No Observed IP ranges for ONE vnic

[vmShane]

Ok I have a very large vmware cluster. I just created a new vmware server for the cluster but its having issues.

Here is my config.

Vswitch0

port groups

Service Console - vmnic6 vmnic5

kmkernel - vmnic5, vmnic6

Vswitch1

port groups

vmotion - vmnic4 , vmnic0

Vswitch2

port groups

external - vmnic2,vmnic3,vmnic8, vmnic9, vmnic1, vmnic7

Everything looks great on my configuration except for one thing. vmnic1 and vmnic7 have NO "Observed IP ranges" listed at all. I traced back the cables to the switch and found that vmnic1 was on the wrong vlan so that is a NO brainer. However I removed vmnic7 then re-added it to the nic team for the external port group but it still has no "Observed IP ranges" listed at all. Its on the correct vlan and its the same as vmnic2, vmnic3, 8, & 9. SO is there something I have to configure on the vmware side to get this to work? I am using the command line in the service console.

problem #2: When I make changes in the service console at the command line using the esxcfg- commands I do not see the changes in the Infrastructure client at all unless I reboot the whole server. I stumbled upon a command the pushes the changes you make in the service console so there active on the hypervisor and visible in the Infrastructure Client GUI. SO what is that command??

Please help me fix this configuration.

Shane

[sflanders · Accepted solution]

It is important to note that the information from a vCenter Server instance through the VI Client is not in real time. As such, it is very common for changes that have been made on the back end to not get propagated to vCenter Server for some time. In the case of the observed VLANs, if you have confirmed that the configuration is right on the switch then another test would be to force traffic through the NIC to ensure it is configured properly. I have found on many occasions that the observed VLANs information is either incorrect or takes a long time to update even though it is configured properly and has been thoroughly tested.

As for the esxcfg- commands. If you want quicker responses from vCenter you can either try to refresh the information (e.g. if you change a vSwitch then you can refresh the vSwitch information from the VI Client) or you can restart the management services (service mgmt-vmware restart; service vmware-vpxa restart). In some rare cases, I have found it necessary to restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

In any case, it sounds like everything is working properly, but just not updating in real time. As long as you have thoroughly tested the configuration I would not worry too much about it.

[vmShane]

I was able to get the ipranges fixed by rebooting the servers so that was good. Then as soon as I switch the vmotion to the privat v-lan it was much better and blanked out almost imediatly. So they are working great now.

Shane Miller