Working out which vmnic is trunked as the ESXi Management ?

[youngh]

Can anyone advise if there is an easy way of working out which vmnic is the ESXi Management connection without having to get someone in a remote secure datacentre to physically disconnect the one labelled 'ESXi Management' so that I can see which one changes from enabled to dsiabled at that point?

I've just completed a remote build of ESXi 5.0 and I have 10 physical NIC connections on the server, all trunked on the Cisco swith for ESXi Management, VM Management, Public Data, Backup. When I try to assign a static ESXi management IP address to the one cable that is appropriately VLAN trunked on the physical switch, I'm left with 10 vmnics on the ESXi screen with no way of knowing (that I know of) which was is Management. I did try the first and second, but neither were the correct one (it ended up vmnic8). Eventually I had to raise all sorts of security forms for someone to go into the DC and pull the cable (as above).

I've a lot of servers to do and this could be a pain (unless the are all the same model of server. Any advice would be appreciated.

[ramkrishna1]

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

I think You may disabled or remove one NIC to know the impact of the server , in that way only you can check remotely .

"a journey of a thousand miles starts  with a single step."

[youngh]

Ramkrishna, thanks for your response.Removing a NIC connection, i.e.requiring someone physically standing at the server, is what I'm trying to avoid as I've got got get all sorts of security forms completed etc for someone to go on site, due to the security placed around the customer's datacentre. It seems like a 'sledgehammer to break a bar of toffee'.

[vGuy]

If you are using cisco switches, you can use the below command to view the switchport configuration of the corresponding vmnic:

vim-cmd hostsvc/net/query_networkhint | more

for more reference: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100706...

You can also try the below command to get the arp info w:

esxcli network ip neighbor list

for more reference: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200013...

[youngh]

vGuy - you are a Star! The command  vim-cmd hostsvc/net/query_networkhint | more  is exactly what I was looking for. In fact it's brilliant! It will save me all sorts of time and effort, not only for remotely working out which of my 10 network connections is trunked as my ESXi Management NIC on the Cisco switch port, but also for network troubleshooting remotely before I build my vSwitches.

For anyone using Cisco switches I suggest you give this a try. Remember this is before you have configured you management NIC so you have no access to vSphere Client at this point. All you have through DCUI is a whole list of vmnic numbers with no way of ascertaining which is trunked to which VLAN etc at the Cisco switch end - until now!

The output can look a bit daunting at first but all you have to do is tab down until you see your Cisco switch port as stated in your network design e.g. Switch001 Port 9/45. Then look at the little section above that and you will see the vmnic number allocated by ESXi in DCUI. Then you know exactly which vmnic is your management vmnic!!

Thanks very much! 🙂