Knowledgebase

Datastore Browser

vSphere Management Assistant and vSphere Command-Line Interface

1. Open a console to your vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) appliance or a vSphere Command-Line Interface (CLI).
2. Download the file you wish to edit by executing:
   
   vifs.pl  --get '[] /' /
    
   Where:
3. •  specify the host that has access to the datastore or vCenter and the username and password of an Administrator account.
   •  is the name of the datastore that contains the file you wish to edit.
   •  is the path within the datastore that contains the file.
   •  is the name of the file you wish to edit.
   •  is the path where you will download the file to. Make note of this location for future steps.
     
     For more information and examples about the vifs utility, see Performing File System Operations with vifsin the vSphere CLI documentation.
      
     
4. Modify the file as required using the vMA or transfer it to another system for modification. If you are using the vCLI, proceed to the following step.
5. Open a preferred text editor. For more information about preferred editors, see Preferred Editors in this article.
6. Open the downloaded file, modify it as required, and save the file.
7. Return to the vMA appliance console or vSphere CLI.
8. Make a backup copy of the original by executing:
   
   vifs.pl  --move '[] /' '[] /.bak' 
    
   Where:
9. •  specify the host that has access to the datastore or vCenter and the username and password of an Administrator account.
   •  is the name of the datastore that contains the file you wish to edit. For our purposes, both values should be the same.
   •  is the path within the datastore that contains the file. For our purposes, both  values should be the same.
   •  is the name of the file you wish to edit. For our purposes, the second  value should include a .bak extension to indicate a backup copy.
     
     Caution: Omitting the additional .bak extension to the destination file name will result in overwriting your original file.
     
     For more information and examples about the vifs utility, see Performing File System Operations with vifssection of the vSphere CLI documentation.
     
     
10. Upload the modified file to the original location by executing:
    
    vifs.pl  --put / '[] /'  
    
    Where:
11. •  specify the host that has access to the datastore or vCenter and the username and password of an Administrator account.
    •  is the name of the datastore that contains the file you wish to edit.
    •  is the path within the datastore that contains the file.
    •  is the name of the file you wish to edit.
    •  is the path where you will download the file to. Make note of this location for future steps.
      
      For more information and examples about the vifs utility, see Performing File System Operations with vifssection of the vSphere CLI documentation.

VMware ESXi or ESX Terminal

1. Log into the VMware ESX host as the root user.
   • For more information on VMware ESX Service Console, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).
   • For more information on VMware ESXi Technical Support Mode, see Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677).
      
2. Make a backup copy of the file you wish to edit by executing:
   
   cp / /.bak
    
   Where:
3. •  is the full path of the file.
   •  is the name of the file you wish to edit.
     
      
     Note: The second parameter in the cp command should have a filename with the .bak extension to indicate that it is a backup copy.
     
     
4. Edit the file by executing:
   
   /
   
   Where:
5. •  is your preferred editor. For more information about preferred editors, see Preferred Editors in this article.
   •  is the full path to the file.
   •  is the name of the file you wish to edit.
     
     
6. If prompted to overwrite, ensure that you have made a backup copy and type y. Press Enter to commit your changes. 

Preferred Editors

• VMware ESX includes the open source terminal-based editors nano and vi. For more information, see the vi man pages or the nano man pages.
• VMware ESXi includes the open source terminal-based editor vi. For more information, see the vi man pages.
• Windows-based machines include basic text editors such as Notepad and Wordpad. If you are using either of these text editors, you must ensure that you are saving files in their original format and encoding.

• The editors available in the shell (vi or nano) are meant for troubleshooting purposes only and must be used only when directed by VMware. The vSphere Client, vCLI, and PowerCLI should be the primary method of propagating changes to your ESX/ESXi host.
• Notepad saves documents as ANSI text which may not be the same file format as the files downloaded from a VMware ESX or ESXi host. For more information, see Using different language formats in Notepad from Microsoft's Windows XP Professional Product Documentation.