Create a Guest Virtual Machine from command line in VMWare ESXi/vSphere 4?

Solution 1:

you should use VMware SDK or API calls instead. Look at vmcreate.pl that comes with vSphere SDK for Perl.

Solution 2:

Assuming that you are talking about stand alone ESXi hosts the now fully supported SSH capability is your best bet and the set of available console commands has improved with V4.1.

For environments without vCenter involved full remote management functionality only works in read only mode - that pretty much rules out active management using the Perl Remote CLI, the Windows only PowerCLI and the use of the pre-packaged VMware Management Appliance that includes a full set of remote CLI tools in a CentOS VM.