I'm trying to manage VMs on the local management console of an ESXi 5 host (due to a problem accessing it through VI client and needing to do some VM management prior to attempting a reboot on the host.)
I will enter a command such as:
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
and get this error:
Failed to login: Connection refused
I read somewhere that SSH has to be enabled in order for vim-cmd to work. I'm actually working directly on the host's terminal, not by SSH, but just in case I enabled SSH, and the same error still occurred.
How can I get vim-cmd to work in the local management console?
check whether the 'vpxa' service is running, I had the same issue and figured out that the 'vpxa' service was stopped. after starting the service everything worked well. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003490