In this new blog post, we’ll cover all the main Nutanix AHV CLI commands that allow you to perform some checks on your virtual machines using the command line.
All the commands in this article can be run via SSH from any CVM in the cluster.
Display the list of virtual machines
To display the list of virtual machines on the Nutanix cluster, simply run the following command:
acli vm.listThis will show you all the VMs present on the cluster, without the CVMs:
nutanix@NTNX-S348084X9211699-B-CVM:192.168.84.22:~$ acli vm.list
VM name VM UUID
LINUX 88699c96-11a5-49ce-9d1d-ac6dfeff913d
NTNX-192-168-84-200-PCVM-1760699089 f659d248-9ece-4aa0-bb0c-22a3b3abbe12
vm_test 9439094a-7b6b-48ca-9821-a01310763886As you can see, I only have two virtual machines on my cluster:
- My Prism Central
- A newly deployed “LINUX” virtual machine
- A test virtual machine
A handy command to quickly retrieve all virtual machines and their respective UUIDs. Now let’s see how to retrieve information about a specific virtual machine.
Retrieving Virtual Machine Information
To display detailed information about a virtual machine, use the following command:
acli vm.get VM_NAME
Using the example of my “LINUX” virtual machine, this returns the following information:
nutanix@NTNX-S348084X9211699-B-CVM:192.168.84.22:~$ acli vm.get LINUX
LINUX {
config {
agent_vm: False
allow_live_migrate: True
apc_config {
apc_enabled: False
}
bios_uuid: "88699c96-11a5-49ce-9d1d-ac6dfeff913d"
boot {
boot_device_order: "kCdrom"
boot_device_order: "kDisk"
boot_device_order: "kNetwork"
hardware_virtualization: False
secure_boot: False
uefi_boot: True
}
cpu_hotplug_enabled: True
cpu_passthrough: False
disable_branding: False
disk_list {
addr {
bus: "ide"
index: 0
}
cdrom: True
device_uuid: "fae2ee55-8736-4f3a-9b2c-7d5f5770bf33"
empty: True
iso_type: "kOther"
}
disk_list {
addr {
bus: "scsi"
index: 0
}
cdrom: False
container_id: 4
container_uuid: "2ead3997-e915-4ee2-b9a4-0334889e434b"
device_uuid: "f9a8a84c-6937-4d01-bfd2-080271c44916"
naa_id: "naa.6506b8def195dc769b32f3fe47100297"
storage_vdisk_uuid: "215ba83c-44cb-4c41-bddc-1aa3a44d41c7"[7] 0:python3.9* "ntnx-s348084x9211699-" 21:12 21-Oct-25 vmdisk_size: 42949672960
vmdisk_uuid: "42a18a62-861a-497a-9d73-e959513ce709"
}
generation_uuid: "9c018794-a71a-45ae-aeca-d61c5dd6d11a"
gpu_console: False
hwclock_timezone: "UTC"
machine_type: "pc"
memory_mb: 8192
memory_overcommit: False
name: "LINUX"
ngt_enable_script_exec: False
ngt_fail_on_script_failure: False
nic_list {
connected: True
mac_addr: "50:6b:8d:fb:a1:4c"
network_name: "NUTANIX"
network_type: "kNativeNetwork"
network_uuid: "7d13d75c-5078-414f-a46a-90e3edc42907"
queues: 1
rx_queue_size: 256
type: "kNormalNic"
uuid: "c6f02560-b8e6-4eed-bc09-1675855dfc77"
vlan_mode: "kAccess"
}
num_cores_per_vcpu: 1
num_threads_per_core: 1
num_vcpus: 2
num_vnuma_nodes: 0
power_state_mechanism: "kHard"
scsi_controller_enabled: True
vcpu_hard_pin: False
vga_console: True
vm_type: "kGuestVM"
vtpm_config { is_enabled: False
}
} is_ngt_ipless_reserved_sp_ready: True
is_rf1_vm: False
logical_timestamp: 1
state: "kOff"
uuid: "88699c96-11a5-49ce-9d1d-ac6dfeff913d"As you can see, this returns all the information about a virtual machine. It is possible to filter some of the information returned with certain commands. Here are the ones I use most often:
acli vm.disk_get VM_NAME : to retrieve detailed information of all disks of a virtual machine
nutanix@NTNX-S348084X9211699-B-CVM:192.168.84.22:~$ acli vm.disk_get LINUX
ide.0 {
addr {
bus: "ide"
index: 0
}
cdrom: True
device_uuid: fae2ee55-8736-4f3a-9b2c-7d5f5770bf33
empty: True
iso_type: "kOther"
}
scsi.0 {
addr {
bus: "scsi"
index: 0
}
cdrom: False
container_id: 4
container_uuid: "2ead3997-e915-4ee2-b9a4-0334889e434b"
device_uuid: f9a8a84c-6937-4d01-bfd2-080271c44916
naa_id: "naa.6506b8def195dc769b32f3fe47100297"
storage_vdisk_uuid: 215ba83c-44cb-4c41-bddc-1aa3a44d41c7
vmdisk_size: 42949672960
vmdisk_uuid: 42a18a62-861a-497a-9d73-e959513ce709
}acli vm.nic_get VM_NAME : to retrieve the detailed list of network cards attached to a virtual machine
nutanix@NTNX-S348084X9211699-B-CVM:192.168.84.22:~$ acli vm.nic_get LINUX
50:6b:8d:fb:a1:4c {
connected: True
mac_addr: "50:6b:8d:fb:a1:4c"
network_name: "NUTANIX"
network_type: "kNativeNetwork"
network_uuid: "7d13d75c-5078-414f-a46a-90e3edc42907"
queues: 1
rx_queue_size: 256
type: "kNormalNic"
uuid: "c6f02560-b8e6-4eed-bc09-1675855dfc77"
vlan_mode: "kAccess"
}acli vm.snapshot_list VM_NAME : to retrieve the list of snapshots associated with a virtual machine
nutanix@NTNX-S348084X9211699-B-CVM:192.168.84.22:~$ acli vm.snapshot_list LINUX
Snapshot name Snapshot UUID
SNAPSHOT_BEFORE_UPGRADE e7c1e84e-7087-42fd-9e9e-2b053f0d5714You now know almost everything about verifying your virtual machines.
For the complete list of commands, I invite you to consult the official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Command-Ref-AOS-v7_3:man-ncli-c.html
In the next article, we’ll tackle a big task: creating virtual machines using CLI commands.
