The VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA) allows administrators and developers to run scripts and agents to manage ESX and ESXi systems. VIMA is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software, a logging component, and an authentication component that supports non-interactive login. You can use VIMA to perform most of the tasks commonly performed in the ESX service console. Via Rick Blythe over at VMwarewolf.
http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vima/index.html
VIMA is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software. Administrators and developers can use VIMA to run scripts and agents to manage ESX and ESXi systems. VIMA includes the VI Perl Toolkit and the VMware Infrastructure Remote CLI. VIMA also includes the vi-fastpass authentication component and the vi-logger logging component. vi-fastpass allows direct connection to established target servers. vi-logger allows you to collect logging information from ESX and ESXi hosts and store the information on VIMA for analysis.