ESXi: when esxtop shows garbage.
Posted by jpluimers on 2016/09/14
The ESXi console top to show processes is not available *, the alternative is esxtop. But that can show garbage because the ESXi console has a very limited support of terminals **.
For instance, when connecting from a Mac OS X terminal through ssh, this is my terminal:
# echo $TERM
xterm-256color
The solution:
TERM=xterm esxtop
–jeroen
via: VMware KB: Output of esxtop defaults to non-interactive CSV with unknown TermInfo.
- Top isn’t found:
# top
-sh: top: not found
** List of supported terminals on my system:
# find /usr/share/terminfo/ -type f
/usr/share/terminfo/s/screen
/usr/share/terminfo/l/linux
/usr/share/terminfo/a/ansi
/usr/share/terminfo/v/vt102
/usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Digitolle said
jpluimers, what a wonderfully simple solution to an annoying issue – thanks!
I took the following steps to be lazy:
1. Created a file called “top” in /bin
2. Put your solution in there: TERM=xterm esxtop
3. chmod +x /bin/top
Now I can just type “top” and garbage no more, with the added benefit of not having to remember to type in the less familiar esxtop.
jpluimers said
Nice idea, and thanks!
I will add this trick to my ESXi bin directory.