lost host connectivity

[Cameron2007]

Hi,

one of the hosts we have has lost Service Console VC managment connectivity as the onboard NIC has failed. Unfortuanatly this was not teamed so the connectivity is now lost and there are VMs on this which can now not be Vmotioned off. I need to remove them so that the mobo can be replaced. I do however have another NIC which is connected to the same VLAN and is also used as management on the VM guests. If I link this physical NIC to the SC vSwitch by using the command

esxcfg-vswitch -L (pnic #) vswif0

will I then be able to manage the host through VC again and will it have much affect on the guest VMs. It will be a short term measure to allow me to Vmotion the VMs to another host.

[weinstein5]

yes you will be able to manage your host again by connecting through the new NIC - it should have a minimal effect if any at all to your VM networks

[Cameron2007]

thanks for getting back to me I just wanted to check this. one other question will it be better to detach from the VMnetwork vswitch (esxcfg-vswitch -U) first or can I just add to the SC?

[jbsengineer]

You should be able to link the new pnic fine without unlinking the original.

[jbsengineer]

Cameron,

Also beware you syntax will be more like:

1. esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic# vSwitch#

Not unlinking the previous pnic will add this new pnic as standby which should kick into active. If you are still not able to connect I would unlink the original pnic.

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

be warned though if it is already in use on another vswitch you will jave to unlink first form the vswitch it is connected to before you can add it you original vswitch -

[Cameron2007]

thanks for all the help guys. Because the motherboard has failed can't get logged on through iLO, VC or locally console so will probably have to unregister/ register etc.

[jbsengineer]

the VM's are still running though? Can you SSH into the ESX server?

[Cameron2007]

no the keyboard is locked on the console both locally and when I try to Putty on.