vSphere SDK for Perl is a client-side Perl framework that provides an easy-to-use scripting interface to the vSphere API.
You can try below steps to install perl on esxi
#esxcfg-nas -y -a -o perl-binary -s /perl perl-binary
#export PATH=$PATH:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/bin:/bin:/sbin:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8
#export PERL5LIB=$PERL5LIB:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/lib/5.8.8/i686-linux-thread-multi:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/lib/5.8.8:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/lib/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux-thread-multi:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/lib/site_perl/5.8.8:/vmfs/volumes/perl-binary/lin32/perl-5.8.8/lib/site_perl