Weird connection issue with ESXi 4.1

[CorvusCorax]

Hi Everyone,

I desperately need your help.

I’ve installed ESXi 4.1 for the first time this morning. Install went fine, but I cannot connect (well, sort off) to the Host.

My set-up:

ESXi 4.1 installed on HP ProLiant DL360 G5

ESXi host gets its IP from DHCP server (DHCP reservation is configured is active and is working)

vSpere Client 4.1 installed on Laptop running Win 7 (32 bit)

I have two networks: N1 is a network with multiple computers with a domain controller (Win 2008 standard server) and Firewall

and N2 – small LAN connected to the internet via ADLS router.

Situation:

When ESXi host is on N1 network, it gets its IP from DHCP and I can ping gateway and DNS servers from ESXi host. I can also ping ESXi host from any computer on the N1 network. Problem is that I cannot get to ESXi web page or connect to ESXi host via vSphere client from a computer running Windows (tried XP, Vista and Win 7). vSphere GO can’t get to ESXi host either. Disabling windows firewall doesn’t help.  When connecting to ESXi host via vSphere client I get “vSphere Client could not connect to "[IP for ESXi host]". A connection failure occurred (Unable to connect to the remote server)”.

However, I can get to ESXi web page by its IP from a linux box on N1.

When ESXi host is on N2 – vSphere client has no problem connecting to the ESXi host. Even when Windows firewall is enabled.  I have already installed one VM.

My problem is that to have any use of ESXi host it must be on N1 so that other computer on the domain has access to it.

I’d really appreciate your expertise on this

[EVW]

I suggest you use fixed IP addresses on your host at all times.

Have you setup reverse DNS for your ESX hosts ? Can you ping your ESX hosts by IP address and name ?

[CorvusCorax]

Hi EVW,

thaks for the reply. To clarify, I only have one ESXi host.

Yas, I have reverse DNS set-up and yes again, I can ping the ESXi host by both - IP and Name.

I will try using fixed IP just in case.

[idle-jam]

perhaps you can have management network in each of the N1 and N2. With that in place, whichever the user is in Ns they are able to connect directly rather than to depend on the firewall/router to do the routing job for you.

[febsa]

Is your NIC1 enabled for managing your ESXi host?

[CorvusCorax]

Thank you everyone for your replies. i have found the problem. Silly really, there was a printer on the network with the same IP as ESXi host.

Needless to say, once these devices were given their own IPs - problem was resolved.