VMware Cloud Community
emcclure
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Is it possible to swap the name of two vmnics in esxi?

So I have a co-worker who wants a script that will change a couple vmnic names around.  It's not affecting the functionality of anything, just more of an OCD thing in his words.  Basically we have this:

pastedImage_0.png

pastedImage_1.png

We want to change it where the names on the top are vmnic0 and vmnic1 and the bottom are vmnic2 and vmnic3.  Is this something simple?  The actual physical nics will stay as they are.  Possible?  Easy?  Complex?  Done in PowerCLI/PowerShell or is a lot of putty and connection to hosts and modifying esx.conf on the hosts needed?

Reply
0 Kudos
3 Replies
LucD
Leadership
Leadership

Afaik this requires either of these 2:

  • a HostProfile (if you have them)
  • using the localcli command

Both methods require a reboot of the ESXi node. See also KB2091560


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos
emcclure
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

So that link didn't help a whole lot.  I tried the commands, but they don't completely solve the issue.  I found this page: https://www.vladan.fr/how-to-rename-vmnic-in-vmware-esxi/  and had to modify the esx.conf file to make it work, since it appears the VMware solution doesn't change everything that's needed to make it work.  As per the comment in the link I provided you have to wind up making the change in multiple places.  I don't have physical access to the hosts right now and scripting something like this seems rather messy and leaves a chance of something going wrong.

Reply
0 Kudos
LucD
Leadership
Leadership

That post is for older ESXi versions, pre-6.*, and that method is not supported by VMware.

But I agree that this OCD thing doesn't outweigh the inherent risks :smileygrin:


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

Reply
0 Kudos