So you want to enable SNMP on ESXi 5 and finding a lot on Google and Bing regarding using the vicfg- command run in the CLI, only to find out that the command doesn’t exist in your install of ESXi5? Well you have come to the right place. I enabled SNMP and this is how:
Prerequisite: Have SSH enabled on your server or local console access
Using Putty to connect to the ESXi 5 host, cd into the vmware folder /etc/vmware/. Listing the contents of the directory (ls) you will notice a file named snmp.xml
This is where you need to use the command vi to edit the file. By typing vi snmp.xml (vi /etc/vmware/snmp.xml) you will need to change the following areas:
Changing false to true and adding Public between the <communities></communities>. The end result should look something like this:
<config><snmpSettings><enable>true</enable><communities>public</communities><targets></targets></snmpSettings></config>
When completed you want to save this file and this is done by pressing Esc and typing :wq and hitting enter.
You will then need to restart the server or restart the services (services.sh restart) for this to start working.
– Enjoy