esx 3.5

[adam_peterson]

i need to get to the command line and for what ever reason i can't if i use alt f1 i get a blinking cursor and that's it. i cant get in putty, i can get to with the vi client.

[weinstein5]

so when at the physical console of your esx server - what do you see on the screen? Can you ping the ip address of your esx host? Can you point a browser at your ESX host?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Your post has been moved to the VI: ESX 3.5 forum

Dave Mishchenko

VMware Communities User Moderator

[adam_peterson]

there is the screen that displays the version number and the ip address f2 to configure and f12 to restart. if i do the alt f1 i get to a shell but i just have a blinking cursor. i can ping the server, i can get to the server via a web browser but not to the /ui.

[adam_peterson]

this is a new install, is it possiable that something went wrong during the install?

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

It sounds like you are running ESX 3i - the embedded version - the reason why you can not get to caonsole it hat your host is not configured - hit f2 it will allow you to configure your host - once that is done you will be able to connect to it via the VI client - I would check the information out here -

[azn2kew]

F2 & F12 options on ESX screen with yellow background that should be ESX 3i which removes your ability to do service console management. You can bypass this limitation by using Remote CLI utility from www.vmware.com download page and connect to its IP address. You can also type "unsupported" command to use some service console utilities to workaround.

When you press F2, you can reset root password, change TCP/IP configurations and restart network and management services, besides that nothing else you can do from the screen. If you have Virtual Center server in place, using VI to administer and provision from there.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[adam_peterson]

i do have the yellow back ground, i must have downloaded the wrong version some how, i get the write version and reinstall. thanks for all your help