This week VMware released VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant 1.0 (VIMA). VIMA is a free virtual machine on which VMware administrators can execute scripts and install agents that they would normally try to run on the console operating system (COS) like UPS agents, etc.

The VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA) allows administrators and developers to run scripts and agents to manage ESX and ESXi systems.

VIMA includes a logging component, an authentication module that supports non-interactive logins, the Remote CLI and the VI Perl Toolkit. It acts as a execution proxy for programs that interact with the virtual infrastructure, saving the COS (where available, think about ESXi) from dangerous installations.

The product can be downloaded from this location.

When you use the VI Client to import VIMA as a virtual appliance, you can enter the following URL in the “Import from URL” field of the import wizard: http://www.vmware.com/go/importvima/vima1.ovf