Not able to add esxi to Vcenter appliance server

[vicky06]

Hello Everyone,

I am facing weird Issue in my lab environment.. I have created two ESX servers esx1(192.168.111.130) and esx2(192.168.111.131) on VMware workstation which is running on Window 7.

I am able to connect to these two esxi servers with help of C# client.

Now I have installed VCenter appliance as VM on esx1. IP of Vcenter appliance server is 192.168.111.128

Now after doing configuring part of appliance server when I connect to appliance server through C# client. I am able to add the esx1 host but not esx2.

esx2 is not pingable from appliance server.

esx1 and esx2 are pingable to each other.

esx1 , esx2 and appliance server are pingable from my Window machine on which I have installed VMware Workstation to set up this environment.

I have rebooted esx2 couple of times and change the IP as well from 192.168.111.131 to 192.168.111.132, but no luck

Any help on the above issue is highly appreciated.

Thanks

Vikrant

[rcporto]

You're using DNS name or IP address ?

[vicky06]

I am trying to add using IP address only.

Thanks

Vikrant

[lsoto1]

Hi Vikrant,

If I understood, you put the VC inside the ESXi1, and not directly on your VMware workstation host.

Which kind of network configuration has you got inside the ESXi1?

Which is the network configuration of the VC?

Is ESXi2 a fresh install or it is a clone of ESXi1?

On the other hand, I don't remember it just now, but I think that when you are running VM inside a virtualized host, you should enable promiscuous network at the virtualized host. Although you put that you could ping the VC from your host...

Regards,

Luis.

[vicky06]

Hi Luis,

Yes VC inside the ESXi.

ESXi2 is clone of ESXi1.

I will check the network configuration and update soon.

Thanks

Vikrant

[lsoto1]

Also try installing ESXi2 from scratch. Perhaps, cloning ESXi is not supported (same id, keys, etc)

Regards,

Luis

[renright]

Are you using the free version of ESXi?  The free version cannot be added to vCenter.  Download the trail version of ESXi and try that.

[vicky06]

Hi Renright,

I am using the trial version only.

Hello Luis,

I am not sure about the exact issue here. But when I installed the VCenter server directly on Workstation instead of inside the ESXi1. I am able to add both hosts in VCenter server. its quite strange. But not sure why it is not getting added when Vcenter server is deployed on ESXi1.

Below are my network configuration hope you are asking for same.

Network Settings on VCenter:

Current Adapter VMXNET3

Network Label     VM Network

Network Settings on ESXi1

vSwitch0 created on vmnic0   (VM Network (virtual machine portgroup) and Management Network(VMkernel Port)

vSwitch1 created on vmnic1   (for iscsi Storage Labeled as StorageNW)

Network Settings on ESXi2

vSwitch0 created on vmnic0   (VM Network and Management Network(VMkernel Port) )

vSwitch1 created on vmnic1   (for iscsi Storage Labeled as StorageNW(VMkernel Port) )

GUI and PowerCLI Command showing both hosts added.

PS C:\> Get-VMHost

Name                 ConnectionState PowerState NumCpu CpuUsageMhz CpuTotalMhz   MemoryUsageGB   MemoryTotalGB Version

----                 --------------- ---------- ------ ----------- -----------   -------------   ------------- -------

192.168.111.132      Connected       PoweredOn       2         168        6800           1.144           4.000   5.5.0

192.168.111.130      Connected       PoweredOn       2         339        6800           1.150           4.000   5.5.0

Thanks

Vikrant

[lsoto1]

Hi Vicky06,

At both ESXi1 and ESXi2, on the network settings of the vSwitch0, try to put the promiscuous settings on both the VM network and the management network.

(Networking -> vSwitch0 -> Properties -> Select the vSwitch so the changes will work for both PortGroups -> Edit -> Security Tab -> Promiscuous Mode: Accept)

I think that it was only needed in one of them, but I don't remember it and I didn't find it searching at my notes.

Then, try to deploy/move the vCenter to one of the ESXi host and look if it is working.

On physical it would not be needed, but I think that on a virtualized enviroment I had the same problem.

Regards,

Luis.

[vicky06]

Hello Luis,

Apologies for coming late on it busy with some other work.

I will try to implement your suggestion. But Now with Vcenter Appliance server I am hitting another issue. When I am trying to connect to appliance server using c# client. I am getting connection time out. I google about it found couple of article but didn't find the information I am looking for. I went to console of Vcenter appliance server found that load avg is about 8.

I increased the number of virtual CPU(Processor to 4) for Vcenter appliance VM and RAM assigned is 2GB. Not sure what exactly going wrong in my lab environment.

Initially after installation it worked fine for me.

Thanks

Vikrant

[renright · Accepted solution]

Try reducing the number vCPU's to 2 and increasing the RAM to 4GB

[vicky06]

renright,

Thats works for me.

I added two VCPU with 2 cores and 4GB RAM now its working fine.

Thanks a Lot.