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TFraga
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ESXi 5.5 host adapter/nic(s) configuration

I've been discussion jumping for about half the day now, but have not found an answer that worked for me. I must still be overlooking something. Here's my situation:

ESXi 5.5 on a Dell Server that has two physical nics. The managing network was first setup, and all communication (pings/etc.) works just fine on it. [Standard vSwitch0 with 192.168.1x VMKernel Port vmk0 through vmnic0]

Now that I have added [vSwitch1 with 192.168.3x VMKernel Port vmk1 through vmnic1] I cannot get the latter communications to work.

I am pretty sure I have addressed everything correctly, all static IP's, two lan sets to two VM's (Windows) and I even tried the "promiscuous mode." Maybe it's something simple, but I cannot get a grip on it. Anyone have any ideas on what I need to do to have my VM's able to communicate with two different networks through the same ESxi server that is physically connected to the two networks via it's hardware nics?   

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TFraga
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Not sure how to explain that it worked, but it did. Once I converted a machine again, with the VM version set to 8; I had no problem pinging across both networks. I'm going to proceed with the second machine and try to confirm this today.

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a_p_
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What are you trying to achieve, i.e. what's the purpose of vmk1 on vSwitch1? When you added the VMkernel port, did you change the default gateway (which may cause such an issue)?

André

TFraga
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André
Adding vmk1 was one of the last things I tried (I may not even need it), in an attempt to get things to communicate. During another attempt (with vmk1 existing), I did try to change the default gateway as a fix, but reverted back to it being "blank." I don't believe I have a need for a default gateway as the two networks are both "Workgoups" that are not utilizing DHCP but instead have all respective devices assigned a static ip address. In some of the suggested answers from other similar posts, it seems I've setup things correctly, but I cannot ping or show any packets while looking at a VM's network status. Am I missing something?  

***Update (hopefully someone can confirm): I just realized that I can communicate out via the machine that VCenter is installed on, and I noticed that it is a VM version 8, meanwhile the two machines that were converted were converted to version 10. Anyone know if this would be part of the problem?

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cclinard1
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The hardware revision is not the issue.

It almost sounds to me like an issue on the switch side or possible the NIC itself.

Can you point the NIC that is working to the VM that isn't and then will it work?

TFraga
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Sorry for the delay, I've been juggling a few things today. Physically on the server that contains the ESXi host, there are two nics, both connected, each to a separate network. Two of the existing five VM's I have are communicating just fine, across both networks. (I can ping a completely different physical machine across both networks, and vice-versa.) The two VMs that I can ping are VSphere 5.5 created and are of Version 8; and both are newer Windows OS. (Server 2012 and Windows 7) The other two machines that I cannot communicate with are both VMWare Vcenter Standalone Conversions (Version 10) and are both Windows XP OS. On these two, I can only communicate out of the management network, that is, the same configured network that was setup through the ESXi console. Before typing this, I started another conversion of one of the previous mentioned physical machines, but this time I selected "Version 8." Just had to try it out, I'll see if it makes any difference here in a little while.

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TFraga
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Not sure how to explain that it worked, but it did. Once I converted a machine again, with the VM version set to 8; I had no problem pinging across both networks. I'm going to proceed with the second machine and try to confirm this today.

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