diff --git a/doc/10-icinga-template-library.md b/doc/10-icinga-template-library.md
index e835f5761..73a8c7e04 100644
--- a/doc/10-icinga-template-library.md
+++ b/doc/10-icinga-template-library.md
@@ -3698,7 +3698,7 @@ This category includes all plugins for various virtualization technologies.
 
 The [check_esxi_hardware.py](https://www.claudiokuenzler.com/monitoring-plugins/check_esxi_hardware.php) plugin
 uses the [pywbem](https://pywbem.github.io/pywbem/) Python library to monitor the hardware of ESXi servers
-through the [VMWare API](https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/sdk_pubs.html) and CIM service.
+through the [VMWare CIM API](https://developer.vmware.com/apis/207/cim).
 
 Custom variables passed as [command parameters](03-monitoring-basics.md#command-passing-parameters):
 
@@ -3714,6 +3714,8 @@ esxi_hardware_html      | **Optional.** Add web-links to hardware manuals for De
 esxi_hardware_ignore    | **Optional.** Comma separated list of CIM elements to ignore.
 esxi_hardware_regex     | **Optional.** Allow regular expression lookups of elements in ignore list. Defaults to false.
 esxi_hardware_perfdata  | **Optional.** Add performcedata for graphers like PNP4Nagios to the output. Defaults to false.
+esxi_hardware_format    | **Optional.** Set output format to string or json. Defaults to string.
+esxi_hardware_pretty    | **Optional.** Show plugin output in a human readable format. Only useful with **esxi_hardware_format** = json.
 esxi_hardware_nopower   | **Optional.** Do not collect power performance data, when **esxi_hardware_perfdata** is set to true. Defaults to false.
 esxi_hardware_novolts   | **Optional.** Do not collect voltage performance data, when **esxi_hardware_perfdata** is set to true. Defaults to false.
 esxi_hardware_nocurrent | **Optional.** Do not collect current performance data, when **esxi_hardware_perfdata** is set to true. Defaults to false.
diff --git a/itl/plugins-contrib.d/virtualization.conf b/itl/plugins-contrib.d/virtualization.conf
index 0f2a7aab3..530a8759f 100644
--- a/itl/plugins-contrib.d/virtualization.conf
+++ b/itl/plugins-contrib.d/virtualization.conf
@@ -44,6 +44,14 @@ object CheckCommand "esxi_hardware" {
 			set_if = "$esxi_hardware_perfdata$"
 			description = "collect performance data for pnp4nagios"
 		}
+		"--format" = {
+			value = "$esxi_hardware_format$"
+			description = "Set output format to string or json (defaults to string)"
+		}
+		"--pretty" = {
+			set_if = "$esxi_hardware_pretty$"
+			description = "Show plugin output in a human readable format (in combination with --format json)"
+		}
 		"--no-power" = {
 			set_if = "$esxi_hardware_nopower$"
 			description = "don't collect power performance data"