vDefend BMS-CLI Guide

vDefend 5.1.0

Overview

This guide aims to provide a high-level understanding of the vDefend CLI (Command Line Interface). It describes the purpose of the CLI,
its core capabilities, the intended audience, and provides a complete list of available commands with explanations of their functions.

Intended Audience

This guide is intended for experienced systems and network administrators familiar with bare metal servers and virtual datacenter operations.

Introduction to the vDefend CLI

vDefend CLI is a powerful command-line interface that simplifies the management of vDefend software for bare metal servers. It has intuitive
commands for installation, uninstallation, system status, and monitoring. vDefend CLI provides users complete life cycle management control
and visibility into their bare metal server security infrastructure.

Basic Usage

The following examples show basic CLI usage:

 vdefend-cli> help
 vdefend-cli> get bms status
 vdefend-cli> install bms installer

Interactive Support

vDefend CLI provides an interactive and non-interactive mode to run commands. It supports various flags and parameters to customize
command execution and output formatting. Many commands provide output in plain text and JSON formats, with an optional verbose mode
available for detailed information on certain commands.

Support Features

Name	Shorthand Usage	Full Usage	Description
json flag	-j	--json	Display command output in json format.
verbose flag	-v	--verbose	Display command output with granular details. Generally, output is given in a tabular form.

Interactive mode and plain-text support improves the readability and is optimal for direct human consumption. Json and non-interactive mode
is ideal for automation scripts. In the below guide, we have given the output of all commands in all possible formats. Almost every command's
json output consists of a 'status' field of some kind, making it easy for the automation client scripts. Here are examples for each:

interactive + plain-text

[root@sc2-10-186-97-98 tmp]# vdefend-cli
vdefend-cli>
vdefend-cli> get bms status
Agent Install Status: Agents installed successfully
Agent Install Time: 2025-09-18T14:10:22.247872359-07:00
Agent Version: 5.1.0.0.0.0
BMS ID: b9ea1842-f718-658d-641a-72dc82c6cd8a
BMS Name: sc2-10-186-97-98.eng.vmware.com
Installer Version: 5.1.0.0.0.0
Overall Status: UP
Components:
Control Connections: UP
Distributed Firewall: Enabled
Rule Realization: Success
Services Health: UP
vdefend-cli>
vdefend-cli>

non-interactive + json

[root@sc2-10-186-97-98 tmp]# vdefend-cli get bms status --json
{
 "Agent Install Status": "Agents installed successfully",
 "Agent Install Time": "2025-09-18T14:10:22.247872359-07:00",
 "Agent Version": "5.1.0.0.0.0",
 "BMS ID": "b9ea1842-f718-658d-641a-72dc82c6cd8a",
 "BMS Name": "sc2-10-186-97-98.eng.vmware.com",
 "Components": {
  "Control Connections": "UP",
  "Distributed Firewall": "Enabled",
  "Rule Realization": "Success",
  "Services Health": "UP"
 },
 "Installer Version": "5.1.0.0.0.0",
 "Overall Status": "UP"
}

All commands returns a message based on success or failure. To avoid overwhelming readers with lengthy responses only plaintext responses
are included. Json and verbose flags along with failure paths will be omitted.

failure message

[root@sc2-10-186-97-98 tmp]# vdefend-cli
vdefend-cli> install bms installer
Installer service is already installed.

The Command-Line Interface Reference describes how to use the Command-Line Interface (CLI) and includes examples and command overviews.

Baremetal Server CLI