 32-bit host, you will get an error that looks like this:
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What this means is that the host CPU is not compatible with the CPU requirements for the virtual machine. There is no workaround for this- you just need to run VIMA on a 64-bit host with VMware ESX or ESXi.
10 things that you need to know about VIMA
There is no graphical (GUI) interface for VIMA as VIMA is a command-line tool since it's designed to act as a service console, which is also strictly command-line interface. There are a few things you should know about using VIMA:
VIMA bonus tip: You can specify the server that you want to run your vicfg command on, using the –server parameter. Notice how I run the same command on to servers, below, all without any authentication:
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Check out the next tip in this series for step-by-step instructions on how to download, install, and perform basic configuration on VIMA.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Davis (CCIE #9369, VCP, MCSE) is the Director of Infrastructure at Train Signal, Inc. He has written hundreds of articles and six video training courses – including the Train Signal VMware ESX Server video training series. His websites are Happy Router.com and VMwareVideos.com.
