Observed IP Ranges - More than just an FYI

[Slacker66]

I am using ESX server 3.5 and it seems that I have run out of IP addresses for my VMs. When I go to configuration > Network Adapters, vmnic0 shows as having an observed IP range of 172.16.50.96 - 172.16.50.111 (15 addresses)

Everything I read states that this is just an informational setting, but whenever i try to add the 16th VM to my ESX server I can't get an IP address until I power off one of the existing 15 VMs.

I've tried changing the NIC speed from auto to 1000MB/Full, to no avail.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[weinstein5]

It is informational in what IP addresses are being offered by a DHCP server - What DHCP server is serving up those IP addresses? ESX/ESXi does not provide a DHCP functionality natively - you would need to create a VM that would provide that functionality -

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[Slacker66]

The DHCP scope on that network comes from a physical server. The DHCP scope is from 172.16.50.50 to 172.16.50.90. I only have one client attached via DHCP so there are plenty of addresses. But it isnt even seeing that scope as available.

[Slacker66]

Here is the information from running esxcfg-vswif -l if that helps

Name Port Group IP Address Netmask Broadcast Enabled DHCP

vswif0 Service Console 172.16.50.108 255.255.255.0 172.16.50.255 true false

[Dave_Mishchenko]

What's the output of esxcfg-vswitch -l?

[Slacker66]

That's what I listed above:

Name Port Group IP Address Netmask Broadcast Enabled DHCP

vswif0 Service Console 172.16.50.108 255.255.255.0 172.16.50.255 true false

[dominic7]

When you look at the properties of the vSwitch that the VMs are connected to, how many ports does it have? Also is the service console/vmotion network using the same virtual switch?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The output from esxcfg-vswitch is different from esxcfg-vswif and the vswitch command will show how many virtual switch ports the vswitch has.

[RParker]

Everything I read states that this is just an informational setting,

That's correct. It is JUST informational. This doesn't control or prohibit any additional ports in that range. It's giving you what the NIC can 'see' on that segment.

Are you using subnets on your network, because it seems like that is really what is going on. A subnet will limit your available range of networks. Also the switch on your ESX may be configured to limit ports as well, but normally it defaults to 24 ports, so you should still have some left. Either something else on that network segment is taking those ports (and thus you power off a server, that DHCP is now available) or your switch is mis-cnofigured to limit the ports (but 16 is not an allowable limit). I think you need to have some discussions with your network Admin to figure out what the problem is, because this doesn't appear to be an ESX related issue.