CLI Reference

Overview

The nxtMove CLI is a command-line client for the NxtSight Migration Suite. It mirrors the Dashboard Migration panel: every action you can take in the UI is available as a CLI command, and every object you can inspect in the UI is available as a structured CLI response. Use the CLI when you want to script multi-wave campaigns, run migrations from CI, or integrate nxtMove with your own automation.

The CLI authenticates against the platform identity service with the same credentials you use for the NxtSight Dashboard. Project scope is resolved from the authenticated token.

Global Options

These options apply to every subcommand.

Option	Description
`--os-cloud <name>`	Select a named cloud from your `clouds.yaml`
`--os-auth-url <url>`	Override the identity endpoint
`--os-project-name <name>`	Set the project scope
`--os-project-domain-name <name>`	Set the project domain
`--os-username <name>`	Authenticated user
`--os-password <password>`	Password (prefer `--password-stdin` or env vars)
`-f, --format <fmt>`	Output format: `table` (default), `json`, `yaml`, `csv`
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress non-essential output
`-v, --verbose`	Show request and response detail
`--no-color`	Disable ANSI colors in table output

Store credentials in clouds.yaml or environment variables (OS_*) and reference the cloud with --os-cloud. This keeps secrets out of shell history.

Sources

Manage registered migration source environments.

nxtMove source create

nxtMove source create \
  --name prod-vcenter \
  --platform vmware \
  --host vcenter.example.com \
  --port 443 \
  --username 'administrator@vsphere.local' \
  --password-stdin \
  --verify-ssl \
  --datacenter DC-East

Flag	Description
`--name`	Friendly source name, unique per project
`--platform`	Source platform — `vmware` for vSphere
`--host`	vCenter or ESXi hostname or IP
`--port`	vSphere API port (default 443)
`--username`	Source service account
`--password-stdin`	Read password from stdin (preferred)
`--password`	Inline password — discouraged, leaves secret in history
`--verify-ssl` / `--no-verify-ssl`	TLS verification toggle
`--datacenter`	Optional — pin discovery to a single datacenter

nxtMove source list

List registered sources.

nxtMove source list
nxtMove source list -f json

nxtMove source show

Show a single source including status and detected vSphere version.

nxtMove source show prod-vcenter

nxtMove source update

Update fields on an existing source. Only the flags you pass are applied.

nxtMove source update prod-vcenter --password-stdin
nxtMove source update prod-vcenter --host vcenter-new.example.com
nxtMove source update prod-vcenter --verify-ssl

nxtMove source test

Re-run the connection test without changing anything.

nxtMove source test prod-vcenter

nxtMove source delete

Delete a source. Fails if any active job references it.

nxtMove source delete prod-vcenter

Discovery

Inventory VMs and disks from a registered source.

nxtMove discovery start

Kick off a discovery scan.

# Full inventory
nxtMove discovery start --source prod-vcenter

# Scope to a datacenter
nxtMove discovery start --source prod-vcenter --datacenter DC-East

# Scope to a folder or cluster
nxtMove discovery start --source prod-vcenter --folder "Production/Web"
nxtMove discovery start --source prod-vcenter --cluster Cluster-A

nxtMove discovery status

Report the current scan state.

nxtMove discovery status --source prod-vcenter
nxtMove discovery status --source prod-vcenter --follow

--follow streams progress until the scan completes.

nxtMove discovery list

List every discovered workload for a source.

nxtMove discovery list --source prod-vcenter
nxtMove discovery list --source prod-vcenter --filter 'power_state=poweredOn'
nxtMove discovery list --source prod-vcenter --filter 'os=windows' -f json

nxtMove discovery show

Show the full discovery record for a single VM.

nxtMove discovery show --source prod-vcenter --vm win-ser-2022

Preflight

Run compatibility checks against discovered workloads.

nxtMove preflight run

Run preflight against one or more VMs.

# Single VM
nxtMove preflight run --source prod-vcenter --vm win-ser-2022

# Multiple VMs from a file (one name per line)
nxtMove preflight run --source prod-vcenter --from-file wave-1.txt

# Entire discovered inventory
nxtMove preflight run --source prod-vcenter --all

nxtMove preflight show

Fetch the latest preflight verdict for a VM.

nxtMove preflight show --source prod-vcenter --vm win-ser-2022
nxtMove preflight show --source prod-vcenter --vm win-ser-2022 -f json

nxtMove preflight list

List preflight verdicts across a source.

nxtMove preflight list --source prod-vcenter
nxtMove preflight list --source prod-vcenter --filter 'verdict=block'

nxtMove preflight enable-cbt

Enable Changed Block Tracking on a source VM through the vSphere API.

nxtMove preflight enable-cbt --source prod-vcenter --vm db-prod-01

Migrations

Submit, monitor, and manage migration jobs.

nxtMove migration submit

Submit a new migration job.

# Cold migration
nxtMove migration submit \
  --source prod-vcenter \
  --vm win-ser-2022 \
  --kind cold \
  --target-project infra \
  --flavor m1.large \
  --volume-type ssd \
  --availability-zone az-1 \
  --network-map 'VM Network=internal-net'

# Warm migration with a 1-hour incremental cadence
nxtMove migration submit \
  --source prod-vcenter \
  --vm db-prod-01 \
  --kind warm \
  --target-project infra \
  --flavor m1.xlarge \
  --volume-type nvme \
  --network-map 'VM Network=internal-net' \
  --sync-cadence 1h

Flag	Description
`--source`	Registered source name
`--vm`	Source VM name
`--kind`	`cold` or `warm`
`--target-project`	Target NxtSight project
`--target-name`	Optional — instance name in the target project
`--flavor`	NxtSight flavor for the target instance
`--volume-type`	Target volume type
`--availability-zone`	Optional — pin the target to a zone
`--network-map`	Source to target network mapping, can be repeated
`--preserve-mac`	Attempt to preserve the source MAC on the target NIC
`--sync-cadence`	Warm only — `manual`, `15m`, `1h`, `24h`

nxtMove migration list

List migration jobs in the current project.

nxtMove migration list
nxtMove migration list --filter 'status=ready'
nxtMove migration list --filter 'kind=warm,status=syncing'
nxtMove migration list -f json

nxtMove migration show

Show the full state of a single migration job.

nxtMove migration show <job-id>
nxtMove migration show <job-id> -f json

nxtMove migration events

Stream the event history for a job.

nxtMove migration events --job <job-id>
nxtMove migration events --job <job-id> --follow
nxtMove migration events --job <job-id> --since 10m

nxtMove migration sync

Trigger an immediate incremental sync on a warm migration that is in the Ready state.

nxtMove migration sync --job <job-id>

nxtMove migration pause

Pause scheduled incrementals without losing progress. Only applies to warm migrations.

nxtMove migration pause --job <job-id>

nxtMove migration resume

Resume a paused warm migration.

nxtMove migration resume --job <job-id>

nxtMove migration cutover

Trigger cutover on a warm migration.

nxtMove migration cutover --job <job-id>

nxtMove migration cancel

Cancel a job. Releases any disk transport session and worker slot. Source and target state are left unchanged.

nxtMove migration cancel --job <job-id>

Scripting Patterns

Wave Preflight and Submit

Run preflight on a wave file, then submit cold migrations for everything that passes:

SOURCE=prod-vcenter
WAVE=wave-1.txt

# Preflight the whole wave
nxtMove preflight run --source $SOURCE --from-file $WAVE

# Submit cold migrations for Pass results
nxtMove preflight list --source $SOURCE --filter 'verdict=pass' -f json \
  | jq -r '.[].vm' \
  | while read vm; do
      nxtMove migration submit \
        --source $SOURCE \
        --vm "$vm" \
        --kind cold \
        --target-project infra \
        --flavor m1.large \
        --volume-type ssd \
        --network-map 'VM Network=internal-net'
    done

Watch a Running Campaign

Follow every job in the current project and print a live status table:

watch -n 10 'nxtMove migration list --filter "status=running,status=syncing"'

Cutover After All Warm Jobs Reach Ready

Wait until every warm migration in a wave is Ready, then cut them all over in sequence:

nxtMove migration list --filter 'kind=warm' -f json \
  | jq -r '.[] | select(.status == "ready") | .id' \
  | while read job_id; do
      nxtMove migration cutover --job $job_id
    done

Exit Codes

The CLI exits with a non-zero code on failure so it can be used in shell pipelines and CI:

Exit Code	Meaning
`0`	Success
`1`	Generic error (bad flags, validation failure)
`2`	Authentication or authorization failure
`3`	Source or VM not found
`4`	Job failed or timed out while following
`5`	Network or transport error talking to nxtMove

Next Steps

User Guide

End-to-end workflow using the Dashboard or CLI

Admin Guide

Operator setup, credentials, and capacity planning

Troubleshooting

Diagnose job failures and post-migration issues

​Overview

​Global Options

​Sources

​nxtMove source create

​nxtMove source list

​nxtMove source show

​nxtMove source update

​nxtMove source test

​nxtMove source delete

​Discovery

​nxtMove discovery start

​nxtMove discovery status

​nxtMove discovery list

​nxtMove discovery show

​Preflight

​nxtMove preflight run

​nxtMove preflight show

​nxtMove preflight list

​nxtMove preflight enable-cbt

​Migrations

​nxtMove migration submit

​nxtMove migration list

​nxtMove migration show

​nxtMove migration events

​nxtMove migration sync

​nxtMove migration pause

​nxtMove migration resume

​nxtMove migration cutover

​nxtMove migration cancel

​Scripting Patterns

​Wave Preflight and Submit

​Watch a Running Campaign

​Cutover After All Warm Jobs Reach Ready

​Exit Codes

​Next Steps

User Guide

Admin Guide

Troubleshooting

Overview

Global Options

Sources

nxtMove source create

nxtMove source list

nxtMove source show

nxtMove source update

nxtMove source test

nxtMove source delete

Discovery

nxtMove discovery start

nxtMove discovery status

nxtMove discovery list

nxtMove discovery show

Preflight

nxtMove preflight run

nxtMove preflight show

nxtMove preflight list

nxtMove preflight enable-cbt

Migrations

nxtMove migration submit

nxtMove migration list

nxtMove migration show

nxtMove migration events

nxtMove migration sync

nxtMove migration pause

nxtMove migration resume

nxtMove migration cutover

nxtMove migration cancel

Scripting Patterns

Wave Preflight and Submit

Watch a Running Campaign

Cutover After All Warm Jobs Reach Ready

Exit Codes

Next Steps