How to Hard Reset a VMware VM form the Shell

If you even get into a situation where a VM will not shutdown using the vSphere Console then the below steps will show you how to force a VM off using the shell.

Obviously be very carful using the shell on a VMware host you can cause a lot of damage!

  1. SSH onto the host running the effected VM or connect local and logon
  2. Elevate yourself to super user su -l and enter your password
  3. Run “vmware-cmd -l” to get a lists of VM running on the how and there vmx (config file) locations
  4. Run “vmware-cmd <path_of_guest_vm_vmx_file_that_you_want_to_stop> stop hard”
  5. You VM should should now be off, so try bringing it up from the console if you wish

If that doesn’t work for some reason then try restarting the service console of the host and try again.

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