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esxhombre
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Help Resurrecting a Dell 2650 with 3.5

I would like to ask for help resurrecting an old Dell PowerEdge 2650 running ESX 3.5. This machine has been in our test lab running but unused for some time. I am having troubles with the networking on the server, which leaves me only to troubleshoot at the command line.

From the server, i am unable to ping any outside services, including servers attached to the same switch. The lights are off on the two on-board NICs, however the switch shows a connection (its green light activates when a cable is plugged into the server.) I have tried swapping the cable with the DRAC, which i am able to connect to (and view the DRAC's web page), with no change in behavior.

I am unable to ping the server, nor connect to the VI Web Access page, nor connect to the service through the VIC, which means I am left only to troubleshoot at the command line.

I have flashed the bios to the current A21 version. I believe one of the last things done to the server prior to its period of non-use was an update to ESX version 3.5.

Any tips for figuring out what is what is wrong with my server?

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weinstein5
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Immortal

Since you are able to get to the command line - I would run the following ocmmands to see how your vswitches/service console ports are configured - esxcfg-vswitch -l and esxcfg-vswif -l - this will show the configuration of your vswitches and the ip configuration of your service console to make sur eyou have the right networking in formaiton -

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esxhombre
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Enthusiast

that helped tremendously!

i used those commands, and found the config to be correct. then i looked at the other esxcfg commands, and found esxcfg-nics command. with the -l flag found that both vmnics were down, with no speed or duplex set. using the same command, set the speed to 100 and duplex to full, which brought the links up. i am now able to ping the server, and get to the VI Web Access.

thanks for your help.

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