Opening a command or shell prompt

Products

• VMware
• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to open a command prompt from Windows, a shell prompt from Linux or Mac OS. The article also describes how to get to a command or shell prompt by using a Secure Shell (SSH) utility.

Resolution

Opening a command or shell prompt differs between operating systems. Refer to the section that matches the operating system you are using:

• Windows
• Linux
• Mac OS

Opening a command or shell prompt

Windows

To open a command prompt in Windows:

1. Click Start > Run or press Windows + R key.
2. Type cmd.
3. Click OK.
4. To exit from the command prompt, type exit and press Enter.

Note: In windows 7 and later, click the Windows start button and in the search field, type cmd or command.

 

Linux

The exact method of doing this varies with the distribution and version of Linux operating system in use. If you are looking at a graphical screen, the most common method of getting to a shell prompt is to press Ctrl + Alt + F2. You may have to log in.

 

Note: To logout, type exit and press Enter. To return to the graphical interface, press Alt + F7.

 

 

Mac OS

1. Click Finder.
2. Open the /Applications/Utilities folder by pressing Command + Shift + U.
3. Open the Terminal application.
   
   Note: To exit from Terminal, type exit, press Enter then press Command + Q.

Using Secure Shell (SSH)

A Secure Shell (SSH) utility allows a computer to open an encrypted command or shell prompt on a remote system.

 

Note: Use this method when opening a shell prompt on a remote ESX host. To start an SSH session from Linux or Mac OS:

1. Open a shell prompt as described earlier.
2. Type ssh username@server and press Enter.
   
   Note: Replace username with a valid user on the remote system that is allowed to login remotely, and replace server with either the hostname or IP address of the remote system.

Note: To start an SSH session from Windows, you must download an SSH client. You need to refer to the documentation for this client in order to determine how to use it. Launching an SSH session has these in common among all operating systems:

• The hostname or IP address of the remote system.
• A valid user on the remote system that is allowed to login remotely.
• The password for the user on the remote system.
• If an SSH connection is being established for the first time to the remote host, permission must be given to establish a connection to the system.